Jiufen 九份

It was a grey, chilly Christmas morning in Taipei as we waited for the city bus to Jiufen, about an hour outside of Taipei.

New Taipei City is a sprawling special municipality in northern Taiwan encompassing about 2,052 square kilometers (792 square miles), making it the largest municipality in the country by area. It surrounds Taipei City and includes 29 administrative districts with a total population of over 4 million people.

While the western and central districts adjacent to Taipei are heavily urbanized, much of the municipality’s territory, particularly in the eastern, northern, and mountainous areas, remains rural, with low population densities and significant tracts of forest, agricultural land, and sea-battered coastal landscapes.

As we drove up into the hillsides on the northern coast, the city fell away and it became rainier and foggier, and signs of civilization grew more and more sparse.

Finally, we arrived, in Jiufen. The bus stopped just outside a huge temple on the slopes of a foggy mountain, and we stepped out into the icy cold wind and rain.

Jiufen is a small town situated in the far northern coast of Taiwan. Back during the time of the Qing Empire, just nine families lived in this small gold mining town. The families were delivered nine portions of food and supplies regularly from Taipei. The name "Jiufen" literally means "nine portions" in Mandarin.

Over the past fifty years, the mining industry dried up, and the town nearly died before being revitalized as a popular day trip destination from Taipei.

When we had checked the weather before flying to Taiwan, it looked like it was going to be in the 20sC (60s-70sF) and sunny, perfect weather! However, when we arrived in Jiufen, it was around 10C (50F) and rainy. Now, I can handle the cold, and I can handle the rain... but if there's any type of weather that I really can't stand, it's cold rain. I had come only in my shorts and Chaco sandals, but at least I had a hoodie!

We sprinted from the bus to the covered walking street for shelter. It was a little warmer there, but occasionally, icy water would leak down from the roof. Even though last year I visited both New York City and Washington State, this was the coldest and most miserable I had been in a long, long time!

It was time for a warm, filling meal, so Pinky and I stopped in at the first and most inviting hole-in-the-wall restaurant we passed.

The shop is locally famous for its pork on rice, so of course that's what we ordered. Each bowl of rice was topped with stewed cabbage, five spice-boiled eggs, boiled bamboo, a piece of marinated tofu, and a huge slab of juicy, tender, sweet, and soft braised pork belly.

Despite the cold, one of the must-try foods in Jiufen is the A-Zhu peanut ice cream roll. This snack is even recommended by the Michelin guide, so we definitely had to try one.

The dish is made from a paper-thin wrap made from flour, water, and salt topped with a mountain of shaved peanut brittle, two scoops of pineapple ice cream, and a pinch of cilantro. Everything is rolled together like a burrito and sliced in half in an easy-to-eat and easy-to-share snack to go.

The shopping streets were partially covered, but not enough to keep icy water from dripping through, and by the time we had walked down one of the steep and narrow alleyways in the main part of town, I was thoroughly drenched and bedraggled. Pinky and I searched for somewhere to dry off and warm up and found the perfect place: Jiufen's most iconic tea house.

The Amei Tea House is a huge multi-story traditional Chinese tea house that some say may have been the artistic inspiration for the Studio Ghibli film Spirited Away. The current building is built in what was once a blacksmith's shop run by the current owner's grandfather during Jiufen's mining town days.

The tea house was packed with people. I guess everyone had the same idea of getting inside to warm up with a hot drink. We had to sit on the top level, an open-air balcony that had fortunately been closed off by clear plastic tarps to help keep things dry and slightly warmer. Under better conditions, the tea house would offer amazing views of the coast, but today, all we could see was rain and fog.

We ordered a tea set for two which came with a variety of traditional tea snacks and a free-flowing pot of Taiwanese oolong tea. We were served sour dried plums dusted with sugar, crumbly green bean cakes, sesame crackers, mochi balls rolled in peanut dust, and a big serving of rich, smoky oolong tea leaves.

Gong Fu Cha is the traditional Chinese art of tea brewing, and the staff walked us through how to prepare our tea. The tea is prepared in a small clay teapot designed not for quantity, but for precision. Its tiny size allows the leaves to unfurl slowly and release their character over many short infusions. The teapot was barely enough to fill our two tiny porcelain cups.

On the ground next to our table sat a large iron kettle over a bed of coals. Before any leaves are added, the teapot and cups are warmed with hot water, an act that prepares the clay to receive the tea and ensures an even extraction. This water is poured out across a slotted bamboo tea tray, which catches the excess and allows it to drain away.

Loose tea leaves are then placed into the warmed pot, and hot water is poured over them in a smooth, controlled motion. The first infusion is brief and discarded into the bamboo tray, used to awaken the leaves rather than to drink, and the tea leaves can be used 3-5 times before it's time to switch them out for fresh leaves.

We stayed for over an hour at the teahouse, drinking cup after cup of the delicious hot tea until we had finished it all and dried off just enough to continue our exploration of the town.

Jiufen is built on the slopes of the cliffs and hills just off the coast and is a labyrinth of narrow alleys and steep steps. No cars can enter the dense little town, and you have to walk from the winding road to get to the main street.

We walked on to the Shengping Theater, moving slowly so that we didn't slip on the steep, rain-slick stone steps.

Shengping Theater dates back to 1919 during the Japanese colonial era. Originally a theater performing traditional Beijing opera to entertain the local miners who lived in the town, the theater transitioned over the years into an early cinema.

After it closed, the theater was renovated and reopened to the public as a historical monument, and much of the original infrastructure still remains, making it a sort of museum to Jiufen's past.

On our way out of town, we passed by a famous taro ball shop and stopped in for a snack.

This restaurant sold paper bowl of taro balls, pumpkin, mixed beans, and lentils in a warm, sweet black bean broth. It might sound strange, but it's sweet, warm, and a really nice way to warm up. During the summer months, this snack would be served chilled, but today, everyone wanted to order it hot.

Before we left Taiwan, we knew that we had to try one more dish: stinky tofu, and we had our chance in Jiufen.

As its name implies, stinky tofu is, well, stinky. Stinky tofu is a type of fermented tofu usually sold at night markets or as a snack dish. Traditionally, the tofu is soaked in a meat and vegetable brine for several months and marinated with an edible mold. It's supposed to be really good for you and is considered a delicacy in Taiwan.

The stinky tofu that we ordered was served with chili sauce, fresh chili, and boiled cabbage. I tried one bite but couldn't stomach it. They say that the stinker the tofu is, the better it's flavor. Not to be too graphic, but my first job was working at Chick-Fil-A, and every evening I had to empty out the restaurant's trash cans in the dumpster out back. It genuinely smelled like the rotten garbage festering in that dumpster. I will not be having this dish again, delicacy or not!

My wife and I both tried one bite of it, and neither of us wanted any more.

I am usually very adventurous when it comes to food, but I just couldn't stomach stinky tofu. We discretely disposed of it in a trashcan on our way down the street.

The bus back to Taipei stops in Jiufen every half hour or so, so we had a bit of time to kill before heading back to the city. We visited the huge grand temple on the steep and winding street outside of town.

Video: tea at the tea house