The Art of Procrastination

Hello all!! So I decided for this post I will make it an artistic piece of art! So instead of going in order..I’m going to write this in backwards order!! Mind blown yet?? =) Just kidding, I haven’t posted in awhile and this will be one of those posts I’m going to regret not starting earlier..but you with school nowadays and with rainy days now, I also feel like oh nothing too important to post soo I’ll do it tomorrow..next day rolls around..and still no post and now it’s been I don’t even know how many days! Sounds familiar? Yupp the art of procrastination alright..Anyways because my memory fails me I’m going to be posting from most recent first!

Day 1 (3/21)

I wanted to start posting today because I had so many yummy foods today! So other than my 7-Eleven breakfast LOL..for lunch today I had 雲南 (yun3 nan2) food today! So I got 紹子河粉(shao4 zi he2 fen3) ! Also I got something that looked really similar to a roti covered in condensed milk..LOL  The noodles were really yummy and its funny because I got it 乾 but it was soaked up in spicy sauce!! And the sweet roti -look alike was definitely a delicious oily, guilt trip dessert!

Then after that! I had to go meet Tzli! And we went to this afternoon tea place..except she was starving and we ended up eating more! But this place was so fancy and nice haha I can’t resist posting some repetitive pictures to get the point across on how pretty the food was!

This is the drink that Tzli got! It was an apple, peach tea it tasted like what you’d think it taste like..APPLES haha but it’s so cool that they put real apples in! And it was served in a cool cup!

The next picture is what I ordered and I totally didn’t expect it to come in pitcher 0.0 haha But it was a very light tea which I think I need since I’ve been drinking tea too late in the night and not getting restful sleep! But this was a Queen Rose Peach Green Tea! Sounds fancy huh?? LOL

Alright, for further explanation! She got a BBQ pork sandwich and the bread for some reason tasted so healthy! I felt like it was the first healthy western type food I had in awhile, and the fries tasted like they were refried for super crispiness so..in other words they were good. We also ordered honey toast which came with vanilla ice cream, apples, kiwi and of course the waffle bowl. I’ve never tried anything quite like it before and I liked it a lot!

After getting stuffed with sugar..I came back to grab dinner..-__- yes I know eating plans placed very much close together like this is literally half an hour apart for each meal I feel so guilty..but! Tried a curry place! First indian food hereee although what I got tasted like a mix of Indian and Italian O.O haha not much to say other than it was really hot and I almost burned my tongue! There was curry rice covered in cheese, zucchini, carrots and baby carrots =)

And that’s the eating for today!

 

 

Day 2-3 (3/20 – 3/19)

These two days went down pretty similarly because Vina and I have discovered an amazing noodle place that I will call my favorite (although I’ve only tried two of the dishes there and I have yet to try the very important 牛肉麵 so perhaps..I can’t speak too soon!) Anyways on the 19th we’ve made two yummy discoveries, first was a noodle place at the very end of the restaurant alley which has 刀削麵 (dao1 xiao1 mian4) Knife cut noodles that I swear has the perfect chewing consistency. Anyways I first got just noodles with strips of bbq pork and radish with a side order of green onion pancake both of which I liked a lot. So we went back for lunch the next day and I got the stir fried knife cut noodles =) haha addicted..

The last picture is my roommate cool-y modeling for the store LOL..Anyways moving on! So we also tried another place in the back alley that has a reputation of being like Mom’s cooking =) It’s called 親來食堂. I got a mixture of thinly sliced pork with garlic and bits of pork mixed with egg. This was all with a side of rice, cabbage, corn and yummy egg tofu! It did kind of remind me of food from homee =D

On the 20th, I had dinner at this 麻辣 place, where you get to choose what you want in your noodles and the soup is…super spicy! Well you get to choose the level of spiciness and I like it spicy!!

Coincidentally I happened to get the same night time snack andd..drink on both days! So a new waffle place opened up and it’s buy one get one free, but of course not all the flavors were available since they don’t wanna give out the yummy flavors so I got a chocolate waffle and whats great about this snack is that the outside is somewhat hard and crispy and the inside is chewy heaven! I’ve developed a love for extremely chewy foods..as for the drink, it is a Passion Fruit Green Tea with 珍珠 and 蒟蒻 （konjac). I give it a 5/5 haha it’s delicious,healthy and you can reduce sugar level too!

Great way of starting the week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4 (3/18)

So this lazy Sunday consisted of me waking up at noon and grabbing a late lunch and donuts and..amazing amazing potstickers! I went to Carrefour with Mary, Belle and Eric, this store is similar to Walmart in America, we mostly bought snacks which is interesting because that’s all I buy at Walmart too! Anyways! Here are some delicious pictures for you!

The potsticker had curry flavor! Which was the one I liked the most! And kimchi, original, chives…But it was really good because they made the crispiness just perfect on a potsticker, I’ve never tried anything like it before.

Day 5 (3/17)

Today some of the UC kids and I went to 淡水. This was my first time there so I really had no idea what to expect! But I hear its a beautiful pier and its a romantic hang out spot! I was there during the day time so nothing too romantic except tons of little kids running around! Anyway my main mission for coming here was to try this Japanese roasted milk tea that Mona and Kasey recommended! And it was a joint store with Hot Star which is a 雞排 place, so I also got to eat my first onee and it’s so big!

The larger picture above is well the chicken that is the size of my head and the MRT station there because it’s architecture is pretty cool I don’t think my picture really does it justice though..Then you can see the busy streets of 淡水 and that picture is on..老街 a famous old street! Then there are pictures of the yummy milk tea and what’s special about this one is that not only is it really frothy from the mixing, but they put an actual tea bag in there! Isn’t that cool? haha I really liked it! So I’m going to give it a 5/5 for its uniqueness =) And there was no boba with this. Oh! and the strange thing on a stick is quail eggs! =D Delicious! Group photo! Do you see new overalls? haha

That night we went to an artsy district! We were planning on watching someone play Japanese music in a park (I don’t quite know the details! but he wasn’t playing that day anyways!) We ate at place called 度小月 I don’t really remember what I ordered but I just wanted to point out what dish that was just fried tofu, but the inside is completely soft..like it falls apart so fast! I think it takes skill to make!

You can see the crispiness… =)

 

 

 

 

 

Day 6 (3/16) THERE’S SUN!

So after many torturous days of rain, we finally were rewarded on warm-ish day! So Mary, Vina and I went to 陽明山！I was so excited! Because I really wanted to take a picture of the calla lilies for my sister (since she really likes them!) and of course I’ve never been here either! haha Although the trip ended up being SO exhausting omg..you know before I came to Taiwan I was like okay I’m gonna go hiking, climb mountains, bike somewhere.. LOL well I do that last part at least! Well anyways I should have said this warm-ish day was only warm because the humidity was off the roof that day..but anyways! on to the trip! The place was really beautiful like a hiking, botanical garden, farm mix =) I feel that pictures really does not do it justice so I’ll try to portray it with the best of my pictures and the confusion of my words! So when we arrived at the MRT station closest to this mountain, we had to get on a 30 minute bumpy bus ride to the base of the mountain, once we were there, we had to take another bus to the entrance.. -__- Freakin tourist attraction! Although the entrance was very much decorated and we decided we were going to try and hike up to this area with the calla lily farm! So we walked UPHILL for about half an hour about to die from humidity..we saw some people walking in the opposite direction and they said that the calla lilies are about another 1.5 hour hike..At this point we decided..we’ll take another bus! So we did and we finally got there!

Alrighty! And I have to mention that in order to get down from this mountain..we again attempted to hike down..but eventually gave up! So got on another bus..transferred onto another bus and sat in traffic for 2 hours! And it was a packed bus..I tried to take a picture but it came out super blurry..

Anyways, later that night, we went to a new (to me at least) night market! And it’s so close to my dorm! They have a lot of shopping and good selection of foods! I ended up eating dumplings, nothing too too special, got a warm scarf for a good deal! But the best part was finding Chatime here!! LOL Especially since I know how it tastes like in America!!

A lot of large pictures! Oh so I’ve been having a sore throat at the beginning of the trip so I haven’t had much fried chicken until this day! haha (note it is the day before the gigantic chicken day) After going to the night market, me and Vina went to Mos burger which has burgers that have rice buns versus bread buns..but we just got some wedges to satisfy late night cravings! The Chatime tea tasted surprisingly..like in America which is still good! I’d give it a 4.5/5 The boba is just not quite up to par!

So that’s all for this crazy day on the bus…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 6-9 (3/15 – 3/12)

Torturous Rain. Pancho Wearing. Wet Bike Seat.

On a happier note. I rewarded myself with what I would call my favorite snack ever only on a hot day though!

I swear I give this a 5/5 because its the right coldness I want..FREEZING!! haha I didn’t expect it to taste so good..but it did! =) haha I think I should go into more foods with lower expectations so there is no disappointment because after eating this late at night..I wanted to go buy another!

On Tuesday that week, I met up with Tzli and we had some yummy dimsum!

The dessert was so strange! So on the menu it just said red bean cake..but it was 很奇怪 lol..like it was hard and there is that thing on top that looks like an organ..haha I hear it’s a traditional Taiwanese dessert and that Chaing Kai-Shek’s wife likes to eat it! I don’t really know what to think about it, the red bean and organ looking part tasted like paste (things you’ve tried before) the cake felt like a mixture between a spongecake and the hard chewiness of brownies (if you intentionally bake brownies chewy).

Then earlier earlier in the week on Monday, I finally successfully met up with Mona and Kasey with many others! We all ate lunch together!

It was really filling! In the little clay pot on the mini stove haha there’s duck blood with a bunch of seafood, mushrooms and cabbage. Then on the lower clay pot plate, is curry chicken.

Those are the highlights of that week..otherwise please refer to the first 3 sentences of this section =)

 

 

 

 

Day 10 (3/11)

We had a UC/USC +any guests field trip to Taichung! Although I wouldn’t really say I experienced their city life or anything, but we were driven to this temple where a Taiwanese movie was filmed at (and the plot was about the place too) and they split us up in 3 groups and we did activities to compete against each other. So the first is choreographing a dance that goes along with a Chinese song, drumming and face painting!

Picture of my partner and I for face painting! My “greetings” to the gods being burned. And my cool group! =)

That’s all for what I remember for my days! The next few pictures are a collection of snacks that I’ve accumulated ( I didn’t take a picture of all) just to give you an idea of Taiwan Late Night college snacking =)

Delicious goodness! The donut is very special because it’s chewy inside! So it’s sort of a Mochi donut as Vina would put it! And it’s so bad because I think I’m semi addicted to it too..the little cup goes with the B.D.D coffee cup another 5/5 Milk tea! Good strong tea, with a whip cream that is sweet to complement the tea and somehow the two together make milk tea =) QUICKLY TASTE EXACTLY THE SAME AS BERKELEY’S QUICKLY It’s amazing like when I was drinking it I felt like I was back in Berkeley, I should’ve gotten it with grass jelly!! NOON BOBA PEOPLE! Some wax apples and guava…of course pineapple cake..chips..-__- really yummy number crackers =) Hi Soft for my siblings! Frutips for Joeyy!

Whew..procrastination indeed have to study for a quiz now! But this post was crazyyy I hope that I won’t fall behind in posting again =X hehe Anyways thanks for readingg!! I hope you are hungry now!

[Excuse the ugly formatting for now..! Will make it neat later! Or try to at least..]

Long time no post…

Hello world! It is finally the end of the week of my 8am every day class madness! And I have much to tell you starting from last Sunday! =) I was unavailable to post anything new because I spent one day literally in the bathroom all day, one of the prime suspects is the stinky tofu I talked about in the previous post. But I don’t want to go into too much detail about that, I would like to mention though that I used the entire dorm’s roll of toilet paper for the week..soo feeling a little bad about that!

So first things first! I gotta mention awesome adventures! So last Sunday, Vina and I were super excited to go somewhere on our bikes and decided to bike on these newly paved bicycle roads! So we along with Mary, Belle and Eric (they rented pretty cool bikes) biked to the Taipei zoo! It was an hour bike ride of so and we ate McDonald’s when we go there my first trip there in Taiwan so far! But it was because there’s no other food available! And there’s a lot of poop art at this zoo!

  

Anyways can’t say I was at the zoo without pictures of animals! So here are some more pictures..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a really well designed zoo, maybe because of the trees and decoration, but it looked like we were in a rain forest! Pretty awesome! Although our feet started to get tired after much walking around, so when it was time to bike back, Vina took us to a delicious noodle place near her old university.

I don’t really remember what this is! Except that it was little pieces of pork with vegetables..the noodles were perfect chewing size! Not too big or too small! It was really fulfilling after a long day of biking and walking. After eating we then biked another 40 minutes before we got back! By then we were all very thirsty and you know what that calls for..A DRINK!

Yummy, so I got a drink from this place before, and it seems like the specialize in fruity drinks! So this here is a passion fruit green tea with coconut jelly, tapioca and passion fruit seeds! It was soo refreshing and felt very healthy! haha Even though there must be several hundred calories in it!

Alrighty so even though we ate already, I was hungry again after the long bike ride back! So Vina and I went to this back alley that I would say we now frequent! And I got some fried rice, yes finally some rice!!

It really was not bad and I got it to go. The “to go” packaging is so cute! A cute little box with a spoon and chopsticks haha although all the packaging here is a bit excessive, like all drinks come with a bag 0.0

The next day was school and wow waking up at 7AM everyday is going to be difficult I think! Although today (Friday) it seemed not so bad haha with a bike getting to class is a lot faster! After class, Vina, Eric and I went to the Taipei 101 area to check out the area, but it was mainly to get milk tea. But I got to take some pretty awesome pictures too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay! So short introduction of the Taipei 101 area..everything is so expensive! LOL There is a lot of shopping malls with expensive brand names..and the first picture is a picture of a book store called eslite and it’s really just like 6 floors of the book store along with mini shops on the side. There’s a lot of cutesy stuff, but everything is pretty much in U.S prices. We went to some buildings with nice restaurants and more shopping. There is this one building that has one of the more popular clubs (Roxy 99) and there is a infinite pool! It’s so cool! I want to go swimming in it, even though, I think people don’t actually swim in it.. After walking around, we went to this place that is famous for their milk tea! How perfect right? I was pretty excited too, the prices were high, but if it’s famous for it’s milk tea..TOTALLY WORTH IT! haha. The one word I would use to describe this place’s drinks would be..complex. Seriously, each drink seems to have an initial taste, a taste in the middle and some sort of after taste! So it was good ! My milk tea initially tasted like creamy milk, then it would be strong tea and then some lasting sweetness (probably from the boba). It was good! and looks so yummy and frothy in pictures LOL.. I’d give it a 4.9/5 it was really good, but I don’t think quite what I’m looking for. But definitely recommend to others since I’ve never tasted complicated milk tea before! LOL Eric, got a Rose (flower?) Oolong tea and that was so crazy! haha I would recommend that drink over the milk tea actually because it feels like you can taste the flower with tea it was just such a crazy experience! haha Vina got a passion fruit tea and gosh this place is just a place that should be recommended to all! It’s like you are eating a passionfruit. I know that in Taiwan the fruit is available making it possible to make drinks this way..which makes me wish that we had more tropical fruits in America. We also ordered radish cake which we shared, tasted..amazing! haha Crunchy and soft inside, the dipping sauce was soysauce with TEA flavor..man talk about specialty tea! LOL yummy..

The next few days are just a blur of extreme stomach aches and bathroom time..so I’ve become quite acquainted with the bathroom stalls..so I couldn’t try many new foods during these days but I do have a few I want to share!

So this is.. a western hamburger!! LOL well more of a sandwich. There is this place in the back alley of my dorm and this is a tuna sandwich on ciabatta bread..and I haven’t had American food in awhile (other than the McDonald’s) and this was a nice change. Hehe so those back at home, appreciate the yummy sandwiches that are available!!

Next up! Is this noodle place that is always busy by my dorm! And after going inside I found out that there are 3 separate rooms that you can sit in, this place is huge and always always busy!!

So in a test for best noodle place..I got the..牛肉麵 I feel that I’ve been deeply influenced by ED haha..It was not bad! The meat is really tender so it just falls apart, but the downside to really really tender, juicy meat is that, there are small chunks of fat here and there or like a thin layer right in the middle of the meaty parts! But no big deal the fat isn’t really that noticable!

Next are my now, new favorite snacks for class!! =D

Alright so the first is thick toast with chocolate spread, yes sounds simple, but amazing when you are awake at 7AM and it’s warm and toasted to crunchiness =D Then the next is similar to spam masubi, but its packaged so cool and they sell them at 7-eleven in SEVERAL flavors I swear I ate 2 today! haha The one in the picture is kimchi with pork and today I tried chicken cilantro but it looked like there was curry in it! So yummy!! I’m craving one right now!

Then yesterday night, we had a dorm event, more like a dinner and it was one of those type where you can choose what foods you want so I just got lotsa veggie yayy!!

 

I really miss eggplant..then we had a decorating waffles with chocolate, syrup and green tea paste! So they gave us characters to write out with a partner and I had 愛！ =) hehe so the last waffle there is the one I wrote..it’s kind of..NOT PROPORTIONAL =( So embarrassed! Met two very nice Taiwanese grad students!

Finally! Friday! So went back to the noodle place with Vina and had 雙槳麵.

Yummy looking huh? It’s basically noodles with some pieces of pork, sesame with peanut sauce and sliced cucumbers all mixed and delicious-ified!

Then we got milk tea at this specialty milk tea place near the noodle place and there was such a HUGE line!! haha

And this was delicious! I feel like I’ve been having goodluck with finding these milk tea places! The tea is so strong omg! haha and I tried Vina’s tea which was just Jasmine green tea and it was O.O so much tea flavor! I liked it although the downside was there was either small size which is tiny or large which is gigantic..So I got the large and so when you first taste it it’s sweet and the tea then overpowers everything and leaves a very strong after taste. The tea was so strong I got cotton mouth several hours after drinking it.. -__- LOL but that’s okay! Vina tells me that this is the authentic Taiwanese Milk Tea and many places don’t make it like this anymore! I think I was so psyched to hear that it’s Taiwanese Milk tea (like the real thing!) That I give it a 4.9/5 too!! Hooray good tea!! Anyways there’s still much more to try! But that’s it for now!!

Food! Need I say more?

So to make up for the lack of food in my Kaohsiung post, this post will be mostly about food and one special item of purchase!!! So for some reason it felt like going back “home” when we finally arrived in Taipei after the long weekend! So first day back..I went to class and didn’t pay attention! Then grabbed lunch with my roommate Vina, we went to a Thai place and it’s been 3 weeks since I’ve had Thai food!

This dish resembles a Pad Kee Mao, for those who have easy access to Thai food. It was pretty good. Not really authentic though. I thought that the dish was a bit small (I guess you can’t tell from this picture) but the foreign foods here are more expensive here (well of course!) so I was hoping to get a larger dish for the price. But after finishing it, I was pretty satisfied, so no hard feelings! =)

Next I got my third milk tea from ComeBy! Still delicious as ever! Then for dinner, Vina, Una and I went to the food alley by our dorm and we all got yummy foood!

This place had such big portions! We at a place called 羙濃客家粄條 and I got the..滑蛋牛肉飯 which was really good considering that I was scared to eat something too dry since..the throat was still hurting. So this was perfect! Since the egg made the rice soft like porridge which was what I needed! The meat was a little tough, but really not bad. There was either 冬瓜 or 蘿蔔 soup that was offered for free.

The next two days have been somewhat uneventful, so I will be showing you pictures of food from those two days! So I’ve been getting breakfast and snacks at a bakery on campus and so far there has been many good eats!

So the first, is carton milk tea! It was not too terrible for CARTON milk tea, but there is a “sugar that has been sitting too long” after taste. Then the next looks like a pineapple bun, but there isn’t anything inside! I really like it because it’s slightly crispy on top and really soft on the bottom and it is EXTREMELY CHEAP. It’s so delicious I even bought 2! The next is a dessert bread, you might have to look a little closer on the picture, but it’s basically one bun with several different flavor breads in the middle – green tea, vanilla, chocolate,jam, peanut – there were many flavors! Really interesting bread!

At 公館夜市, I bought a 蛋餅 and for some reason this didn’t taste like the other egg pancakes I’ve tried before, it was more fluffier..which was a good thing because it was more filling this way! I put some sweet and spicy sauce on it!

It was so yummy and I’m beginning to like eating with sticks! haha I know in the picture it looks messy, it’s hard to just squirt a bunch of sauce without overwhelming one piece with sauce.. =/ But totally worth it for 20NTD and extremely filling.

I also had a lot of guava these past few days, they are so yummy when you find a sweet guava! I try to buy a bag almost everyday LOL to make up for the lack of guava in my diet for the past 21 years. I also grabbed lunch with Vina on Friday and we found this delicious little restaurant at the back alley of our dorm again..I didn’t catch the name of this store though..

So this is it! Another Taiwanese specialty!! It is called, 滷肉飯，which is just stewed meat with rice. And it taste simple but sooo goood..especially after eating a lot of egg-y dishes, this was so fulfilling..haha and the rice! The plain white rice tastes so good..haha

After this very satisfying lunch I got a drink that was omg so cool!

Okay so at first glance, it appears like regular milk tea with boba..but at SECOND glance it is regular milk tea but something is weird about the boba right? No? Look Again!! It’s purple and orange!! (Go Gal colors). The boba look-alike is called 小宇圓, which is taro balls. Well the purple balls are taro and the orange balls are sweet potatoes..HIGHLY RECOMMEND this! haha and if you can’t try it..you should try to attempt to sell it!! People will buy! It tastes really interesting because the outer coat is glutinous like a boba, but the inside well its like eating taro and sweet potato, I’m sure you know the texture. I liked it a lot, it was a good change from regular boba. The milk tea was not so bad either I’d give this a 4.8/5. It was really good..I think the only places of improvement would be a stronger tea flavor (but it might have been because I got regular amount of ice and it was too diluted), otherwise this one is pretty much a 4.9. hahah It isn’t perfect I know that!

Later that day, I went to 士林夜市, and I tried the strangest thing ever, but it was delightfully delicious!!! hahah I wasn’t expecting too much, but I’m glad I was surprised.

This is called 小莊 （xiao3 zhuang1) I know sounds scary it means little coffin. But it is a large piece of white toast, deep fried and filled with whatever meat you want with a layer of plain porridge. I think there might be a little bit of shredded cabbage in there too..so I got 肉鬆 and 玉米 (porksung and corn!). I want to explain why it was so yummy. So the whole thing smells like fresh butter bread and when you bite into it, it’s really crispy on the outside, and the fillings provide really good textures along with the crispiness since it’s soft and chewy, but it’s the thin layer of plain porridge that makes the crispy of the outside slightly soggy on one side (the top side of the bread) which kind of buffers the oil taste. And so altogether it works together to make a crispy, chewy, spongy, moist mouthful of amazing yumminess! haha although I feel that it is dangerously unhealthy, so maybe a once and awhile treat.

After that, I was really thirsty so I got a 仙草奶茶 and it’s interesting here because when you order grass jelly anywhere they fill more than half the cup with grass jelly -__- and you don’t get that much drink..

This was a 3.8/5 milk tea, nothing was too special about the tea. But the grass jelly was so smooth..haha and I was so thirsty at the time, so the reallyy cold drink was so refreshing. And this is one of the few places where they have crushed ice so extra points for that! The next picture is one of the more crowded streets in this night market..so pretty! =)

Next..DESSERT! Oh! I was at the night market with a couple of the UC students and many of Vina’s friends from her old school, so a couple of them wanted to get shaved ice! So I got the shaved ice with the milk already IN the ice! They didn’t have the mango flavor yet (darn it for not being in season!)

Big mountain of yummy!! The strawberries were sweet and so was the extra syrup and condensed milk on top! Vina’s friends got a peach shaved ice and it’s strange because they put raisins on the shaved ice 0.0 haha.

Finally we are getting to..TODAY! So I didn’t eat very much in the morning because I was busy doing..secret things that you will find out at the end! But the first real thing I ate was this weird like hotdog, but the hotdog bun was made out of stinky rice. And there was peanut sauce, fermented cabbage and sliced ginger.

It tasted like a 粽子 (like those rice wrapped in banana leafs for new years!) So it was not bad, just I think the sausage was really fatty because it tasted so good.

Then, Vina and I went to get some ice cream sandwiches on campus!

So what is so special about this ice cream sandwich? Well other than being made out of saltines!!! It is completely made from ingredients that the school grows on the farm. Well in this case it’s just the milk..from the cows on the school farm. But yeah 台大, has their own farm and grow their own veggies and animals. Then they sell their goods in a small store on campus. The ice cream sandwich was good it was salty ice cream! In Vina’s words, it’s like salted caramels.

Then after I went to the bank, we went to my favorite night market so far! 景美夜市 I feel that it is my favorite because of the fries though, I know I’m so bad.. =( haha

So first thing we got was 臭豆腐，I know I know it’s risky..I hope my stomach feels okay tomorrow. But it was so good! So there is stinky tofu in a claypot and its spicy! And you can add anything you want to it, so I chose the long, white mushrooms. And of course they put a bunch of other stuff on top for flavoring. Vina got duck blood and that was really good, the texture in duck blood is so much more firmer than pig’s blood.

Then we got..the sweet potato fries of course! Can’t go to this night market and leave without it! It’s worth posting another picture!!! haha sorry for the repeat!

Yes the glowing yumminess..haha I think the sugar plum powder on top of this tempura sweet potato is such a smart idea..I think, for the entrepreneurs out there I think the slight sprinkle of sugar plum powder on tempura is a great business idea..LOL they don’t seem to have it in America yet..right?

And gotta end a day with a drink..another new place!

So I got grass jelly again! It’s easier to slurp up when you are eating greasy foods! But I think this place has a very strong tea smell (the store) but I was surprised that my drink didn’t taste very tea-y..so I don’t want to give a official rating yet, because they put a lot of grass jelly in my drink and I think that there must be a lot of water in the grass jelly, increasing the dilution of the actual drink. But nonetheless, it was refreshing and would receive a tentative 4/5.

And that is the end for food! Now for the secret mission I was on earlier in the dayy…my next big new purchase is..MY BIKEEE!!!

Haha I bought it new!! I went around the area looking for a second hand bike originally (Thank you Victor for taking me around to search!) since it would be cheaper, but they were all sold out! And so this bike is around..50USD, and I will be selling it before returning to America! So I don’t think it’s too bad of a deal! But yeah I love it!!! I had a lot of difficulty getting use to riding it on the streets with people though, since the tires are soo thin…I feel like I’m about to topple over whenever I am trying to avoid pedestrians..any advice?? Other than that I’m so excited to use it all around town! or Taipei City..LOL That’s all for now, thanks for reading!!! =)

Four day weekend? Let’s go to Kaohsiung!

Went to south Taiwan this past weekend! Which explains the absence of updates! haha it’s a long weekend and I will try to describe it as best as I can but the main highlights really include HOURS of walking, my sore throat and specific foods I can only eat…, and being sleepy as heck all the time. But here are some pictures to start off the day!

 

 

 

 

Okay! So I will be giving you a small tour of Kaohsiung, there was much that I didn’t get to see, but there was just too much to cover in 3 very short days! But I got to take the High Speed Rail! Which took me there in 90 minutes versus 6 hours by regular train. So it does move really fast! Except our train was delayed by two hours because a really big earthquake hit Kaohsiung! Scaryy..but I didn’t feel anything on the train.

When we finally got there, we had to take the subway to the stop near our hostel, and that stop is a tourist site to see! It is called the dome of lights and it’s a big deal because some artist decorated the dome of the subway station and when the sun shines through it loooks super pretty!

 

 

 

The art was really detailed  and impressive! After leaving the subway, we couldn’t find the hostel! The addresses here are hard to read because not everything is that clearly labeled, but we called the hostel and one of the ladies working there came to find us! So nice =) We checked and grabbed something to eat. Here is our room..

Yeahh, very tight quarters..but it was extremely cheap! About 14 USD per night.

 

 

Alright! And the first drink of the trip is…not boba! What what? Yeah..it was something else..ooh okay! So because of my very extreme sore throat, I decided to maybe just get a non-milk tea drink at this tea place!

So I don’t remember what this was! But it was on their top 10 drinks offered at this teahouse! It was like lemon jasmine tea or something and I got grass jelly with it! yum yumm! And it was not bad, although I thought it tasted like Oolong tea, and I got very little sugar added since I didn’t want to irritate my throat too much. So tea and grass jelly is all..I’d give it a 4.5/5 for the quality of the tea, this ranking should be on a different scale compared to the milk tea scale!

 

Then we were on a search for the fisherman’s wharf in Kaohsiung. It seemed like this place was the SoCal of  Taiwan for reasons that will be more clear at the end of the post! So we did find the wharf area!

However, on the way there, we passed by so many historical places! The beginning would be the railroad tracks, there was many trains still there for display, but what use to be a railroad track is now kind of covered in flowers and there were so many people there flying their kites, I know the picture is small, but if you click on it you can see there are lots of kites!!! then we passed by banana pier, where there was a lot of history and old furniture talking about when bananas were popularly traded out of Taiwan. And lastly, the well-lit pier! With the second tallest building in Taiwan in the background =).

We decided to go to the night market near our hostel, since we were really tired of walking. This was one of the busier night markets I’ve ever seen, its called 六合夜市 it is a favorite night market among tourists. Before this I got a crepe from a shopping area with cheap clothes and everything, but I was too hungry to shop!

So the crepe, I got vegetables and corn! It was actually pretty good, since I never get savory crepes..and the picture on the right..it was kind of like ice cream mochi! So the inside was filled with red bean paste or green bean paste and the clear layer outside was like mochi. The entire ball was chilled too! Along with this I also had 豆花 with ginger, for my sore throat! hehe

The next morning, I was hoping to get some porridge, because I honestly thought my throat was bleeding..so we went to some local restaurant and got…

So this here is 蝨目魚粥 looking at the name, I thought it would be porridge! But instead I got rice in some oily soup and pieces of fish! A Taiwanese native recommended this fish to me, it tasted a little tougher than cat fish. Hm overall interesting! I don’t know if I would try it again.

Then we went to 橋頭糖廠 (Ciao Tou Sugar Factory). This place was pretty cool since the whole place use to be a sugar factory and they just turned it into a giant museum. We rented bikes here and biked around the factory and along a field of SUNFLOWERS so pretty!

 

 

 

It’s been awhile since I was last on a bike! So at first it was kind of scary with the people by the factory!

After sugar factory, we went to their version of Disneyland! It was called 義大世界, we didn’t buy admission to the amusement part of the place, because we came for the BIGGEST OUTLET IN TAIWAN! It was pretty huge, except the brands were beyond our price range =/ But it was a very pretty mall nonetheless. Had some strange soup with some noodles for my sore throat.

The milk tea here was a 0.75/5, the boba was hard from being cooked in a rush, and it tasted like water from being far too diluted. The color looks pretty nice though.

Several hours later…we were off to 蓮池潭 (Lotus Pond) which is a huge attraction with temples, pagodas, and statues. I was pretty psyched about it, except by the time we got there, it was so dark already. (That mall was gigantic and a long bus ride away!). So some of the places were lit, but others were either closed or really dark. So it was a little sad since I had wanted to go explore in a lot of temples. It was an okay experience though, here are some pictures from my attempted documentation in dim light =)

 

 

 

 

We went on a search for the locals’ favorite night market called 瑞豐夜市. After walking for a very long time, we found out that it was closed on Monday RAWRR!! So we decided to come back for Tuesday night! We went to the night market by our place again.

 

 

 

So I bought an inferior 刈包 (compared to the first one), some weird eggroll looking thing filled with veggie, meats and tons and tons of onion..Omg that thing was so spicy and overwhelming. And for dessert a very strong ginger 豆花. So good!

The next day we went to the National Science and Technology Museum, and it is the second largest Science and Technology museum in the world!!! And trust me..it’s big because we walked through the whole thing! Took like 6 hours O.O haha they had an exhibit on everything though. So it was really interesting and exhausting.

After missing lunch, we grabbed a big lunch!! I don’t know what it was called unfortunately, but it was something that helped my sore throat so much since it had pieces of ginger in it! And there was a side of soup too. (I apologize for the bland foods in this post, my throat was not in any condition to eat any fried goodness this weekend)

After much too walking for our sleep deprived bodies, we decided to get foot spa and massage!! Which felt amazing because I had this terrible whiplash and my backpack was hurting my shoulder so badly. My feet felt like they were becoming stone. So we got a cheap and very short massage since it was kind of difficult to find a cheap, good deal massage anywhere near us. So 200 NTD for 20 minutes!

My massage lady gave me a really HARD massage..omg I felt like I was crying the whole time haha but my whiplash along with knots my backpack was giving me, really needed to be undone! So I was like sit through the pain and I will feel better! At the end they applied some herbally-tigerbalm like oil which felt so good, like ginger for my throat!

 

Finally we made it to the locals’ fav night market and ATEE!!

The first is rice with some sort of meats wrapped in squid, breaded and fried topped with sweet and spicy thai sauce. It was called 炸彈烏賊燒. It was really interesting and tasty!! Then had a small sized milk tea and this literally tasted like water, I’m glad I got small size because I would have been really disappointed if I got a large size. 0.5/5 Gets points because of the cute small cup. Then I got a red bean paste pancake, which was chewy and surprisingly filling! Yummy..then we went back to the hostel and woke up at 5:30AM to head back to Taipei for class..

That concludes the 4 day weekend adventure! I would like to say a BIG BIGG thank you to Phoebe, who gave us a very long list of recommendations to where to go!! =)

Please don’t let me be sick!

The weather has changed so drastically in the last few days I think I am getting sick from it! My throat is slowly closing in, headache that won’t go away, slight dizziness when I walk ahhh what is this!? I hope its not like strep throat or the flu..*sigh..so in this case of solving how I got sick I will present to you adventures and food to narrow down suspects..

Case #1 : Rapid change in weather (highly probably) went from really sunny, hot weather to..HEAVY rains omg..haha

The first day of HEAVY, OMG IT’S RAINING AND I’M NOT PREPARED rain.

I’m not sure if you can see the droplets, but it was pretty insane one minute it was quiet and all of a sudden it sounded like you were dropped in a box full of static (like on the static tv) because the rain was so loud. So was soaked even though I had an umbrella..

Case #2 : I went to the temple and the area is more poor etc..and I got sick because people are going to the temple to pray their sickness off!

So being the way I am, I don’t mind the rain very much..so I’m like this isn’t going to stop me from an adventure!! *insert super hero theme song of sorts* So I decided to go to the 龍山寺 （Longshan Temple). I really wanted to go to this temple in particular because it’s a big temple that worships 觀音 which is the goddess I worship. Had a awesome time exploring the temple and admiring the architecture, I bought incense even though they were giving some out for free (need to support local temples!) and then bought a little trinket for myself in memory of the trip. Feel that I will be coming here often!

So after all of this, I was just starved, so I decided to walk around to find some food. Everything was kind of really dirty, it seemed more like a meat market, so there was like animals and dead meat lying around. So I finally found a somewhat promising bun place..

Case #3: I ate a carcinogenic bun and somehow am getting sick! (Low probabilty)

So found a place where they have this bun with sesame on top and some meat inside, sounds yummy. However while the lady was getting my bun, I noticed the way the cook it was with like heating it on coal, which is different from the usual steam..so started eating my bun…

Eating and chewing, making yummy sounds until I realize there is a slight bitter taste to it..hmm looked at the bottom and realize that it’s slight black, speckled with black spots..errr ookay this is a big warning sign flashing, look in the inside and meat is also speckled with this black stuff.. EVEN BIGGER WARNING SIGN. However I ate the whole thing anyways..body please metabolize…GO!

Then after a very long time of wandering, I went back to school, met up with Mary and got a milk tea.

This milk tea was not so bad! I got it with egg pudding instead of tapioca, so no rating on the tapioca balls I’d give this one maybe a 4.2/5 I’m not sure if it really beats the Come by one, but it was definitely better than most since the tea was a bit stronger and it wasn’t made by some real, fresh out of a cow milk. Lounged around for awhile after drinking this..then decided to have a night time adventure!

 

Case #4: Caught a bug at Taipei’s biggest Night Market..(eh possible)

So arrived at 士林夜市. Decided to eat a ton! Since this one is like the always recommended night market because of it’s size, but often overhyped because of the same reason. So I believe it is remodeled, there is a basement full of food and upstairs is like dry goods and clothes, there were some carnival type games too. It was raining and late so there wasn’t that many people..had some yummies..

Quick intro to the pictures, night market entrance, the making of a chocolate/banana crepe (dessert first!), oyster omelet (it tasted better than the other night market!), Tapioca with 愛玉（aiyu) and some lemon-y flavor! haha I don’t really know what it is actually..it was really refreshing though!

 

Case #5: Eating too much and not exercising, also possible, considering that I am ingesting a lot of sugar everyday! And my body goes all weird food poisoning/stomach flu on me when I eat and not exercise.

Case #6: Staying up to watch Glee in order to catch up!! So not getting enough sleep, like tonight I am still staying up to type this.. -__-

Next morning, woke up and had to meet Phoebe for lunch! She took us to a yummy dumpling place with 小籠包， there was also salmon fried rice, and a dumpling filled with red bean paste omg so amazing!

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, fighting sickness, drinking water, my floormate, Una, gave me some magical Chinese medicine to make my sore throat temporarily go away. And that’s all for now! If you have any ideas about what this little bug ruining my day could be please comment below, or shoot an email to bettythai5 at gmail =D hahah

Fried Food Galore..and more!

HI HI! These few days of school have been somewhat dull, each class is freaking 3 hours long but only once a week! So there are pros and cons to them! Haven’t had any great adventures unfortunately..=( But as promised I did try new foods everyday! So yesterday, I went with some of the fellow UC students to a different night market called…景美 and omg becoming one of my new favorite night markets LOL well actually I wouldn’t say I have favorites yet..but this night market is like yummy foods night market! haha

But before going into night market food, here was my breakfast yesterday! 雞肉飯 yum yum! It looks very simple and tasted like it looks like, but it’s was a simple, nice change from all the oily and rich foods!

Okay so here we go, yummy night market foods!

So this type of bun is made kind of like how potstickers are made! And they are so delicious and CHEAP haha I had pork in mine. But yeah they steam it and then it cooks the bottom like a potsticker! So this was called.. 水煎包! 加肉 !! actually no the last part is wrong..since the meat is in there already.. =/ MOVING ON!

This next one I feel so guilty about eating, but it was so yummy I don’t mind! haha

Okay so I don’t know what this is called, but it’s so unhealthy! haha So they fried a 葱油饼, then they crack an egg on a fryer cook the egg in some veggie the put the fried green onion pancake on top of that..and refry it basically..

Then for more guilty pleasure, I love french fries and so this will be my temporary replacement..

So I think they are yams actually, but it might be sweet potato..but it was tempura style so the breading was yummyy!! hahah I liked it a lot because they sprinkled on sugar plum powder (instead of ketchup) and it taste really interesting! Definitely will come back for more!

Boba of the day..was from an ORANGE TEA PLACE!! hehe so perfect!

So I would give this milk tea 4/5 I’m in a generous mood since I’ve been encountering some bad milk teas lately. It was refreshing the boba was not overwhelmingly sweet, this had egg pudding in it too so yum! Overall it was not bad!

Anyways that concludes food from yesterday. As for today, I got yummy dumplings, more stinky tofu..I really hope I don’t get sick tomorrow and finally it’s warm-ish enough to have shaved ice!!!

More new foods to come!

One of those terrible, but ended up awesome days..

Alright, I wasn’t going to post so soon, but this is very much needed blogging material! Well okay yesterday was pretty chill and fun because got lunch with Mary and got drinks (boba btw..not those drinks..) then went to Daiso! Also we got to dress up in our new clothes yay!! Quick preview…

Alright quick introduction to everything! So the boba was rated a 1/5. It is called high quality milk but didn’t taste high quality at all..it really just tasted like cereal milk with a very strong sweetness at the end..which was not at all enjoyable, I didn’t even finish it! Which never really happens with me -__- Moving on that is the 牛肉麵 from campus. It was cheap but the meat was not as tender as the first one would not recommend. And finally it is the “best” ice cream on campus! Looks exactly like soft serve with 2 yummy crackers, the ice cream tasted more icy than sweet. So it felt like a non-guilt type of snack which was pretty awesome. After having a somewhat disappointing lunch and drink..I had dinner!

So I kind of checked out the back alleys again of my dorm with another floormate and found a Taiwanese meatball place. Another famous dish!

I thought this was really good! It is called 肉圓 I think..the lady said it really fast so I couldn’t quite catch it! But it was basically meat with garlic and something else..wrapped in a meatball with this glutinous flour and it was in soup! Then they scooped it out and poured a sweet gravy over it and a bit of cilantro. It was yummy!

Then we went to Gong Guan Night Market! And there I tried some stinky tofu! But this kind was in soup form. Anyways it was really spicy! So overall DELICIOUS!

So yes, I got another boba to make up for earlier..This boba hmm was a 3/5 it was pretty much your average boba..It was still a bit more on the VERY STRONG milky side..but it was a big improvement from earlier in the day from that high quality milk..I’m just glad i’m not lactose intolerant =)

Okay so this is when the terrible day began..this is the very FIRST DAY of school and my class is off campus on another NTU campus (at their medical center) so this means I have to find my way around and take the bus there. So I woke up at 8am even though my class doesn’t start til 4:30pm, but I wanted to get breakfast with a floormate as she was finding her way to the medical center early! But she had to take local public transportation since the school shuttle comes at weird times. So I woke up and had a terrible stomach ache..first thought..RUN TO THE BATHROOM! So I’m sure you can imagine what happened..it was the stinky tofu. =( Then got ready and got breakfast with my floormate look at this pretty bun!

Hehe yup yup..anyways after breakfast, I was walking back to my dorm..and then it hit me again BAD STOMACH ACHE OMG MY DORM IS STILL 10 MINUTES AWAY. Running on the streets of Taiwan even though no one does that and people are biking..And I am stuck at this intersection for 1.34 minutes..you mind as well kill me..Run to the bathroom and once again the stinky tofu and I meet again.. -__-

After that ordeal, I pepto bismol-ed. And off to the school shuttle! First day of school and more people on campus yay! And one more thing to note it was sunny and warm!! Thank goodness because I didn’t pack that much warm clothes.

The campus on the first day of school! Hehe got to the free shuttle line got on, got to campus without getting lost, nice weather maybe things are looking up after all! maybe..maybe NOT.

Got to the building finally and I’m looking for room 103. I am here 4 hours before my class because I wanted to explore the area some more, so first things first gotta find my class! I walked into a hall that was labelled 103, but at first glance looked like a counseling office with no one there and then past that little hall, was a door also labelled 103 ookay open door, hmm its dark and there are lab benches..thats interesting perhaps my seminar is in a lab! But why isn’t there a class in here..so dark didn’t think much of it but then I decide to look around once more, so I stepped into the room (before my head was just peeked in) And I realize on the lab tables..were donated dead bodies..1 millisecond later I realize I was in a room FULL of dead bodies..run out of there and nearly had a heart attack WHY DON’T THEY LOCK THESE DOORS. MY GOD. I was beginning to think all of this was a bad omen and was considering not going to the class..but then I find a faculty and ask where my class is..and he directed me to LECTURE HALL 103..so you are telling me that this building has TWO 103 rooms..-__-

After finding my class, I was beginning to feel a little eh..and creeped out. So I’m like ookay I know the Taiwan National Museum is around here maybe I will explore a bit..but what I got was much better than just the museum but I actually walked towards the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall! Dude I was so excited!! hahaha I can’t believe I was there, I mean I knew the train station was here, but I didn’t expect to see that!! Maybe I should explain some of my excitement, so I did a mini presentation on Taipei for Taiwanese decal and this was one of the featured attractions I talked about. Here are some pictures!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yup yup, don’t mean to spam with photos, I took an absurd amount of pictures I think because I was just like jumping for joy, literally, I think the security guard was like 0.0 what’s up with this girl LOL but I calmed down, it was very breathtaking hehe I know the pictures I uploaded seem like things you can find on google images, but like really thats how it looks like!! Sometimes places aren’t that nice in person, but I thought this place looked just like the pictures! But it’s cooler when you are there of course!

So I got to climb the steps to his memorial and went into the exhibition, since there’s tons of photos, and like medals etc..even two buicks! After that, I decided to wander around again..found my MRT station..then decided I wanted to find the National Taiwan Museum since I was there already! Found out that I had wandered TOO far and had to walk back..Finally I found this park area that the museum is in and found out that there was a confucius memorial in the park. So there was some pretty cool stuff in there!

The Museum wasn’t as glamorous as I had hoped, so I took pictures of cooler things instead! hehe the first picture is of grass cut into the words TAIPEI and you can see the museum in the background. And in front of the museum is some cool travel to London advertisement, there were some super cute kids dressed in European clothing, which I also took a picture of, but felt weird posting since I don’t have permission or anything =X haha.

At this point I was starving so I started wandering again..and I found the first temple (actually might be my second temple) of the trip! I’ve been dying to go explore the different temples, but haven’t found the right timing..? Anyways! I didn’t go in, since there was a lot of people anyways. Found some cheap street food andd had dessert for lunch!

So this was 紅豆花, red bean in soft tofu! Yummmm…it’s already one of the yummier desserts in America, so you can imagine how yummy it is here! haha I had it hot since, well I think it taste better hot. I should have had actual lunch though..LOL

I had to go to class after this, so went to class..class was..well class! haha Then caught the free shuttle back to school yay! and grabbed dinner..

I didn’t quite catch what this was, but it’s basically you choose what you want and they cook it for you, and this was the biggest plate I’ve seen so far in Taiwan. I was like OMG how am I suppose to finish that..10 seconds later OMG I’m starving so muchh *eats it all*

In it was 麵, broccoli, tofu, tofu skin, fish cake, fishball filled with shrimp, a glutinous meatball filled with pork, fermented cabbage, cilantro, and spicy sauce! LOL I know I should stay away from spicy, fermented and tofu or anything in that nature, but I really can’t resist! It was yummy I hope it sits better in my stomach and hope its better tomorrow morning.

Got back to campus and explored library a bit..feet was tired and was getting extremely sleepy..

This is a picture from the steps of the main library at the end of my day (same library that I took at the beginning of the day). Haha my day ended up being much more eventful when all I really had planned was my one hour class and maybe getting lost..but yeah my terrible day ended up not too bad, funny how life does that to you sometimes!

Shopping and Famous Eats!

So I am going a bit out of order, but I want to talk about some famous and delicious food that I’ve had in the past 3 days!

Starting with something similar to a hamburger haha it is known as a Taiwan specialty, it has fermented cabbage with pork meat(&fat) all in a 饅頭 delicious! hehe here’s a picture! Delicious!! Omg I’m drooling looking at the picture it is one of my favorites so far! hehe Oh! and its called 刈包 (Gua4bao1) Yum Yumm…

Alrighty!! Moving on..this next one isn’t very famous but was my dinner that night…

So this is just regular noodles, with pork balls, meat filled fish balls and wontons! And I believe it is called something like…綜合麵。 Oh I guess that makes sense since it has everything in it! LOL

Hmm this next one is my favorite!! Favorite fruit that is! haha here’s to all the dragon-boaters this is our fruit yayy!!

AND it was delicious as always! I know a lot of people say it doens’t really have a taste to it, but I think its slightly sweet and there’s a lot of water in it so it’s also very healthy for detoxifying. I don’t think its quite in season yet because it was VERY expensive for that small little piece almost 1 USD! haha It’s okay when I go to Vietnam there will be MANY pictures of this special fruit! Oh and I believe this is called..火龍果I’m not completely sure!

This next one is primarily for ED! haha I realized that I almost went a week without trying the very FAMOUS TAIWANESE 牛肉麵! I know there is one store that is particularly famous, but I really wanted to try a local store nearby first! Just to know what I’m comparing it to when I actually do try THE 牛肉麵 store.

So there is hand pulled noodles that had an amazing texture, chewy but tough enough to not just fall apart in your mouth. the meat although they appear big and thick was very tender. And there was winter melon? I think, so small pieces of them. It was really filling compared to the many other dishes I’ve tried in Taiwan so far and since it’s really cold here (comparable to SF) it was very warming to the soul =D hehe yum yum I’m glad I live nearby!

Okay so yesterday, me and Mary had several adventures to many famous looking eating places LOL somehow we just stumbled upon A TON!! which was very fortunate since the search for good Taiwanese food was starting to prove difficult..(you are thinking how is that possible right? Well I decided I can’t drink 3 bobas a day to find the most amazing since it’s not quite that filling, but I’m still bummed out by the thought of not being able to do that haha)Anyways we decided to choose a random train station to get off on and with the help of our Taiwanese friend Ron, we chose 忠孝鈍化 (zhongxiaodunhua) <- Me and Mary actually WALKED here trying to look for a citi bank, and this distance is like miles and miles away for the natives..where as for us it was like a mile walk..-__- hahaha Anyways! once we got there, there was a underground mall with really cheap shoes! But at the time we were so hungry so we went upstairs to walk around..BUT IT WAS ALL SUPER EXPENSIVE (EVEN IN THE US) STORES!! Aiya Ron why would you recommend this?! haha JK JK it became much better once we got into the back alleys of the place. We found some famous dim sum place, but the line was just too ridiculous for our hunger. We picked a Japanese restaurant that was pretty cheap..called Don’s Kitchen.

Delicious looking or what?? haha It’s a katsu in curry with rice and some veggies..I’m not exactly sure what it is called which is my biggest regret! But next time! There was a lot of people there and they even had free refillable milk tea!!!

Hehe…it was cool and refreshing, but unfortunately tasted like chocolate milk  with some dilution..haha so will have to give this one a 2.3/5 doesn’t quite deserve the 2.5 yet..

Alrighty Next stop! HK desserts haha I know I know why don’t we have any Taiwanese desserts? It’s because this was like in the middle of the day and there are no snacks until night time!!! =/ But we only went in because they had a cool mango looking dessert and there’s a video of famous Taiwan actors/actresses trying it! So I will call this FAMOUS! They ran out of the mango soo…

Oh yeah! I got rice rolls!! One of my most favoritestest snacks! Although this place, they fried the rice rolls making it not so healthy at all..which is ehh..Then that night we went with one of my floormates to 後山埤 (houshanpi) For endless shopping!! will post shopping pictures later, since I didn’t buy everything on the same night..Went to 饒河街觀光夜市 (Raohe St. Night Market) and I finally FINALLY got to try the thing that Taiwanese Decal kept talking about last semester…OYSTER OMELET!

Oh man it was pretty good! I wasn’t expecting it to taste that way though..since there’s egg but also this glutinous clear stuff..and of course some veggie and oysters!

I believe that is it for some famous and exotic foods! Here are some good buys during the week, although I wouldn’t consider them exactly cheap since well I think the quality feels really good!

Yes Yes, that is a cloak thing on the right so fobby huh?? Mmkay that’s all for now!

One of those OMG I need to update post

So I’m not sure if I have a great recollection of what has happened in the past 3 days! But I must say that a close friend (for her, it’s my only friend LOL) of mine reminded me that this blog is suppose to be a food blog and not so much an adventure blog and I apologize! I feel very behind now since I’ve probably had about 8 bobas without reviews =O so consider this day one! Here is the beginning of the boba tasting..this is just a couple, I’m still trying to put together the pictures LOL.

Rating 4/5

Rating 2.5/5

Rating 4.8/5

Rating 3.5/5

                  

Great day turns sour

My gosh! Today was really fun because all the exchange students had a orientation, so got to meet lot of new friendly and international friends! Then there was a very long presentation on everything we need to know to be a student here, although a lot of it is explained in the handbook that you could just read on you own.

After that got to try many delicious foods with Mary! And got to finally use the citibank and it works! hooray!!

Got back to to my dorms and there it was..an infestation of ants..EVERYWHERE..

The next 1.5 hours was devoted to killing and wiping up ants and me freaking out..I know you are probably thinking..Betty they are just ants..BUT no, they aren’t JUST ants when all of a sudden everything you are familiar with, everything you can rightfully call your own is now covered in ants. Especially being this far from home, I would say these are things that I can still call “home.”Ants climbing on your covers, ants coming out of your laptop, ants just everywhere.