I'm so fat my belt broke!

Today is the first time I cooked at home. Well, not exactly cooked, just a fancier version of instant noodles. I cooked some instant Oyster noodles (蚵仔面线) minus the oysters. Boil some water, add dry noodles and seasoning, then mix some corn starch in a seperate bowl of cold water. Then combine. See..fancy instant noodles :)

Anyways, a few hours later my belt busted. Was it the fancy instant noodles or because it was made in china? Yes, thats right, it's not my belly's fault and I'm not fat! I tried going to the neighborhood tailer to see if he can fix it. No dice. So being Friday and all, I decided to head back to ShihLin night market for a new belt. But first, a haircut.

I've been procrastinating on cutting my hair because of the language barrier. Now or never right? Well after some very bad chinese, i got it cut. Not the style I was looking for, but I think the hairstylist gave up and just did her thing. Umm...what did you do to my hair!? haha just kidding. It took me 30 minutes in front of a mirror to get used to it.

So back to the ShihLin night market and my search for a new belt. I finally found one I liked, and bargained it down from $1080 to $600. Later I learned that i probably could have bargained down to $300. oh well, $10 to help the Taiwan economy. Continuing with some window shopping, I discovered there are a lot of T-shirt stores. They have some pretty cool T-shirts to offer. Mostly english gibberish with a picture of an anonymous hip-hop looking dude posing like a ganster. I ended up purchasing a turqoise Pringles mockery for $7.50.

After an hour or two of shopping, I decided to head back to the MRT station. On the way back, I paid closer attention to the food they were selling, well.. because I was hungry. With all the awesome food Taiwan has to offer, I'm always hungry! I noticed a small japanese grandma selling Okonomiyaki from a stand. Okonomiyaki is a japanese omlette or pancake containing various ingredients. It's mainly asociated with the Hiroshima region of Japan. I've got to try this next visit. Walking on, I also noticed a stand selling fresh squeezed passion fruit juice (百香果). One of my favorite fruits. I love nibbling on the little seeds floating in the drink like pearls in milk tea. So I purchased a big cup for $40 TWD and promptly headed home before my eyes spy more food to make me fat. There really is still so many food options yet to be discovered. And you can always look forward to be blogging about it.

OMG! Chou Dou Fu!!! 臭豆腐!!!

So deciding i'll be going back to ShiPai night market, I memorized the chinese characters of 臭豆腐. Add three more words to my chinese vocabulary :). Once at the night market, I was able to spot three stalls that served it. I ordered one to go, plus some popcorn chicken and strawberry ice slush. $140 TWD or $4 USD [insert big grin]. In addition, tonight was the first night that wasn't hot. It almost felt alittle cold. Of course it's probably still 82 degrees + and i'm sure it's only temporary until the season really starts to change around October. But for now, it's a relief.

Deep fried goodness @ ShiPai night market

So tonight i've decided to walk over to the local ShiPai night market as see what they have there. It ended up raining, but cleared up a few minutes after leaving the house. My main goal was to find a local vender for shou dou fu (臭豆腐) aka stinky tofu. I love that stuff! Alas I couldn't find it, but I did make another discovery. A deep fried stand serving sweet potatoes and popcorn chicken (鹹酥雞). I started craving fried sweet potatoes when I first discovered it at the TongHua night market two years ago. I haven't found it at any other night market since including the big ShihLin market. So i bought some as well as 32oz. of "Red Tea" (紅茶). That's a big american serving size for Taiwan! I'll be returning to continue my search for stinky tofu!!

Finally, Din Tai Fung!

Din Tai Fong is near the top of my list of restaurants to visit during my stay here in Taipei. So finally I got a chance to go there with my family (Hong-Mei and her husband). Their Xiao Long Bao (also known as soup dumplings) is amazing. We had two types, pork and crab filled. I'll let the photos speak...

Finally, they found me a local night market closer to my place of residence called ShiPai. Less than a mile walk. If I discover any delicious food, i'll be sure to post and share. Good night everyone!

NY Bagel in Taipei?

Today, I joined my cousins again for a lunch at NY Bagel on Section 4, RenAi Rd. It's a multilevel 24 hour american style diner. It has pasta, salads, steaks, burgers, milkshakes and of course bagels. I'm comparing it to Noah's bagels from the Bay Area, but it's nothing like it. Noah's bagel is more or less a fast food place, limited tables, mostly order-out. NY Bagels Cafe Taipei is an elegant sit-down restaurant. They had a eclectic menu and I had difficulty with choosing what to eat. So i decided with a steak & pasta (i forgot the name).The meat was cooked perfect, but the taste wasn't quite there. Perhaps it's just the difference between asian cow and texas cow or the type of fire they use. Either way, I still enjoyed it. And being 24 hours, is a great place to eat when the Taipei night life shuts down after 2AM.

Taiwanese crepe thing

Just picked this up from the ShihLin night market. There was a long line of people waiting for it, so i figured it's gotta be good. Turn out to be a deep fried cake, crushed and rolled up in a thin flour crepe. They come in several flavors. I chose curry. When they make it, they roll it up, then whack it a few times with a mallet. Tastes awesome! Does anyone know what this is?

Edit: My cousin says it's 大饼包小饼

Bitan bridge over Xindian river

I took some time out today to meet up with a family friend. We took a long MRT train ride down the Xindian line. Xindian is the last stop. The location is famous for it's 75 year old wood suspension bridge. It used to swing way more years ago, but now it's been strengthened with cables and metal support beams. Maybe because of too many complaints from people with weak stomaches. There is a legend that several swimmers have been sucked under and disappeared into the whirlpools in the river. I didn't feel like hauling my big DSLR out...a mistake. So my point-n-shoot sufficed.


This is a wall made out of personalized bricks. One for each person that donated. At least that what i assume. Here's one of two little piggies :)

For a 3pm snack we ate some peanut crumble covered blood cakes (豬血糕) and sour cabbage stuffed stinky tofu (臭豆腐, Shou Dou Fu). The tofu is actually fried then grilled and basted. Yumm! And for desert some shaved ice with red bean and other deliceous toppings. I think that about rounds it off. I'm heading out to the ShinLin nightmarket again suckers!

My new tripod

So I finally purchased a new tripod. I went back to the photography district, explored alittle more, got lost...twice. Then found the same store and took their deal. $124 for a Benro aluminum tripod with a Giotto ball head. Benro is a Chinese company. Giotto is a Taiwanese company. The ball head holds 13.2 lbs, a quick release plate and a tri-level bubble leveler. US Market value is probably around $350. Win!


While exploring I had to cross the street in an underground tunnel that apparently no one uses and the city forgot about. It was dark, damp, rusty, damaged, drippy, mildewy, smelly, bug infested and downright nasty. So I took a picture LOL.

Photography district @ Taipei Main station

I got the time to visit the photography streets west of the Taipei Main MRT train station. I didn't bring my camera, but I'll snap a few next time. There are ALOT of shops. Some offering only high end name brand stuff. some offering cheaper offerings. I was looking for Benro (China brand), so i skipped the shops with Manfrotto and Gitzo. Also I was looking for colored flash gel packs. They didn't have anything close to that. Oh well, maybe i'll just make my own. In order to get there, I had to walk through the Taipei Main station underground metro mall. It's Huge! Excellent place to walk around, eat, shop, or watch the high schoolers killing time breakdancing and other sorts of group dancing.

Finally, I think i'm getting used to the heat. 100+ degree day with 90% humidity, sun is out and no breeze. Didn't have much of an issue. shorts would have helped though :(

Huashan brewery, urban decay

Started out the day with a cup of spicey Xian Dou Jiang (咸豆浆).


Then some exploration into local Taipei urban decay of an old brewery. It's now called the Huashan 1914 creative park. On Weekends they have mini K-cars parked there serving small snacks. During the evening it's a good place to pick up a leaded drink.



Then finished the day off at a nice Japanese restaurant. It was a cool place. Live band suspended above the bar. The place used to be an old theatre. They had a boat of Uni pile don Uni, my favorite! and only $11, I love Taiwan!