I went to Jiufen Old Street 九份老街 on day 2 of my Taiwan trip. With little-to-no expectation, this out of Taipei day trip turns out well and enjoyable. Before this trip, we made a list of food to try and we got all that accomplished… enough to fill our tummy to the max!
Check out what we ate at Jiufen Old Street.
First stop was at Zhang Ji Traditional Fish Balls (張記傳統魚丸).
Address: 25 Jishan St, Rueifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan (新北市瑞芳區基山街25號)
The restaurant consist of two shops. One side is the kitchen and the other side is the seating area. We queued quite awhile for our turn.
Yes! They have English menu.
Fish ball soup @ NT$45. It has 3 different types of fish balls. I like the two fish balls at the bottom of the photo. The one on the top right is pretty meh. As for the soup, it’s laden with MSG from what I tasted and because of that… pretty addictive and thirsty. Ohh and it’s quite oily as well.
Fish ball noodles @ NT$65. It’s basically fish ball soup with noodles. Order this if you prefer a more filling meal.
Our second stop was at A-Zhu Peanut Ice-Cream Roll (阿珠雪在燒).
Address: 20 Jishan St, Rueifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan (新北市瑞芳區基山街20號)
The process goes like this: shave peanut candy and place on popiah skin.
Place two scoops of taro ice-cream on it and then wrap it up like a popiah.
A-Zhu Peanut Ice-Cream Roll @ NT$40. This ice-cream roll seems like a weird combination. I was wondering what the fuss it’s about but after tasting it, I can tell you it’s delicious and definitely not weird at all.
Apparently we have to tell them if we want to include Chinese parsley (aka cilantro) in the ice-cream roll. So before leaving Jiufen, we ordered another with cilantro in it. Same price. Taste wise? An ice-cream with the perfume of cilantro! I’m a cilantro lover and definitely love this combination.
Third stop was at Jinzhi Vegetarian Meat Ball With Red Vinasse (金枝紅糟素肉圓).
Address: 63 Jishan St, Rueifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan (新北市瑞芳區基山街63號)
Filling of vegetarian meat ball (mock meat) wrapped with glutinous rice casing.
Jinzhi Vegetarian Meat Ball With Red Vinasse @ NT$45. I can’t remember its taste but definitely not something I like. I would say it’s an acquired taste.
Fourth stop was Ah Lan Hakka Glutinous Rice Cake (阿蘭宇粿/草仔粿).
Address: 90 Jishan St, Rueifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan (新北市瑞芳區基山街90號)
Since it doesn’t have anything written in English, we had problem deciphering what it says. We did asked them what are the fillings but we couldn’t understand difficult Mandarin. LOL
Cost NT$10 per cake. We tasted them after we arrived back to our hostel at night. Guess what? These rice cake were so delicious. They were so soft and flavorful, unlike our Malaysia’s version of glutinous rice cake. Regretted we only bought 5 pieces.
Fifth stop was Lai Ah Po Yu Yuan or Grandma Lai’s Yu Yuan (賴阿婆芋圓).
Address: 143 Jishan St, Rueifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan (新北市瑞芳區基山街143號).
Yu Yuan means taro balls (yam balls). You can choose your taro balls dessert either in hot or cold version.
Red beans, mung beans and broad beans (don’t know the actual name)… to be added into the taro balls dessert.
A large bowl of happiness? There are taro balls, sweet potato balls and green tea balls.
Lai Ah Po Yu Yuan @ NT$45. We ordered the hot version. Although they are taro balls, we couldn’t taste the taro. The taro balls were a tad chewy and lil’ QQ. No one in my group like it because it’s just mediocre.
Immediately after that we head to our last food stop… another taro balls shop which need some climbing.
Ah Gan Yi Yu Yuan (阿柑姨芋圆).
Address: 5 Shuqi Road, Rueifang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan (台北縣瑞芳鎮褔住里豎崎路5號)
The menu… which we didn’t understand.
See the young man which is collecting money on the right photo? Well, I ordered with him and didn’t understand what he replied… then he gave me an arrogant look. He’s the only not-so-friendly Taiwanese I encountered throughout this trip.
Ah Gan Yi Yu Yuan @ NT$45. Again we ordered the hot version. We did taste the taro in the taro balls this time. The taro balls were perfectly QQ. We all like this better. With a wonderful view overlooking the sea and mountains, this was the perfect spot to end our food adventure.
Overall, this Jiufen food trip was a good experience. Love the atmosphere at the old street and the bonus is Jiufen has beautiful scenery to boot. Go earlier as it becomes warm and humid later in the afternoon. Also there are more tourists later in the afternoon and it’ll be REALLY difficult to walk, shop and eat.
Because we spent too much time here, we cancelled our remaining plan on day 2 and choose to have Japanese ramen at Ippudo once we reached Taipei in the evening.
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