Snacking in Ximending

阿宗麵線 Ah Zhong Mee Sua
Address: No. 8-1 Ermei St, Ximending, Taipei City

This place receives so much hype from everyone online so of course it made it obligatory for us to try it.  I knew that it likely wouldn’t be to my liking though as I’m not a huge fan of thin rice noodles to begin with.  Sure enough, it was not my cup of tea at all, as all I could taste was the bonito flakes they sprinkled on top. 

冲绳日式碳烤麻糬 Okinawa Japanese Grilled Mochi
Address: Taiwan, Taipei City, 萬華區峨嵋街49號

I was really excited to try this Okinawa grilled mochi and I had to wait for them to open very patiently, as it was almost 1:00pm before they finally started taking orders.  They mochi was grilled and then covered in a topping of your choice.  They had both sweet and savoury choices including black sesame, peanut, condensed milk, green tea, chocolate, brown sugar, cheese, curry, satay and spicy.  Interestingly, they listed cheese under “sweet” instead of “savoury”

I had been wanting to try the black sesame flavour ever since I read about this place, and my friend tried the condensed milk.  Mine was delicious – the texture and sweetness were just right. 

王子起士馬鈴薯
Address: 108, Taiwan, 台北市萬華區峨嵋街49-3號(美觀園對面)

This stall is located right next to the Okinawa grilled mochi.  This was also one of the places I had read reviews about and was desperate to try.  Most people were ordering the house special which had all toppings, but I felt it was a bit much and just went with bacon and cheese. It tasted exactly as I expected.  Probably could have used a little bit more salt.  In the end I did kind of regret not getting the house special.  It was only $10NTD more and I think the extra toppings would have made it even better.

The Forgotten Japanese Restaurant
We decided that for our very last dinner in Taiwan, we were going to have Japanese food as we were staying in Ximending and Japanese food is very popular there.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take note of the name of the place, but I do remember it being a chain restaurant.  We ordered way too much food but we both said that since it was our last night, we should eat to our heart’s content.  The shabu shabu was definitely the best part of the meal, with its rich beef broth.  I’m still drooling thinking about it.