We decided to spend our first morning in Taipei exploring the historic Wanhua District, which includes the Ximending Pedestrian area.
We walked past Taipei Main Station, then took a left at the North Gate (Cheng'en Gate).
One of five city gates in the city, it is the only one of the gates that still maintains its Qing-era appearance.
As we walked down Yanping Road we quickly noticed that many shops, including coffee houses don't open until at least 11am in the area. It was interesting to see folks doing prep and cleaning work along the way.
We then headed to the Ximending area, called the Ximending Youth Shopping District, and often described as the Harajuku of Taipei. There's some interesting funkiness and fashion in the area. We passed an street that was totally given to tattoo and body piercing shops.
Though it wasn't very crowded; we believed that 9am was too early for the young and hip to be about; especially on a weekday (this was a Friday). Though we did see quite a few "influencers" along the way. 
They were easy to identify; Taiwan seemed quite casual in dress and these folks dressed up quite a bit. They also seemed to have a small entourage with them and acted like they "owned" whatever area they were in. It really seemed that it was "all about them". We'd try to avoid them at all costs during our trip.
We decided to head on over to Longshan Temple and passed quite a few red brick buildings. These are said to be Qing-era structures.
We saw a sign that said "Bopilao Historical Block", so we decided to follow the sign, which lead us to a street lined with red brick and wooden buildings that have obviously been restored.
This is Bopilao Historical Block.
You can read more about it here.
We enjoyed checking out these historical buildings. The street was amazingly quiet.
Most of the buildings were closed, but we found one that was open and had some interesting history and photos of businesses that used to occupy the street.
The quiet was soon interrupted by the sound of chatter outside the building. We found Taiwan to be pretty quiet, at least in terms of folks talking. It was definitely more like Japan/France than China on that note.
Well, guess what? A group of influencers and their entourage had taken over the street.
There were actually eight of them in total. It was time to head on out.
Longshan Temple was only about a block away.
We hadn't really read up on religion in Taiwan and were surprised to see how religious people were here!
There's an interesting combination of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism called Chinese Folk Religion that is the most practiced in Taiwan.
The most popular hall seemed to be for the deity of Love and Marriage.
There's a park across from the temple, but it seemed occupied by homeless folk, which seemed, at least to us, quite a rarity in the city. I later found out that the area near here used to be the "red light district" of the city.
From here, we decided to head to our lunch destination. It was still a bit early so we stopped at a couple of other temples along the way.
This is Qingshan Temple.
Qingshui Temple. You can read about the "Nose Dropping Divine Progenitor".
Our last stop before lunch was at a square with this red brick building.
This is Nishi Honganji Square, once the site of the largest Japanese Buddhist Temple in Taiwan. A fire in 1975 destroyed the temple, leaving the Shuxin Hall and the Bell Tower.
We had decided to get some Niu Rou Mian for lunch. I looked at my "list" of places close by and we chose one. Of course finding it; even with Google Maps was interesting. By now, the Missus came to realize that folks in Taiwan were quite helpful and She asked a gentleman at one of the businesses close to where Lao Shan Dong Homemade Noodles was located. He quickly pointed into the doorway of the large building we were standing at and told the Missus it was downstairs in the basement. Apparently, the Wan Nian Building is a popular shopping mall and in the basement is a maze of eating establishments. We just did a circle until we found our destination.
Lao Shan Dong Homemade Noodles.
It was just about 1045, the place opens at 1030 and there was just one other party in the place when we arrived.
A table was pointed out and we sat. From our dinner the previous night, we knew to check off what we wanted from the ordering pad. Another wrinkle here was that there were side dishes in the fridge; you just head on over and pick out what you want.
This is what we chose.
Each one of these dishes is 40 NT$ ($1.30/US).
Man, this stuff was so good.
The cabbage was crunchy, yet nicely sour. We had quickly noticed that what we were eating here in Taiwan wasn't overly salty and this meal was no exception!
The Jellied Pork had a nice crunch and toothsomeness.
The young man whisked away the tofu and pidan and soon returned it to the table with a thick soy sauce drizzled on it.
Loved the beany tofu, the soy sauce had a nice umami, with a light sweetness. The Missus loved the pidan.
Based on the previous night's dinner, we also ordered some jiaozi, this time the pork and chive version.
My goodness! This was one of the best versions we've ever had. The wrappers were so tender, with a perfect "chew" to them. The filling had a nice, balanced pungent porkiness to it and was so tender and juicy. This resets the bar for what we now expect in restaurants.
And then it was the Niu Rou Mian.
So, first the good. The knife cut noodles are probably some of the best I've had, al dente, but tender, a wonderful texture. I now have a reference point for what the Taiwanese call "QQ". The beef is wonderfully tender and deeply flavored. Were this fell short for us was the broth. While it wasn't overly salty and the richness and tongue feel was excellent, it was kind of weak in the beefiness.
And since this place is a Michelin Bib Gourmet restaurant, we expected more.
Still, we loved the jiaozi and side dishes and the price for our lunch came out at 430 NT$, think $14/US…… Geez, it's really hard to complain, right?
Lao Shandong Homemade Noodles (in the Wan Nian Building)
108 Xining Rd.
Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan
Man, the beef was so tender and beefy! The knife cut noodles were a bit thick for my taste, but the texture was very nice, good pull, not doughy or overly chewy. The broth was light on the beefiness and edged on being too sweet. We would have liked a bit more tangy-tomato flavor as well. Still this was quite enjoyable.
I noticed that ordering here is done strictly with QR codes, something that I've gotten used to in my travels.
The broth was clear and lacking in beefiness, was overly salty, and pretty "plain". The beef while a bit on the chewy side, had good flavor.
You can tell one was pan fried a bit longer than the other. The crusts were hard and chewy; like a good amount of rice flour was used. The beef filling was very tasty though and a good dash of block vinegar helped things along. These were pretty small overall.
Actually, these were not bad, even though I got the Beef-onion instead of what I ordered.. The wrappers were a bit on the brittle side, in need of a bit more "pull". A couple of them had burst during the cooking process. This caused the fillings of the dumplings to become "waterlogged" during the boiling process.
The noodles were the same as the NRM. The duck was much better this time around; you can tell by the color, there as much more five spice flavor and the meat, while on the tough side had taste. The skin was still a bit rubbery for my taste, but the fat had been rendered nicely. This was a definite improvement.
This was a not so good bowl, the best item was probably the boiled eggs which had been decently marinated, nicely cooked, and not overly salty. The broth was mediocre, the beefiness was achieved using the "wave" method….that would be that it tasted like a piece of beef was waved over the bowl to give it flavor. It needed more anise tones and complexity. There was a light spice and a hint of Sichuan Peppercorns, but was super salty.
The "knife cut noodles" seemed of the mass produced variety. It was too brittle, lacking in any doughy "pull" and stretch.
There were two things I noticed right off; look at that puddle of oil the beef roll is lying in. Also, check out all that cucumber…..I thought that this was a beef roll, not a cucumber roll. I really think they're going for something massive here instead of thinking about proportion. The beef was basically the same cut as what's used for the NRM, but with the addition of the fatty parts which are chopped. There was a ton of hoisin sauce. The bread was thin, short on green onions, but fairly crisp…at least what wasn't a greasy mess was.
