Taipei is considered the food capital of Asia but besides food
this city has actually a lot to offer these are my 30 hidden secrets and
best places to visit in Taipei. Now what better than to start off your Taipei
adventure with an epic Taiwanese breakfast. Fu Hang Soy Milk is the most
popular breakfast joint in town and it's so popular that people will wait hours
in line just to get that fresh batch of bread. Breakfast at Fu Hang Soy Milk is
very affordable and the quintessential breakfast for many locals here for 110 NT
roughly $3.60 USD this is an incredible
breakfast deal. Breadstick sandwich which is one of the highlights here so it's
deep fried bread, deep fried bread on a bun I don't know how to come up with
but it is actually really good. Yeah, I can see what the hype is all about this
is amazing! All right so we're gonna top it off with some Dou Jiang which is the
soy milk oh yes oh this works great with the bread and the pancake, that's an
ideal breakfast here in Taipei. Now before we dive into the city take a
quick day trip to Jiufen, a former gold mining town just an hour east of Taipei.
This cute little mountain town has gorgeous scenery and delicious foods
you must try like peanut ice cream rolls and stinky tofu, it is stinky because
it's fermented tofu. Wow that is so good, it is a bit stinky but in the end it's
well worth it. Just make sure to top off your Jiufen adventure with a little tea
ceremony at the A-Mei teahouse, the most beautiful tea house in all of Taiwan.
Fried chicken is one of the most popular street foods here in Taiwan so I had to
drop by the famous fried chicken founding headquarters to pick up a batch
of fried snacks I decided to enjoy these snacks at the Zhishan garden located
right next to the National Palace Museum. True serenity outside the bustling
city of Taipei.
Alright guys so we're here at the National Palace Museum park and it's
time to try the authentic Taiwanese chicken nuggets. Now one thing about the
chicken nuggets these are completely different from McDonald's chicken
nuggets, the main difference being is they keep
little pieces of bone inside the chicken nugget so the meat stays nice and tender
compared to the really dry taste you may get from McDonald's or KFC chicken
nuggets. And they season it a little bit with basil. Oh oh I like this I like this a
lot! Why McDonald's? Why can't you just do it right?!
As you can see the inside looks just like a regular chicken nugget, oh my god!
Another popular snack is rice sausage, I've never of it... wow, Taiwan really knows
their snacks, nice and wet inside as a sticky rice should really be.
The National Palace Museum has a permanent collection of 700,000 pieces of ancient
Chinese artifacts and it is one of the largest Chinese art collections in the
world encompassing 8,000 years of Chinese history. The nationalist leader
Chiang kai-shek tried to safeguard these Chinese treasures during the
Communist revolution on mainland China and have been here on Taiwan ever since
1949 and that's why this museum is considered very controversial.
All right, time to go back downtown for some dinner!
Taipei is the food capital of Asia but with that reputation comes a lot of
strange foods and restaurants as well so what better than to have a delightful
beef curry in a toilet bowl at the toilet restaurant. It's a toilet full of curry
at least I hope it's actual curry, let's get it nice in there and
into the curry sauce and scoop it out of the toilet.
oh this is great that's actually really good curry. Don't forget to try their
poop meatballs and poop ice cream as well. Another strange dinner activity
is prawn fishing, here you can fish your own prawns
at this bizarre indoor pool, once you captured a bunch, throw them on the
barbecue and enjoy! And this is the final result, the first catch of today
some of these prawn fishing shops are open 24 hours and the record holder at
this place caught 43 prawns in one hour, my attempts to break this record we were miserable
if you really want to step up your dinner party, head towards snake alley
at the Huaxi night market, here you will find the most bizarre restaurants
in the world but I came here specifically to try snake venom, snake
blood and snake skin salad, but for that video you'll have to watch my complete
snake alley episode. Supposedly there's a lot of health benefits to this...
That was like a really strong alcohol but venom, VENOM! Moving on to the cutest
cafe in Taipei the Rilakkuma cafe another famous themed cafe here in Taipei
This cafe offers super cute lunches and dinner experiences.
I ordered the omelet with rice and a coffee doesn't this just look adorable.
"Don't you drown me!" As expected the meatballs and the omelet were rich and
delicious, they also sell a bunch of cute desserts and merchandise. Top off all
this madness with an incredible shaved ice dessert at the Ice Monster.
Ice Monster is one of the best shaved ice shops here in Taipei, now they were
about the close so I had the whole place to myself, usually you can expect
long waiting lines, so either come super early or right before closing time. My
recommendation, the almond shaved ice, which set me back 220 new Taiwan dollars.
Dessert time, this thing looks amazing it's red beans, almond jelly and almond
shaped ice, it's not even like icy it's more like flaky, flaky bits of almond. I'm
digging a cave right here, I just want to live in it. The most iconic building in
Taiwan is Taipei 101 and the best place to observe this Marvel of a building is
the Elephant Mountain but to get to the top you'll need to take these super
steep stairways so make sure you take many breaks to catch your breath and
drink plenty of water especially during the scorching summer heat but once you
reach the top you can enjoy these mesmerizing views of Taipei 101 as you
can see it's an absolute boiling day it I think it's like 36 degrees with an
insane humidity, sweat is literally dripping off my skin here next up the
observatory deck of Taipei 101. Did you know Taipei 101 used to be the
world's tallest building between 2004 and 2010 from Taipei 101 you can take in
these stunning views of the entire city although the entrance fee is a bit
pricey, 600 new Taiwan dollars per ticket which is roughly 20 US dollars so make
sure you come and visit on a very clear day otherwise it's not worth your hard-earned
dollars. In the basement you will find Michelin star dumpling restaurant
Din Tai Fung, this place is absolutely massive notorious for its Xiaolongbao
better known as soup dumplings so this is the Xiaolongbao, you pick it up from
the top and you put it in your little spoon then you poke a hole, so the
soup base will fall in your spoon.
Oh that's so good, almost like creamy pork but it's delicious the heat and
temperature is absolutely on point. So another way to eat the dumpling is with
soy sauce, vinegar and ginger.
Wow Taipei, you nail it out of the park!
This is incredible! This place may be a bit pricey but trust me you'll be blown
away by the most delicious dumplings in Taiwan, quality over quantity.
If time permits, check out the bizarre Core Pacific shopping mall which looks
identical to the Death Star. Because it looks exactly like a Death Star.
Even the entry points, that's just nuts.
Kick off the next day with a seafood adventure.
Now I am really big into seafood so I had to venture out to the most high-end
fish market in town, the Addiction fish market. This fish
market has an incredible selection of fresh seafood, so fresh that it may even
run away. You won't find this level of freshness in most parts of the world so
time to try out this fresh batch of Taiwanese seafood products. I'm super
stoked, it's morning, I'm having some lunch. All right, time to
start off with the fresh sashimi, look at this box my god what a presentation.
salmon sashimi
oh my god that literally melts on the tip of my tongue that is absolutely perfect.
Really good tuna is usually really hard to come by. oh wow, that is so juicy for fish.
It's not dry it's absolutely perfect, like it literally
just came fresh out of the sea they nailed this out of the park. I'm really
impressed with this sashimi. Spicy fish eggs this is the part of the salmon
where she stores the eggs. Whoa, that's a very unique taste all the little eggs
popping in my mouth. I can see why this is one of the best fishery markets in
the country. Nothing beats grilled eel, BBQ grilled
eel. Oh man, it's still warm, it's still warm. I just, I want to eat this whole thing.
I am little heaven heaven, unagi heaven. This gorgeous place is the Chiang kai-shek
memorial hall. Chiang kai-shek can be considered the founder of modern Taiwan.
He took the Chinese Nationalist government from mainland China to Taiwan
during the Communist revolution. This is the main plaza in downtown Taipei. We got the main
memorial of Chiang kai-shek in the background and this is the national
theater. Moving on to the Ximending shopping district which many have compared to
Tokyo's Harajuku district for its funky fashion and youth culture. Inside
of the Ximending district you will find the Ay-Chung rice noodle shop. This
place is always packed with customers which is a good indicator for quality.
I got myself a small portion 450 new Taiwan dollars which is around $1.60 USD.
Thick gravy, thin noodles and bits of pig intestine making this
snack a must try and Ximending, oh that's hot but it's delicious, that
broth is so good it's so thick and the pork intestine really adds quite the
flavor. Another good spot in Ximending district is Laotian Lu for its wide selection
of braised duck from duck tongue, duck feet, duck hearts, duck intestines to duck
head. Go watch my entire duck episode for my complete braised duck review, the link
will be in the description box below. Oh man, this is pretty intense.
What am I doing? Now a hidden secret here in Taipei is ice cream shop Snow King
especially if you want to challenge yourself. One thing guys the ice cream
flavors are quite expensive, around $4 bucks a scoop. Chili pepper, pork
knuckle, how about some soybean curd. Hey, and if you're at it
some Taiwan beer @ 3.5%, not that bad. I'm gonna get drunk off ice cream today.
They have 73 flavors, check these out this is Taiwan beer @ 3.5%
and Kaoliang @ 58%. Kaoliang is a strong distilled Chinese liquor with an alcohol
percentage ranging from 38% to 63% that's why Kaoliang smells extremely
strong. Stings the nostrils. That's just insanity, so you wanna get
wasted this is the right place to come to.
Oh man, those are puke reflections kicking in, that's too strong I don't think I can
take much more of that.
You can always settle for some sesame oil chicken ice cream. Oh, I'm not liking that.
I'm not liking that, it's like big pieces of chicken are in the ice cream.
You can 't make you stuff up, I give them a 10 for at least trying. So yea guys after all
those crazy ice creams let's top it off with something nice, the custard apple
ice cream. Mmm oh that's nice, the good thing about this place is the
ice cream in general isn't as sweet this is actually real ice cream. If the
alcohol drenched ice cream was an extreme enough for you how about a
knife massage. All right guys we're doing a little
warm-up here, before we go into the knife room. The zen is coming to me, now it's time
for the knives! I consider this another hidden secret
here in Taipei most tourists do not know about. Enjoy a one-hour knife massage
with a knife massage practitioner. So here are the knives, they're real cleavers
Don't try this at home you may injure yourself. Luckily, their training is very
strict they required to be vegetarian and meditate on a daily basis although
when it came to my skull I got a little freaked out. So another procedure will
involve the skull, let's see how that's gonna go.
My bum feels great, my bum feels absolutely great!
This is actually really
enjoyable I had no idea!
After all these mind-blowing experiences
you may be in a need for a bit of zen, so visit one of Taipei's many temples
Longshan is the most popular temple here in Taipei and it's often visited by
many locals praying to a specific deity. This temple is also called the meeting
place of the gods that's why you'll see many offerings here with rituals taking
place every single day.
Alternatively you can check out the temple of Hsing Tian Kong, you'll be able
to find many businessmen here looking for good fortune. To really take some
time to relax rent a bicycle in the northern tip of Taipei and cycle along
this gorgeous waterfront next to the Keelung River. So yeah guys, so why not rent
yourself a bike and go biking in the northern parts of Taipei, on a nice sunny
day like this, this is where a lot of people from Taipei spend their weekends.
These Ubikes are available all over the city plus they are super cheap to rent
just 20 NT per hour, that's 60 cents USD, that's crazy!
not YouTube but YouBike. If it is a hot and sunny day you need to take a pit
stop at the Moonlight Riverside Cafe for an epic mulberry smoothie
one of my hidden secrets here in Taipei. Wow, that's amazing, it's like
raspberry but better, way better! Only 80 Taiwan dollars for this massive
amount of mulberry smoothie. Nearby you can find these bizarre century eggs
which gotten their green color from fermentation, these acts can take up
to four to five weeks to make. Traditionally these eggs were made with
the mixture of salt, lime and ash. So make all your fantasies a reality at this
little tea egg shop. The century egg, fermented duck egg. Quite the delicacy here
Yeah, actually really good, it still tastes the same as the yellow chicken
egg but the gelatin base around it actually adds as a certain smoothness.
A very unique building just north of downtown is the Grand Hotel one of the
world's tallest Chinese classical buildings and a great place for
photography, fun fact this building has been decorated with two hundred thousand
dragons.
For dinner you should consider A-Cheng Goose one of the best goose restaurants
here in Taipei for a quick delicious bite of chopped goose, my order consisted
of Chinese cabbage, a very strange duck blood soup and of course delicious
chopped goose. But no meal is complete without a refreshing Taiwan beer.
This is actually very good, it's really good. Taiwan is most famous for its many
night markets which run from the late afternoon until midnight every single
day. At these night markets you should try the hot star large fried chicken, an
oyster omelet, delicious pig blood cake,
pepper pork buns and some fun street games. These night markets are so massive that
they required their own Reformatt episode so make sure you check out my full
review by clicking the link in the description box below. One thing that
truly blew me away was the Taipei nightlife, I have no idea Taipei had so
many great bars and nightclubs I will go as far to say that this was the best
nightlife scene I've ever experienced at great nightclubs like VIBE, Electro, Babe18
and Omni.
With an epic after-party meal at HaiDiLao but for that video go watch my
entire Taipei nightlife guide, again the link is in the description box below! Now
it is finally bedtime and where better to stay than at Hotel Royal in Beitou.
Hotel Royal is best known for its incredible hotel rooms complete with
their own private hot springs bath.
Taiwan has a lot of tectonic activity which is why Taiwan has the highest
concentration of thermal hot springs in the world making the Beitou region pure
hot springs heaven. Now i still have a bunch of bonus tips but first navigate
to Reformatt.com to download a detailed map of all the places i mentioned in
this video complete with the exact addresses, prices, photos and all my
personal advice. OK, now here are my bonus tips, since I'm
Dutch I found this particular restaurant really interesting, a poffertjes
restaurant downtown Taipei, which are mini Dutch pancakes, what are odds?!
Not your average Dutch pancakes. Oolong tea poffertjes. Speaking of Dutch...
Did you know that Taiwan used to be an old Dutch colony called Formosa, expect a
full Reformatt episode on the Dutch colonial history of Taiwan. And this is
the guy that kicked out the Dutch, Koxinga. If time permits,
check out the South Village where the soldiers of the nationalist army were
relocated after escaping the Communist revolution on mainland China.
South Village is nowadays a museum and cultural center easily walkable from
Taipei 101. For transportation consider either renting Ubike, a cheap taxi or
use the super efficient Taipei MRT to get around town. The Taipei MRT is one of
the best metro systems in the entire world. Also, make sure you watch my first
episode on Taiwan to learn more about this wonderful island nation.
In conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised during my stay here in Taiwan the
Taiwanese are nothing less than exceptionally friendly,
helpful and full of energy, making Taiwan one of the most incredible
places I've ever visited. Sadly, I could not cover all the cool
things to do here in Taipei in just one video that's why I created an entire
playlist of all the videos I recorded in Taiwan so make sure to check out those
episodes as well now. If you have already been to Taipei let me know what your
favorite spot was in the city by leaving a comment in the comment section below.
Now hit that like button if you think this video was useful and make sure to
share this video with all your friends that are considering a visiting Taiwan.
Thanks for watching guys and make sure to look out for next week's episode I
believe it's going to be my best episode yet