Breakfast Upper West Side Style

"What? You lived in New York City for a year and never heard of Sarabeth’s?"

When we got up too late for the traditional Taiwanese breakfast of youtiao, jianbing and soy milk on our last day in Taipei, I ditched our original plan and suggested to check out the Taipei branch of this rather famous New York institution known for its pastries and breakfast dishes. That’s when I realized CYY - an one-time New York resident - has never heard of the restaurant, let alone stepping foot into one (how could that even possible is beyond me - but then she lived in Queen's so that's perhaps why). Guess that’s the extra reason to go check it out just before we were to catch the ride to the airport for our afternoon flight home.

Nostalgic Taiwanese Lunch

We didn’t make specific plan for our first lunch in Taipei, but decided just to try a luck to get a table at a place recommended by one of our friends. From outside, Mao Yuan looks just like any other casual, old-school Chinese restaurant with simple (dated) décor and well-lit interior, but we were told the place serves some of the best Taiwanese family-style cuisine in town.

Late Night Fine Dining

Eager to explore more of the rising Taipei restaurant scene, we made a reservation to eat at Longtail, helmed by the young Chef Kin Lam. We have long heard good things about the restaurant and the chef and we regrettably missed out last year when he returned to his hometown Hong Kong for a brief pop-up to much acclaim, so this is how we made amend to that.

Spicy Hotpot

While I thought it’s strange to spend time at a hot spring resort in the middle of summer, I have no problem eating at a hotpot restaurant in August – yes, talk about double standard. And this time in Taipei, we decided to visit one of the more popular hotpot restaurant chains for dinner.

New sushi place in Taipei

We managed to make a booking at Chef Yonglong Yang’s Sushi Ryu (鮨隆) restaurant in Taipei this time. The restaurant was just over one-year-old but already got quite a reputation, including the first Michelin star within 6 months of its opening – that was part of the reason why I was curious to give it a try.

Hot spring getaway in the summer

Seems like it’s a silly idea to go on a hot spring holiday in the middle of summer when it’s 30-degree plus out there in Taiwan, but it is what it is - let's just say it's not exactly my idea. The hot spring resort town of Beitou turned out to be much closer to the city than I thought – in fact technically it’s still within Taipei city limit and is easily reachable by MRT, their metro train system. While many opted for a day trip to Beitou from Taipei, we decided to stay there on our first night of our vacation at one of the newer resort hotels built in the mountains, with a car arranged as we landed in late morning which took us into Beitou right on time for check-in at the resort.