Christmas Day

It’s so strange to be in a different country on Christmas. Limited number of friends, no family, and a bustling city that continues on. Yes, New Year’s is a bigger event. Not to mention Chinese New Year, which is where stores do actually close and that the even is celebrated a week long.

One great thing that Christmas brought to Taipei was the sales. This trip has a common theme doesn’t it. Shopping. It’s Asian fit so I can’t pass up the opportunity to check out the new styles over here. I started in Zhongxiao Fuxing and headed east to Sogo and eventually to the new Sogo. If you haven’t been in these department stores. Think if you took the mall and crammed it into one store five plus stories high. You’d think you have a mess, but no. The store does a good job of having all the things you would want to buy. All you got to do was deal with the escalators. Yeah, there are elevators too, but I generally you take them going down. Didn’t find much so I went to the specialized Japanese stores like Muji and Uniqlo. Plenty of things to buy, but still didn’t end up with anything.

Only means one thing to do after a long day of walking around. Eat. so we went to a place called Little Yundish. It’s a Yunan style restaurant serving these large clay pots of noodle soup. The thing was hot and if you don’t know Yunan peppers, they’re kinda like the Sichuan kind. Potently hot. The beef broth is tasty but not overwhelming for the chunks of beef, tofu, tofu skins, or blood cakes. Each one brings a nice dimension to the soup. You’ll find yourself sticking with the chalky blood cakes to the chewy beef to the firm tofu skins. Each bite you’ll wash down with a spoonful of soup. It will certainly get you warm.