Two days left and we had some business to take care of. We were set to attend a wedding on the 1st, so we had to find V a dress as well as an appropriate wedding present. Everyday we go out, we walk the same path to our nearest Metro station. And everyday we walk by the same broken down jalopy.
This car has been parked in the exact same spot for over a year. The green spray-painted wreck looks worse and worse every time we see it and worst of all it's a Jag! Who spray-paints a Jaguar green, then abandons it? Why doesn't the city just tow it already? It scares the hell out of V every time we walk by it. We failed at shopping, but came home to a consolation prize, some Taiwanese fried chicken.
Chicken, fishcakes, green beans, and basil. I seriously love this combination. It doesn't sound that special, but the cart we always get it from has some super secret spice mix that makes it taste stupid good. We didn't really eat any more dinner either with plans to hit up the night market. There's nothing worse for you than eating snack food in the middle of the night. Have I mentioned how we aren't eating ever again when we get back to Japan?
I feel like I've been eating a lot of stuff wrapped in mochi. These red bean filled rice-cakes are on ice and a bit cold for winter. Doesn't stop us though; we're consumption troopers. Got some crispy dough balls, a taro milk tea, and some fried sweet potato balls. We both thought we were done for the night until we saw the grilled squid stall.
Hard to ignore something that looks so amazing. Tasted amazing, too. The grandpa running the stall had three different kinds of squid. Gotta catch em all! Someday.
The next day was the 31st and we decided to head to the Xinyi Shopping District to finally take care of business at the last second. We were trying to find an appropriate location for a coffee date, and we decided to go for Paul, the Parisian boulangerie chain. Ordered a strawberry mille feuille that we know is good and some tea. The waitress forgot my coffee so it turned into a tea date.
"Mille feuille" is one of those words I'm never confident I'm pronouncing correctly. I don't think this Paul understood the concept properly either with multiple layers in the top and bottom crusts but no layers in between. Our service took forever and they didn't have an Jasmine tea or pistachio macaroons left. Macaroons are somewhat understandable, but how do you run out of tea? Seriously now. Poor reviews from me.
We did get a gift and dress at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi and decided to hit up Taipei 101 with some time to spare. We haven't been to Mitsukoshi in Japan yet; is it worth going out of our way? After spending some time in Japan, I've come to realize that the Japanese things that are popular in Taiwan aren't necessarily the most popular overall. Not at all sure what determines which imports will be successful.
Outside 101, V admired the annual Christmas Tree.
I admired the giant can of beer.
Inside, a couple of stores had set up their own Christmas trees. You decide which is better. Swarovski?
or Hermes?
Didn't really do anything at 101 and headed back home. We were going against traffic as everyone was headed to the 101 area to get ready for fireworks. This year is Year 100 by the Taiwanese calendar and was supposed to be a bigger celebration than normal. There were a ton of people around, but we had other plans as Ba and Mama had already scoped out a viewing spot.
When we got back a New Years dinner was waiting for us. Hot and Tasty New Years Special KFC:
Also, KFC's legendary egg tarts:
It's widely known that some of the best egg tarts in the country are made by KFC. I've read plenty of reviews of people who were skeptical and proven wrong via a taste test. Flaky and light, you can practically inhale these. After dinner, Popo came in for his nightly visit and immediately sniffed out the chicken.
Typical. He didn't take much for him to get his chicken and then he headed back outside. I think Popo's the only one that enjoys the cold. He's a cold-weather breed after all.
We burned a couple hours til an appropriate time and headed to the viewing point before 11 PM. Our spot had a pretty sweet view of 101 and with the streets packed with fellow onlookers, things felt pretty promising.
We braved the cold for another hour until the fireworks were due to start. This year was especially hyped since last year the other large city to the South had upstaged Taipei. The two cities have a bit of a rivalry going (for fireworks at least), and the North wanted revenge. So the length of the show was extended from the traditional 188 seconds to 288 seconds for Year 100.
It started as it always does with sparks streaming out the sides of the tower. Problem is that it turned out we were downwind, and all the smoke from the fireworks started to cloud our view. Anytime a bunch of fireworks went off at once it obscured what we could see completely. In general, I think the whole crowd just went home a little disappointed about the display overall. Ah well, Year 101 is special too, right? New Years fireworks in Taipei are always over before you know it. Macy's July 4th display this year lasted 26 mins! I think one of the contributing factors is that New Years is not nearly as big of a deal as Chinese New Years. We'll have to see I suppose. Happy New Year all.
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