A Tiny Taste Of Taiwan: November 2009

since i rambled a lot in my last post about hk.. i will keep this one short and sweet...

i dedicate this blog to food ... and other stuff... but mainly food ..

... that is all

pot stickers here are heaven ..

taro shaved ice!

beef noodle soup!!!

da bien's beef dry noodles! derish!

pastries here look too good to eat...

oh yes... and taipei's holding this year's floral expo..

the mrt was painted with flowers of all colors.. so it looks like this when the train's moving...

i didn't even know taiwan grew avocados... but they're ginormous! and i guess beer's sold here like it's soda...

i would be sooooo tall if i wore those hooker heels..

more taro shaved ice...

one spontaneous day... da bien decided she didn't like her hair anymore.. so she wanted it chopped off...

BEFORE
(oh yah.. i totes forgot about this until da bien reminded me but we had our own room... and the milk tea was amazing... and the hair stylist whose name was zephyr wore a suit cutting da bien's hair... fancy!)

AFTER ... adore!

a shop devoted to hello kitty in one of the underground MRT malls...

i ended up shopping alone that day because da bien thought it'd be cool to have a migraine and throw up for 2 hours.. literally...

another stop to ximen...

love swing cafes...

mango srush... in a conch shell

fattie... just kidding ... i had one too :x

lil sausage wrapped in big sausage... sooo scrumpsh!

she loves corn.. a lot!

a ginormous pepsi bottle cap that you could sit on..

can you tell that we really love taro shaved ice? .. but this one was special because we ate it at midnight right before we went to watch our movie...

so we bought a movie package that came with a large popcorn, 2 drinks and 2 tix... and it cost us 16 usd total...

the movie seats were so plush!

california roll flavored ruffles.. never seen those back in the states...

nail decor... beachy!

cinderella has a double chin..

steamed buns... this place is so popular that there are consistently 50 people in line all the time.. no joke

we went on a mission to find these crepes when we saw people holding them... yah.. the one shown above wasn't ours :)

my fruit amusement park (that's how it's translated to in english.. sounds better in chinese) crepe

erica's fatty swiss chocolate + peach crepe... interesting combo...

yah... she's a fat cow

the next day... she had a dance performance...

i didn't wanna outshine the star :)

so we saw this group of guys who came back from a comicon of some sort... and that guy in the back put on the maid headband... so i used da bien as a prop to actually document the anime psychos...

they're so cool!

there was a break before da bien's performance ... so i people watched... i'd say 72% of the guys in the auditorium had hair as volumous as his...

this was the performance.... da bien made me not record it..i resorted to taking a couple stills...

oh hip hoppers...

lily pads!

then we were supposed to go eat at this famous chicken place.. but it wasn't open yet.. so we walked around the area...

the food here's supposedly amazing ... the chef's name is justin.... clever...

this area was adorable....

and i guess they have soul food here in taiwan...

the pizza here's AMAZING!!!! and it's sooo cool.. they cook it in the wooden stove...

pesto mushroom.... mmmmmm

and then she had taro shaved ice.... it was bigger than her head! and that's saying a lot...

one day... da bien was chillin in my room super bored... so she thought it'd be cool to decorate my table with mickey d's sticker coupons...

caught redhanded...

and my bed frame...

HALLOWEEN!!!

we dressed up as 80s chicks... costumes courtesy of da bien...

ooops... fail

i think da bien took this pix...

so umm.. i guess halloween isn't a big thing here.... that girl with the pumpkin on her head was the first person i saw dressed up... and i had to creepily take this pix from across the street

and then i got super excited seeing a group of people dressed up... but wasn't quick enough to take a pix of them...

and then... when we got to the mrt stop.... i went crazy when i saw this guy in the pink bunny head.. so we HAD to take a pix with him! which started a series of pixes with people dressed up..

at taipei main station.. we met up with elvis... didn't know he was chillin in taiwan...

and i creepily took this pix of the guy in the shower...

but ended up asking them to take a pix with them... pretty much only the foreigners dressed up... and most of the locals didn't know da bien and i were dressed up.. because i guess only americans dressed like this in the 80s..

this may have been the scariest thing i saw the whole night...

in memory of yoko.. at luxy... no one was there yet... so we decided to walk two MRT stops to the other party area

we walked by the fanciest burger king i've ever seen...

and i guess this is the only true yoga studio.. all the other places are fake ... you've been warned

we made it to warner village! neo 19 again

this place was much more poppin...

another stalker pix :)

this isn't a costume.. i just thought it was cool .. looks like the gum's floating in midair

we found this balloon animal thing stuck on a table tent... so we stole it

but it was too hefty... so i didn't want it anymore

chanel!

lego man was texting

guess who we saw outside room 18 ... leeeedia!!!

not sure why i kept making that blowfish face the whole night...

oh yah... erica and i were completely sober that night... we stood in line at room 18 for about an hour.. but heard it was super crowded in there so we got out of line right when we were about to go in....

the best moment that night: seeing a guy dressed up in a communist uniform with two girls on each of his arms... ballin! but yah... i'm soooooo mad at myself for not being quick enough to document that...

then we went back to bien tai bei bei's....

annie... you're a cute cow :)

and then... our weeklong diet started... no starch.. no sugar... (that's why this post is in memory of food)

thanks karen... you got to eat both of our rice... :) .. not really... we got noodles instead.. which da bien and i couldn't eat either....

we were pretty sad we couldn't have rice...

:(((((((.... that many double chins

seafood stinky stinky pot.... derish!!!

except i couldn't enjoy the noodles :((((((((((

we went to watch a movie that night....

so many lights... so distracting...

wedding chapel?

the lights kept changing.. i was so mesmerized

miramar! the fanciest movie theater i've ever been to... the movie theater's on floors 5 through 9 and there's like a santa monica pier-like area with that ferris wheel on floor 5...

the next day coming out of my internship! gorg day....

i don't know how many eggs and tofu i ate that week... i finished this in 5 minutes...

wufenpu ... and crazy temple...

raohe again!

caught redhanded... shopaholic!!

this restaurant's around my campus... so cute!!!

the weather's beeeeeeen amazing these past couple of days...

don't do that... it's racist :)

our last meal before we could eat like humans again...

pizza hut delivery cars... pretty much every place here delivers.. including mickey d's if you order 30 usd worth of food... and i thought americans were lazy