Taiwan Day 9

On Saturday, my aunt picked us up to meet up with my cousin at a sushi restaurant, Mitsui. Mitsui is a really popular place right now because it was in the papers a little bit ago; the last president, Chen Shui-Bian, was very corrupt and his son used to discuss insider trading operations at Mitsui. Reporters went to the restaurant and photographed Chen Sui-Bian’s son there and also realized that they have really good food at reasonable prices, so people started flocking to the restaurant:

We arrived when they first opened and were prepping for lunch:

The restaurant is probably one of the trendier restaurants I’ve visited in Taipei; they have a younger staff, everyone speaks English, and their tableware is a lot edgier than the traditional stuff I’ve seen at other restaurants:

Eric has been to the restaurant numerous times and suggested that we order the lunch special. It’s about $40 USD per person, but he assured us that it was a lot of food and it was definitely the best deal. We started off with lots of sashimi:

Every piece of fish was delicious, especially the fatty tuna and the mackerel (our favorites!). The fresh scallop also had an amazingly creamy texture that David and I both enjoyed.

Next came our salad:

The Japanese mountain yam was my favorite; it’s slightly sticky but very crunchy and light. They also have a special dressing that’s a little spicy.

Next came a large order of Dungeness crab:

The crab meat was steamed in salt water and also came with a side of cracked almonds that were plump and a little chewy – the first time I’ve ever eaten those types of almonds (they didn’t have much taste, but were very fun to squish)

Next came an order of pan fried fish:

Then our soft-shelled crab:

I was able to eat two orders of the crab because David gave me his (yay!) The sauce was creamy and almost tasted a little smokey (like my mom’s red pepper dip).

Next, the waitress brought along our soup:

And the seafood and vegetables to put in our soup:

The waitress delicately placed everything in the soup and served us:

And then they brought along more food! Steak that was grilled and placed on a tobacco leaf:

For dessert, we had the option between red bean soup and green tea ice cream. David and I went with the ice cream:

And Eric went with the red bean soup:

The three of us with our desserts:

After our wonderful lunch with Eric, we parted ways and went back to our hotel to wait for my mom to finish teaching. Eric picked me up later that night to go to the night market to pick up some last minute gifts and to walk around. We also went to YoFroyo:

The menu is pretty straightforward but has suggestions for topping combos:

Eric ordered a medium green tea frozen yogurt with mochi, jelly, and red bean:

It only cost $2USD! It’s super popular in Taipei (I think it’s the only YoFroyo store in the city but I could be mistaken) and it was really good, especially with the jelly and red bean. AND THERE WAS NO HOLE!

Eric took me to a store that sold tons of different types of candy so I could buy some:

And then we went to a bakery to buy more mochi and other sweets. Right now, cupcakes are pretty fashionable:

Their baked goods are so much more beautiful (and tasty) compared to the ones you find in the US! Here are some beautiful birthday cakes:

The bakery we went to also sold a lot of different types of bread – the baker even won a contest: Best bread in Taiwan! Here are some of his salty creations:

After walking through the bakery and picking up lots of goodies, we met up with my dad. My dad spent the evening at a television studio because he was on a guest panel – I actually flipped through the channels before meeting up with my cousin and saw him on TV discussing his research! Apparently he’s quite the celebrity in Taiwan and goes on television ALL THE TIME! Since he spent the evening doing a live taping, he hadn’t eaten dinner and we decided to get some soup at this restaurant:

We ordered the seafood ramen, which came with lots of abalone and lamb:

After eating dinner, my dad dropped me off at home and we started packing – only one more day in Taiwan!