Taiwan: Jiu Fen

Sunday afternoon, we boarded a bus to Jiu Fen. Jiu Fen served as the backdrop of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "A City of Sadness". It was also the inspiration for Miyazaki's "Spirited Away". With its narrow, winding stone path, red lanterns, and busy storefronts, it's pretty easy to see the similarities:



For lunch we stopped at a little noodle shop. We got a tofu with thousand year old egg to share:



I just wanted some freshly made fish balls:



The soup was so hot I burned my tongue.

My sister and I decided to share an order of beef and tripe:



How could I resist getting a wild pig sausage as a snack?:



So juicy:



The point of the entire outing was to eat here:



Jiu Fen is known for its taro rice balls. This place makes them quite spectacularly. We each got a mix of taro, yam, and mung bean rice balls covered with shaved ice and condensed milk. You can choose what kind of bean you want with your rice balls. I went with red bean:



We managed to nab enough window seats to accomodate all 6 of us and took our time enjoying both the ocean view and the rice balls before us.

Jiu Fen is a beautiful place. Like Chihiro in "Spirited Away", you really do feel like you've been transported to another world, another time.