good fusion food; racism; more shopping

Thursday: Shi-jia and I had planned earlier this week to celebrate the end of work at this restaurant that we found on a food blog. It's called Watami @ Zhongxiao Dun Hua. It's a chain restaurant from Japan. Normally, chain places in America don't have that great of quality foods and are known for their family/big group atmosphere and large portions. But, Asian chains are different. We were amused with how many things on the menu there were...sashimi platter, bibimbap (what I ordered, and only came in a stone bowl), steak, kebabs, ramen, sushi, pizza, huoguo, salad, etc etc. There were sooo many drinks too...cocktails, mocktails, wine, sake, sours, smoothies, "healthy" drink..... I had a hard time choosing what to drink. They were all relatively cheap too. 100NT for a cocktail (alcholic & non-alcholic). Thought about ordering a sour or cocktail since I am of age to drink in Taiwan (yay!), but decided not to when I thought how odd it'd be to drink one while eating bibimbap.We ordered a Japanese niangao (sticky fried flour) for appetizer - too sticky and hard to chew but still yummy nonetheless. The bibimbap was good. Different from Koreana's and others I've had from Korean restaurants.

After stuffing our face we rode the subway to Houshanpi third to last stop on the east end of the blue line and pretty deserted. We planned to go shopping at Wufenpu - shopping mecca called "wholesale clothing district". It's supposed to be crazy crowded so I was surprised to see such an empty station. But when we got outside near the district it was more crowded. There were store after store of clothes and cheap(y) shoes.

We went in one store where I spotted a linen blouse that I really liked, I held it up for a long time observing each seam making sure there were no hanging stitches (I do this with almost every piece of clothing that I'd potentially buy)...then the store owners talk to each other and say "Ugh, why does she take so long. It's so cheap (250NT), and made in Taiwan--I don't understand why they won't buy it immediately. Taiwanese people ought to only buy Taiwan-made clothing. They must hate Taiwan or are from Da Lu (China)... I might as well just go to America to sell these clothes #$*#$*W..." After I heard that, I threw the blouse on the floor and we left. So freaking rude and racist.

After going in many stores, I ended up only buying one top. We shopped til almost 11pm til my legs were too wobbly to walk.