I like to eat giant jipais - Day 41 - June 15, 2010

Mosquito Bites of the Day: 6
Total: 17

It's been a while since I got mosquito bites. I woke up with four bites and got my fifth one when I went to Shilin Night Market =( One on my face, one on my left arm, two on my right, one on my right index finger, and one on my ankle (from Shilin) -_-

Giant Jipai at Shilin



I went to the Shilin Night Market to eat my giant jipai! There is always a long line to get one of these babies.

50NT=$1.55


Do you see the size of that big? It's seriously the size of that big. It's HUGE. It's actually good, but I got tired of it once I finished a little over a half. It got salty and oily for me. It fills you up pretty up too.



This is a picture of a typical fresh fruit and vegetable stand. I got bored while standing in line.

Ximen

30NT=$0.93


I went to Ximen after the Shilin Night Market so Theresa can get her ear pierced. I found a drink place that had Almond Milk Tea! I've been looking for a place that has this and it tasted pretty good! The one I tried at Shida tasted like crap >_<

I also bought two tops for the winter since I don't have many winter clothes. I couldn't find any other colors that looked good aside from gray -_-

150NT=$4.66


150NT=$4.66

Dragon Boat Festival - Day 37 & Day 38 - June 11 & 12, 2010

June 11, 2010



I actually didn't do much this day. I had my usual routine, wake up, go to work, eat lunch, and rest a bit. I did take a picture from the sixth floor bathroom while waiting for Theresa to get ready to work out. I didn't work out that day since I still have my cold and it was raining. Not a good combo. The building here is the NTNU extension. It was where I stayed last year when I participated in the study abroad program. They usually have visitors and professors staying there temporary. The NTNU also has a separate Mandarin Summer Camp.

I was craving for some piggy for lunch! 85NT=$2.64


I went to Danshui but left early since all the shops were closing. I was really excited for my dinner, but it didn't taste the same like last week. The chicken was undercooked =( It wasn't as crispy and my meat was pretty pink =(

50NT=$1.55 meal




It was also a rainy day by the way. After that, headed onto Shilin Night Market since the night was still young. The picture shows a partial crowd. It's really crowded at the Shilin Night Market. It takes forever to get through sometimes if you can't find an opening and try to pass those slow walkers. Surprisingly I only bought one top at Shilin =)

150NT=$4.66


June 12, 2010



Today was one of the celebrations of the Dragon Boat Festival. This took place at the Riverside Park. It starts pretty early too, I think it started around 9AM or something but I didn't get there until 11AM. There were still races going on. What is the Dragon Boat Festival? Well from what I know, the official holiday is actually this coming Wednesday and a lot of people are off from work that day



There are groups of people who will form a team to represent their school, company, group, and etc. to participate in the dragon boat races. As you can see in the pictures, it's this long boat where each person has to work together to stroke at the same time. There are different races. There are men's, women's, and mixed team races.



Around the area are tents for each team. There are also other tents where people are trying to sell products. I saw two tents were giving away free stuff. If I lived in Taipei, I would be all over that. But I didn't stand in line for anything because I wouldn't take it back to the states. Well I did stand in line for this one tent where you had to play a game to win something, but they closed off the line. Theresa and I stood behind this sign (that said end of line or something in Chinese) and we had no clue until the man holding the sign said something to us a couple of times. But other than that, the best part are the food tents of course since I love to eat =D



I did try one thing while I was there. It was a potato/radish cake. They have this at Dim Sum (also known as lo bok go) but Dim Sum tasted so much better. This radish cake thing is fried. They put some sauces on it that made it a little sogy. I like mine crispy =) But it was alright tasting! It filled me up =)

35NT=$1.09


SOGO Mall



There are a bunch of SOGO Malls throughout Taipei. The one I went to was close by Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT Station. I went with Theresa so she can find some discontinued MAC eye shadows. I didn't take pictures of the inside since I already did before. But got a picture of one of the buildings of SOGO and another building shot of something random. The MAC at this SOGO sucked! They didn't have many eye shadows at all. In fact, they had duplicates of the same shade, some of them went up to three. The workers there also didn't really know much about makeup or what they're doing because they'll say, "Oh all of them will look good." That's not very specific.

Later On...

I got back to my hostel around 2PM or so. What did I do? Stay online for a bit and took a nap after! It felt good. I think I only napped for about an hour though. Started the evening at Wufenpu and found myself a business jacket! I've been looking everywhere for one.



I also bought a mochi =) Yum yum, it's a desert that's made out of a sweet flower with grounded sugar/peanuts in the inside (mochi varies) and more grounded peanuts on the outside. I can't eat many of these, they fill you up like no other.

5NT=$0.16

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

More Good Finds - Day 30 - June 4, 2010

Someone tried to jack my flash drive!

The story I am about to tell you happened to me the day before this I believe. I think it was a Thursday then. I forgot to write it in my previous blog. But here is what happened...

I was in the computer lab during work and used my flash drive. I left for lunch and returned to the lab to work. I saw someone using the computer I used, so I went to the computer behind it. I went into my backpack to look for my flash drive and didn't see it. I realized I must have left it at the old computer.

Luckily, I spotted my flash drive still in the previous computer. There was someone sitting there, but I went over there anyway and just grabbed my flash drive. I plugged my flash drive into my computer and saw the other guy put his flash drive in. I thought he may have believed he couldn't use the USB spot since someone else's flash drive was already plugged in.

Well turns out he was going to jack my flash drive! I looked at what was in my flash drive and there was Vietnamese music already in there. He put in 235 songs! That punk wasn't even going to turn my flash drive in to the front desk. But whatever, I didn't care since my Books folder was still there. I went in my Books folder and saw he erased everything! That bitch was going to jack my flash drive and he already deleted all my files. I'm glad I didn't say anything like excuse me to him before I grabbed my flash drive.

That incident got me a little hyped for 15 minutes. It woke me up from my food coma though!

Exchange Rate went down =(

I also went to exchange money. The exchange rate went from $32.04 to #31.95. A slight change but it still makes a difference =(

Ximen



I went to Ximen to buy some Dragon Ball Z figurines for my friend. I also tried Mister Donut! I heard a lot of good things about Mister Donut and finally had room in my stomach to fit some in. But I didn't really pick a good donut =( Mine was a chewy donut, not much of a fan for that.

35NT=$1.09 - I wouldn't get this again.


Shilin Night Market

I went to Shilin night market after since Theresa really wanted to hunt for her dog tags. We also wanted to stay out as long as we could since we weren't going to bed until late today =)

Found a cheaper roubao (meat bun) for 10NT=$0.31.


Look how big they are! Domo!


What I bought

150NT=$4.68


Yay boots for 850NT=$26.53


Fail #17

The best thing about living at our hostel is there is no curfew. So keeping that in mind, Theresa and I thought we can stay out as long as we want. This is true, but we also forgot that the buses and MRT has a curfew.

We were heading back to the MRT and saw that it was CLOSED. I asked two girls what time it was (since none of us had our cellphone on us) and she told me 1AM. So my guess is the MRT stops running around midnight.

BIG FAIL!

Shilin Night Market is pretty far from our hostel. So we decided to follow the MRT tracks as much as we can to get back to our hostel. But we reached a dead end and the only road we can follow was a highway. However, there weren't any sidewalks on the highway.

We ended up taking a taxi home that cost us 200NT=$6.26. Taxi here charges by time and in a combination of speed. We didn't want to spend extra cash =( So we told the taxi driver to drop us off at Shida Night Market and walked the rest of the way to our hostel.

So sad, we were so happy with what we bought, then got sad with what we spent for the ride back.

Oh well, lesson learned haha.

Getting sick in Taipei =( - Day 27 to 29 - June 1-3, 2010

I have been feeling exhausted lately. My legs seriously have no rest here since I do so much walking each day and then go out clubbing on Saturday night. Then the lack of sleep I get during the weekdays because I'm so use to staying up late over the weekend. This blog is mostly going to be about food.

I haven't gone to many places except for Gongguan to do a little shopping and eating during these three days. Not to mention that I got sick on Wednesday =( I woke up with a really dry throat. Then my nose started to run later on the day so I went to get some medicine. I haven't gotten full blown sick (hopefully that won't happen), but my throat stopped feeling dry. Right now it's kind of itchy and I cough here and there. But the nose stopped running! That's a good sign =) There's a lot of other people here in Taipei that are getting sick. I see them wearing masks.

Day 27

Lunch was at the student cafeteria. I wanted to try their jipai. It wasn't too bad, it just tasted cheap because it was cheap. But it's so much better than eating the stuff at Grand Valley. The green vegetables is Chinese broccoli.

38NT=$1.19


Fail #16

Dinner was at Gongguan Night Market. I was trying to find this man's food stand. It looked like he was making an almost Philly Cheesesteak without the cheese. I saw some other guys eating it and it smelled so good! But he wasn't there on Monday or Tuesday =( I think he disappeared. He may have been an illegal vendor haha.

So I got this instead for 50NT=$1.56. It's Chinese sausage with onions, cilantro, and garlic cloves in a sticky rice wrap. It tasted pretty good, but there too many garlic cloves so the garlic overpowered the rest of the food.


Day 28

To help ease my throat, I went to get some hand shaved noodles in soup at Shida Night Market. It felt so good =) The one ordered had noodles, pork meat, and wontons. It was really good.

65NT=$2.03


Day 29

Since I was still feeling sick this day. I went to get some congee/rice soup/rice porridge. This is rice boiled until soft. I usually eat this when I'm sick since it's warm and doesn't make my throat too itchy. The place I went to was a restaurant behind Shida. They sell dumplings, xiao long bao, noodle dishes, and more.

Their congee tasted pretty good. It was thicker than what I wanted. But I was surprised when they put pieces of fried dough (I love that) and preserved eggs. I thought there was only going to be pork in it and of course, the usual green onions.

Shredded Pork Congee for 60NT=$1.87 and Crispy Onion Cake for 30NT=$0.94


Shilin Night Market



I went to have dinner at the Shilin Market near the night market. There were a lot of tourists that day. Shilin Market is basically an open building with a bunch of food stand areas. A lot of the stuff is cheap, but some can get pricey depending on what products they sell. Some places sell pineapple cake, oyster with egg, crab and fish dishes, and there is even a Mongolian grill. I went to a stand that seemed like it was popular and cheap!

This was 50NT=$1.56 with vegetables and wonton. The wonton was extremely flavorful and good. I'm not sure what sauce was in the noodles. But it tasted a little bit like peanuts and sesame oil. It seemed really sweet and salty at the same time, but I was sick so -shrugs-


Hehe 10NT=$0.31 deep friend chicken wing!


Check out this promotion technique for Converses. It definitely grabbed my attention haha.


Ties & Boots

I bought ties for Mitch =) They were only 100NT=$3.12. What's neat about these is you don't have to tie. No you don't pin them on. This is a zipper tie where you tug the loop to make it looser or tighter.


Front, Back, and side view. I bargained the price down from 980NT=$30.59 to 850NT=$26.53. I love being able to bargain at night markets =) I should have tried 800, but I didn't even think they were going to let me buy it for 850.