Relaxing
I had to take it easy. Pass few days my shoulder blade up to my neck was in serious pain. I could hardly go jogging. That it! I haven’t been able to jog. That’s why I’m getting so fat. Not from all the eating. Not at all. All the stuff has been healthy and nutritious. Fat and sugar is a form of nourishment right? Okay, maybe not.
On to the day. I finally, committed to buying a coat, make that two. All the shopping has led me to one store, Edwin, a store from Japan. Pretty interesting stuff and of course they had a sales promotion of 20% off. Oh, and a tip for the foreign shopper. Bring your passport! You’ll get an additional 5% cash back. What you need to do though is spend a certain amount, $3000NTD in this case and bring the receipt to a tax/vat refund counter, usually in the same mall. From there they will take your receipts and write up some stuff for you. Do remember that you have to do this the day off your purchase. Or in worse case scenarios, ask the store to issue you another receipt on that day. It was be like a return and repurchase. Anyways, you get some slip and on the day you head back, you brings all the slips to the refund station at the airport. That’s when you’ll get refunds for all your purchases. Not a bad addition to the savings.
For food, Vicky’s mom took me to a local xiao long bao place. It’s near the Guting MRT station. Sorry, I don’t know the name but I can say the pork and vegetable one was really good. We also ordered the hot and sour soup. I was never a fan of the stuff, but I did learn the states makes it the lazy way, without any meat. Yes, there’s suppose to be meat in this stuff. Small strips of pork and and tofu skin. Now I’m always going to turn down this soup back home. On another note, I had some Mister Donuts today. Can’t seem to resist this chewy snack. Have one and let me know. Different than your traditional ones form Dunkin Donuts. Don’t think it’s any less fattening. And if you want healthy, than you may like this place Long Xian Ju (龍涎居). They specialize in herbal soups. I’ve tried this before at the same place. Actually, they moved from the last time I went on to Roosevelt Street. So this time, I avoided the black chicken and added a rice bowl to help fill me up, not to mention enoki mushrooms in sesame oil. Mental note, hit the gym and run off this and many meals before it.
Here we go again with the herbal soups. This time I went with the normal free range chicken. The prices differ from non-free range, free range, and black chicken.The ginseng packs quite a pop but overall the soup was good. Having it with the chicken rice was also a nice combination. $180NTD
Ji Rou Fan (雞肉飯) or chicken rice may look simple and unappetizing, but its yummy goodness is under the rice. Soaked underneath is the chicken au jus, created from the making of the chicken. A mix of soy sauce, ginger, and other stuff I can’t make out, it’s a great fill up while keeping your taste buds happy. $30NTD
There are tons of shops here. One of the bigger malls is Hankyu mall. Similar but slightly bigger than the Sogo several blocks down the street. The set up in here is different though. Each brand name section wasn’t cramp so you can get a good walking by glimpse of all their apparel. Will be back to this station for shopping and food court eating.
I thought these were bean sprout leaves but it’s not. They’re something else that I have no idea what it’s called. All I can say is that you can find this in most restaurants in Taiwan. It’s got a nice crunch to it even after cooking making it something I need to find in the states. $30NTD
We had this with our xiao lung bao’s. It may look as though this may make the meal salty, but this wasn’t as salty as it looks. The soy sauce looks as though it was only added for coloring, making the taste rather light. That is, the taste of the pork comes out more. $40NTD
I don’t know the name of the place, but it’s right by the Guting MRT. The skins on these xiao long bao’s are delicate yet sturdy enough to not break with my clumsy handling. The best thing these are that these particular ones taste just as good, if not better, than Din Tai Fung at a lower cost. $100NTD
Have you figured out that I have a lot of guilty pleasures around the world. Well, this is another pairing that lowers my ranking in the foodie world. Canned coffee and chewy donuts. Oh gawd, why is this so good? Especially when they have heated cans. Maybe at $20NTD a can and $35NTD a donut, it’s unavoidable. Breakfast of champions.