10 Things To Eat At Taiwan's Jiufen Old Street

Don't pass the snail vendor without buying a couple — at $100 NTD (about $3 for two) you can't afford not to try these giant mollusks the size of your fist, grilled in-shell in their own juices, then extracted, chopped into chunks, dusted with black and white pepper and served with five-spice ketchup for dipping. They're not rubbery in the least but are rather silky with a smooth minerality and a sweet and saline finish that might make you wonder why we don't sell these snug little gastropods at oyster bars.

Having eaten all that food, I sat down at the old Jiufen Teahouse overlooking the hills and ocean for some of the best tea in the country. With hundreds of varieties, it can be a little overwhelming to decide what to sip on in this idyllic, utterly serene environment. Our hosts brought over cool clay jugs of iced 14-year aged pu'er, a type of fermented tea with a host of health benefits and an exquisitely delicate flavor and texture that evokes freshly-turned earth, mountain air, crisp minerals and cold spring water. In short: this tea tasted like drinking one of the tall majestic hills we admired while sipping and was a singularly special experience.