Taiwan/Hong Kong Trip

Travel logs and questions
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d.manuk
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Mon Apr 15, 2019 3:11 pm

Overall my trip to Hong Kong and Taiwan was great! I really enjoyed my time in Taiwan and it gave me whispers of a past trip of Japan given some of the cultural influence. I enjoyed staying and hiking in Taroko Gorge - it was very beautiful.
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I visited Wistaria tea house and enjoyed it. The quality of tea was better than NYC tea houses. No I would not buy tea from there, but since I am visiting and can't really have a good session while traveling it is nice to have a place to sit down and drink. I felt the same way about Lock Cha teahouse in Hong Kong (the puers I had there steeped forever, it was rather impressive). I didn't really have a chance to drink much of my favorite high mountain gaoshan. This wasn't necessarily a tea trip. Though I did end up buying a nice amount of teacups and tea accessories in Yingge which made me happy. I'll be testing the cups and such in other posts. My tea table is being delivered tomorrow after 2 months of waiting. I was able to find 3 potential candidates for sheng puer teacups that I'd been searching for for a while, though it was hard to find the right size and material even in this town completely filled with ceramics lol. I visited one of Bok's friend's teaware stores and bought the 2 items on the left there. I'll post better pics eventually through future tea sessions.
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There were certain areas of Taipei that were very tea-focused and I thought it was interesting to see tea being so integrated into a culture and city. I enjoyed the food in Taiwan very much. There were a lot of healthy food options. I really did not like the food in Hong Kong and that was the biggest let down of the trip for sure. My expectations were so high for the cuisine there. I really like eating at Madame Zhu's in NYC and thought the quality of Chinese food would be pretty high in HK, so we had planned to eat at a lot of HK Chinese restaurants that had Michelin stars and really good ratings. All I can say is what a let down. I never want to even look at Cantonese food again for the rest of my life. We tried to eat at various types of Chinese cuisine but they were all relatively similar. The restaurants there would not have gotten Michelin stars in NYC. The food there had the same low quality cuts of meat and sugary and greasy sauces that you'd find in most cheap Chinese restaurants in NYC. It's also pretty much impossible to find leafy green vegetables to eat in these kinds of restaurants, the closest you'll receive are the stems of water spinach with the leafy green tips cut off for some reason... My skin had pretty bad breakouts from the food and probably water and I got weird rashes on my body that took a few days to clear up. I don't recommend going to HK at all, I really hated the food and the atmosphere. Eating at Duddell's was the only redeeming experience I had there. Even the sushi in HK was a joke. It was really lacking refinement and quality in just about every way. Ok that's enough hating on HK for one post.

The cuisine in Taiwan was much more my style. I was able to eat a lot of wild greens and herbs that you can't find in a supermarket, which I loved. I love Japanese food so the influence on the cuisine was a welcome change. I'm very jealous that there's no such thing as Shin Yeh Japanese buffet in NYC. I ate that right before heading to the airport -- completely stuffed and blissful. As for tea served with meals, it was what you would expect. Nothing crazy. Mostly teabags of unimpressive quality. I can't wait to try out all of my different Taiwanese tea accessories. It was a good trip overall with some good experiences. I'm going to miss not being able to hang out with my boyfriend all day long for weeks at a time.
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Mrs. Chip
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Mon Apr 15, 2019 6:33 pm

ShineMagical, thank you for sharing your trip with us. Sounds like an interesting adventure even though it wasn't quite what you expected.

Looking forward to seeing more of your photos. Especially your teaware.
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Bok
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Mon Apr 15, 2019 8:06 pm

@Shine Magical Thanks for sharing! Sorry it did not work out to meet...

Nice monochrome catch you go yourself there! Shopping in style I'd say. Glad you made it to Peters shop! Hope there was enough selection, he is an artist, so sometimes it takes a while to stock up his shelves...

Buying tea in Taiwan is not as easy as it may seem with all the tea shops around every corner... especially Taipei. I think you were wise not to buy too much without knowing what, where and who to trust. With more time on your hand and no other activities planned, chances are greater - yet we all do have other commitments or non-interested parties to take care of :mrgreen:

Taroko is beuatiful, not even the large amount of tourism can completely destroy that. There are similar, clandestine places, more wild, but difficult to get and find. Taiwans mountains and its hikes are some of the most beautiful I have seen. The cities and beaches much less so.

and a hooray to Taiwans food! So much better/and safer than most of things I had in China. The blend is unique and I love how portions are small, so you can share a lot of different things each time.
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d.manuk
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Mon Apr 15, 2019 11:00 pm

Here are a few more:
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I feel confident saying there's at least 1 tea plant somewhere in these photos. :D
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Bok
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Tue Apr 16, 2019 12:20 am

Shine Magical wrote:
Mon Apr 15, 2019 3:11 pm
I really like eating at Madame Zhu's in NYC and thought the quality of Chinese food would be pretty high in HK, so we had planned to eat at a lot of HK Chinese restaurants that had Michelin stars and really good ratings. All I can say is what a let down.
While I would not completely count out HK food, I agree that it is not as easy to find excellent food, as it is in Taiwan. Some Dimsum places still do top any other dim sum I had in any other city (NY, Paris, London, SF). As often, local guidance is essential though. If a small street shop is doing only one kind of noodle for three generations, they usually do a good job at it :P

Michelin stars in Asia are not the best guiding principle. I have a few friends in the food industry here, it seems a lot of stars can be acquired by other means than serving good food... I've been to a few starred places in Taiwan, quite disappointing as well, compared to the local food. Some were foreign chefs trying to put a twist on local specialties – and failing at it, because they did not understand the ingredients and how to use them. The hype created by local media for certain restaurants is also not to be underestimated.

Tea in HK is also on the losing way out in my opinion. Since China opened to the West, HK lost what little advantage it had.
Ethan Kurland
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Tue Apr 16, 2019 12:11 pm

In much more limited experience, I found prepared food of Taiwan great in two categories: good food for very low prices & very good for very low prices (not much more $ than prices of good food).
Whenever TripAdviser or some guidebook had some recommendations for places fancier than casual dining, I was not so favorably impressed.

With experience working at 2 & 3 star resorts that claimed to be more than they could be even on their best days, and being a waiter at some 4 star restaurants who delivered good food but with contempt for their customers, I think odds are against one being satisfied once one seeks the best.

In Boston where I am attuned to the Karma, vibrations, or whatever you call it, I can walk into a place and know what's coming. I have gone to places with groups impressed by tableclothes and the descriptions of dishes on the menu and left them to discover their disappointment. I'd like to think fine dining at less than a week's rent is available somewhere, but cannot afford to gamble on it.
Ethan Kurland
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Mon May 06, 2019 5:25 pm

online, I just read BBC article on stinky tofu soup. I did not know there was such a thing. Anyone who could not get themselves to try the slabs try this soup?
Chadrinkincat
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Mon May 06, 2019 8:03 pm

@Shine Magical

My experience with food in HK was pretty much the opposite of yours. It wasn’t mind blowing in the same way as Japan but it was better than the Cantonese food I’ve had in America. No offense but I think you made a number of poor food choices there. Sushi in HK seems like a very odd decision. I hope you at least ate at a few good dim sum dumpling places as that’s what they are famous for.
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Bok
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Mon May 06, 2019 8:04 pm

Ethan Kurland wrote:
Mon May 06, 2019 5:25 pm
online, I just read BBC article on stinky tofu soup. I did not know there was such a thing. Anyone who could not get themselves to try the slabs try this soup?
Stinky tofu is a lot less worse than its reputation. A lot of cheese does not stink less, it’s just different.

In the right place stinky tofu in all its styles is quite delicious! Fried, steamed, as a hot pot etc.
John_B
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Fri May 17, 2019 3:44 am

We visited Hong Kong a bit over a month ago, and Shenzhen, but it's odd mentioning "foodie" themes here since we're not on that page related to checking out if places deserve their Michelin stars.

I liked dim sum the most of the times I've tried it; I'm a lot better with a broader range of textures after living in Thailand for awhile. A noodle and dumpling dish was nice, and fried noodles, but again I'm not the right person to judge all of it. As my wife says I have a "crocodile's tongue."

It's a little odd because I spent years practicing cooking, spending hours a day making different foods. I can appreciate subtle differences in textures and flavor balances, but at the same time I could live on grilled cheese or bowls of cereal, or here crispy pork and rice or having fruit for meals.
Ethan Kurland
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Fri May 17, 2019 8:30 am

Some of the best dim sum places are so loud that one should only eat a small amount of each dish there and take away most of the food. In the calm of a comfortable place, that dim sum may prove to be outstanding! If it is good the next day, an exceptional restaurant may have been discovered. (In Boston, a place in Chinatown that overwhelms one with noise, has wonderful dim sum for flavor & texture. I did not know how good it was until I ate its food as leftovers which did not show an excess of grease when refrigerated.)
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tealifehk
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Sun May 19, 2019 11:49 am

I'm from HK (obviously) and I've noticed I'm immune to noise at restaurants. Was in the pool earlier and my gf complained about some noisy kids. I had completely tuned them out. I told her if she hadn't mentioned them, I wouldn't even have noticed!

HK has some of the best Chinese food on the planet if you know what you're doing. We get the best of China's (and the world's) produce. Very high rent means that good food can cost you a lot of money, but there plenty of exceptions too! There's also a lot of mediocre food, but we have one of the highest restaurant densities in the world! You definitely have to do your homework or spend a lot of time here to find the good stuff.

As for tea: a lot of China's best stuff does make it down here because of guanxi (long-standing relationships going back generations). HK vendors could sell tea from China when China was closed to the world, and HK was THE major transit point for Chinese goods to the rest of the world. Most people here are into teas that have been traditional here for generations, however, but the quality of the classic teas sold here can be hard to beat because of the historical relationships between Chinese producers and HK merchants.

There's also the old school traditional storage pu erh and oolong thing, but the dry storage pu erh boom hit right when China was opening up. Much of the dry storage of pu erh in Guangdong is controlled by Hong Kongers, who were able to get into the business before anyone else did, but that tea doesn't make it to HK quite as much since we are used to traditional storage pu erh. We also only have 7 million people down here (vs 104 million in Guangdong)!
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