Travel Adventures: Pinglin's Tea Museum

 Living in Taiwan, we didn't realize that tea was a major export and Taiwan has some really great teas. We also didn't realize that we lived close to an area where tea is planted and harvested. 

Also that there was a tea museum in the vicinity.

Getting off from the bus (we took it from Xindian station) I think you have to turn left and go pass the library and keep going until you see the signs pointing to Pinglin's old stree.

The street vendors haven't started selling their wares yet in the morning.

The tea museum had some good exhibitions showing how tea is made once it gets plucked and this wheel of what flavors the tea is based on the wheel for coffee flavors? I still have yet to figure out what exactly this flavor wheel does.

But on the way back, we missed the bus so had to head over to a different bus station. The 923 is the faster bus that goes by the highway while the green 12 that we took to get home tends to take longer. 

That's it for now. We really love everything tea-related here in Taiwan. 

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Travel adventures: A date with the moon (Yao yue teahouse)

Both of us really love tea and there just happen to be a place nearby where we live in Xindian with beautiful scenery and tea! Best of all, it opens 24/7 even on new years!

There are multiple ways to get here if you take public transit.

The place is about a 15-20 minutes walk from Maokong station on the brown line.

Or you can ride Brown 7 to Wanshou Bridge (MuZha) and then walk over to the Brown 15 or S10 mini bus to Maokong Station (Mini Skywalk). Then it's about a 2-5 minutes walk to the Yao Yue Teahouse.

This teahouse is one of many in the Maokong area as this area is an area with many tea plantations. The teahouse is mostly self-serving so you just go to the owners and pay for your tea (300-500NT depending on what the time that you're staying for, the number of people there are, and the kind of tea). 

 

They give you the tea set with instructions on what to do. There's English on the other side of the Chinese instructions so no worries if you can't read Chinese. 

There are numerous areas to sit, both indoors and outdoors and one area that's even half and half. We got a bit hot from the weather and went to the indoor areas with AC. 

Of course, they sell food also, people are bound to be hungry if they're staying for a while to taste the tea and chat. 

https://yytea.com.tw/product_list

Here's the menu provided in a big booklet. I'm pretty sure there's an English booklet if you ask for it. 

But here's what we got:

We got the hot pot J042 pork hot pot and J182 beef hot pot.

Then the K163 (butter filled buns) that was delicious: https://yytea.com.tw/product_detail_12

We definitely recommend going if you get the chance!

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Fun places for toddlers in Taipei: Taiwan National Museum - Railway branch

Our son loves cars and trains so when we heard there was a branch of the National Taiwan museum with trains, it was a must-see for our son.

It actually underwent restoration and was recently re-opened in July of 2020. 

The location is near the North Gate (北門) and accessible by the MRT, as you might have guessed it if you can read Chinese, Beimen station on the green line. 

They are open from 9:30am to 5pm, Tuesday-Sunday, including national holidays (except New Years 1/1 and lunar new years eve which varies from year to year). 

Admission is NT$100, children 6-12, students, military or police personnel, people aged 65 or older are all half price. 

Children under 6 are free. We got the annual membership as it was NT$300 and allows unlimited access to the other 3 branches of the Taiwan museum system. 

There are usually special exhibitions and some of the displays are interactive or captivating to a little boy who loves all things trains. 

There's also a kids' indoor play area where you can ride on the small train, but as there's only one train, the wait time is around 20 minutes on weekend mornings. 

To ride this train you actually need to queue up for a limited number of tickets and then wait in line and watch this train go around.

But if you want to ride the train, make sure to arrive early!

There are two times when tickets are distributed: 9:30am and 1:30pm. We normally arrive between 9:30 and 10:00am, and we always get tickets. You can get up to three tickets per kid, and they're all free. (Each kid can get a 10:00, 11:00, and 12:00 ticket. The 11:00 and 12:00 times are always sold out by 10:30.)

You can also line up to get tickets at 1:30. Again, each kid can get three tickets: for 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00. But the line for these gets REALLY long around 1:00. We've never managed to get tickets for the afternoon slots. (We only go on weekends)

If you want to go on a weekend afternoon, expect to be waiting for a VERY long time. Nobody can get tickets without lining up.

I highly recommend going in the morning. Try to get there around 9:30... but if you get there at 10:00, you should be ok. From 10:30 onwards, you're taking a risk.

Here's a video of what it is like at the train museum so you can get a better idea. 

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Easy recipes: Crispy waffles

 Yes, we have attempted the crispy waffles originally from here and

https://www.inspiredtaste.net/25708/essential-waffle-recipe/

But we actually have made a lot of changes to the recipe to be more Taiwanese

Ingredients

3/4 cup of cake flour

1/4 cup of tapioca starch

1 cup of runny yogurt

1/3 cup of coconut oil

1 Tbsp sugar

1/2 Tsp baking soda

1 egg (best at room temperature)

1 Tsp vanilla extract

Mix the wet ingredients first with blender

Then pour into the dry ingredients

Mix by hand at this point and try not to over mix

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