I didn't know that this was going to be a food trip and actually ate lunch. Big mistake. We left in the afternoon, and we made it there in what was apparently record time. 九份 - Jiufen has an interesting history that's worth describing. During the first years of the Qing Dynasty, only nine families lived in the village; therefore, every time they needed supplies, they requested nine portions. Hence the name.
In the late 1800's, gold was found in the area, and the village developed into a full-fledged town. I was really surprised how much stuff was around even though it's way up in the mountains and fairly remote. There's actually a gold museum with a giant chunk of gold you can touch. We got there too late for the gold museum though; what else is new?
Instead we spent the afternoon wandering the vast catacombs of Jiufen's historic shopping streets. It's kind of ridiculous how many people were there despite it being a working day. Random trinkets, folk arts, and grub trade shop stalls for the length of the street. We appropriately focused purely on the food. First stop: cupcakes.
Different from the cupcakes we're used to of course. Light and made with honey, they have an almost mochi like consistency. Pretty good but I feel like I've eaten something very similar before. Much more interesting were the peanut powder ice-cream wraps.
Very thin wraps are powdered with peanut candy grating. Put in two scoops of ice cream and close it up...tada! Deliciousness. The peanut gratings come from this giant block of peanut candy. I thought it was pretty cool.
Oh, I could have eaten five of those. Too bad, we had too many other items on our agenda and so we continued along, saving our stomachs. In retrospect, I could have eaten a couple more anyway. A lot of places were repeats of each other, and I saw a lot of foods I've seen before. Disregarding the pedestrian items, before I knew it, we hit a bend in the road. On that corner tough, we saw some grilled mushrooms we couldn't ignore.
Anyway we can make this at home? We can try, but I have a feeling the secret's in the sauce. Ate our mushrooms and turned the corner; I thought the street was ending and V's sister told us the food was ending soon. But it didn't! It just kept on going.
Soon after, we found one of Jiufen's staples. People described this as made of grass, but I didn't think it tasted that grassy. I feel like I've had something like this before and it didn't taste like anything other than red bean filled mochi.
People were buying this stuff by the box and they had a factory of people in the back making thousands of rice balls. Not sure what all the fuss is about. Someone explain it to me. Next up, meatballs.
For anyone who doesn't know, these look really weird. This type of meatball is covered in a transparent rice-cake film. If you think about it, it's a really easy way to make sure your meatball filling stays in place. I'm not sure if I can define it as a meatball though. There's gotta be a better translation, transliteration, or whatever right? I dunno, I just think there are too many different things in Chinese food that can be called meatballs. We need more unique descriptors. Oh yeah, the meatball was really good.
Jiufen is kind of like Enoshima with its population of cats. I'm not sure why there are so many cats around, but they are disparately skinnier than Japanese strays. Probably cuz of the weather.
Our final stop was probably the most famous. 賴阿婆芋圓 - Grandma Lai's Yuyuan is a little bit out of the way. V's sister led us up this random mess of stairs to the storefront. The stairs continued all the way up to an elementary school. I climbed up to the gates to check it out and spy on minors like I like to do from time to time. V meanwhile yelled up to me asking if I wanted mixed beans, whatever the hell those are. She then left me alone to do whatever the hell I was doing.
*Ahem* Grandma Lai is famous for her taro balls and you can get them hot as a soup or cold on top of ice. They were pretty good, but splitting one with V proved to be too much after our feeding frenzy.
Grandma Lai also has a small factory of taro ball makers. You actually pick up your food, pass through the factory and down a strange hallway. You continue blindly wondering where exactly this tiny place has seating and then you end up on a veranda with pretty special views.
There's something distinct about the taro ball + veranda experience. Highly recommended. On our way back down the stairs we passed this place selling various dried meats when V's sister pointed out what was apparently duck tongues.
WHY DO THEY LOOK SO WEIRD? Sooo anyway, Jiufen is a bit of a hotspot for movie and drama makers. We passed by a cafe that was used in a Korean drama. The meandering streets were an inspiration for the town in Spirited Away, and back in the day a famous movie was made about a movie theater. Or a movie theater was made about a famous movie. According to V, Tony Leung had something to do with it. Regardless, the movie theater is now defunct and looks like it's on its last legs. Pretty sure it won't be here the next time I come.
Trying to make our way back from the movie theater proved difficult. We got a little lost and wandered some residential areas for a while. People live in the weirdest looking houses and it's pretty amazing how this town was constructed. I even found a lot that looked like it belonged in a war-zone.
I was pretty done eating for the day, but that didn't stop me from getting some gold-medal pineapple cakes and a sweet potato cream puff. Call me cynical, but I don't put much trust in an award given ten years ago from an unknown source. Can't I just make up an award and give it to someone on a whim? What prevents me from creating the International Pineapple Cake Award and then giving it to some old man on a corner? Well, I'm sure people know which pineapple cake awards are truly esteemed. Also, the place is pretty famous and popular. Also, the pineapple cakes taste good. BUT, I like other ones better!
I totally passed out on the drive home. V couldn't find my camera apparently, so she took a picture of me, mouth agape, on her sister's iPhone. Not very comfortable with that thought... We were skipping dinner when the call came that we should hurry over before my niece went to sleep. Off we went in a scurry to see Anne.
I know it sounds foolish, but it amazes me how fast babies grow. Same thing with puppies, kitties, and I guess any animal. Cuz babies are animals. Point is: she got big! This is the look that she gave us when we first got there. Baby is clearly confused wondering, "Who are these people?" We tried all night to get her to crack a smile, but every time she did I would point the camera and she would get entranced by it.
This is the closest I got to a real smile. Anne is pretty active and I think she'll be crawling and walking in no time. I have zero idea what the timetable for these kind of things is. Someday, I'm sure I will learn, but for now I will relish in the irresponsibility of being a foreign uncle. Will this girl grow up and only be able to communicate with me in the little Chinese I know? I'm sure she'll get some English in her household, but maybe I can use her as an impetus to learn Chinese. It's a race against time.
No doubt she'll have a better accent than me...
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