Surprise..!2

These are from a place called Ximending, which is basically like "West Gate." Supposedly it's more popular with the teenage crowd, so it's apparently kind of strange that I go here at least once a week, but I'm the foreigner, so I get to break the social norms!


Not so lively during the day, but there's an all you can eat restaurant that also comes with all you can eat Haagen-Daas ice cream for 13 dollars.

This is sort of the main entrance street. That giant KTV is directly to the right of this picture.

This is down the main entry street, the screen plays advertisements and some sort of entertainment related stuff.

This guy rolled that ring around and did all sorts of crazy acrobatics. It was awesome.

And at night it's hyper crowded!

Surprise!

Mango shaved ice!


This one type of noodles called la mian. You can get all sorts of different types, this is one of the spicy seafood ones. There's a shop right next to our apartment and it's around $3-4 USD.


Some sort of black noodles with squid rings (the white rings). It was pretty good, though I have no idea what the noodles were.


I eat this for breakfast if I wake up early enough (never). It's sort of like a tortilla with an egg and this sort of bread on the inside.


It's a potato cooked in this giant stone hearth sort of oven. There's a fire in the center and the potatoes are put in little metal holders around the fire. It's kind of sweet.


Durian flavored ice cream. The ice cream doesn't really have a bad smell, and it tastes great. I have yet to try the actual fruit.


This is a sort of Korean dish. The metal disc is heated and you cook the meat on it, and cook the vegetables in the sauce around the edges. It's pretty good, but this was only a personal serving.
The ideal way to eat it is at an all you can eat location:



You get all sorts of different meats and vegetables, then you grill/cook them:

And then you dip the cooked meat (the little bowl) in the saucecof your choosing (on the right) and it's delicious!


Taiwan has a lot of all you can eat places, but this Korean one isn't so common. It focuses more on meat. The more Taiwanese ones are generally called "hot pot" and actually feature a pot with broth in it instead of a heated plate. There's more variety in the vegetables too and they're generally a bit more worth it. Next time!

Partyworld

What is this gigantic building you ask? What wild debauchery have I been engaging in at this "Partyworld"?!


Karaoke.


The place was nicer than most hotels. There's a chandelier in the entrance/waiting lobby.


The face of "Hmm, those characters look really familiar, but I have no idea how to read them. Or those. Or the ones after those. Or these."
It often becomes this face:

"I'm pretty sure I've never seen those characters, ever. I don't...you know, I'll just wait for the chorus to come back up." I don't have any pictures of me in this state, but I was told I looked as if I were about to cry :P

I made it through a few (3) Chinese songs in their entirety (80%), but the crowning accomplishment of the night was undoubtedly:



And finally, a picture of me with other people!

What I've Been Up To

Not Food!

Sunday was the dragon boat festival, and I went and watched some of the races in the morning! Afterwards I went to Taipei National University of the Arts, and then to a placed called Dan Shui, where they were having a sort of parade with traditional Chinese music, traditional Chinese costumes, fireworks, and the like to celebrate the birthday of Dan Shui's historial god (I think).
I brought my camera and intended to take a bunch of pictures, but left my memory card in the computer! I still have 3 pictures from the camera's built-in memory though!







They move really fast. We got to take a quick try in one in between the races, and I failed miserably at not splashing myself with water. The boats are also as narrow as they appear.


Also, for the dragon boat festival, the traditional food is sticky rice with either meat or vegetables at the center that is then steamed in a certain type of leaf. Sometimes the center filling isn't very good, but the rest of the time, they're pretty good. The connection to the dragon boat festival also entirely justifies this picture of food, which I stole from the internet.

More food!

I was going to make a post about not food, but realized I only had about 6 pictures of not food out of around 40. I'll just split the food up over time, and try to take pictures of something else...
"Oily rice" - it's similar to fried rice, though I'm not sure what the difference is. Delicious, of course.

The aforementioned squid on a stick, pre-frying.

If you enlarge this picture, you can read "roasted chicken buttocks," which are directly to the left of the non-fried chicken hearts. They're not bad, but don't even touch the deliciousness of chicken hearts.
Shaved ice, with bananas, some sort of gelatin, and two different types of sauce - banana and a red one. (Possibly stawberry...but maybe watermelon..?) Superbly good. Unquestionably ridiculous sugar content.

This comes cold, and tastes like milk with some coffee in it. Not bad, but every time I drink it I try to figure out what exactly it tastes like and can't.

These are basically a large slab of chicken. I have no idea what part of the body it is, though there's a bone at the bottom. They fry them up and then you get the following:
The red spice is sort of spicy. It tastes good! Also, for anyone concerned, I am taking this picture, and as such, am not wearing pink pants.
Green onions wrapped in pork with some sort of spice/sauce! Excellent, though I'll admit they were a tad too oily.
Thai food! No idea what it's called, but they have it in bars too, so I guess it's pretty popular. It's rice with some sort of vegetable, then on top is fried/grilled chicken with a great sauce. Awesome.

I have many more, but I'll try to post some not food first!

Night Markets

A few shots from the night markets. The first few (the ones that are actually during the night) are from the night market nearest our house. The ones during the day are from Shi Lin night market, which is the biggest one. It was open during the afternoon on Sunday, hence the daylight.
Night markets basically consist of vendors lining the sides of the street that sell a variety of things, but I'd say the most prevalent are clothing and food. Night market trips are always somewhat dissapointing in that by the time you've worked your way through about 2 or 3 different foods, there are at least 10 more things that look delicious that you could not possibly have the room to eat.

(Some of these are a little blurry when blown up..!)





ShiLin:

This was randomly in the middle of the market, I think it's a Buddhist temple, but am not sure!


Not quite as interesting as food, but then, what is?