yesterday we slept in but eventually ended up at taipei 101, a landmark skyscraper that was formerly the tallest building in the world until the opening of burj khalifa in dubai in 2010 (directly stolen from wikipedia). breakfast was homemade noodles by my grandpa with a side of bamboo that i am obsessed with. seriously i could just eat these all day. wish i could bring some home with me.. anyway we also had dessert, not quite sure what it was. some sort of mochi-tasting thing in a hot sugary soup. i'm not very receptive to the majority of american desserts because i find them excessively sweet, but chinese desserts are just bland and not sweet enough. i think my perfect medium is american slash french slash italian slash anything-but-asian desserts made by asian bakeries. they tend to dramatically lessen the sugar quantities when adding the ingredients.
shopping mall inside 101 was ridiculously expensive. only the most high-end stores, which meant window shopping only :(
shitty shopping was countered by the most amazing food court. seriously, everything was wayyyy legit. and cheap! well maybe when compared to the states, but not to the street food here. jane and i shared a combo with an additional side of fried tofu and it was about $5 USD. supermarket was also quite remarkable with its exotic candies and such. american imports, however, were completely overpriced (nerd ropes were $3 each)
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then at night we met up with candice, who i met in LA through chris, and some of her friends at this bar called fourplay. i had been inside this place a few days ago that night we were looking for a place to eat and ended up at that horrible restaurant with the shitty service. it was full at the time, which is why we left and dined elsewhere. glad i came back though, since its unique regime is unlike any i've ever seen. for one, there's no drink menu. you merely tell the bartender what your preferences are (sweet, sour, strong or combo) and he makes the drink according to your tastes. i opted for sour and strong, and my drink was an ideal blend of both. additionally, the drink presentation was super fancy. we ordered this set of "drug" themed shots (with homage to cocaine, marijuana & special k to name a few) and everything either involved dry ice or was lit on fire. some of them compelled snorting or sucking smoke or sugar through a straw. for further details, jane's rendition can be found
here.
idk how i thought it was a good idea to go to 7-11 and get a 6-pack for the sole purpose of shotgunning after all those crazy shots. needless to say, i don't remember walking home and apparently passed out on the bed face down planking.
so of course i was hungover today. we had lunch with my family at din tai fung, a taiwanese restaurant with only 2 locations in the states (one in arcadia, the other in seattle). the one time i had it in arcadia it was insanely packed and consequently had a long wait. wasn't much different here: still insanely packed, although a slightly shorter wait. if you've never had xiao long bao, you're seriously missing out
i felt a lot better after eating some food and drinking copious amounts of water. however, still wasn't up for anything too crazy (and by crazy i mean anything that involved more than sitting/laying/not moving). decidedly so, we chose to get a massage... the first 5-10 minutes i was in PAIN but didn't want to be rude and say anything. after that it was chill and he worked out some of my knots. still, probably not going back there now that i have a handheld massager i got from the night market
later on we went to shilin night market, which is the biggest night market in taiwan? taipei? shopped and ate a lotttt (drained my wallet, only have coins in there now). at least i crossed 2 people off my checklist of "people i must get gifts for", worth it!
tomorrow i'm meeting up with rea, one of my best friends with whom i have a long-distance relationship. the last time i saw her was in taiwan, 4 years ago! i'm also hoping to meet up with another one of my best friends caroline, but she doesn't get off work until late so we'll see. our plan is to go to danshui which is this river and a sort of tourist attraction (there's good food there). at night we're thinking about going to luxy, which is one of the hottest clubs in taipei, or so i've heard (ferry corsten was just there last month). can't wait
