Craving for Fried Rice - Day 33 - June 07, 2010

What do I when I crave food?



I go out and buy that food to fulfill my craving! That's what I did when I went to Shilin Night Market =D When I was browsing for food at the Shilin Market with Theresa last week, I saw a lot of stands that offered fried rice and wondered if it would taste good since I never had fried rice in Taiwan.

The restaurant stand that I ate at.


They provide a seating area.


My fried rice for 90NT=$2.81! It didn't fill me up all the way but it was mighty tasty =)


Fail #21

190NT=$5.95


I always wanted a stripe top like this, either gray and black or white and black. Well i thought this top was loose enough because that's the way I wanted. Unfortunately it's not as loose as the way I like it =( FAIL. But it still looks pretty good... ish... I'll make it work somehow!

Other things that I bought

Skinny jeans for 390NT=$12.21


All the bangles for 100NT=$3.13 =D


350NT=$10.95

KFC -drools- - Day 14 - May 19, 2010

I'm craving for a lot of American food lately. So how do I fulfill it? KFC! As you can see the picture above, a lot of KFCs are multi-leveled. The KFC I went to is located in Ximending.



Their menu is a little different. They have Daan Tart (Egg Tart), french fries, and corn soup. There aren't any mashed potatoes, regular corn, or cole slaw. I was really hoping they sold mash potatoes here, but looks like corn soup is for the win in Taiwan.

2 Piece Hot Wings: 35NT=$1.12

These wings were so good! You can actually taste a little spicy in them. The wings are also juicy and flavorful. I think I like the chicken here better than the US.

Daan Tart (Egg Tart): 28NT=$0.89

The daan tart is pretty good! They also have two other flavors that I will try another time. One has custard in it and the other has brown syrup with mochi. The crust/dough part of it isn't too bad, it's more flaky than what you normally get at the Chinese bakeries, less sweet too.

I'm still hungry



I was on a mission after KFC. To find the lady selling pork with green pepper shish kabobs. They are absolutely mouthwatering. I had to wait for at least half an hour though because the cops were around Ximending. There are a lot of illegal street vendors at Ximending. When they see cops, all the street vendors pack up their stand and start running for it so they don't get fined. It's pretty funny to watch it. You'll see it happen everyday and more than once.

40NT=$1.28


I didn't shop for anything in Ximen. I have been pretty good with resisting. I'll buy more stuff towards the end when I have leftover money =) Can't wait for that shopping spree! The next thing I did after Ximen was get some fruits at Shida Night Market, back to my hostel for a short rest, and to my first bar!

Roxy 99



On Wednesday night, you can get into Roxy 99 for free and receive two tickets for drinks before 9PM. I went to Roxy 99 with Theresa. We were both wearing flip flops and couldn't get the free drink tickets because they weren't nice shoes. What does Roxy 99 consider nice shoes? SNEAKERS! Seriously? That's not really "nice shoes" in the states unless you're a guy haha.

Here is the inside of the bar.




Roxy 99 is an alright bar. I can't really judge since this was the first bar I've been in. It took me about five minutes to realize that this was my first time in a bar haha. It was Theresa's first time too, so we had to take a picture like noobs.

I thought this was a cool glowy thing.

Big chickens make me laugh - Day 13 - May 18, 2010

Big chickens make me laugh. Why? I don't even know. I saw one today in Shilin Yeshi (Night market) and I just giggled and laughed.

Look how huge it is!


Maybe the reason why I cracked up was because it was so random. I'm just walking around eating my rou baozi (steamed meat bun) and I see this big chicken.

Anyways let's start with lunch!

Lunch Fail

Went to a small restaurant on the edge of Shida's night market. Thought it was going to be pretty good but it wasn't at all. Good thing I didn't spend much!

40NT = $1.28


What I ordered was basically noodles with pork and sauce. They overcooked my noodles so it was kind of soggy. There wasn't much flavor either in the sauce and not enough meat. They also put ooky green onions and bean sprouts haha. I'm not a fan of those two. I can stand eating green onions but bean sprouts >_< You know me and bean sprouts, we don't roll well together.

After work, I took a 2.5 hour nap. It felt GOOD. I'm not really sure why I slept so long. I've been getting almost 7 hours each day. Sometimes less, but I do need a lot of sleep haha. Then I headed out at 6:30 for dinner and Shilin Night Market.

Pho Pho Pho



Dinner was definitely better than lunch. I went to Thanh Ky behind Shida. It's a Vietnamese restaurant. According to their menu, they are famous for their Pho. Their Pho was okay tasting, I liked it more than lunch though haha. The restaurant itself is pretty small, but it smells like Vietnamese food =D Mmmmm.



Their prices aren't too bad. They sold fried spring rolls for 90NT=$2.87. I thought it was kind of expensive since it only came with two. That's what you would pay in the states.

I ordered the simple Beef Pho. The Pho was definitely not Pho Hoa. Golden 28's pho taste better than this one. Instead of using the skinny white noodle, they used a flat and wide noodle. The restaurant also overcooked my beef because it was chewy. I probably wouldn't order their pho.

This small bowl cost 95NT=$3.03. Not a bad price. I wish they had soy sauce, sriracha, and ho-sin sauce available =(


Shilin Night Market



Shilin night market is huge. There are so many stores to shop out, restaurants to eat, and stands to pig out on. I especially like the stands because they sell really cheap and good food.



I decided to try the rou baozi (steamed meat bun) for 12NT=$0.38. It was my first time trying a baozi in Taiwan. I was really surprised, I thought the baozi was going to suck but it was really good! It's like eating meat from dumplings but in a different dough. I was expecting less flavor but it was tasty =)



I also explored the Shilin Market. I thought it was a supermarket but it's a bunch of night stands with yummy food!. Definitely should have had dinner there. There will be a next tme though =)

Purchases of the Day

It's so hard to resist from buying so many clothes! I managed to get two things that I have to buy. A purse and boots =)

Purse: 200NT=$6.38 - Boots: 650NT=$20.75 - Good deals =)

I feel like an old lady - Day 7 - May 12, 2010

I feel like an old lady now and days. I get really tired by 10PM. Sometimes 8PM if I'm walking around the night markets and stores. I have no idea why! I get about 8 hours of sleep each day. Maybe it's because all I do during my internship is sit for 4 hours. But that should be changing in June hopefully!

New Cake

I went out to lunch today with Theresa and Xiao Wang. We walked to the area behind Shida for lunch. She treated us to the Asian pizza/pancake that I can't remember what it's called. Cong something haha. But she also took us to this dumpling place and let us try a piece of cake.

The texture was thicker than the Chinese cakes I had. I really like the red bean paste because it wasn't too sweet.


After work, headed to the bakery in Shida Night Market. A lot of owners here are getting strict with taking pictures of their store. But I managed to get some shots mwuahahaha!



I bought this cake =) I forgot how much it was, I think it was 38NT which is $1.22


Let's try Vietnamese Food
Decided to try the Vietnamese restaurant from a hungry girl in Taipei Blog because the Banh Mi in the picture she took looked really good. But I didn't get a Banh Mi because it was pretty expensive, it was 120NT = $3.83. One banh mi wouldn't get me full. Their food overall was kind of pricey for Taiwanese daily life. Especially for me since I'm not getting paid for the internship haha.



Passed the Taipei Arena along the way to the restaurant. This is where Jay Chou is suppose to perform in June for a concert. So sad =( I saw that tickets were sold out (of course). Just when I'm in Taiwan and get a chance to see a live concert, I won't be able to because tickets are sold out =( It's okay food made me happy.

Here is the storefront, inside the restaurant, and menu!



They showcased the sirarcha bottles haha.


What I got =) It's a Pork Rice dish with half an eggroll, egg, and vegetables. 140NT = $4.47


The pork was decently good, not the greatest. The eggroll had a weird taste at first but tasted good later. The egg thing was okay.


But the fish sauce tasted really good!


Sogo Department Store

With a full tummy, I started heading back to the MRT to go home. I had to switch from the brown line to the blue line to get back. One of the signs said SOGO Department Store. I been wanting to go there because people said it was good. I thought there was doing to be some cheap stores but they're mostly expensive brands =( Had some fun exploring the balling grocery store though.

Here are some shots of the levels of SOGO.


There was even a Din Tai Fung there! Haven't eaten there yet but I heard good stuff about it. I will soon!


The baller grocery store. Everything is pretty much overpriced.


Look they have this at Meijer haha.




Fail #10
To get home by the MRT, I have to get off at the Taipei Main Station. This station connects you to all the colored lines. I had to get on the green line to get back to my hostel. Well I completely forgot that one of the stations has two different routes. Once I saw an MRT approach, I quickly got on with Theresa.

Theresa and I both looked at these two girls in high heels who didn't get on the MRT. We thought wow, it's not too bad standing. We thought they wanted seats and we started laughing at them for some reason. Well turns out we got on the yellow line instead of the green line. The yellow and green line meets at one station where we could have got off at (Guting) but we would have to switch to another green line to get to Taipower Building stop.

So FAIL we had to get off the yellow line and get on the green line. Then we realized that the girls waiting for another MRT were probably waiting for the green line. Jokes on us. FAIL.

The Grand Finale

Remember the grocery store inside SOGO? Well I found a pair of flip flops there. These flip flops cost 6600NT = $210.66! It doesn't look really special right? The sparkling stuff on the thong are embedded with crystals. No wonder it's in a glass case. CRAZY!