Yakisoba at home

Yuki and I stayed home tonight and cooked...Yakisoba! Yakisoba always remind me of my grandmother cooking it for me when I was young. Yuki cooked it and I just helped and watched since I've never cooked this before. Seems pretty simple. The correct type of noodle, carrots, lettuce and yakisoba sauce and of course seaweed on top. Seaweed was my job. I had to use seaweed thats not supposed to be used as a topping, but sometimes you have to utilize what you have right? Speaking of toppings, I topped off our dinner with my new favorite beer here in Taiwan. Singha! It's a Thai beer. Kind of tastes like Taiwan beer with more of a spicy kick. Not top shelf beer, but it's damn good value for your buck, literally. $1/can ($1.25 for a bottle). I wonder if there's a place in Taipei that has this on tap? Anyways, I really enjoyed our dinner. One of my favorite japanese dishes with one of my favorite beers. Cheers!

Air raid day

Today was air raid day in Taiwan. I'm not entirely sure the reason why. But the way my teacher explains it, is to protect citizens during a bombing run if there happens to be a war between Taiwan and China. She says they do this every year. Sometimes twice a year if the relationship with China is bad. This is the first time in 2 years that they have done this, so I guess the relationship is good. So between 2-2:30pm no one is allowed in the streets. No pedestrians, no cars, no motorcycles. Just police like a city declared under marshall law. So Taipei becomes eerily like a ghost town. It wasn't as dramatic as I thought it'd be, because there are still a few people still on the sidewalks walking. But essentially a very quiet and empty Taipei when it's normally very busy and crowded. Moving on...writing yesterday's blog entry really got me craving for some Yakisoba. So after class, I set out to find a japanese store that sells Yakisoba. I remember it so fondly from my childhood when my japanese grandmother made it. It's so tasty and it really stands out as a special dish for me. She cooked it for me when I was living in Taipei (along time ago). So it seemed fitting to enjoy some Yakisoba again in Taipei. We found it in a small restaurant that I dined at before with a friend from Boston. It's called 紅蜻蜓食事處 (no english name that I saw). They're specialty is Yakitori and Kushiyaki. Having tried it before I can definitely recommend this place. But prepare to bring some extra cash, it's not that cheap. It won't break the bank, but is beyond my student budget for now. It's about $100 NT a plate and you'll need a few plates per person. But I was there for the Yakisoba. It turned out to be tasty too, despite not being grilled. However the serving portion was small and there was exactly two pieces of beef. They have the flavor down, but please give me more! Well, I guess it's a Yakitori bar, so I guess your supposed to order several plates at once in stead of a single plate meal. So I guess that's my fault. I shall return with more money and choose the delicious meat skewers next time instead.

No. 35之1號, YǒngKāng Street, Daan District
Taipei City, Taiwan