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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!

This is Manto. He says "hello!"

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:

Amuse Bouche

Fish Soup

Nicoise Salad

Duck Breast!

Vegetables!

Sakura Fried Rice

Ice cream covered in a shell of chocolate

Milk Tea w/ Grass Jelly

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.

Our Chefs

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.

Giant Fryer

Fried Foods

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.

Giant Pig!

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