We decided to celebrate Ba's birthday on January 2nd. His real birthday is after we leave, so we did a birthday dinner a little early. We headed out to a place V insists I've been before but have no recollection of, The Mall. This upscale shopping complex houses a food court in the basement and residences on the upper levels. More importantly a branch of the popular Shanghai Shanghai lives there.
I've had Shanghainese food on many an occasion and multiple times at Shanghai Shanghai as well. It's pretty much a can't miss joint with impeccable preparations of various dishes. This time around though we ordered some things I haven't tried before.
I think we ordered nine or so dishes, but my favorite of the night might have been the fried bamboo shoots. Doesn't sound too complex, but something about these were amazing. I seriously think I could have eaten a bowl of these by myself. I'm too disciplined for that though; I've learned from my time here that you really need to pace yourself. The dishes will keep coming and if you're not careful, you're just going to run out of room before the last few dishes. At that point, if you want to continue eating, you better be prepared for some pain. One interesting thing I've noticed about eating in Taiwan and Japan is that the food never comes out at that the same time. Unless it's a super busy restaurant that's held back by the number of servers (like 270 Yen places), they always just bring you each dish when it's ready. This either means you start eating right away, or you wait for everyone else to get their food. I'm not sure even sure if it's ok to just start eating though. Not a problem for communal eating of course.
Back to actual food.
A staple of Shanghai (or so I think), I love shrimp lettuce wraps. Delicious and crunchy, they don't even feel like they're bad for you when it's wrapped in lettuce. Just a beautifully refreshing contrast to the rich shrimpy interior.
Here's something I've never really had before: vegetable rice. It's not really fried rice, just seared rice with some juicy bits of salty meat on top. Another one of those dishes I could have just eaten forever. I'm a big fan of seared rice, like dolsot bibimbap (everybody's favorite). Oh man, I want some all of a sudden...curses.
Guess who came to dinner? Our favorite niece, Anne!
She arrived sleeping and was knocked out for most of dinner, but once she woke up and the dishes stopped coming, she became the star of the show of course.
This is her inching towards solid food. She can eat it pretty soon I think but probably can't have frog legs for a while yet. Speaking of frog legs...
Frog legs is one of those foods I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Yes, it tastes a bit like chicken. I just feel like there's nothing remotely dangerous or even exotic about eating them. They're like tender chicken legs with very little meat. Delicious, but somehow unsatisfying by the pure lack of sustenance they provide. That's how I feel anyway.
The meal was pretty much over and V went over to hold her niece.
Baby likes her aunt since apparently the fact that she's not crying is sort of astonishing. Notably, V told me later that Anne smelled really nice. I thought babies were supposed to smell bad...not like flowers. Kudos to the parents.
The cake was brought out and although it was Ba's birthday, I'm cutting the cake in the picture. This is the only picture we got of the whole fam, and I'm cutting the cake since after the first cut, the person who's birthday is next is supposed to finish the cut. Kind of amazing considering my birthday isn't for another six months. Nothing like a good family dinner; our first with the entire immediate family! Maybe next time Anne has some teeth to chew with.
The next few days were extraordinarily unspectacular. V went out for a hair treatment while I stayed in and played some video games and got a surprising amount of work done. We met up to see V's grandma, and I sat nice as arm candy as V chatted with her grandma and her uncle. I usually try to pseudo pay attention to the conversation or at least look alert. Unfortunately, this time there was this fascinating special on National Geographic about king cobras. I was totally mesmerized...it was weird.
On our way back, we picked up some snacks for Popo at the pet store. This pet store had two dogs just chilling out on their couch and this cat perched on top of some boxes.
Pet store pets tend to be friendly, and one of the dogs came over to play for a bit. This cat though was just sitting up on the high ground like a queen and staring us down. It's like it willed me over to come and pet it. V came over and showed me how its done as it succumbed to her will and her pro head-petting. Once we left though, it just continued the same act, that nonchalant stare.
We did some last minute shopping just because we felt obligated to go do something. There's this one store in Sogo that we always pass by called Liz Lisa. V has only been in there once when she spotted something Hello Kitty. I don't think I've set foot in the place. I'm pretty sure it's Japanese since it looks like something straight out of Harajuku.
I've never actually seen someone dressed so obscenely girly in Taipei. It's like someone puked flowers onto lace and ruffles. Just thought I'd share.
V bought a Hello Kitty fortune giving charm thing, and then we got some Yamazaki before heading home. In Taiwan, Yamazaki runs its own bakery, but I have never seen anything like that in Japan. Yamazaki is just a bread company, and after browsing their website, I think that the Yamazaki bakery chain in Japan is Vie de France. I'm also having a very difficult time finding out anything about Flavorfield in Japan. Does it even exist there? Google "flavorfield tokyo" and the first result is an entry from this blog...
They called the things on the left Okinawan Donuts, but we know that it's really sata andagi! Matcha flavored one on the left was pretty good. Not as good as the nothing flavored ones we're used to. I was extremely disappointed in the brown sugar one on the right. I feel like I need some real sata andagi to make up for it; which is a brilliant idea of course.
See you all in Tokyo where the end of the term and a lot of work awaits me. PEACE!
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