taiwan and vietnam mix?

again, worked all day. i'm making progress. i can now dynamically specify the tile size for rendering an image, and i've optimized the reduce portion (i.e. compositing the tiles into a single image) to O(1) where n is the number of tiles, or O(n) where n is the number of pixels. having gotten to this milestone, i sat down and enumerated the things that i still have to do to be where I want to be. the list runs an entire page (double columned) in my notebook. hm...

at night, i went back to yongkang street, where the 2 best beef noodle houses are located. i didn't intend to go to either one. instead, i was going to try thang ky, a vietnamese pho house that won an award for their beef noodle in 2008. once i got there, i asked for a bowl of their #1 (the beef noodle) and #38 (cha gio, the imperial spring roll). now, before i continue, i should disclaim that i love golden deli. love them. except in august when they shut down for their annual trip back to the motherland. so, i compare all vietnamese food to them.

the cha gio came, and the skin was wonderfully crispy. the inside however, is not vietnamese. the filling was made with pork, vermicelli, and taro. a very taiwanese filling. the fish sauce did not stink. and they only gave you one small leaf, which was intended more as garnish, but which i used to wrap one of the pieces. at NT$90 (US$2.70) for 2, not worth it, since golden deli gives you 5 amazing ones, plus lots of leaves, bean sprouts, basil, lemons, etc for $6.

the pho was underwhelming. the soup had a nice flavor, but otherwise bland. the meat is really the star of the dish. unlike the meat in a stereotypical vietnamese pho, the shank and tendons have been braised taiwanese style, so that they are super succulent. however, they are sliced vietnamese style, so you only get a couple slices of each.

afterwards, i strolled across the street where a stand sells silken tofu. i asked for a bowl of warm tofu, topped with ginger syrup, peanuts, and boba. that was a great end to the meal.

i had intended to go to my fav stinky tofu place, but i was actually really full. another time...