eating tour @ShiLin night market (aka food heaven street)

Last summer when I was in Taipei, I rarely ever hit the night markets. Mostly because majority of the foods are fried and not the cleanest (vendors facing the busy streets). But the foods are extremely cheap, so you get to try out a lot of different snacks. So I finally ate at a night market this time. I went to ShiLin night market - the most famous and crowded one of Taipei. Let's just say that I ate a lot of heart attack-inducing foods. But hey, I only live once right? Two Xinjiang (Northwest China that borders the Middle East) beef kebabs, a small bag of the juiciest mangoes ever, a few large sweet strawberries, two 煎包jianbao's--baozi that is pan-fried on the bottom and filled with vegetables, 蔥油餅congyoubing (Chinese pancake, fried, with scallion) with fried egg [runny egg yolk! mmm] on top, a box of takoyaki--a Japanese dumping stuffed with octopus and topped with fish flakes, and a small cone of honeydew melon gelato. Whew. What a diverse dinner huh? Yup. We shall see how my tummy feels tomorrow :p

this weather blows.

Yeah what the title says. The air is icky thick, and there is no sight of sunshine. Earlier this week it was pretty sunny, but really hot. I would come to class dripping in sweat...sooo attractive, I know. Today there was a thunderstorm, and I had to share a tiny umbrella with 2 friends after we finished lunch because none of us brought an umbrella. We had to borrow an umbrella from the restaurant--actually it was an umbrella a customer previously left behind. But yeah, the whole left side of my body was soaked. Can I please just go back to SoCal??

I'm dreaming of home and Bermuda already.

Can you believe that this was taken in January in SoCal? Sighh.

i live for good food.

...because I'm too tired to write anything [had another 5am wake-up day, but this time for a good reason...gym!]. This is just some stuff I've eaten in the past couple weeks...

peach honey almond crepe

pre-packaged sushi 

pudding flavored Turkish ice cream

youtiao changfen / dough fritters rice noodle - dimsum

Greek seafood salad - ouzo, shrimp, squid, veggies, lemon, capers, pepper, chili

Greek desserts - rice pudding, apple in sugar lemon juice, zabaglione (Italian custard made with egg yolks, sugar, Marsala wine) + lady fingers

healthy sandwich - whole wheat, anka bread, veggies, sliced apples

French grilled seabass doused in a spicy carrot sauce and potato au gratin

coffee mousse 

smoked salmon wrapped sliced apples with cream cheese topping - I "made" this

Japanese BBQ

shrimp and taro love

freedom, run away tonight

Feels so good to be done with midterm exams. Freeeeeedom (until mid-June)! I went out last night to celebrate with friends, and now I can't feel my toes and my voice is a bit raspy but it was all totally worth it. Speaking of freedom, I have decided to withdraw from my finance class. It's too difficult, I'm convinced that it is MBA level. The education system is clearly different here and hard to adapt to if you're used to discussion-based classes and professors who help you comprehend the info/actually teach. Professors here, instead, just hand you information...basically like "here, take it" and don't really explain the content. Of course, also, math and some business classes--particularly accounting and finance--are bound to be harder in Asia. It seems like most of the people in my class just memorize the content and don't really try to understand it. Or maybe they are all just naturally smart and get finance immediately. Oh well, I can't afford to have a grade lower than a B- in this class, hence dropping this class and retaking it back at home school, where I can definitely achieve at least a B. 

So, now I can sleep in on Thursdays, which I hardly ever do...even on the weekends since I always have plans and such. 

Anyhow, I discovered this really cool website where you can basically photoshop-edit your photos all in one step [they do it for you]. For the lazy and for those who can't afford the $800 Photoshop package. Yeah, that's me. Here are some photos from different events in Taiwan.

took this last summer from the lower angle, looking up to a tree

also took this last summer, at Longshan Temple

this was at the Tribal Harvest Festival in Hualien, during my last few days stay in Taiwan last summer

Kenting~

trois le petit cakes from a friend's birthday party dinner

bubbly for her birthday

i eat meat now?

Okay, Okay I know, I said I wouldn't post anything new til after the 29th, but I just had to share something... So those who know me well know that I don't eat meat (excluding seafood and the occasional filet mignon), and that I haven't touched meat since six years ago, aside from the little bits of pork I ate during Chinese New Year back in February. Since then, I haven't craved for any sorts of meat, even though all the food with meat here look sooo tasty and the smell - ahhh meat smells so good! Well, anyway, I caved in.

I woke up yesterday at 1:30pm--I desperately need to catch up on sleep after slaving away to finance for an entire week--hungry and craving for carbs. I walked around the neighborhood, and no restaurants were open. Uh, hello it's lunch time, why isn't anywhere open?!? I walked up and down the little alleys and only found vendors to be open. Starving and indecisive, I passed by a vendor that I always see a long line for. My cousins told me that this Taiwanese specialty is very popular and delicious. Sadly, the only meat they use is pork. But hungry me waited in the line, not even thinking about the fact that I would be devouring pork in a few minutes. The lady asked me what I wanted--you can choose from the menu what kind of pork: lean or fat pork. Of course I went with the lean. I gave her 45NT and got my warm 割包guabao in a plastic baggie and briskly walked back home. 


Was it worth the cave? Oh yes! Juicy, chewy, and slightly sweet the 割包 was totally worth it. Now you're probably wondering what the heck is a guabao. It is a Taiwanese burger. It is an open steamed bun (similar to what you eat with Peking duck) stuffed with braised pork, mustard pickled greens, cilantro, and sweet peanut powder. SO GOOD. I would definitely eat it again! And after eating it, I had decided that only in Taiwan will I cave in for meat. I still won't touch poultry because I don't like the texture of it, but since pork's texture is similar to beef I am okay with it. 

gimme a break.

It is midterms month now. I have three midterms - of which when I tell other local students, they are surprised and exclaim Whaaat only three? One of my friends has eight midterms!!! Anyway, I need good grades this semester and even prayed at a little temple on campus earlier today, therefore, posting shall resume after April 29--the day of my last exam.

daily consumption

I just saw a cool art project about daily consumption and it got me thinking...I consume more here than I do anywhere else. And, well it is mainly because I don't have a kitchen so I have to venture out on my own to buy food and snacks. But at the end of everyday, I come home with tons of receipts. Usually back in the US I say "no receipt" or just immediately throw away my receipt, but here I collect receipts because there is a lottery number on there. Taiwan does a drawing every two months, and there are many cash prizes. There is one grand prize [if you match all the seven numbers] for $2million NT, which is about $62,000US. Then there are three first place numbers if your all the digits match, then 2nd place prizes if the last six digits match, and so on...all the way til if the last three digits match any of the 1st place numbers. And last month I won that last place prize~~$200NT! So because I consume so much on a daily basis, there should be a pretty big chance that I would at least win some money.

Anyhow, I never really thought about how much I was consuming until today when I saw the art project and opened my desk drawer to see a thick pile of my receipts, just from April so far. I went out earlier for less than an hour and already spent 23NT to print out powerpoint slides, 85NT for tomato shrimp rice meal, 190NT for a pullover sweater, 25NT for one small yogurt, and 60NT for a bottle of oatmeal drink. On any given day, my wallet is filled with at least four receipts when I return home. In the beginning of this semester I actually kept a log of what I was buying and how much I was spending. Taiwan is a cash-based society, which I wasn't used to since I hate carrying around cash and just use my card whenever. But now I always carry cash and rarely use my card. So it was hard keeping track of what I was buying since by the time I got home ready to pencil in my purchases, I had already forgotten most of the stuff I bought that day. This logging merely lasted for a week!

I have to admit, however, that sometimes I feel like I am consuming an excessive amount. I always usually stick with buying things that are necessary, but it's hard to resist when there are so many clothes, shoes, breads, cakes, and vendors in my face, enticing me to buy something. At one point a couple weeks ago I felt overwhelmed with having to buy something everyday. I buy all my groceries at different places because there is no big supermarket near me, and certain fruits are different places range in prices. Like I buy grapefruits (4 in a bag) from Wellcome, a small British-chain grocery store, for 40NT, then 8 Gala apples from a fruit vendor near school for 100NT, guava already cut from 7-11 downstairs for 27NT per pag, and bananas wherever is cheapest. The prices of fruits are always fluctuating. I miss grocery stores where I can buy everything I need under one roof. There are international grocery stores in Taipei, but they are extremely expensive and not in walking distance.