taipei day 2
written: 9:48 p.m. on Thursday, Jun. 14, 2007

1 plate of braised dou gan
1 plate of super nice, non-Seven Eleven liang mian
(these two items were from the same eatery at Taoyuan Street)
1 cup of super nice Legend bubble tea
1 cup of super super SUPER nice iced soy latte from a cosy little cafe in Fisherman's Wharf
1 cup of super nice sour plum juice
1 cup of regular iced latte from a random cafe (too milky)
1 piece of SUPER nice deep fried cong you bing in Shilin (the exact same stall I bought from last year. I'm so in love. And it's like, eighty cents)
2 super sweet strawberries from some random roadside stall in Shilin (those who know me should know that I hate strawberries because they're always damn sour. The ones I ate today? Amazing)
1 plate of smelly toufu which I loved after a while
1 cup of strawberry + Taiwan's Yakult drink
3 pieces of apple and 2 cups of sour plum green tea when we went to a relative's place
1 preserved plum or whatever from said relative's place

I am SO. INCREDIBLY. BLOATED. Forgive the crudeness but man - I totally need to shit to get my stomach back to normal again. I resorted to drinking milk which usually gives me some form of diarrhea and therefore I make it a point not to drink milk in its pure form, because for some reason whenever I find myself in a new environment, I get constipation-esque problems. How fantastic.

I did shopping today! What I bought:

1 pink cami - NT$190
1 light green short-sleeved shirt - NT$290
1 double-layered sleeveless top - NT$280
1 flowery cami - NT$300
1 brown shorts - NT$290
1 uh, very nice pointy shoes - NT$190

(Divide prices by 20 to approximate Singapore equivalent. I'm too lazy to do it)

I LOVE SHILIN. WITH ALL MY HEART AND SOUL. The shopping is amazing. Like, totally. My mom and I waltzed into a couple of super expensive boutiques (I had my eyes on this lovely top that cost about a hundred Sing dollars which is CRAZY. I don't even spend so much on jeans) but generally, clothes are very very very very cheap. The downside is that you can't try them on so there's the risk of them looking absolutely ugly on you (e.g. the flowery cami is like super wide which is kind of ugly but I'm sure it can be fixed) but I'm sure everyone roughly knows how to see if something is likely to fit so it's not a significant downside. At all.

Shilin is amazing. And I can't get over the cong you bing. When I got there I was super stuffed from drinking those coffee and plum juices so I only bought ONE PIECE. Which is obviously NOT ENOUGH because it's SO YUMMY. Regular cong you bing is pan-fried; the Shilin one is DEEP FRIED. Argh! Like I said yesterday, living in Taipei would totally make me fat.

Also? I would like to declare my undying love for smelly tofu. OH MY GOD IT'S SO AMAZING!!!!!1111!!!11!!11!ONE! Seriously, once you get over the initially-repulsive stench, it gets so much better. But yes, I'd say it's an acquired taste 'cause my mom still hates it and my dad doesn't even want to try. And I think the one I had last year with my cousins at the night market from across the road was nicer (going to eat there like tomorrow or something; was too stuffed tonight) but the Shilin one was not bad too. Actually, it was damn good.

The food centre doesn't have much of a variety actually. There were a lot of stalls selling smelly tofu and oyster omelets, some selling chicken chop and steak, a lot of fruit juice/bubble tea stalls. So one can't really say one's spoilt for choice. Still, it was my first time eating there (yeah, I know, kill me please) and I was much pleased for my smelly tofu was super super nice. Yay.

My mom didn't like her oyster omelet though; she complained that there were only, like, four oysters. Haha. And yes, we bought back chicken chop for the dad and brother (brother went back after Danshui 'cause he was tired so me and my mom explored Shilin on our own) from the stall that always sees a queue. I wouldn't know whether it's good or not though.

So yes, my tummy is muchly happy today, though I'm appalled by how INCREDIBLY bloated it looks. I wanted to eat the smelly tofu I saw everywhere in Danshui but I was too full. I think we're going back there to buy more nougats though; we bought a box today and it's awesome. Anyway, I totally wanna go back to Danshui because they have both Dunkin' Donuts and Mister Donut, I want to eat smelly tofu, I want to eat Danshui fish balls (I was looking forward to eating the fish balls I ate from one of the stalls at Fisherman's Wharf last year but they didn't have it anymore, so sad), there's this thing called Ah Gei which Danshui is famous for but I have no idea what it is so if it's non-meat I want to eat that too, there was this Turkish dude selling ice-cream and I want to eat that too (he was DAMN FUNNY!), and I'm sure there's more but I can't recall at the moment.

Ah, I love Taipei. So far I've done a lot more eating than shopping which is shocking but it's Taipei. I should try ma la (hot and spicy) smelly tofu but uh, when the food gets spicy in Taipei, it gets really spicy and I'm scared. Hahaha.

Non-711 liang mian is totally liberating. I loved it. Couldn't finish it though, because I'm me. How sad.

Also, the McDonalds in Danshui has the prettiest view of any McDonalds I've ever seen in my life. There's an outdoor patio that overlooks the river - very, very breath-taking. It's the only McDonalds that's date-worthy in my book.

I love the random cafes that are almost everywhere in Taipei.

Will post photos when I get back to Singapore; the wireless network I'm leeching off has too weak a signal strength.

I don't want to go back to Singapore. Ever. I love it here I can't even explain it.

before sunrise // before sunset

Previously:
- - Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017
I'm moving. - Sunday, Jul. 11, 2010
In all honesty - Tuesday, Jul. 06, 2010
What I want for my birthday... - Sunday, Jul. 04, 2010
On Roger's behalf. - Friday, Jul. 02, 2010