- 2 days ago
Taipei brings Anthony Bourdain to the second-tallest building in the world. There he discovers pork carved out of jade and learns he can't have a plan in a bar scuffle and why scantily clad women attend funerals.
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00:00.
00:05I'm so hungry.
00:07.
00:10Crystal skull.
00:11I want the jamed pork.
00:12This is some hardcore dumpling pork.
00:15I call this a perfect dining room, is what I call it.
00:18Ooh, ooh, ooh, spicy.
00:19This is very good.
00:20What do they do with the frogs, by the way?
00:22I don't dare ask.
00:23They can eat the plaque off a dead man's teeth.
00:30It's far from the best looking city on earth, but it's a deceptively wonderful one.
00:45I can't claim to be an expert on Taipei.
00:48It's a place that runs deep.
00:50I've only been through a few times, and only for a few days at a time.
00:54But I'm always happy to come back.
00:57I fly in to Taiyuan International Airport, an hour and a half west of Taipei City,
01:02which is broken up into 12 administrative districts.
01:06It's a fairly inexpensive city with a current exchange rate of 30 Taiwan dollars to one U.S.,
01:12and transportation is affordable.
01:15A taxi into the city costs about 30 to 50 U.S. dollars.
01:19Once in the city, you can get anywhere in a cab for about seven bucks.
01:24The bus is 50 cents, and the MRT subway is $1.20.
01:29I would recommend you take MRT and bus.
01:32Definitely take the MRT.
01:34It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to everywhere.
01:36It runs until midnight and starts at 6 a.m.
01:39At midnight, you can also take a cab.
01:41They are yellow, so it's really easy to recognize them.
01:53A long flight across the Pacific can be punishing, so after dropping my bags at the Taipei W,
01:58I drop in at the hotel bar or WU bar.
02:04That's good.
02:06Mood much improved.
02:08Ordinarily, I'm feeling like .
02:10I go for something brown, a scotch, a bourbon, whiskey.
02:13But in a weakened state, I submit to a special cocktail of what?
02:18Kumquat and ginger-infused vodka, which ain't half bad.
02:22Well, that's good stuff. Thank you.
02:24And has the benefit of, since I'm exhausted anyway, getting me like a cement mixer.
02:35Taiwan has some of the most exciting food, particularly when it comes to street food, in Asia.
02:41There are a lot of night markets in Taipei.
02:44They're famous for them.
02:45But this is the one I've been yearning for.
02:47Half an hour out of town via commuter train towards the Pacific coast is Geelong,
02:52the seaport home to its best night market.
02:55The night market culture, I think, can be a little bit overwhelming if you've never been in a place where everyone jostles elbow to elbow.
03:12But don't be intimidated, because Taiwanese people are extremely friendly.
03:16My guide to the market is Calvin Shu.
03:20Calvin is one of many Taiwanese expats who've returned home in recent years.
03:25This is a pretty long way from Taipei.
03:27Right, right.
03:28People come all the way out.
03:29Yeah. It's one of the best night markets in Taiwan.
03:31It's got the freshest seafood around.
03:33It's very victorious friendly.
03:34You can see all the signs on here.
03:35They're well displayed with English, Japanese, and Chinese.
03:38Right here is the temple.
03:40This is actually the main center of the night market.
03:43A lot of night markets in Taiwan are centered around temples.
03:46So it's probably kind of built and built and built.
03:49It's a beautiful temple, huh?
03:51The area around the temple is where you find rice pot sticker soup.
03:55They take liquid rice, put it on the side of a pot, and it steams and bakes at the same time.
04:01Also mushrooms, bamboo shoots, dried tiger lilies, dried shrimp, and oysters, and shredded pork.
04:09That's really good.
04:10Yes, yes.
04:11Good choice.
04:12These noodles, they're quite rare to find in other places.
04:15I haven't seen it outside Taiwan.
04:17So what's different about Taiwan?
04:19I mean, that's a big, big, big question.
04:20But Taiwan already is a mix of culinary influences from all over mainland, from Japan, from all over.
04:26Right.
04:27It's been occupied in the past by the Spanish, the Dutch, the French, and the Japanese.
04:32It's basically like a melting pot.
04:33So what would be, like, essential things to eat?
04:36Oh.
04:37You're here for a few days.
04:38Right.
04:39You're a homesick Taiwanese.
04:40Beef noodle.
04:41Oh, for sure.
04:42That's number one, right?
04:43For sure.
04:44Protein.
04:45Definitely honest.
04:46There's something else on my must-do list if I go away for a while.
04:48It's an oyster omelet.
04:49Have you ever had that?
04:50I've had it, yeah.
04:52The much-loved oyster omelet is a pretty simple thing.
04:55Fresh oysters fried in lard with potato starch, then folded into eggs with a savory sauce on top.
05:01You can try it with a very special, very unique taste.
05:04This dish is found in every night market around town, as well as a lot of restaurants, so there's no excuse not to try one.
05:11As with any great Asian night market, there are a lot of options.
05:16An overwhelming variety of delicious-looking things to try.
05:20Every few feet, another vendor is selling who knows what.
05:24And who cares?
05:25It's almost always interesting.
05:27And whatever it is, it's usually worth trying.
05:30There's a lot of things here called one bite, okay?
05:33This is one bite tempura.
05:34Right.
05:35Right next to it is one bite sausage.
05:37Right.
05:38Oh, I see.
05:39Oh, a takoyaki, I believe it's called.
05:41I know how to bake this.
05:42I mean, I know how to turn them.
05:44Thin noodle thick soup?
05:45I don't know what that is, but I want some.
05:49Poached quail eggs on a stick?
05:51Who doesn't want that?
05:52In the side alleys, they must be selling something good, because there's long lines.
05:56Unsurprisingly, I am principally interested in pork products.
06:00Who would have guessed?
06:01There's something over there, I don't know if you want to check out.
06:03It's a steamed bun, and they put the three-layer pork in it.
06:06It's like a little sandwich.
06:07It's a pork bun?
06:08Classic pork bun?
06:09It's like the wide-open one folded.
06:10It's like a soft-shell taco.
06:12Let's take a look at this.
06:13Okay, let's just start over here.
06:14Guabao, a steamed bun filled with melt-in-your-mouth pork belly
06:18that's been braised in soy sauce, wine, shallots, five-spice powder.
06:23Served with pickled mustard greens, cilantro, and crushed peanuts.
06:27Mmm.
06:28The meat's nice and soft.
06:29Yeah.
06:30Good.
06:31Pork belly?
06:32Good.
06:33What's next?
06:35The good thing about this particular night market is there's lots of food all isolated
06:40together.
06:41Whereas if we went to another night market, it might be a little more difficult.
06:44But here, they got some fresh uni here.
06:45Holy .
06:46Look at that.
06:47Spiny urchins sit next to some very good-looking crabs.
06:51That's what I like.
06:52Calvin and I grab a seat in the back.
06:55Wow.
06:56Look at that.
06:57This is interesting.
06:58Look at that.
06:59It's like custard.
07:01Mmm.
07:02That's superb.
07:03Mmm.
07:04Really freemium.
07:05That is very nice.
07:06Yeah.
07:07They look unlike other ones we have seen, which have sort of distinct little sacks.
07:11This is, you know, spiky shells filled with this heavenly custard.
07:15This is sort of a first date dish.
07:18Yeah.
07:19Yeah.
07:20You have this early in the meal.
07:21Mm-hmm.
07:22Because if she doesn't eat this, she's probably not going to suck your later.
07:28I'm just saying, it's a definite indicator.
07:32Like, if she's all over this , like, right away, that is a good sign.
07:35It's promising a meal of unrestrained orality.
07:39A plate of tiny helmet shell crabs steamed with garlic and Thai chilies.
07:44Oh, these are kind of cute.
07:45Yeah, right?
07:46Almost like little coins or something.
07:47Mmm.
07:48King crab steamed, then sautéed to perfection with shallots of garlic.
07:51Oh, wow.
07:52Mmm.
07:53Mmm.
07:54So if, if, uh, Taiwan has a, uh, any rival, annoying neighbors always saying our food's
08:07better, who would it be?
08:08I don't know.
08:09It's, it's just, Taiwan's such a blend of different cultures, different foods.
08:13Rivals, I don't know.
08:14Taiwan might be in a league of its own.
08:16Cheers.
08:17Oh, .
08:19There's another seafood dish I gotta try a few stalls down.
08:24There's some bad boys right here.
08:25Oh, yeah.
08:26That looks good.
08:27Yeah.
08:28Let's get some of those.
08:29Miniature hard shell crab, fried whole, spiced and served in a paper cup, and crunchy
08:35delicious.
08:36That's absolutely awesome.
08:37Oh, wow.
08:38Come on.
08:39That's awesome.
08:40Looks like perfect ballpark food.
08:42Mmm.
08:43Sorry, I'm gonna have to steal another one.
08:45There's as many as I like, dude.
08:46I'm not eating that whole thing.
08:52You could also get a foot massage, available all over these parts.
08:56But you don't wanna see what my daughter calls my dinosaur feet.
09:00Believe me.
09:01This is not the venue for a happy ending, so put that filthy thought right out of your
09:15head, pig.
09:16They're notoriously cheap, running for about 20 to 30 bucks, and a decent way to while away
09:21an hour.
09:22I'll tell you, I've been to a lot of street markets.
09:26This is truly a wonderland.
09:27Yeah.
09:28It's the variety here that's really amazing.
09:29Yeah.
09:30It's maddening.
09:31What do I eat at a night market?
09:32Fried chicken.
09:33Sweeten soup.
09:34Uh, chicken soup.
09:35Uh, chicken soup.
09:36Uh, chicken soup.
09:37Uh, chicken soup.
09:38Uh, chicken soup.
09:39Uh, chicken soup.
09:40Uh, chicken soup.
09:41Uh, chicken soup.
09:42Uh, chicken soup.
09:43Uh, chicken soup.
09:44Uh, chicken soup.
09:45Uh, chicken soup.
09:46Uh, chicken soup.
09:47What's your favorite thing in the whole market?
09:48A fried sandwich.
09:50It's very rare to find, but they have a spot in this market that's really good.
09:53Here's a Taiwanese meatball.
09:55It's a Taiwanese meatball, or bawa, wrapped in steamed, thick rice skin, with bamboo, sliced pork,
10:02and shiitake mushroom filling, topped with sweet garlic sauce and soy.
10:07Mmm.
10:08That is hot.
10:09It's kind of tasty.
10:10Mmm.
10:11This is what I like.
10:12It's a nice snack.
10:13This is something I haven't found in a lot of places.
10:15It's primarily...
10:16I've never seen this before.
10:17Oh, good.
10:18Never.
10:19Good.
10:20So, how many night markets are there, principally speaking?
10:24I couldn't count.
10:25Off the top of my head, I can think of ten at least, just in the Taipei area.
10:28But this will be the king?
10:29It's the king as far as the popularity, the mix of food and seafood is here.
10:35Really, as far as I'm concerned, we can just check into a hotel next door and spend the rest
10:39of the entire show eating my way through here.
10:42I mean, this is a three-day job.
10:44Just doing justice to this.
10:45Taiwan is a paradise.
10:55It has Japanese tradition, Spanish tradition.
10:58Immigrant influences from Vietnam and Indonesia and Philippines.
11:04Food comes from everywhere in China, and we are also very familiar with the Western world.
11:09So, everything is here very concentrated and full of variety in Taiwan.
11:16Taiwan is an alternate reality version of China.
11:19The China that might have been, that never turned its back on traditions.
11:23Sybaritic, commerce-driven, foodie.
11:26But one thing you can't deny about Taipei anyway, is that it's not the prettiest of cities.
11:32It's a relatively young one for sure.
11:34The area was colonized by the Spanish, then the Dutch.
11:38During the Qing Dynasty, Taipei became the regional capital of the island.
11:42The Japanese dominated for nearly 50 years starting in 1895 and stayed until 1945, bringing with them a lot of ugly-ass buildings and some very bad history.
11:55But Japan left behind a Japantown in Taipei and an enduring overlay of influence and an affection for sushi and izakayas.
12:05And a lot of bars.
12:07In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese nationalists, I think you could charitably call them anti-communists, retreated to Taiwan from the mainland, ceding their country to Mao Zedong.
12:21Two million of them flooded Taiwan, many from military or administrative backgrounds.
12:26The Chiang Kai-shek memorial in Zhongzheng honors this mercurial general, inarguably the most important figure in Taiwanese history.
12:36Me, my interests lie elsewhere, at Jin Chun Fa, where an expat friend, Angela Magellan and I are going for what is arguably the national dish, beef noodle soup.
12:48Is there any more iconic dish, any dish more likely to cause Taiwan-American agony watching the show than what we're about to eat?
13:00I would say no. This is certainly my favorite local dish, and it's something that I easily eat three or four times a week without ever getting tired of it.
13:07During the Japanese occupation era, very few Taiwanese people ate counts.
13:10But the mainlanders in China eat a lot of beef, and they brought beef noodles to Taiwan when the KMT party retreated to the island.
13:16That happened around my grandfather's generation.
13:19But by my father's generation, eating beef noodles has become really common.
13:22So now everybody has it, and it's everywhere.
13:26The roar of the wok sounds like a 747 taking off, filling the roux.
13:31A good sign, I think.
13:33We start with some water spinach, a common local green cooked up with ample amounts of garlic.
13:38Mmm.
13:39See, if only all vegetables were that delicious, I'd eat more of them.
13:43You know, I like a little bitterness, too, with my veggies.
13:46I like the crunchiness of the stem, I think.
13:48Yeah.
13:49Yeah.
13:51Oh, that's great.
13:52Beef noodle soup is a many-splendored thing, and there are two very different styles.
13:57This one is made with a clear broth, house-made noodles, bok choy and scallions, and tender, tender slices of slowly simmered beef.
14:06A lot of the beef noodles in Taiwan have the heng shau broth, which is the dark broth.
14:09Right.
14:10And they tend to be spicy, but this isn't spicy at all.
14:12Jin Chun Fa uses a lot of ginger to give the clear, delicate broth some definition.
14:18So this is the classic.
14:19Mmm.
14:20It's pretty subtle.
14:21I mean, it's not a powerful, uh...
14:23So dark broth beef noodles tend to be much, much more powerful in flavor.
14:28Delicious.
14:29There are other options for lunch as well.
14:32In the Da'an district, Mamalo has been serving pork intestine vermicelli noodle soup to repeat customers for over 40 years.
14:40You can get it with a variety of proteins like beef, or God forbid, tofu.
14:44But Mamalo suggests the chitlins, or pig intestine, with a good hit of added vinegar.
14:49Or for a Taipei take on a northern Chinese snack, Ju Chi Xian Bing is another local favorite.
15:02Xian Bing is the thing to try here.
15:04Pan-fried little pockets of dough are stuffed with minced beef or pork.
15:08The beef idalium is the best.
15:10All the juices are kept on the inside so it explodes when you bite into it.
15:13The Taiwanese version of a beef pie or empanada.
15:19Back at Jin Shun Fa, something very special has just landed at our table.
15:23And that's the bone marrow.
15:25Stir-fried beef bone marrow.
15:27Mmm.
15:28That's delicious.
15:30Mmm, that is good.
15:31This is what I like most about Taiwan.
15:33The non-trendy, traditional, non-pretentious places.
15:36Terrific.
15:37But there are other beef noodle soups in town.
15:40And I urge you to try them.
15:44Like tall buildings?
15:45A nice view?
15:46Me neither.
15:47Generally speaking, I could give a .
15:49But the Taipei 101 is a rather extraordinary structure.
15:53Until recently, the tallest building in the world.
15:56Something you wouldn't expect to see in an area where earthquakes are not at all uncommon.
16:02Welcome to Taipei 101.
16:05Cool, you can look straight down.
16:07It's a tall mother building.
16:10If you look at the Feng Shui appropriate design of the structure though, it has some interesting
16:15features.
16:16This giant freaking ball hanging from a cable keeps the whole thing tethered to center should
16:21the building have to sway a little like a dragon's tail.
16:24The trip up is only $15 and it's an impressive view if you get off on people looking like ants.
16:30That would be a good bungee.
16:37The mountains of Taiwan are close.
16:39So if you want to get out of the city, see a little nature, you can.
16:42No problem.
16:43There is a sea of water.
16:44There is a sea of water in Taiwan.
16:45There is a sea of water in Taiwan.
16:46Taiwan is a small island.
16:47So it has water in the sea, and there is water in the sea.
16:52Taipei is just the center point of everywhere else you can go in Taiwan.
16:55A half hour bus ride to the north is Beitu Hot Springs Park, which dates from the Japanese
17:01occupation.
17:02One of my favorite things to do when I'm back home in Taiwan is to visit the hot springs.
17:07If you want to soak, however, you'll need to head to one of the many Beitu area hotel
17:12resorts.
17:13Some of them are very expensive and posh and luxurious, and some of them are cheap and cheerful.
17:19Sakuroka Hot Springs Resort would be a good option.
17:23Nice views, attentive staff, all the mod cons, as they say.
17:27If you've got the dough, Villa 32 offers a decidedly posh level of zen-like relaxation.
17:34The service here has always, always impressed me.
17:37They have only four rooms, so be sure to put way in advance.
17:42All of it is beautiful, and you'll feel great.
17:44So come to a hot spring.
17:46There's also the suburb of Maokong in the Wen Shan district, just south of the city,
17:51offering another easily accessible mountain experience.
17:55In Taipei, if you want to live in Taiwan, you can go to Maokong.
18:00It was a tea plantation.
18:02You can take the cable car for 40 minutes.
18:05At the end of the line, Wan Zhuyang Tea House offers traditional tea service and a view.
18:11Maokong was once the major production area for oolong tea, and still produces some of the
18:16best and most valuable oolong around.
18:23If you can't make it to Maokong to cool down, how about some shaved ice?
18:29A refreshing and delicious and quintessentially Taiwanese snack.
18:33Shaved ice with mango.
18:35Mmm.
18:36Boy, when little Timmy McMasters hit me in the face with a snowball when I was a kid, a little ice ball, and I cried.
18:43If it hit me in the face with this, I would have been happy to be hit in the face with such deliciousness.
18:48Let's see what's in the guidebook.
18:59What kind of cretinous details might I have overlooked?
19:03Taiwanese enjoy a drink. Who doesn't? Who doesn't?
19:07About one-third of Taiwanese funerals involve strippers?
19:12Stripped down to their skitties for the benefit of audiences both living and deceased.
19:16Is this true, Angela?
19:19Is it true that about a third of Taiwanese funerals involve strippers?
19:23I wouldn't say a third, just the better ones.
19:26There are strippers at some funerals.
19:28Usually if it's with the coffin, what happens is they'll leave the girl in the room with the coffin,
19:33and then she will strip for the deceased.
19:35But then sometimes if you have a parade for the deceased,
19:38then they might have strippers dancing on the back of a truck.
19:41Really? So you're allowed to around after you're dead?
19:44We would like you to go happily.
19:46Right.
19:47Only 5% of Taiwanese population do not own mobile phones.
19:51It's pretty tame stuff.
19:56I like the strippers for the dead though.
19:58Though, heh, they tend to be lousy tippers.
20:03On Yongkang Street in the Da'an District,
20:06the easternmost street of the old Taipei section of town during the Japanese occupation,
20:10there's a pretty laid-back option.
20:12The buildings are shorter, the streets narrower, the pace slower.
20:16Forty years ago, everything east of here was a rice patty.
20:20Known for its restaurants like James' Kitchen.
20:23My English name is James Bang.
20:26Where I'm meeting Woli Sheen and Sophie Chang.
20:29James' Kitchen offers home-style food, which in Taipei is a complicated matter.
20:34Meaning, who's home exactly?
20:37There's a lot of Japanese tradition mixed in the food here.
20:41Yes, from architecture to food, yeah, a lot of Japanese influence.
20:45Traditionally, is that a comfortable mix?
20:47I don't think so for most people.
20:49In Taiwan, yes.
20:50Yeah.
20:51But it used to be quite uncomfortable for those immigrants from mainland China after 1949,
20:57when Chiang Kai-shek and his party lost the civil war to Communist China.
21:02They were not so favorably inclined.
21:04Yeah, yeah, they still have hatreds, you know, to those Japanese.
21:09But I think there's something really interesting about mixture, the hybridizing.
21:14The way people talk, I think even the way people behave have strong Japanese influence.
21:21So what do we do?
21:22What kind of food here?
21:23They have good local ingredients.
21:25Food from different areas.
21:27Yeah, local homemade food.
21:28Yeah.
21:29In this case, bamboo shoots stewed in soy and then slightly dusted with sugar and served cold.
21:50Mm, simple and quite tasty, right?
21:53Yeah, for summer.
21:54We only have fresh bamboo during summertime.
21:56It's good.
21:57Yeah.
21:58Smoked, crisp pig's ears, sliced thin and served with sesame oil.
22:02Mm.
22:03Very nice.
22:04Good.
22:05Very exciting.
22:06I like that.
22:07And the other thing is Feng Sheng, another favorite specializing in Hakka cuisine from southern China.
22:14A specialty here is the notorious stinky tofu.
22:17And God bless you if you love this stuff.
22:20Many do.
22:21Me, not so much.
22:23It's not that scary.
22:24It's very good.
22:25Just be brave and embrace our food culture.
22:28Made from fermented tofu, the version made here is less, shall we say, pungent than most varieties
22:33and served with seasonal vegetables and a preserved egg.
22:37The greens here are always interesting, like this fern blanched and stir-fried with black pepper and garlic.
22:43At the other end of the street, pork.
22:46Whoa, this is the pig tail.
22:48Pig tail.
22:49That looks nice.
22:50Yeah, stewed with black beans.
22:52Nice.
22:53Wow.
22:54This is very good.
22:55Yeah.
22:56Yeah.
22:57Onions, scallions, pork, and tuna sauteed with pumpkin, sugar, and dried rice noodles.
23:04Omelette with pickled turnip.
23:06Chopped and semi-dried pickled turnip and garlic.
23:09Mixed and pan-fried with egg.
23:12How are Taiwanese people different from Hong Kongers or Makanese?
23:16I think Taipei is a livable and lovable city because of the scale.
23:21So people are more, like, relaxed and, like, friendly.
23:24And it's kind of, like, slow lives, slow money.
23:27Really?
23:28You're saying it's laid back here?
23:30It's quite laid back.
23:31If you watch people across the street, I think that that will be a sign.
23:35People are, like, just, like, walking, like, taking a stroll.
23:38You know, there are cars waiting, and they just, you know...
23:43I think they have this unconscious state of mind of being in the country.
23:49People are really nice.
23:50I've always...
23:51This is my third time.
23:52I've always had a really, really good time here.
24:01If I would like to commit suicide, for sure, I would ride a scooter.
24:08You have to be really Taiwanese, I guess, and really go around the scooter than Taiwan.
24:11I think scooter is very dangerous.
24:14Because I'm really clumsy.
24:17I can't even drive the scooter by myself, because it's too dangerous.
24:21Ah, bicycle,腳踏車.
24:23騎腳踏車,可以.
24:24因為我台北有腳踏車到.
24:26那騎摩托車,嗯,空氣不好.
24:30不要騎摩托車,太危險了.
24:33嗯.
24:34Night falls, and it's time to sample some more of the awesome street food.
24:43Rao Night Market in the Songshan.
24:47You could shop.
24:48The usual T-shirts, cheap dresses, shoes, and plenty of cell phone cases should you need.
24:53You could buy a pet.
24:55Again, with the stinky tofu.
24:57Look, if you're not a fan of stinky tofu, which is everywhere here,
25:01there's delicious steamed blood cake with sweet and sour sauce.
25:04I'm looking for this.
25:05Hu Jiao Bing.
25:06A wheat flour dough stuffed with peppery pork and spring onion is baked in a cylindrical
25:11clay oven, closely resembling an Indian tandoor.
25:15Ooh, that's hot.
25:19Mmm.
25:22Tasty.
25:23That was a nice appetizer.
25:36Looks good.
25:37Let's go.
25:39I'm headed over to Nehu District, where I'm meeting Angela, her boy, Amatai Cadence, and
25:49Angela's brother Felix, to try a popular fast-fry-style restaurant in a bus.
25:56I'm going to ask an obvious question.
25:59Why a bus?
26:00There's fast-fry places all over Taipei, and it's usually like, it sprawls out onto the
26:05street and you sit on like low stools.
26:07So they just serve fast-fry in buses.
26:09I think it's just a gimmick.
26:10The food is typical, but the setting isn't.
26:13The food on these things tends to be stuff that can be cooked up quick in a hot wok, hence
26:18the term fast-fry.
26:20There's more cold, in-season bamboo shoot, egg noodles, sea snails, oysters fried in salt
26:28and white pepper.
26:29This is good.
26:30Yeah.
26:30Yeah, I like that.
26:31There's also crispy fried cod filet, and the famous three-cup chicken, or sanbeji, a classic
26:38Taiwanese dish.
26:40I think all these are quintessential Taiwanese dishes.
26:42You can't really find these kind of things in China.
26:44So fast-fry is really like our alternative to English pubs, because we don't have a huge
26:48drinking culture here.
26:49Oh, God.
26:50Maybe you just don't know enough alcoholics.
26:54Sorry?
26:54Do you think that your experience is representative of Taiwanese culture in this area?
26:58Because in my experience, every time I come here, I've gotten really hammered with people.
27:04Because we have a family business, so I've been the family sort of business geisha.
27:08There's not a big bar culture.
27:09You're right.
27:10But not bar culture.
27:11It was all like a banquet.
27:12Meal and drinking.
27:12Yeah.
27:13So, I'm a tourist, and I've got 48 hours in time.
27:16I would throw caution to the winds and jump on the public transit system, because Taipei
27:20is really safe, and people are very friendly.
27:22We're extremely welcoming to outsiders, so just go and explore, yeah.
27:26Go off the main street, walk into the alleys, and then just go where the crowds are.
27:30And, like, if there's a really long queue for something, chances are it's good.
27:34Any non-food-related activities that I may want to take part in?
27:39This might sound a little bit strange, but I really enjoy getting my hair washed in Taiwan.
27:43Like a foot massage, getting your hair washed is considered a legitimate way to kick back
27:49and relax and unwind.
27:51Who doesn't like delicate fingers running through your hair?
27:54A nice scalp massage, other than Jeremy Piven, maybe, for whom that could cause issues.
28:00It's a very easy way for me to relax.
28:03The price is really affordable.
28:05It'll last something like an hour, and you'll use fragrant oils on your hair.
28:09I think the shampoo has a lot of meat.
28:12It's really cold.
28:13A little tea, massage your shoulders.
28:16And we have a lot of entertainment here, like cable channels and magazines, so I never get bored here.
28:24And you'll come out and you look like a million dollars.
28:27Hair wash?
28:27Yeah, hair wash.
28:28Okay.
28:29Yeah, to, like, pamper yourself.
28:30Yeah.
28:31Okay.
28:31Are we fishing for shrimp or something?
28:33Yeah, later on.
28:35How does that work exactly?
28:36It's like the least charming aspect of everything combined.
28:44If hanging your pole over a stagnant tank of murky water, fishing for your dinner is what
28:49you call entertainment, then come on down.
28:51If you catch more than the value of the price of admission, you win, and they even cook it
28:57up for you.
28:58Which begs the question, do you want to win?
29:02Me?
29:02No.
29:03Water looks kind of murky.
29:05We're at the bottom of the Miaming Mountain.
29:07This is water from the mountain.
29:08Like, sulfur water?
29:10Yeah.
29:11So my shrimp will be redoling to farts?
29:14Now, you've done this before?
29:15Only when I was a very young child.
29:17Did you catch anything?
29:19I don't remember.
29:20I think I caught a lot of fantas.
29:24Why is he throwing shrimp on my hook?
29:27Feels like this guy's given me stunt shrimp.
29:29Look at that.
29:32Look at that, my friend.
29:33Oh, yeah.
29:33Holy f***.
29:34You've got a struggling.
29:35It's a whopper.
29:36It's like f***ing Jaws.
29:38They're fighting me, but it's the world's largest shrimp.
29:42It's astounding.
29:44Is mine?
29:44I think mine is trying to f*** yours.
29:46Oh, that's like harassment.
29:49Let us have a delectable meal with these things.
29:52Why don't you go and skewer them so they'll be dead?
29:55Speaking of bodies of water you probably don't want to eat out of, there's this.
30:00The most exciting new concepts in f***, f***, f***, f***, f***, modern toilet.
30:06It's a dream come true for somebody.
30:09You sit on a toilet, eating out of toilets.
30:12Your choice of Western or squat style.
30:15I'll take the deuce platter, please, followed by the Taipei steamer.
30:19Frankly, given the choice between eating a still-steaming bowl of chocolate pudding out of a fake toilet
30:25and eating this shrimp, I'm going with the toilet.
30:28It's a 24-hour joint, did I tell you that?
30:30Is it?
30:32Who goes shrimping at 4 o'clock in the morning?
30:35Gangsters, apparently.
30:36Really?
30:36Yeah, like tattooed gangsters.
30:38They'll come here and drink and shrimp fish, and it's a way to relax.
30:42I was told.
30:43But then you can talk business.
30:44I guess so.
30:45So it's really not about the shrimp.
30:46Only the shrimp will overhear you.
30:47As the man said in Apocalypse Now, if you eat that shrimp, you'll never have to prove your courage in another way.
30:54When you speak the language, you're already closer to them, to their heart.
31:22It's early and I'm up, tired but not disastrously hungover, to meet with Gabriel Hong in Shinglong Park to watch something called Pushing Hands.
31:35Pushing Hands is the sparring application of Tai Chi, studied after a student is already familiar with its basic forms.
31:41Is this more an exercise form than an aggressive or defensive?
31:46It's an exercise to know yourself, to adjust your meridian circulation.
31:53But if you have done it correctly, it will be effective for the martial art attack and defense.
32:00So closer to boxing or closer to Tai Chi?
32:02It's all mixed.
32:04It's what we call listening.
32:06You have to be able to listen to your opponents.
32:09What he is thinking about and how is his structure and how is he applying his energy.
32:15Right.
32:16Using your opponent's strength against them.
32:18Yes.
32:18You are not using your own force, but you use his own force.
32:22Is this a very old form?
32:24It's very old, but it's evolving.
32:26Some intelligent guy come into this and that he integrates different things into this.
32:32And Master Wang Jie is a good example of this.
32:35What is special in this academy is the basic is the Tai Chi, Pushing Hand.
32:40And it's the interface to integrate the traditional Chinese martial arts.
32:45So this is practical because a lot of what you see in the Chinese martial arts, particularly in the films,
32:52is essentially an extension of Chinese opera.
32:54It's choreography.
32:55What we see as Kung Fu in Chinese films is for effect.
33:01But its origin is real martial arts.
33:03If watching people get tossed around in a park is not for you for some reason,
33:08you can wander Diwa Street in the Datang District.
33:11It's one of the last parts of Taipei where you'll find remnants of colonial architecture.
33:16The usual cheap crap you find for sale all over Asia,
33:19but also traditional Chinese medicine shops,
33:21which are something of an education if you've never been before, believe me.
33:26Be careful.
33:27You do not want to be packing some of this through customs.
33:31There's a Buddhist temple open to the public.
33:33And if you're lucky, you'll stumble into a performance of Chinese opera,
33:37which is not like any opera you've ever experienced in the West.
33:40Back at Xinlong, Master Wan-ji is providing his students with some technical details.
33:46This is an error demonstration.
33:50This is not correct.
33:52If you just focus on the wrist, he won't move the whole body.
33:58You see? This is correct.
34:00You cannot get stubborn.
34:01You cannot pre-program yourself.
34:03You can't have a plan in a bar fight.
34:05No, and why Tai Chi practice is so important, yeah?
34:08You just let it go, and you have to be totally relaxed.
34:12So there's nowhere for him to go other than around.
34:15He cannot come straight at, because there is nothing to come at.
34:18Yeah, when the force comes, you have to...
34:21Deflect.
34:21Yeah, yeah.
34:23Not let the force come into you, but to direct it, redirect it.
34:29It's interesting.
34:30It looks, at least from here, like something I could do, if I wanted to.
34:34Me and a bunch of other old dudes doing this in the morning would be very good for me,
34:37because the gym is not dignified for me.
34:40Try not to vomit in front of, like, all the other people
34:43in their sporty little outfits on their, you know, on the running machines.
34:47So embarrassing.
34:58There are two things from Taiwan that are currently conquering the world.
35:26One is pearl tea.
35:28The other is this, din thai feng, masters, and I mean masters, of the soup dumpling.
35:35It's a chain.
35:36By now, there's lots of them.
35:38Theoretically, that should make it not good, right?
35:40In fact, when you're talking about a single object of food, there may be things as good
35:46in this world, but you could certainly make a very good and very reasonable argument that
35:52there is no single better thing in the world than what you are about to see.
35:58We're talking about an object of incredible craftsmanship, and yet something that is reproduced
36:03thousands of times, constantly, fresh, right beneath our feet, and also in many other
36:10outlets, they're all over the place.
36:12As far as I know, they're all good.
36:13But this, this is the mothership.
36:15This is a great state-of-the-art dumpling.
36:19Hi, are you ready for a juicy pork dumpling?
36:21Yes, I am.
36:23Try well, it's hot, okay?
36:24Oh, yeah.
36:25Juicy pork dumpling.
36:25Enjoy your meal.
36:28Look at that.
36:31Same number of folds in every one, filled with boiling hot liquid.
36:37Dip in the vinegar, into the spoon.
36:44Bite a little hole in it.
36:49See, look at that.
36:50Look at that.
36:51Perfect soup leak into the spoon.
36:53And then, risking maxiofacial injury.
37:00Mmm.
37:02Perfection.
37:03Now, how do they do that?
37:05How do they put that soup into the dumpling without it causing the dumpling's skin, which is ever
37:12so delicate and freshly made, I would have you know, becomes soggy.
37:17They basically make a powerful consomme, then they gelatinize it, they take the meat filling, they take a little bit of that gelatinized stock, pack it in with it, wrap it up quickly in the fresh dough, and then steam it all together.
37:32So the timing is perfect, the meat cooks, and the stock, the broth reverts to its original condition, just in time to be delivered in a perfect order without damaging the delicate outer shell, because there's nothing worse than a soggy dough.
37:50That's science.
37:52That's science.
37:53Head flooding pleasure, unimaginable until you try one.
37:59I had my first soup dumpling here years ago, and it was a deeply religious experience.
38:05It is all .
38:07This is a must stop if you come to Taipei, and they know it, and they're prepared.
38:13There's also Ha Xiong Delicious in the Xilin district, meaning lotus fragrance.
38:19They have a tiny menu featuring stuff like a bamboo shoot soup, served with lotus leaves and savory pork dumplings.
38:26They have lotus rice parcel, which is steamed sticky rice with salted duck egg and fatty pork, served with a red sweet sauce.
38:34They do a brisk business.
38:37So pretty.
38:42These little pinks and greens beckoning you from inside a gossamer-thin skin.
38:49Look at all the little lines there.
38:52Each one of those things is a little movement of the thumb.
38:55Look how beautiful that thing is.
39:05Another beautiful object.
39:06Look at that, dude.
39:08Delectable shrimp shumai.
39:10Little volcanoes of love.
39:19So juicy and delicious.
39:21So, we're clear on this now.
39:23A good soup dumpling.
39:25This place, Taipei.
39:36I think Taipei is like a jade stone.
39:39At first, when you see it, you might not think it's a very beautiful piece of jewelry.
39:45But once you spend some time here, talk to local people, you'll find out how many cultures it has.
39:54It could rain for weeks.
39:55It could have typhoon.
39:57It could have earthquake.
39:59But even that, you could enjoy your experience in Taiwan.
40:04My plane leaves in a few hours and I thought perhaps something indoors.
40:09So I'm headed to the National Palace Museum.
40:12The National Palace Museum has one of the largest collections of Asian artwork in the world.
40:17You could pretty much spend the rest of your life here looking at its stuff.
40:21The whole mountain is a storage of all the treasures.
40:26My interest is in the collection of jade carved to look like everyday objects.
40:31So, in brief, what we're talking about is a guy finds a piece of jade, a beautiful piece of jade.
40:36He says, hey, it kind of looks like a cabbage.
40:39And then proceeds to work on it to make it look specifically like it.
40:43Wow.
40:44One piece in particular.
40:46A piece deserving of immortality.
40:49Celebrating an iconic object, a focus of so much of my own personal history.
40:54Meat-shaped stone on a metal stamp.
40:59Wow.
41:001644 to 1911.
41:03See?
41:04Now that is an appropriate celebration.
41:07Pork.
41:10That is the pork of my dreams.
41:14You can actually see the five layers of happiness.
41:19I'll show you if you put the pork and the cabbage together.
41:22If temples are your thing, Longshan Temple in the Wanwa District is one of the most famous.
41:29Longshan, typical of temples here, celebrates a mix of Buddhist, Taoist, and folk deities.
41:36And you can walk right in, snap away with your camera, apparently.
41:40Me?
41:41I hit the museum gift shop.
41:42Look, honey.
41:43I brought pork.
41:44Look, honey.
41:45I brought pork.
41:46One must, in the end, follow one's heart.
41:51You do a lot worse than find yourself stuck on a layover in Taipei.
42:04It's safe, it's easy to navigate, populated by friendly folk.
42:09Its murky and complicated colonial past has left an indelible mark on its cuisine.
42:15Perhaps being on an island contributes to its slower and more laid back pace in comparison
42:20to other more frenetic Asian cities.
42:23Understated, charming, always exciting, a visit here will most likely leave you wanting to
42:30return.
42:31ride this afternoon.
42:32It was день time.
42:33It's just a little fun movie.
42:34It was so much fun.
42:35And here at least we're finding that
42:38post-lapos, it's really surely.
42:40We all will be able to remake your crucifix and we'll see you in the end at the end.
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