Tamsui （淡水）is a sea-side district in New Taipei City. It is named after the Tamsui River which means “Fresh water” in mandarin. Tamsui has been a very popular tourist attraction in Taipei City.. especially the Tamsui Old Street（淡水老街）, Fisherman’s Wharf（淡水渔人码头） and The lovers Bridge（情人桥）. Three main attractions in Tamsui. So now, how to go to Tamsui from Taipei? As simple as ABC!

How to go to Tamsui : Use the Metro. Take the red line which is the Tamsui Line and go to the last station called Tamsui. When you arrived, follow the signboard to the direction of Tamsui Old Street. ETA around 5 minutes from the metro station. This is the easiest and the cost effective way to go Tamsui.

So this post covers Tamsui Old Street（淡水老街）. Fisherman’s Wharf and Lover’s Bridge will be in the second post. So this is the Tamsui Old Street. I especially love old street because I love historical and cultural stuff. I love things or places that carries a lot of old stories and normally street like this.. they are at a slower pace, allow you to appreciate the places, clear your mind a bit and just enjoy the interactions between the locals there. Maybe I am a pisces, i like things to be more sentimental. 🙂

Tamsui old street （淡水老街）is a very beautiful place.. Just behind the old street, its like a park where there are vendors and cafes and place for people to  hang out. I can imagine how lovable this place will be when the weather turns a lil bit cooler. Dont get me wrong, I still love this place.. just that.. the weather is really killing me. 

I think I really get tanned because of this day trip. I dint expect it to be so hot.. Imagine walking under the sun for hours.. Anyway, the scenery makes things better.

Apart from the beautiful scenery, Tamsui Old Street is famous for their snacks. I’ll show some of the selection available. There are a lot of stalls selling almost the same thing, you just gotta select.. but I guess if you googled, you can easily find a good one. 

1. Tamsui “A-Gei”　淡水阿给

“A-Gei” （阿给）this name originated from a Japanese word. It’s actually fried beancurd stuffed with glass noodles and then sealed it up with fish paste, soaked in marinade and then bring it to steam. Served with their special sweet sauce.

For me, it doesn’t look appetizing when I did my research online. However, I kind of like it after I try it. The fried beancurd surprisingly is very flavourful. I like the combination of the glass noodle and the fish paste together with the soft beancurd and the sweet sauce. Incredible. A simple dish like this actually make my tummy very happy. 

Apart from the original “A-Gei”. The boss actually came out with few flavours. We had “Sha Cha” （沙茶）flavour.. So what is sha cha? Sha Cha is a type of sauce, main ingredient are garlics, onions, peanuts and dried shrimp. So now you can imagine how it taste like..

The “Sha Cha” A-Gei is saltier, the punch of the taste is stronger as compared to the original A-Gei which is sweet and mild. I like the original one more. 

2. Foochow Fishball　福州鱼丸

I hate fishballs but I love foochow fishballs. Foochow fishballs are fishballs stuffed with minced pork. 

It is kinda light but when you chew on the fishball, the marinated minced pork just makes things a lot more better.. At least for me. I guess that’s y i always love foochow fishball. I love the explosive surprised the fillings delivered.

You can always go with a bowl of braised minced pork rice! Noms!

3. Fish cake fritters　淡水鱼酥

One of the Tamsui Signature snacks. It’s fish paste fried until it is dry and crunchy. Perfect to be served with thick soup.

All of the above 1. 2. and 3. can be found in the same shop. This one!

This is the first and most traditional shop selling the “A-Gei”. Make sure you go to the correct one.

4. Shrimp Rolls　阿香虾卷

I guess we went to the wrong stall. I dont really like this snack. Its like stir fried dried shrimp paste wrapped in popiah skin and deep fried. Served with the sauce of your preference. 

Err.. its a lil bit to hard for me to chew. I don’t like it.

5. Fried Octopus Leg & Fried Mushroom　花枝烧　炸杏鲍菇

OMG i love this one too. Fried Octopus Leg served with mayonnaise and plum powder!! Sweet and sour and creamy!! Forgot to take photo of the fried mushroom. They are awesome too!

6. Traditional Cheese Sponge Cake　古早味现烤蛋糕

The queue caught my attention. If you have followed my blog long enough. You probably guessed. I like to queue for good food. And long queues always caught my attention. Hahahahaha! I have no idea how this thing look like until the last 5 minutes of queuing..

So YES. I queued for nearly 1 hour for this traditional cheese sponge cake! The reason it took so long is because (1) Damn lot of people queuing (2) One cake only get 6 pieces of cheese flavoured and 6 pieces of original and everyone is waiting for the cheese one (3) It say baked on the spot.. so you need to wait like 10 minutes for every batch to bake (4) some people just literally bought 6 boxes of cheese sponge cake. MEANS YOU NEED TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT BATCH. So because of that, le family ditched me there to queue and they went for high tea. Hahahaa. But I am a happy queuer so no complain!

So after the lady in front of me bought 6 loaves of it. I have to stand in front of the counter and wait for my batch! AND.. the cake is damn BIG!!! BIG and FLUFFY and.. the smell can just make you fly! Cant wait!

Look at the oozing cheese. Its delicious. Its like a light sponge cake with oozing cheese. Its nice.. but overwhelming but i think the 1 hour queue does make me think its nicer! Hahaha!

7. Grandma Steel Egg　淡水阿婆铁蛋

The utmost popular must buy in Tamsui. I remember i did took a picture of it but I cant find it. Anyway.. here’s a picture of it. Sorry I finished half of it already. 

8. Sword fish egg sausages and Black Ink Sausages　飞鱼蛋香肠　墨鱼香肠 (No picture. Too hungry that time)

These are the food that at least you have to try when you are at Tamsui. Of coz if you have extra space in your tummy, please explore more!

Weather is so hot so we settled down in a sea-side bar until late afternoon to avoid and scary sun. 

What’s better than a Icy Cold Beer in this hot weather!! 

We had fried fish roe salad. Yums! Love it so much!

Presenting the new bear i bought. I always bought a bear when Im in Taiwan. His name is TaoHuey! 

So we waited until around 5pm before we depart to The fisherman’s wharf and lover’s bridge! Stay tune!