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I had so much fun on my trip. I don’t even know where to begin. I started my vacation with the intention of blogging photos of each day, but *pffffft*, that obviously DID NOT happen. Every day was like a whirlwind, & by the time I had gotten back to my hotel room, it was extremely late & I was exhausted. My two friends who got married had a beautiful wedding (with a few very minor glitches). I have never experienced a half traditional Taiwanese , half Western mixed wedding before, & my friends pulled it off wonderfully.
One part that really amazed me was that my male friend was asked to sing a song during the wedding reception. According to my female friend (who is Taiwanese), it is part of a newer type of wedding tradition where the groom is required to prepare & choreograph a special song (of one’s own choice) & sing to the new bride. I was so happily surprised to see my male friend, who is usually quite shy, get up to sing in front of the entire wedding party. He chose to sing a popular/well-known Chinese pop song, & he sang the lyrics in Mandarin…which was a feat by itself, since my male friend mainly speaks Cantonese & English & was not very familiar with the Mandarin language until he met his new bride. He was really great with the choreography too!
Overall, all of us as a group had a really awesome & memorable experience in Taiwan. For some of us, it was a first-time experience. For others, it was like visiting familiar territory. I didn’t go as crazy with the food eating as I had initially thought I would. However, I DID go a little buck wild with the shopping. I really wasn’t expecting to do that much shopping in Taiwan. I gave myself a budget (I did stick to it) & had planned to spend a majority of my shopping budget in Japan…but I could not resist all of the cute stationery popping up around every corner! I ended up purchasing quite a bit of postcards, greeting cards & sticker sets. (Yes, I was a bit of a naughty girl.)
I have a special use for all these things, I promise!
Here’s a quick rundown of all the things that happened on the Taiwan leg of our Asia tour…
A glimpse at the food we ate:
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01. Won Ton soup noodles
02. Ramen Kagetsu Arashi (花月嵐拉麵) – tonkotsu ramen with onsen egg
03. Japanese beef curry with rice
04. Lion Head meatball (獅子頭 – shi zhi tou)
05. Locally farmed organic chicken with sliced green onions
06. Mini soup dumplings (小籠包 – xiao long bao)
07. Rao He night market – a very popular fried bun filled with minced pork & veggies
08. Fong Da cafe latte – this place is very famous & has been open since 1956!
09. Ice Monster red bean shave ice with ice cream & condensed milk
10. Ice Monster (very popular) mango shave ice with mango sorbet
11. All-you-can-eat hot pot – side A = spicy broth, side B = mild broth
12. You can choose up to 3 types of broth for your hot pot!
13. We celebrated our dear friend’s birthday with a tiramisu Mille Crêpe cake!
14. Believe it or not, Taipei is known for some really good Japanese sushi spots. We topped off our sushi extravaganza with some Negi Toro hand rolls.
15. We visited a 50+ year old beef noodle soup shop to have 紅燒牛肉麵 (hong shao niu rou mian – red roasted beef noodles).
16. Yes, we also tried Shanghainese food in Taiwan. This was some good slow cooked beef with some veggies in a delicious broth.
17. Didn’t get enough veggies yet, so we ordered a steamed cabbage dish
18. Shredded chicken noodle soup
19. Shredded bean curd served cold
20. Small river shrimp with a special vinegar sauce for dipping
21. The best thin rice noodles I’ve ever had at the 阿宗麵線 (Ah Zong Mian Xian – Ah Zong Noodle Line) food stall. No tables, no seats. Everybody just stands around the shop & eats on the sidewalk. You can add your own fresh mince garlic or special hot chili sauce.
22. A plate of duck with a bowl of soup noodles at 鸭肉扁 (Ya Rou Bian – Duck Meat Slice). I found out recently that the meat is actually wild goose, not really duck.
MORE PHOTOS AND INFO TO COME…
Happy Friday. I had a small revelation about myself today while I was driving alone in my car. Well, it wasn’t that dramatic. It was more like, I was thinking about random, unimportant things. Then, I suddenly started to realize some quirky things that I tend to do without consciously acknowledging them.
Poster courtesy of: minimalmovieposters.tumblr.com
1. Unlike my husband, who gets incredibly excited to watch new movies in the theater upon their fresh release, I don’t really get hyped up to watch new movies. It’s hard to get me excited to watch a new movie in theaters. I tend to gravitate more towards older movies. I don’t only mean classics from the 50s & 60s… I’m more likely talking about movies that are already released on DVD. If I find a movie that I like, I can watch that movie over & over (5, 6, 7+ times) without getting bored or tired of it. I am not going to say which is my favorite movie. I just can’t say. However, I can say this for example, I have a watched Ratatouille about 10 times already…probably more, & I am not sick of it. I don’t understand why I get this way over movies, but I just like what I like.
2. I tend to be a compartmental eater. Whenever I’m eating, I eat my food in sections. If I have rice or other starch items on my plate, I don’t like having other foods with sauce touching it. I like to eat the side items first, then the main item, & save the starchy items for last. When I visit Starbucks, I tend to only get their cheese & fruit box if I order food. The box contains: a packet of multi-grain crackers (6 pieces), green apple slices, a small container of dried cranberries & almonds, & a selection of 3 cheeses (aged Cheddar, Gouda & Brie). I will first eat the apple slices, then the container of cranberries & almonds. Even with the berries & almonds, I will eat them separately. I will eat all the cranberries before I eat all the almonds. Next, I will eat the cheeses separately. First I will eat the Cheddar, then the Gouda. Then, I will eat the crackers. Hwre’s where I kind of loosen my compulsive reigns a bit. I usually save the piece of Brie for last, but sometimes I will deviate & eat it with the crackers. (Oh! So scandalous!
Not.)
Well, that’s pretty much it. I recently told my husband about these 2 quirky things/habits of mine. He thinks I’m a bit odd, but he’s OK with it & so am I. I hope it’s sunny & hot wherever you are today. It’s nice & toasty where I am. Let’s enjoy. Cheers!
The last time I visited Japan was in December 2010, with my fiancee & my friends. These are some of the fun things I learned from my trip. Enjoy.
1. When you go to a cafe & sit outside and/or next to the window, you will be given a blanket to keep your lap/legs warm (only during Winter season).
2. Most restaurants/cafes have a designated basket with a cloth cover at each dining table. When you are seated, you can put your purse and/or shopping bags in the basket to keep your bags clear from the aisles & to keep them from getting dirty.
3. Hotel rooms will recycle your bed sheets & towels for 3 days unless you put the “change my sheets” card on your bed. This saves a lot on cleaning & water!
4. When it rains, all shops/stores will put a plastic cover on all of your shopping bags so they don’t get wet. (This is the one thing I wish our stores had in the U.S.)
5. Dudes are paid to drive big trucks with giant billboards around town while blaring the most annoying KPop music by the popular Korean boy band 2PM. (Do you notice that I don’t like the band 2PM?)
6. During Christmas time, even though you are overseas, you will NOT escape Western Christmas music…You will hear it EVERYWHERE. You will also hear “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” & Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” about 50 times a day, while not really sure if the locals even know what the lyrics mean.
7. If you go shopping at a major department store, the sales people will try to sell you everything & anything. They are insanely pushy, but polite as hell about it.
8a. I love the clothing brand A Bathing Ape, & I’ve noticed that ALL sales staff at every single Tokyo region Bathing Ape (a.k.a. BAPE) store are friendly & cool. Although they can’t speak much English, they can understand it & try to speak it to make you feel welcome. (I have also found that the sales staff at the BAPE stores in NY & L.A.(which is now closed) are also friendly/nice.)
8b. Every single time I go shopping at a Tokyo region Bathing Ape store with my fiancee, we will get special treatment, we will make friends with at least one sales clerk. I don’t understand this, but I guess my fiancee just appears to be outgoing & perhaps that is why others tend to gravitate toward him & can talk to him easily…even when there is a language barrier. (P.S. If you are ever in Shibuya, Tokyo….look up a guy named Saito at the BAPE store in Shibuya. He is one of the coolest store clerks I’ve ever met in Japan.)
9. You will see cheesy American restaurant chains all over Tokyo (eg. Outback, TGI Fridays, Denny’s, L&L Hawaiian BBQ, El Torito, Sizzler), but don’t expect crazy lines out the door. You will only find that mind-numbing queue at Eggs ‘N Things (which came from Hawaii). The whole Western food trend has come & gone already. (Plus, I’m a little biased & think that the Japanese spin on Western/American food tastes so much better than the way it’s cooked back home.)
10. You will hear Western Pop music everywhere compared to Japanese Pop music (which is not played nearly as much as Western Top 40/Pop). I couldn’t escape the songs “We R Who We R” by Ke$ha or “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz when I was in Tokyo.
11. The new latest invention in Japanese technology: Otohime. Every public bathroom stall will have a device that will make a running water sound for a more discreet bathroom experience. You just press the button on the device & it will make a flushing noise to mask the sounds. You can eve buy this in a handy pocket device for travel and/or public use.
12. Most public bathrooms will have a “regular” stall with squat-in-the-ground toilets or “Western” stalls with sit-down toilets. I thought this was pretty cool…that some rather old fashioned traditions still remain.
13. Fruits are not as expensive as you think they are. It’s not as if every grocery store in town will have that $40 watermelon you saw on reddit.com/ebaumsworld.com. Ok, so compared to American grocery store prices, they are pretty pricey ($6 for 2 apples). However, they are much more beautiful in color & shape, much more sweeter, & bigger in size compared to our U.S. market fruits. So, it’s almost like getting more fruit for your money. Plus, the only $40 fruits you will find are the organic ones, grown on some special farm, & comes in a fancy wrapped box that are supposed to be for gift giving. Those fruits you will find at super luxe department stores like Matsuzakaya or Mitsukoshi…or at fancy grocery stores that specifically sell organic goods.
Rabbits & Foxes 
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