I love holidays - Day 42 - June 16, 2010

Mosquito Bites of the Day: 2
Total: 19

Freaking mosquito bit me on the hand and pinky!

Dragon Boat Festival

Today is actually a national holiday, the dragon boat festival. A lot of people get off from work, including the place I work in. That means I get to sleep in ^_^ The original plan was actually to wake up and go to the festival or to the zoo. But both of those didn't happen. Ended up snoozing, sleeping in, and waking up at 3:30pm. It's so bad!

Shida Night Market



Instead, I ran five laps on Shida's track. So that could be 1.25 miles. I'm gradually improving =) After that was dinner at the hand shaved noodle shop. On the way there, I took some pictures. The first picture shows the area artists usually come by and perform their music. Last year I saw a girl singing her songs and trying to sell her albums. Today was a man playing his violin. The second picture is just part of Shida Night Market.

Dinner at Hand Carved Noodle Shop



You get this view on the second floor of the restaurant. The second picture shows my one of my favorite restaurants. The yummy chicken restaurant ^_^ You can also see how crowded night markets get. It's a pain to walk through the crowds, especially because people walk soooooo sloooooowwwwwwww. You have to try to weave your way through if you want to go faster.

Let's start with small side dishes.

This is free pickled vegetable you can grab.


Pickled cabbage for 30NT=$0.93


Pickled cucumbers for 30NT=$0.93


Fried rice for 80NT=$2.48. It was good, but it needed more flavor. I mixed the sauce of the stir fried noodles into the fried rice. That made it good =)


A big plate of the stir fried hand shaved noodles is 90NT=$2.79. Theresa dugged in already so I didn't take a picture of the plate. But I ordered this before and it is good!


Each little cake thing is 10NT=$0.31. The first one has pieces of mango around the cake part and the other is strawberry. They both have cream inside. It's good!

Laundry takes so long! - Day 8 - May 13, 2010

Doing laundry in Taiwan takes forever. I seriously mean forever. The washer is about the normal time, but no matter what, the dryer is the longest. I remember last year I had to wait for over an hour and a half for a small load to get done. It's happening again this year!

Except the dryer door is broken. So what do you do when the dryer door won't close to start the machine? Find heavy stuff to make it close. WIN! Well half win really because the door gradually opens and it would stop the dryer from going.

Piggy piggy piggy



I saw the BBQ restaurant yesterday when I had lunch with Theresa and Xiao Wang. The piggy and ducks looked so good! It had to be lunch for today =D

95NT = $3.03


Even comes with all you can drink soup if you dine in!


Exercising in the Park



There are machines at the park that you can exercise with. What you do is sit on there, and push the handle bars. You pretty much lift your weight. It was kind of cool because the seat goes up when you push.



Took some shots of the area behind Shida (NTNU).


I love dinner

I went back to the area behind Shida for dinner. Went to a restaurant that makes dumplings, xiao long bao, noodles, congee, and more. The food there was so good! At least what I ordered was really good!

I forgot to take a picture of the storefront but here is how the inside of the restaurant looks like. I was sitting on the second floor.


I ordered Mung Bean Noodles with Shredded Pork for 60NT = $1.92. It also had onions, vegetables and shredded ginger in it. The broth was simple, not much flavor, still pretty good though.


I'm not much of a fan of a lot of sesame seeds, but the Fried Onion Cake: 20NT = $0.67 was still good. The middle had so much flavor. I like =D


The best for last, Xiao Long Bao! They are steamed dumplings with a flavorful soup inside. This one is made out of pork and it is just amazing. You have to be careful when you pick it up with your chopsticks because you don't want the wrapper to rip. If it does rip, all the yummy soup will come out. It was good like how people said it. I still have to go to Din Tai Fung (Famous for xiao long bao). It's suppose to be the best there. Can't wait to see how much better it's suppose to be because it's already so good!

It's steamed in the container with a cloth underneath so it would be easier to pull off. I failed once because I let the xiao long bao get too cool.


For the rest of the night, I just went around Shida Night Market for a little shopping. Found even more new stores there. Even this frozen yogurt place! It looks really good, haven't tried it yet because I was too stuffed.


I wish I can eat forever and for free too haha.

Last but not least, a picture of the shared living room at the hostel. Cute little painting =)