[The Intense Summer] TAIWAN DAY 3

On our third day, we headed off to the place that I had been eagerly anticipating since the moment exams had finished: Ximending.

I took the MRT for the first time in Taiwan.

Ash / Satoshi teaching the general public to line up in an orderly fashion:

We arrived at Ximen station shortly.

Oh the ads.

Humid and extremely sunny, we ducked into the shaded sidewalk area to explore Tony Moly, Etude House, and a few cell phone accessory stores before trying out Taiwan's renowned mango shaved ice.

If you're ever exploring the area, this place is a MUST-TRY!
Honesty, it isn't called Ximen Mango Shaved Ice for nothing.

A mango smoothie and mango shaved ice were ordered to relieve ourselves of the heat.

Taiwan is known for their mangoes, and now I truly see why. I can candidly state that you have never really tried mango-themed things, especially mango shaved ice, until you've ordered from Ximen Mango Shaved Ice.
There really isn't any way to accurately depict the complexity of the taste(s): the mango juice wasn't too thick and managed to be refreshing and mildly sweet, while the mango shaved ice was as perfect as sweet tartness could possibly be.

The Mango Shaved Ice was fairly large and was composed of their house special mango shaved ice drizzled in mango syrup, surrounded by chunks of fresh, and topped off with a large scoop of mango ice cream. And what proved to be incredibly amazing was how the process by which they made their shaved ice: sweet, ripe mangoes were peeled, blended into a smooth puree, and then mixed into shaved ice machine that would then infuse the ice thoroughly with mango. To put it shortly, the dessert was a mango-lover's dream, in the form of a single dessert.

Not too long afterwards, we stopped for lunch at a traditional Taiwanese street food stall.

The portions were a good size - a great deal considering the prices they were charging.

Turning back to the K-Pop store that we had passed by before stopping for our 'mango meal' led to the realization that it was, in fact, still an operating shop and had not closed down like we had initially thought.

Kim Soo Hyun was just as popular in Taiwan as in Hong Kong. Other K-Pop idols popular among the locals included Lee Minho, Girls' Generation, Super Junior, EXO, INFINITE, and VIXX.
The store was very small, with only enough space to allow a maximum of four to five people to reside in the store at once. Any other space was all occupied by merchandise such as posters, folders, photo cards, fans, and the like.

Following our departure from the store, we browsed through some more shops while I attempted to locate the CD store and anime shops I had researched online prior to embarking on the journey.

After asking a few shop owners for directions, we finally found the CD store in a narrow alley, situated diagonally from a dog training school.

While somewhat rundown and minute in appearance, the store actually extends quite deep into the building. It carried around the same quantity of products as a typical HMV, but also carried certain concert / fan goods from Japanese and Korean artists, a great deal of posters (all orgranized by artist and genre), some Japanese magazines, and a section of clearance items consisting of vintage CDs and old releases. There was quite a variety of items being sold, but I left empty-handed due to the fact that they did not have GOT7's first album in store, nor any posters of them.

After some more walking, a stand for homemade pineapple pastries known as 鳳梨酥  (or pineapple tarts or pineapple cakes or whatever you would like to call them) was discovered. We had originally promised ourselves to avoid purchasing these as souvenirs, but the fragrance drew us in and we were purchasing a set of 5 before we even knew it.

By no means am I regretting this decision though - the pastries had managed to stay fresh even when we unwrapped them for afternoon snack consumption upon returning back home. And unlike the 鳳梨酥 from other shops, or even the ones I've previously been gifted as souvenirs by relatives and family friends, the crust wasn't overly buttery / flaky and nor was the filling too sweet. It wasn't too crumbly, nor too dense either - the ideal ratio of pastry to pineapple.

Eventually we found ourselves diving into a well air-conditioned bookstore...

..and then finally arriving at Index ACG, a six-floor building dedicated to manga, anime, and games.

Trying to find our way back to the MTR, we chanced upon another anime store called animate. And, of course, I just had to go in for a quick look.

Photography was not permitted inside, but animate was basically a two-level store comprised of one level of manga translated into Chinese and a basement level containing goods from popular anime such as Free! and Attack on Titan, as well as manga-drawing supplies (grid paper and ink pens of varying thicknesses). Given its size, their supply of manga could not possibly be compared to that of Index ACG. However, they did happen to carry more anime-specific fan merchandise (such as posters, stickers, folders, etc.), though they didn't prove to be the best deal.

Completely worn out, the last stop was CoCo.

CoCo's 'Three Brothers Milk Tea' is something I don't think I'll ever forget; among their top 5 drinks, 奶茶三兄弟 is a flavour-packed milk tea with tapioca, pudding, and grass jelly fillings.
Once again, you have never really tried authentic Taiwanese bubble tea until you've had CoCo. Tapioca boiled to a perfect soft, yet chewy consistency, a sweet-yet-not-too-eggy pudding, and refreshing grass jelly that hits right between the lines of hard and just-manages-to-keep-its-form are all things that I have desperately attempted to find at my local bubble tea parlours without much success. But CoCo has managed to do it all, and at an incredibly reasonable price too.

Though I made several efforts to find another CoCo location within closer proximity to our hotel in the days that followed so that I would have the chance to taste milk tea heaven once again before departing, I was devastated that none of the locations were really that close. I flew back without a second CoCo.
But no matter, since I know I'll be back for more at some point in my life ;)


P.S. Please check out my vlog to get a closer look at Index ACG and more!

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SUMMER 2014 LINKS

• JUNE 28, 2014 - Mill St. Brewery, Toronto Pearson Airport
• JUNE 29, 2014 - NorthWest Fan Fest 2014
•                                       - Red Star
• JUNE 30, 2014 - Photos N/A
• JULY 1/2, 2014 - Vancouver to HK Part 1 (Vancouver International Airport)
•                                        - Vancouver to HK Part 2 (Flight to Seoul)
•                                        - Vancouver to HK Part 3 (Incheon Airport, Arrival in Hong Kong)
• JULY 3, 2014 - Mong Kok
• JULY 4, 2014 - Macau Day Tour
• JULY 5, 2014 - Shopping in Causeway Bay
• JULY 6, 2014 - Tsui Wah Restaurant, I SQUARE
• JULY 7, 2014 - Arriving in Taiwan + Akazubo (Hankyu)
•                                     - Exploring Eslite
• JULY 8, 2014 - Food and Family Dinner
• JULY 9, 2014 - Ximending
• JULY 10, 2014 - Taipei 101, Ding Tai Fung
•                                       - ATT 4 Fun
•                                       - Birthday Buffet
• JULY 11, 2014 - SOGO, Taipei Underground Mall
• JULY 12, 2014 - Exploring the Area + Shinkong Mitsukoshi
• JULY 13, 2014 - Breakfast + Taoyuan Airport + Flight Back to Vancouver
• JULY 14, 2014 - Mega Sushi
• JULY 15, 2014 - Maji Taiwanese Cuisine
• JULY 16, 2014 - Thai Food + Family Dinner @ The Jade
• JULY 17, 2014 - New Hair + Cattle Cafe
• JULY 18, 2014 - Photos N/A
• JULY 19, 2014 - Garage Sale + MiniComi
• JULY 20, 2014 - Photos N/A
• JULY 21, 2014 - Cattle Cafe + Bubble Tea at Yaohan
• JULY 22, 2014 - Vancouver Aquarium
• JULY 23, 2014 - Lost in Burnaby + Afternoon Tea at Adonia
• JULY 24, 2014 - Journey via Canada Line + Pinkberry
• JULY 25, 2014 - Richmond Night Market (Part 1)
•                                       - Richmond Night Market (Part 2)
• JULY 26, 2014 - Back to Toronto