it's been 3 days since my last blog posting! let's see if i can remember what happened this past weekend. good thing for ical :)
friday night the weather turned cold again. the wind and the rain made me really wish for my overcoat. i headed out friday night to shida, where i had planned to meet with some expats. shida is one of the famous universities in taiwan. right next to it is the national taiwan university (ntu). with the two unis in the vicinity, the area is one of the most bustling and western in taipei. not western like xinyi (which is more wall street like), but more greenwich village (in nyc) or los feliz (in los angeles).
i got there a bit early, and was feeling hungry, so i walked around the shida night market. i ended up in a beef noodle house that's been around for 30 years. don't remember the name of the place or the price of the noodles anymore. it was a pretty big bowl, and the soup was nicely flavored. the beef was a bit under braised though. and i don't think they used the shank. i think they used the brisket instead. anyway, it was a good escape from the cold; i'll have to go back to accurately review it.
i then went to insomnia cafe, which is a western style coffee shop, except that they serve alcoholic drinks too. met up with the expats, had some decent conversation topics, but i had to leave at 9pm.
i walked around the corner to cafe mezone, where there was a monthly friday milonga. most of the people who go there are either ntu students or alum. it was a good crowd, but the dance space was a little wierd, with the dance floor being in a separate room than the sitting areas. but that actually turned out to be a good thing, because i met this pair of sisters, who are just awesome. i noticed them when they initially showed up because in addition to being really hot, they were wearing these matching, bright red, beautiful dance skirt-pants. i then got to talking to the older sister because she was behind the counter when i was trying to order a drink, except the drink menu was all in chinese, and while i could read the individual words, i struggled with what exactly the drinks contained. so she helped me out a bit.
i eventually joined both sisters at their table and chatted them up. it was a fun conversation. they are both down to earth and have a wicked sense of humor. talking led to dancing, and after dancing with both, i'm floored. so i haven't danced with any of the instructors in taiwan yet-- to be honest, i wouldnt really recognize them either, so maybe i have-- but they are by far the best dancers i've danced with in taiwan. they have talent, skill, technique, and musicality. they're better than most dancers in la!
saturday morning i tried a new place for breakfast. so in taiwan, there are 2 big mega-chains for the traditional taiwanese breakfast, both with "soy milk" in their names. there's "yung ho four seas soy milk" and "yung ho soy milk big king". i always thought they were pretty similar, except that the latter is open 24 hours. and i usually only go to the former, because there's one next to the market where my aunt has her store. but last week, my uncle told me about how there's a store for the latter, which is even closer to where i'm staying-- it's just down a street that i usually don't walk. so i went and tried it. wow i've been missing out. the selection at this place is incredible, and both their soy milk and rice peanut milk are great. plus they're open 24 hours!
saturday night i decided to try out a new beef noodle place. i had run out of places that i should try, but found this page using google. i was a bit skeptical, because the guy listed the 7-11 beef noodles as one of the best. but i tried one of the places on his list, lin dong fang. it was good. a bit far to walk, esp in the rain, but they know how to braise their beef. they use a clear soup base, so the tendons, while well braised, are a bit tasteless. but the beef shank was good, and flavorful. for NT$180 (US$5.40), it was a bit expensive. i'll just go for the beef noodle without the tendons next time, which is only NT$130. afterwards i got a bowl of taro and silken tofu down the street. a nice hot ginger-spicy dessert.
btw, despite all this eating, i've lost 5 pounds in the past 2.5 weeks. wtf?
after dinner i headed to the milonga. i'm beginning to feel more comfortable here. i'm beginning to know more of the people, the staff. so i don't feel completely clueless walking in anymore. best part is, the sisters showed up! had a couple of dances with them, very fun.
for some reason, i slept until noon on sunday. i never do that, even when i've been really drunk the previous night. anyway, did some more work, and finished up a paper for a conference. it's not a big or highly rated conference, but it's cloud computing, and it'll be in taipei. fingers crossed.
at night i first went to miramar, which is a newly built, western style shopping mall with 8 floors. 3 of them belong to the movie theaters, which also houses the largest imax theater in asia. i was impressed with how many people were there, all the stores, etc. there was even a beer pub, le biere d'or, though i think they misspelled "biere" as "bie". i'll have to go back and try it. walked around for about 10 minutes trying to find where i could buy a ticket. turns out you can buy them right at the concession stand, along with your concessions! so you can only buy tickets 3 days in advance, so i figured i'll have to return for tickets.
then i caught the free shuttle bus from miramar to shilin market. the bus is a brilliant idea. they provide for free that would otherwise cost NT$15 (< US$0.50), and people for ridiculously long lines to go to miramar to spend money. at shilin there were so many people, it was unbelievable. in the past few years, night market attendees have decreased, mainly due to the economy and a westernization of taiwanese youth in general. but with monday being a holiday, and everyone having returned to their ancestral homes for the holiday, the night market was packed. i went back to the stand that sells the cigarette cases, and got the one i wanted, which is double width, so that i can hold the cash and cards that i have to carry here in taiwan. the guy recognized me from my purchase 2 years ago, so gave me a discount. so i got the new case for NT$300 (US$9.00). nice. i also passed by a shoe store, and saw a pair i liked. tried it on, it was pretty comfortable. bought it for NT$690 (US$21). even though it's rubber soled, i think i'll wear it for dancing.
i then went in searching for food. the stinky tofu stand i usually go to wasnt there, so i tried the one next to it, which i've been meaning to try. i also order an oyster omelette from them. the tofu was very crispy-- i think they overfried it. the pickled cabbage also had carrot slices in it, and wasn't very tasty. the omelette was mediocre. walk a bit more, and saw a stand selling squid&calamari soup. order a bowl for NT$50 (US$1.70). It comes with many large slices of squid and calamari and bamboo shoots. yum. that stand also sells oyster omelette, which looked a lot better than the one i had. the owner was surprised i didn't order one of them; i guessing that everyone does, because that's probably what they're known for. i'll have to go back and try them again next time.
wow that was a long post.
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