Hualien – Day 1

After a day in Taipei and Nankang, my dad bought us train tickets so we could travel to Hualien on the east side of the country. The train system in Taiwan is really clean, fast, easy to use, and affordable. We took an early morning train from Taipei to Hualien:

The weather in December was chilly (in the 50s) and somewhat wet. Once we arrived in Hualien, we took a cab to a hotel – there are a lot of nice hotels in the area since Hualien is very touristy and fun for people to visit when they’re traveling within the island. After we checked into the hotel, we walked to a restaurant that my dad visited the last time he was in Hualien.

The restaurant is known for their chicken and traditional Taiwanese food. My dad tried to explain what they do to the chicken, but it got somewhat lost in translation. I later found out that what they do is castrate the chicken while it’s young…but it’s a free range chicken with hearty meat.

We started with some vegetables, one of my favorites from the entire trip, shanshu, which was sauteed with goji berries, garlic, and fish:

We also ordered clams with basil and garlic:

Traditional water spinach:

And the chicken:

When I told my dad I thought it was a little tough, he said that’s what made it so special! Then he offered me another piece by saying, isn’t is SO TOUGH? Me, Ken and my mom weren’t huge fans of it but my dad insisted we eat more because it was such a delicacy.

For dessert, my dad ordered the speciality of the restaurant. The sweet potato dessert takes a while to prepare because they coat it in sugar, which takes a bit:

The sweet potato is covered in warm sugar and then dunked into ice to make a caramelized shell:

Fishing out the sweet potato:

You can see the sugar makes everything stick together but it’s worth it because the sweet potato is warm under the cold caramelized sugar:

After the filling lunch, it was raining out so our initial plans to drive to Taroko National Park, but it can be dangerous if you’re not used to driving in that area and we decided not to risk it. Instead, my dad took us to a hot spring!

The area has a lot of fun hot springs and people go all year round to relax with friends, soak in the water, and bathe. We went to a hot spring that is also a resort (a little western-y):

There were flamingos on the grounds:

We rested for a bit in their cafe and drank coffees and ate milk candy before heading to the hot springs. We rented rooms (you can rent them by the hour) and it’s almost the same as taking a bath. They have marble bathtubs and the water comes directly from the hot spring. It smells a little bit like sulfur, but makes your skin very soft and is very relaxing.

After our fun afternoon at the hot springs, we ate at Dai’s Dumplings:

They only serve wontons at the restaurant and it’s only about $3USD for one bottle, but they were filling and it was a good way to end the evening.