Taiwan 台湾 2014 Day＃3 － Taichung 台中 Strawberry Farm 牛奶草莓园 + Sun Moon Lake 日月潭＋ 18 Degree C 巧克力工房

Hello Foodies, long time no see!

This marks the last entry for my Taiwan 台湾  travelogue! I would love to cover Taipei 台北 area as well, but somehow I don't think I will be as honest because I'm totally in love with Taichung 台中!

Our itinerary for Taiwan 台湾 Day ＃3:
Ino Home -> Strawberry Farm -> Sun Moon Lake -> 18 Degree C -> Taipei


If you land yourself here for the first time, you can go to my previous entries for Day #1 and Day #2 Taiwan Travelogue:

Aspoonfulofsoul Taiwan Travel Diary:
Day #1: Taichung 台中 Ino Home minsu 民宿 + Fengjia Night Market 逢甲夜市

Day #2: Taichung 台中 Flower Market 中社花市 + Lavender Cottage 薰衣草森林 ＋ Ah Ming Shi Tai yang Biscuits 阿明师太阳饼 + Miyahara 宮原眼科

My whole family was spoilt rotten by Ino Home! Even though all of us were served similarly with sets of sandwich with fillings, they were mighty delicious. I had the vege toast while the boyfie had salmon toast.

My parents' and lil bro's ham & cheese sandwich.

Boyfie's salmon sandwich, super good without the fishy taste!

I really like their choice of bread, it's crunchy without being too dry and the fillings used were fresh and really tasty. I like the simple touch of the side salad tossed in balsamic vinaigrette dressing and cold tofu served together with the sandwich. Their freshly made coffee is DA BOMBZ man. My dad still craves for the coffee sometimes. 

After a satisfying breakfast, we continued our tour in Taichung and our first stop was my mom's absolute favourite - Strawberry Farm 牛奶草莓园!

I engaged a driver for 2 days in Taichung and he's really helpful and humorous! My whole family was tickled pink during the whole trip by him and his charges were really reasonable. Some of you have asked me about the number of hours that we engage him per day, and the thing is, we initially agreed to 8 hours a day, but as the day goes by, we had so much fun that we exceed 8 hours every day, and he did not charge us extra at all! Though we tipped him a bit at the end of the trip cos we really had a good time and his service was very good in our opinion. I'm not paid to do this, but here's his contact:

Mr Lin 林先生

HP no.: +886 925 580 202

He's very tech-savvy, able to Whatsapp and send voice notes!

Although I have seen them on the internet while searching for the most convenient farm to head to, I was still vowed by the rows and rows of strawberries! There is no entrance fee to visit the farm and you only pay for the amount of strawberries you want to take back. We could eat (for free) while we collect the strawberries, so my mom was the only hardworking one collecting the sweet, sweet strawberries! 

These strawberries are also called 'Milk Strawberries', only because the seed was mixed together with milk when they plant them. I did not really taste any hint of milk, but they were so, so sweet and juicy! No insecticide was sprayed on these precious fruits either, which was why we could eat them fresh. It's still a tad dirty technically, but well, we're Singaporeans, we survive. ;)

Check out how big this strawberry is! I think this is another highlight of our trip because I had so much fun just going around looking for the biggest strawberry to nom on. 

I wish we brought back this much of strawberries (to sell)! But no, these were to be packed and sent to markets. I can't remember how much we paid for the strawberries, but it's definitely cheaper than when we buy locally. :)

I don't have the exact address for this farm as it's recommended by Uncle Lin (our driver), but feel free to ask him to include this in your itinerary when you talk to him!

Our next stop was Sun Moon Lake 日月潭 and we were a bit suay (unlucky) for the fog was quite terrible that day! Hence, we were a bit sian and had to stay at one of the 'stations' for a damn long time. The whole place is developed into a tourist attraction and it's quite systematic. We were given a map after we paid for the entrance fee of NT$300 (SGD$12.50) per pax. On the map, we will be able to see all the attractions at one glance and we can choose to hop onto the ferry to take us to the next stop. The ferries go around the island in a very systematic manner, as in, we could only go from Point A to Point B to Point C, we were not able to skip from Point A to Point C, for example. It seemed quite inflexible of them, but as tourists, a system in place is good! 

Check out the fog!

A few must trys at Sun Moon Lake!

1）阿婆茶叶蛋 Ah Po tea egg at Xuan Guang Temple 玄光寺 

Credits x

Credits x

 I wasn't able to capture a photo so I searched around the WWW for these to show you guys! The tea egg was quite nice to me, it's fragrant and slightly salty and I love the firm texture of the egg white.

2) Chicken wing stuffed with Glutinous rice 饭饭鸡翅

Mr Lin highly recommended this chicken wing to us and I didn't regret queuing for this a single bit! The chicken was succulent and nicely marinated and the chewy rice goes very well with the meat, making it a dish of its own! We also ordered the ebi tempura but it's so-so and nothing much to shout about.

Sun Moon Lake 日月潭
No. 599, Jhongshan Rd., Yuchih Township, 

Nantou County 555, Taiwan

Sun Moon Lake Website

The next stop was one of the locally made chocolate factory in Taichung - 18 Degree C (18度C). It's really too bad that we had to rush off to take the high speed rail to head to Taipei right after this stop, otherwise I would have dabao back the chocolate! It melts within a few hours I think, and we didn't want to risk wasting the expensive chocolate so we did not buy. If you do, let me know if it's good ok!

Sponge cakes and 'homemade' jams are available for purchase too. I tried the sponge cakes, and they taste pretty good, though I prefer more moist cakes. As this is still very much a tourist attraction, I find them slightly more pricey than normal shops. 

Not wanting to leave without trying nor buy anything, we got ourselves ice cream! I like the combi of green tea and chocolate flavours! The green tea is not too sweet and retain the matcha taste without being too bitter. I know this doesn't help in describing the taste, but trust me when I say it's worth a try! 

Feeling 18 Degree C 巧克力工房
No. 20號, Cí'ēn Street, Puli Township, 

Nantou County, Taiwan 545

545 南投縣埔里鎮慈恩街20號

Feeling 18 Degree C Website | Facebook

So right after 18 Degree C, we headed back to Ino Home to pick up our luggage and bid our goodbye to Uncle Lin at the high speed rail station to Taipei. 

After travelling in Taichung 台中 for 3 days, I prefer this part of Taiwan 台湾 so much more than Taipei. My next places to visit in Taiwan 台湾 will be the southern part like Kaohsiung 高雄 and Kenting 墾丁. But first, I need to fatten up my piggy banks!

I hope you guys liked my Taiwan travelogue so far and do let me know if there's any way I can help! :)

 Aspoonfulofsoul Taiwan Travel Diary:
Day #1: Taichung 台中 Ino Home minsu 民宿 + Fengjia Night Market 逢甲夜市

Day #2: Taichung 台中 Flower Market 中社花市 + Lavender Cottage 薰衣草森林 ＋ Ah Ming Shi Tai yang Biscuits 阿明师太阳饼 + Miyahara 宮原眼科