Bill's Birthday

Woke up after a bit of a sleep in & showed Bill that we had to be ready at 8:20 for his Birthday excursion.

We had a good, partly traditional, breakfast on the main floor of our hotel. We started off with some vinegar juice (I was able to have two portions), then had some rice, veggies, tea infused hard boiled eggs, a veggie noodle dish and some fruit. Bill did not even have croissant or watermelon!

Danny and Tony picked us up and we joined a family from Japan and a couple from the Philippines on our trip North.

We stopped in the seaport city, Keelung and toured a temple on top of a hill, so we were able to have a good view of the city and the very active port. It was cool, windy and raining, but we explored the area for 30 min before heading to the main attraction.

Yehliu Geopark which is an area with honeycomb and mushroom-shaped rocks that have been eroded by the East China Sea.

Danny was very entertaining. I dubbed him Captain Obvious because of remarks such as “seafood”, “crab” as we walk by a street-side restaurant that had tanks of seafood and crab that you could pick fresh for your meal. Another Classic Danny was, “in America they call this a freeway, but it is not free, it is a toll”.

We had our photo taken in front of the fake Queen’s Head (Nefertiti) rock formation. Danny made it seem like this was not optional, so we obliged.

We did a 5km hike of the area and managed to only get 1/2 soaked. We saw some serious photographers trying to get photos of the birds, but did not see any noteworthy birds due to the rain.

We headed back to the Visitor’s Centre to ensure that we would meet the rest of the group at the assigned time of 11:30. We wandered among the very cool rock formations and I nearly wiped out on the wet ground while trying to capture a photo op of Bill. I did a 3 point landing and scraped my leg, but otherwise was all good!

I was chilled and hungry when we arrived back at the centre, so I ordered a Vanilla Milk Tea to sip on the ride back to the hotel.

It was shortly after noon when we arrived back. We had to peel off our damp clothes and shoes and hang everything up to dry. Bill found a lunch spot for us around the corner called Chicken and Rice Hut. They had two dishes on the menu, take a wild guess what that was... We could not even order drinks. Talk about niche marketing! I really enjoyed my plate that included some veggies.

From there, we hopped on the metro, then hailed a cab to check out the National Palace Museum.

Not only is the palace museum beautiful from the outside, but inside it holds many amazing treasures including ancient art that were taken from the Forbidden City in Beijing in 1948 when the communists took over. The displays of calligraphy, painting, porcelain and bronze were beautiful and definitely worth checking out.

After spending a couple of hours touring the museum we retraced our steps and headed back to the hotel to warm up and have some snacks and take advantage of tini hour again before heading to Mume for dinner. https://www.mume.tw/

Mume was one of the best dining experiences ever. The food was over the top incredible! I am so happy that Bill enjoyed it. I think it was a great way to finish his Birthday.

I am going to do into great detail here because it was all so amazing. We had the country sourdough with smoked beef fat butter, soft poached oysters with fried kale, cucumber and seaweed butter and liver brûlée - chicken liver parfait and herbs.

Next we had prawns with shaved yam bean and ricotta snow (looked like icing sugar) and the ceviche tostada which so excited Bill that he swept his wine glass off the table, smashing it onto the floor. Can’t say I blame him. It was pretty thrilling!

In the meantime, we had become acquainted with the tables beside us - a couple here to explore the art scene. He is from Germany and she is from Vienna. Also, a gentleman at the table next to them from Tokyo.

For the main course we had chicken with bamboo, turnip and alliums and the most incredible beef from the US - koji aged short rib (out of this world amazing, which made Bill proclaim me the best wife ever for making this reservation).

For dessert we were treated to all three items on the menu due to Bill’s exuberance and because it was his Birthday. We had the Peach - young ginger ice cream with basil and green tea, Taiwanese chocolate - Logan, coffee and walnut, and Cucumber - yogurt mousse, celery granita and lemon verbena (hard to imagine, but this was the best of the three).

It was an amazing meal. I highly recommend a trip to Taipei if only to come to this restaurant.