The monkey is under the mountain. The Tang Monk has been chosen. Now a new story begins — one about a powerful emperor, a proud Dragon King, and the dangerous consequences of cheating fate. In this episode we visit the colourful painted houses of Zhengbin Fishing Harbor and the ocean museum on Keelung's coast, eat sizzling one-bite sausages from the harbour side, and discover how Emperor Taizong of Tang ends up needing something only a Western scripture can provide.
Location: Keelung Marine Museum
Food: One-Bite Sausage | Bubble Ice

Before Tang Monk takes his first step west, we need to understand where he came from. In this episode the Bao Island bus heads north to Keelung — a port city carved between steep green hills and the sea. Over Keelung tempura eaten standing at the famous Miaokou Night Market, a generously stacked nutritious sandwich, and a scoop of colourful bubble ice, we discover the remarkable origin of Tang Monk: a scholar father, a treacherous boatman, a mother who floated her baby to safety on a wooden board, and a son who waited twenty years to set things right.
Location: Keelung City
Food: Keelung Tempura | Nutritious Sandwich | Bubble Ice

The great battle is over. Sun Wukong is under the mountain. Now the story shifts — and something much bigger begins. In this episode we explore Shilin's famous official residence and its rose gardens, eat a golden oyster omelette from Shilin Night Market and a towering big pancake sandwich, and discover why the Buddha decided the scriptures of the west needed to travel all the way to China — and who would carry them.
Location: Shilin District
Food: Oyster Omelette | Big Pancake Sandwich

Sun Wukong has been locked in Laozi's Eight-Trigram Furnace for forty-nine days. Heaven is holding its breath. In this episode we walk the century-old trading street of Dihua, eat sticky tube rice pudding from a shop that's been there for generations, taste sweet preserved plums from an old spice merchant — and watch as the monkey walks out of the furnace, smashes the Jade Emperor's throne room, and then meets the one being in all of creation he cannot defeat.
Location: Datong District
Food: Tube Rice Pudding | Preserved Snacks

Sun Wukong has beaten every army Heaven has sent — but now the Jade Emperor's nephew arrives: Erlang Shen, the Three-Eyed God of Guankou. In this episode we soak in the mineral waters of Beitou Hot Spring Park, eat silky hot spring tofu and crispy scallion pancake fresh off the griddle, and watch the most spectacular shape-shifting duel in the whole of Journey to the West — hawk versus sparrow, fish versus heron, snake versus eagle — until Guanyin tips the balance with a single drop from her vase.
Location: Beitou District
Food: Hot Spring Tofu | Scallion Pancake

Episode five takes us to Zhuzihu on Yangmingshan — a high valley famous for its calla lily fields, where in spring thousands of white flowers cover the hillside. Over a spectacularly layered big pancake sandwich and more hot spring tofu, we follow Sun Wukong as he discovers the Peach Garden — eats all the sacred peaches — crashes the Queen Mother's banquet — and steals Laozi's immortality pills. Then the Jade Emperor sends a hundred thousand soldiers. Sun Wukong beats them all.
Location: Shilin District
Food: Big Pancake Sandwich | Hot Spring Tofu

Episode four finds us in Da'an Forest Park — Taipei's biggest green space, right in the middle of the city. Over crispy salt-and-pepper chicken from a nearby night market stall and a bowl of purple taro ice cream, we follow Sun Wukong on his first visit to Heaven, where the Jade Emperor gives him a job so embarrassingly unimportant that it starts a war.
Location: Da'an District
Food: Salt-and-Pepper Chicken | Taro Ice Cream

Episode three takes us north to Beitou, where volcanic hot springs bubble up from the earth at the foot of Yangmingshan volcano. Over a crispy scallion pancake and silky hot spring tofu, we follow Sun Wukong on his most exciting shopping trip yet — into the Dragon King's underwater palace, where he picks up a glowing iron pillar that has been waiting on the ocean floor for ten thousand years. The Magic Staff: it grows, it shrinks, it fits in his ear.
Location: Beitou District
Food: Scallion Pancake | Hot Spring Tofu

In episode two we park near Longshan Temple in Wanhua — the oldest neighbourhood in Taipei, and home to a three-hundred-year-old temple that has survived earthquakes, bombs, and everything history could throw at it. Over a bowl of oyster vermicelli and a stick of pig blood cake, we follow Sun Wukong through seven years of sweeping floors, one night of secret lessons, and the day the master finally says: "Go home."
Location: Wanhua District
Food: Oyster Vermicelli | Pig Blood Cake

Welcome to Local Guys in Taiwan: Journey to the West — where three friends road-trip Taiwan, eating street food while listening to the story of the Monkey King. In our very first stop, we park near Sisi Nancun, a 70-year-old veterans' village that sits in the shadow of Taipei 101. Over bowls of rice noodle soup and crispy stinky tofu from the nearby Tonghua night market, we hear how a stone monkey was born from a rock, became king of all monkeys, and sailed across the sea to find his name.
Location: Xinyi District
Food: Rice Noodle Soup | Stinky Tofu