Location | Taichung, Taiwan

Wow, this trip went by incredibly fast. I’m going to miss Taiwan a lot. Now that I’m older, I have more money, I can appreciate Taiwan a lot more than I used to. Even though my best time in Taiwan was still the summer of 2005 (I miss you TTT-ers!), this time was just as great hanging out with family and old friends.

We got back from Sydney around 6pm and back to Taichung around 8. My cousin and his girlfriend stopped by with bubble tea and their dog Manto. It wasn’t very eventful except the unpacking.

Friday started out early. First I woke up early to go get my eyeliner tattoo redone on the left eye. The under-eye line was faded. After another horrific 20 or so minutes, we were off to go do some shopping. We went to Mei Hwa Tai, Sogo and Net. At Net I spent US$400 on a new wardrobe… heh. I’m a big spender.

We had lunch at Chun Shui Tang. I got the Kung Fu Noodles, turnip cake and bubble tea. We spent the afternoon chatting at my Grandma’s before my aunt took me home with her to use the internet. I hung out with her, my cousin, Jack, and their dog Manto until it was time to go back to my Grandma’s so I could quickly change and we could go to teppenyaki!

Teppenyaki was easily the coolest part of the night. We went to this fancy-looking place where they have impeccable service and really delicious food. It was French-style teppenyaki. Here are the things we ate in order:

It was a really satisfying and filling meal. Looking at the pictures makes me really hungry. I’d really love to eat some more of the Sakura fried rice. It was really amazing, but I couldn’t enjoy it that much because I was completely STUFFED.

Oh yeah, the chefs and waiters are all extremely attractive. Apparently it’s part of the way they choose employees. You have to fit a certain standard of good looks. I didn’t think our chefs were that good looking, but not bad.

After dinner I got dropped back off at my grandma’s and my aunt took me and my mom to go see my aunt on my dad’s side. On the way there I learned that the uncle of the youngest aunt (my dad has 5 sisters) was (or still is!?) in the Taiwanese mafia… and apparently he’s on the lam after doing some jail time? Interesting…

Anyway, my aunts (the oldest and the 4th oldest) run a food stand on a small street. There they sell fried leek pancakes, oyster pancakes, noodles, fried leek, fried tofu, etc. I took a few shots while I was there.

Later that night we headed of Fong-Chia Night Market. My cousin, Jack, his gf, Zhiyan, me and my cousin, Jessie just roamed around. Jack and Jessie ended up eating stinky tofu while Zhiyan and I walked around searching for accessories. In the end we ended up in this store with an absurd amount of stuffed animals. Here’s me with a giant pig.

Now I’m back in the states scheming about when I’ll go back to Taiwan next!!

Location | Taichung

I did something completely out of character today. I got a tattoo. Four of them in fact. It’s not where you’d expect.

So, I got eyeliner tattooed on my eyes. Top and bottom. Only cost me $200. Ok, it really cost my aunt $200 (my poor Aunt is going to spend a small fortune on me this trip).  Sounds horrific right? Well it might have been the most horrific experience of my life. So I get there and it’s all nice and peachy. The cosmetologist’s office is gorgeous. I mean, marble floors, chandeliers, and pristine posh décor. I meet the nice lady (Ms. Wu) and proceed to let her line my eyes to show me what it’s going to look like. She lines one side with only top and one side with top and bottom. The bottom looked great too, so I decided to go with lining both (which was an extra $100). So I lay down and she begins by numbing the area around my eyelids… with a giant needle. Then, the most horrified part wasn’t the fact that she was using an actual tattoo pen to line my eyes, it was more the horrific sound of the tattoo pen. This horribly tinny mechanical whirring noise oddly reminiscent of a dental tool.

Whirr whirr whirr.

I can feel my eyes roll back into my head as I reminiscence that horrifying noise. So then the tattoo starts. It wasn’t very painful, more-so, it was just… tingly. The worst part was when she had to line my bottom eyelid. I had to have my eyes open as the pen was whirring toward my eyeball. I could feel my heart practically jumping out of my chest as I held my breath because I was so afraid that if I moved it’d be the last time I saw out of my eye.

The best part was all the tears I shed in the name of a) laziness (I got my eyeliner done because I was sick of lining my eyes everyday) and b) beauty (woo! My eyes look pretty freaking awesome now)

Anyway, after my eyes decided to turn puffy, red and really just kind of gross looking from the tattoo, I got to go upstairs for a facial. The facial went nice and smooth until the portion where they clean out ever pore. My God… That was incredibly painful. I thought I’d pass out from the pain. Almost as bad as the eye tattoo. I think I shed a few tears then as well.

After everything was set and done, I got a ride back to my Grandma’s where I ate some lunch then passed out for 3 hours. My aunt came to take me shopping. We went to Shinkong Mitsukoshi to stroll around, but unfortunately I didn’t get anything. Then Doris called, it was her last night in Taichung, and we both went bowling at Tiger Bowling Alley. We even played the Taiko Drum Master game and also shot some hoops.

Her boyfriend dropped me off around 11 and I went to deal with my puffy red eyes because I’m going to Taipei tomorrow!

Location | Taichung, Taiwan

So, I’m a little bit sick. I thought it was allergies, but nope, it’s a cold. Sore throat, runny nose, cough. Awesome.

Today I went to Lukang, a town in the outskirts of Taichung. There’s a big Matsu Temple there. We went for Matsu worship at the various little shrines. Matsu is the patron saint of travelers (especially those who are sea-faring). [If you are interested, I’ll wiki link it later]. We didn’t stay very long, but we also went to eat their specialty – everything oysters. We ordered oyster omelette (which sadly, sucked), fried oyster and leek pancake, oyster porridge, fried oysters and fried shrimp balls.

I wasn’t very hungry. Not much of an appetite since I’m sick.

Afterwards we walked through the historic district and bought a few random souvenir type items. Nothing really outrageous, some glass figurines anyway.

Then we headed back to Taichung where I took a 2 hour nap before going to Shinkong Mitsukoshi to do some shopping. We had Chun Shui Tang’s Kungfu Noodles (sounds awesome right?) and some bubble tea before walking around. I’ve never really liked shopping in department stores. I can never find anything I want…

So we left and I met up with Doris at a bowling alley where we bowled, played the claw games, played Taiko: Drum Master, basketball, and air hockey. I’ll definitely miss Doris, she’s pretty awesome.

Anyway, so now I’m back home and tomorrow I’m getting something special done. I’ll show pictures later. I hope the pictures aren’t weird. I just took an antihistamine so time to pass out.

Location | 4th Floor of Grandma’s Building – Taichung, Taiwan

So… I’ve been overeating. A lot. Partially because all the food is so damn good here and also because I’m completely deprived of good Taiwanese food in the states.

The morning started out at 8am. I woke up, did some work (yes, I did check work email) and then I went downstairs to find that no one was home… oh…

My grandma came back and immediately took me to get breakfast. We went and got pork buns, fried oyster and leek pancakes, wonton soup and iced black tea. When I got back, I proceeded to eat 2 pork buns, 1 fried oyster and leek pancake, the whole bowl of wonton soup, the large iced black tea and a wax apple. Time to loosen my belt.

So I spent an hour listening to The Bowery Boys so I could digest. Then I went upstairs and decided to go through old photographs. I found a lot of my Grandfather’s side of the family. There were some great shots from the 1920’s up until the 1940’s. I’ll try to locate a scanner so that I can scan them all. They were mostly of my great Grandfather and various other people my grandmother wasn’t too sure about.

Then it was lunch time. My aunt brought over Peking duck, dumplings, vegetable buns, cold soy milk and bubble tea. My grandmother made steamed crab and shrimp. We also had some leftover pork buns and oyster and leek pancake. I can usually eat a whole Peking duck (I know, sick), but I could only eat 3 wraps. Hopefully I’ll save room next time.

My cousin also brought over his crazy dog. He was jumping around all over the place and licking everything. The poor thing got so excited we had to tie him to the staircase railing outside the apartment door. You could hear him crying from the dining table.

So we rested up after eating until 3:30ish when we went to my Aunt’s to switch cars and drive off to the mountains.

My cousin made reservations at this really nice restaurant in the outskirts of Taichung. We went a little early to take photos. The place really was quite beautiful. Set up to look a little Japanese (even though the food isn’t Japanese), there’s a reflection pool, shiny wooden floors and tatami.

There’s an outdoor bathroom and the funny thing is, the back wall is clear glass. It’s facing the edge of the mountain, so no one should be able to get back there to see, but it was still a little unnerving to go to the bathroom…

We took a lot of pictures outside.

We sat inside for a little bit before getting kicked out again because they had to set the tables.

The meal was 7-courses. You pick what your main meat dish is and the menu is set by the chef. I’ll post each dish below in pictures.

We were so full after the meal that we had to walk around before finishing the “final drink.” We took some really cute pictures outside (even if it was dark) and then we wandered back inside to take some more photos.

After finishing we drove back to the main part of Taichung. First stopping for some taro desserts and also at a clinic (to grab some cough medicine for my aunt).

What a crazy and awesome day. Can’t wait for this to continue!

Location | Grandma’s House in Taichung

So far so good. People are impressed that I still speak understandable Chinese. They’re also fairly impressed that I can understand their Taiwanese (diabolical I know, I’m taking over the world one language at a time). Already ate 4 pieces of turn-up cake, 4 soup dumplings, cold soy milk and a wax apple. I’m on a roll already with the food. The fact that I can’t suck in my stomach anymore, now that’s an entirely different situation.

Today I’m meeting up with my friend, Doris from Russia. Sometimes we refer to her as Boris from Russia. Anyway, she happens to be in my hometown and will be meeting up with me later to go eat! I haven’t made any plans for the day, but I really should. I got in around 6am and it’s about 9:30am right now. I just have to make it through another 12 hours and I’ll be set with no jet lag. I hope. I HOPE! I need some coffee.

Will post pictures of food as soon as I get my sh*t together.