Travel to the Wonderland: Taiwan Trip Day 5 Part 1

A visit to the Yilan city is not complete without eating the spring onions grown in Sanxing, a town in the western part of Yilan, or more famously known as San Xing Cong. As such, after having our MOS Burger breakfast provide by the hotel, we hunted down the scallion pancake (Cong You Bing - 葱油饼) from Ke Shi (柯氏), a famous store just down the road from our hotel. Fresh from the wok, the scallion pancake was crispy on the outside and filled with the crunchy San Xing Cong in the inside.

On the way back to the hotel, we saw some interesting art work along the road side.

After a short break, we made our way by train from Jiaoxi to Yilan.

Yilan Train Station

Our initial plan is to have meat stuff dumpling (Xiao Long Bao -小籠包) from Zheng Chang Xian Rou Xiao Long Bao (正常鮮肉小籠包) which is near Yilan Train Station, but unfortunately, it was closed.

We chance into Xing Fu Zhuan Yun Zhan (幸福转运站) while trying to find other places for food. This is a new add on to Jimmy's Square (幾米公園) but not well known to public (yet), hence there are lesser people visiting this place. This place as photo-worthy as Jimmy's Square. After snapping some photo shots here, we made our way to Jimmy Square.

Jimmy Liao is a famous Taiwanese author, and Jimmy's Park was set up next to Yilan Train Station, after a temporary exhibition held there showcasing Jimmy's work became so popular that a permanent park was built.

As there are many people crowding the exhibits, we only stayed for a while and then move on to this store selling smoke duck rice noodles (第一家蒜味鸭赏面线). I didn't pin too much hope as it seems to be just a typical road side store, but I was so wrong! The gravy was so well cooked and goes very well with the rice noodle. We also ordered a rice dumpling which was nice as well, but we sort of regretted ordering only 1 bowl of rice noodle.

The Yilan Distillery was near the store, but it was closed for lunch.

We then took bus 772 from Yilan to Dapo to began the factories tour. There were a few food factories near Dapo, and our aim is to visit them all. The first stop after a 10-15 mins walk from the bus stop is CP Cheese Factory. We gaze at the lovely cakes and tarts on display in this cheese-theme café, but as we still full from lunch, we did not stop for tea.

Next stop was Agrioz, a place selling everything made from kamquat such as bread spreads, sweets and drinks. Kamquat is a fruit which is grown in Yilan city, and 1 of the benefit of eating Kamquat is that it helps to relieve sore throat. They also host classes to teach visitors how to make preserved Kamquat, and you can bring home your work (the preserved Kamquat) after the class.

Not too far away from Argioz was R.Den Dessert Factory. They provide free coffee for all visitors, and we took a break from the warm weather and had some cheese tarts, which goes extremely well with the coffee. We also bought a few boxes of their famous honey cake home for our family to try.

After a 10-15mins walk, we arrived at Village Churrasco, more famously known as Shanzhai Monster Village (窯烤山寨村). This Monster Village is actually a bakery, and we had some fun taking photos with the monster statues in the village.