去Taiwan旅行 Day 2 Part 2
June 24th, 2007I was reminded to write more, and write more I shall!
Went over to Ximending (西門町) via MRT. Met up with Kevu and head over to eat some oden.
For those who don’t know, Oden (おでん) is a Japanese dish. Various ingredients are stewed in the same soy-seaweed-fish? broth, taking on a similar flavor. What is preserved is the texture of each individual item. Items like Konnyaku (a jelly-ish thing) don’t have much flavor on their own, and the chewiness is what differentiates it from other items.
Some sweet green bean dessert soup served cold. Pretty tasty.
The oden here was very good and the restaurant interior has a nice Japanese feel to it. I’ll get the name of the restaurant from Daphu later, in case any of you happen to wander over to Taipei. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who visits Taiwan.
After eating, we went over to the Ximending area and roamed around for a while. I hope the pictures can show you how the overall feel of the area is different from places in America.
We eventually entered a mall-ish building, which had an arcade on the top floor. I took some pictures before the manager came out and started yelling angry Chinese at me. I told him I was sorry and put away the camera, which should have resolved the issue, but he kept talking to me. I tried nodding a bit, but that only seemed to summon a longer response from him. I had to give in to my lack of ability, and finally tell him, ”我是美國人，我不會說中文,“ which means, I’m an American, Ｉ can’t speak Chinese. At that point the manager says to me, “No Photograph.” There was no way in fudge that everything he said meant “No Photograph.” Kevu did later tell me that the manager said if I wanted photos, I need to consult their website. I don’t know, it sounded angrier at the time. Valuable lesson get!
A sign for a store that sold small toys and figurines. Were they unusual? Didn’t really think so.
The other floors were filled mostly with clothing shops. There were also some game/plamo stores lying around too.
After leaving, we met up with Sharon, who also attends UIUC, and attended the same high school as Daphu and Kevu. Roamed a little bit more than we decided to get something to drink. Went to a tea place. Drank Taro milk tea, it’s the purple one. Was good. Kumquat citrus tea to the left of mine. Was also good.
The inside of the tea place was dimly lit, which worked well with it’s overall design. Just wish I had a bit more light for pictures!
After tea, we invaded another department-store type of building. It had a few floors, mostly filled with clothing and shoe stores. The interesting part was that in the center, there was an indoor basketball court. Pretty nifty.
What the. I didn’t think the stores in the building were too interesting until I saw this one. 76 brand clothing. Anyone remember 76? It was a gas station that went out of business or something, as I don’t seem them around anymore. I guess they latched on to another market. I’m still blown away at what I’ve found. American Gas station clothing, only in Taiwan.
We wandered for a bit more, and then decided to head out a bit earlier for dinner. The restaurant we were going to was a popular one, and we wanted to beat the lines.
These girls were advertising for a haunted house in the area. I would’ve liked to have gone had we more time. Never been to one, and being scared is fun. 
There’s an interesting note about Taiwanese garbage trucks, but I’ll write about it another post.
We arrived at Ba Qian Wu, (? Can’t read Chinese too well) a place known for its Unadon. There were couple of people already standing in wait near the door, but we still beat the dinner rush. It was a medium-sized restaurant, completely filled with people chomping away at their meals.
Unadon (鰻丼/鰻魚飯?) is a Japanese dish consisting of a bowl of rice topped with grilled marinated eel. What I ate was served in a box instead, so I wonder if you’d still call it an unadon, don coming from donburi, the word for bowl. The marinade is on the sweeter side, and the meat is very soft. I’ve had something similar before, with unagi sushi, but this unadon was great. It was grilled quite well, and the marinade was flavorful without being overpowering. Our meals came with sides of miso soup, tofu, and some seasoned greens. All in all, a satisfactory meal. I’d definitely go back if I ever return to Taiwan.
After dinner, we head off to the Shilin Night Market (士林夜市) to take a look around, but not before waving farewell to Sharon. It is one of many night markets in Taiwan, The night market opens around 4 pm or so, and closes around 2 pm. Some of the night market is situated in a large building, and is filled with nothing but restaurants. We were still pretty satisfied from our meal earlier, so we didn’t buy anything to eat. The area is packed with people, so it is quite easy to get separated from your friends if you don’t pay attention.
We left the food building and went towards the other section of the night market. The Shilin Night Market also extends to the neighboring streets and alleyways. In the streets, while there are still many food stands, it is mostly occupied by non-food businesses. While the building was an enclosed space and crowding is only expected, the streets and alleys were also very crowded, and traveling through meant bumping shoulders.
After a long day, we decided to head home and hit the hay. Kevu split from us at the bus station, saying he’d walk home. (He thought he was close by. He was not. Gah.) Joe and I waved Anju and Daphu farewell and we head over to the conference center we were staying at. End Day 2. Maybe I should’ve broken up the post into thirds. I may have some links to videos later as well.
Ah, by the way, on the way home, saw a gecko. Enjoy.
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