Location: Taipei, Taiwan

Sav: This morning we opted to sleep in, although my darn inner clock still woke me rather early. Unable to sleep any longer I wandered downstairs to sip on coffee and do some writing. It was a quiet morning while I waited for Max, who woke up a couple of hours later and had missed breakfast! (Max: worth it.) Last time I was here I had a traditional Chinese crêpe breakfast a few blocks away, and anyone who knows anything about Max knows he has a mild (read: massive) crêpe obsession.

Max: Sav had saved me a coffee from breakfast, so I enjoyed that as I caught up with some work, but the thought of crêpes finally won me over. Tucked away off an industrial street was a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant serving a variety of foods, but the most notable was the crêpes. It turns out I’m a loyal Quebec crêpe eater and need butter and sugar in the batter, but I’m surprised that there’s even a version of them here, so I won’t complain! We shared a few, plus a doughnut dipped in steaming hot almond milk and were feeling satisfied. We made up our minds to check out some temples once we were ready to move.

Our first stop was the Confucius temple (which Sav had already visited last time she was here). I thought this guy was just a well known philosopher, but it turns out he’s also a politician and teacher who had a huge hand in reshaping education across Asia. This temple was more ornate than many of the others we’ve seen, with extra care put into every statue and painting, and a lot more gilded detailing. So yeah he was a much more important dude than I had originally thought.

We dodged some scooters as we crossed the street and arrived at our next stop: Dalongdong Bao’an Temple. We entered a courtyard with an enormous inflatable rat display and were reminded that we are still in the middle of the Chinese New Year (year of the rat). Elaborate gates led into the main area, which housed the most beautiful temple I’d had seen yet (and it also happened to be the least crowded we’d been to). A dozen or so purple-robed singers were inside the temple, humming and playing instruments which really added to the atmosphere. We even has some one-on-one time with a few of the deities and I felt pretty lucky. Zhōngguó mínjiān xìnyǎng, the traditional Chinese religion, seems to focus heavily on being virtuous in your day to day actions and enriching your life. Sav and I spent a lot of time talking about religion after this temple, discussing our feelings about what we’d learned. All this hard thinking got my stomach grumbling again and we went on the hunt for food once more.

Sav: I’d been to both of these temples before, but it was exciting to return again with Max. Today also happens to be the first sunny day since we arrived, and we’d been waiting for one to go get some shaved ice! But wait wait wait this isn’t your standard circus or Hawaiian shaved ice with flavouring poured on top. Ohh no. Taiwan is different. This is ice cream or sorbet that’s been frozen absolutely rock solid and then shaved to the consistency of long flakes of snow that is served in giant mounds with a bunch of stuff (i.e. jello, custard, fruit – you name it) on the side.

We had no idea they were meant to be shared until they showed up and we broke out laughing about the size. LOOK AT THESE THINGS.

We only have a short amount of time left before we leave Taiwan, so we stopped into Din Tai Fung for one final round of pork shrimp dumplings. Don’t judge us they’re so incredible. We walked home in the sun, bellies super full and happy. Max had some work to do so I hung around and relaxed before we hit the streets to grab some dinner at a small restaurant near home where Max tried pork tongue. Pork. Tongue. And actually enjoyed it.

He doesn’t bat an eyelash eating tongue but has a spine shivering reaction to blood.

Okay.

I stuck to noodles and veggies this time.

What a food-filled day! Bliss.

Sav