• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Devour.Asia

Devour.Asia

Connie Veneracion explores Asian food, history and culture

  • Tea
  • Kitchen Tales
    • Pantry Staples
    • Kitchen Tools
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Food Trivia
  • Food Tales
  • Travel Tales
  • Search

  • All Recipes
    • Chinese
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Taiwanese
    • Thai
    • Vietnamese
    • Asian Fusion
    • Instant Noodles (Ramen)
  • Tea
  • Kitchen Tales
    • Pantry Staples
    • Kitchen Tools
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Food Trivia
  • Food Tales
  • Travel Tales
  • Pop Tales
  • About
  • Privacy
  • All Recipes
  • Chinese
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Taiwanese
  • Thai
  • Vietnamese
  • Fusion
You are here: Home / Food Tales / Where We Stayed in Taipei and Spent Evenings With Taiwan Beer

Where We Stayed in Taipei and Spent Evenings With Taiwan Beer

I must admit that when choosing travel accommodations, I have been, as of late, forming a distinct bias in favor of serviced apartments in the most convenient locations. They don’t cost as much as hotels but you get basic hotel-style amenities. Well, not room service but that’s okay.

Our room at Taipei Inn

Perfect location

In Taipei, we stayed at Taipei Inn which was just across the street from the Taipei Main Station. And right beside the building were Qsquare, a shopping mall, and the Taipei Bus Station.

It was the perfect spot. Take the elevator to the ground floor of the building, turn right and there was the escalator to Taipei Main Station. If you turn toward the opposite direction, you reach Taipei Bus Station. We were literally in the center of Taipei.

Comfortable room with amenities

And the room?

TV with cable service at our room in Taipei Inn

Generously-spaced lodgings (33 square meters) with a kitchenette and dinette, a good-sized TV with cable channels. The room was cleaned and tidied up daily. Supply of toiletries, drinking water, coffee and tea was replenished everyday too.

The bathroom was modern. Very modern, actually, since it was equipped with a gadget (I don’t know the proper name for it) that allowed us to control the temperature and air ventilation inside the bathroom. Very useful, it turned out. Turning the heat up after bathing dried the bathroom floors and walls faster.

Kitchenette in our room at Taipei Inn
The kitchenette in our room at Taipei Inn

In the kitchenette were an electric kettle, a stove, mugs, bowls, spoons, forks, chopsticks, pot, frying pan and a small bottle of dishwashing liquid.

The room opened to a balcony that overlooked the courtyard below. And in the balcony was a washing machine and overhead steel rods for hanging newly-laundered clothes.

There was hot water supply in the bathroom, kitchenette and washing machine.

Now, that’s my idea of travel accommodation. Not just a space to crash at night but a place to unwind, rest the mind and relax leg muscles aching from the day’s sight-seeing and shopping.

We feasted in our room

There were times when we ate in because the queues at the restaurants, especially during the weekend, were horribly long. There were mornings when we got up late and there were nights when we returned to our apartment early, and we’d just buy food and eat while watching a movie.

Bento box-style meals in Taipei
TWD128 for two full meals

There were food stalls on the ground floor of Qsquare that we especially liked. One of them sold packed meals, bento box style. Around 30 minutes before closing time, they sold everything for half the price. Buy one, take one.

Sesame cake from Master Wang' Bakery, Taipei
A slice of sesame cake from Master Wang’s Bakery, Taipei

Two stalls away was an outlet of Master Wang’s Bakery. We tried a slice of the sesame cake and we liked it so much that we flew home with two boxes of cakes from the bakery.

Taiwan sausage in glutinous rice "bun"

Between the bento meal seller and Master Wang’s Bakery was a stall called “hugdog” that sold Taiwanese sausage. I read later that Hugdog is owned by Black Bridge, a company (with a pretty interesting history and its own sausage museum) that has been making Taiwanese sausage for over 50 years.

While the sausages (yes, plural because the sausages came in several varieties) turned out to be superlative, what initially attracted us to the food at this stall was the creative ways that the sausages were served. I especially liked the sausage “sandwich” that, instead of bread, had glutinous rice shaped into a log to resemble a hotdog bun.

Nights with Taiwan Beer

Taiwan Beer and sausage in bun
Man tao with Taiwanese sausage

Another Hugdog sandwich that we liked was mantao with Taiwanese sausage and pickled cabbage (the latter tasted like a milder sibling of the German sauerkraut). We had them with Taiwan Beer.

Yes, it’s Taiwan Beer, not Taiwanese beer. It’s a brand. We first tried it at the 89th floor Observatory of Taipei 101. When we bought tickets to the Observatory, we were given discount vouchers for the various products and services offered there. We opted for mango beer float that was lovely beyond words. The not-so-sweet mango sorbet floating on superbly flavored and full bodied bubbly beer.

Speedy noted the brand of the beer, found it at Jasons Market in the basement of Taipei 101 and we bought a can just for kicks. A couple of days later, at the Jasons Market Qsquare branch, I discovered mango-flavored and pineapple-flavored Taiwan Beer and decided to try both.

Mango-flavored Taiwan Beer
Mango-flavored Taiwan Beer, vegetable chips and Dr. Strange

The mango-flavored Taiwan Beer was the one we liked best. Fruity but not so sweet. So refreshing.

I’ll reserve the story about the vegetable chips for another day.

Taipei Inn is at 16F.-6, No.205, Sec. 1, Civic Blvd., Datong District, Taipei.

Inside my Asian kitchen

Spaghetti with ricoota and bacon

How to Cook al Dente Pasta Minus the Myths and Hype

Hot custard covered with cling film

How to Prevent “Skin” from Forming on Custard

Kitchen spider for scooping out french fries

What is a Kitchen Spider? How is it Used?

Asian food tales

Mongolian Beef Barbecue Recipe

The Curious Origin of Mongolian Beef Barbecue

Taho Hawkers in the Philippines

Taho Hawkers in the Philippines

From Port Klang to Kuala Lumpur

Roast Duck, Pork Face and Tea at Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown

Explore Asia

Museum of Vietnamese History

How to Cross the Streets of Saigon Without Getting Killed nor Maimed

Wind chimes shaped like non la, the Vietnamese conical hat

I Wore a Non La, the Vietnamese Conical Hat, While Picking Vegetables in Cu Chi

Taiwan cityscape at night

Taiwan, the Second Time Around

June 24, 2019 : Food Tales Travel Tales, Accommodations, Taiwan
Previous Post: « Sweet Potato Cakes Inspired by Amei Tea House in Jiufen Sweet Potato Tea Cakes
Next Post: Taiwanese Pork Sausage Buns Taiwanese Pork Sausage Buns »

Sidebar

Asian Pop Tales

Scene from “Lust, Caution” | Image credit: Focus Features

Ang Lee’s “Lust, Caution”

Scene from "Kingdom" | Image credit: Netflix

Sorry, Brother, but “Kingdom” Doesn’t Have a Better Storyline Than “Game of Thrones”

Scene from "Vagabond" | Image credit: Netflix

“Vagabond” is not a Heavyweight Spy Story But It Pushes All the Right Buttons

  • About
  • Privacy & Usage
  • Full Archive

Everything © Connie Veneracion. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.