On Friday, I visited NTU again and had lunch with my dad’s student, Jenny, to discuss moving to Taiwan for school. We ate at Chopstix, a restaurant close to the business school. Jenny actually lives in Beijing, but she’s getting a masters at NTU and flies from China to Taiwan every couple of weeks to take class. Me and Jenny at lunch:
Chopstix makes a bunch of freshly blended juices and I ordered a starfruit juice:
For lunch, we ordered chinese spinach:
Eggplant with basil:
And flounder with fried peanuts:
After walking around NTU for a bit, my mom and I went across the street to the market (to get my shoe fixed) and walk around the different stalls. In Taiwan, the markets are kind of messy:
And the meat is sold without being refrigerated:
I asked my dad’s wife about the market conditions, and she said that supposedly the meat is butchered earlier in the morning and it’s usually sold pretty fast so they don’t think refrigeration is necessary. As soon as people purchase the meat, they go home and either cook it or refrigerate it, so it’s pretty safe.
We walked around NTU for a while because there’s lots of little shops in the area and eventually made our way back to the hotel so we could meet up with my brother and dad. We went out for dinner and then looked for a place that sells shaved ice (we were looking for the stuff we really liked from the Meet Fresh place, but couldn’t find any shops close to us). My dad found a place that’s pretty famous and we shared a red bean shaved ice:
It’s red bean with condensed milk on top of ice – so delicious!
I also wanted to buy some mochi that was filled with cream, cake, and fruit, and my dad found a bakery that sells it:
David and I were both very happy:
We bought two – one with mango cream and fresh strawberries and another with green tea cream and fresh strawberries. Here’s what they look like:
And when you carefully cut them in half, you can see the strawberry and fresh mango cream:
We walked around the NTU area again because at night, there is a huge night market that’s filled with students and locals. We just ate a big dinner, but walked around the stalls to find little things to eat. This stall sells this open zongzi – sticky rice with sausages and mushrooms:
And we found a place that sells boba tea – one of the more famous ones since they use fresh cream:
Their boba is cooked with rock candy and when you order your tea, you can add more sugar or just take it plain:
David and I shared one with no extra sugar:
We ended up walking around some more and saw this gigantic English sheepdog named Dodo:
We walked back to our hotel, ate the mochi balls, and tried to sleep but were too excited because we were meeting up with my cousin on Saturday to spend another day doing what we do best…EAT!
On Thursday, my dad and I went to NTU early to walk around the campus and to meet up with my dad’s friend who’s a professor at the university. After touring the school, we met up with my brother to drive to A Cut Steakhouse:
A Cut Steakhouse is located on the lower level of a nice hotel in the city (as are most nice restaurants in Taiwan). Isabel, my dad’s wife, is a fan of the restaurant because they have good steak and they also have a great lunch special (pre-fixe). We started off with some warm bread:
They gave us brioche and multi-grain and both were really great! We definitely had more than one serving, especially since they came with lots of soft butter.
The lunch pre-fixe deal comes with an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert (the price is actually determined by the entree you choose). For the starter, I ordered the tuna tartare:
Too peppery, but the tuna was fresh. David ordered a better appetizer (grilled octopus) and my dad ordered the smoked salmon, which was also really good.
For my main entree, I ordered the Australian dry-aged steak:
The waitress brought out four different types of salts to add to the steak – Himalayan, sea, Hawaiian, and fleur de sel.
Isabel is friends with the chef’s mom (I think they used to work together) so he gave us lots of extra sides, including my favorite, the french fries:
They were meaty and crispy (but not too crispy) and David, my, Dad, and I ate almost the entire pile.
For dessert, we all got souffles with passion fruit sauce:
I think souffles are very popular in Taiwan right now because they’re on a lot of restaurant menus, but I don’t mind because this souffle was probably the best one I’ve had…EVER.
All of us after our lunch:
After lunch, we went back to the hotel for a bit, but then drove up to the Xindian area to Wulai – after driving for about 30 minutes, we arrived to the Wulai trolley:
The trolley takes you up to the mountain:
…where there’s a resort and amusement park. They were having a yoga retreat while we were there so we just walked around the amusement park area. It was kind of like a scary movie set; lots of closed down rides and statues, including this one:
And look at the aboriginal cut out:
To add to the creepiness factor, there was a slight fog settling onto the mountain as we were walking around and the visibility wasn’t that great.
After walking around Wulai and being completely scared of being up in the mountain so high, we took the trolley back down to Xindian and drove back to my dad’s house to have dinner with Isabel. We ate a HUGE watermelon and then my dad drove us back to the hotel to prepare for another day of eating!
Now that I’ve uploaded all of my pictures, I can do a more thorough update of my last days in Taiwan. On Wednesday, after taking pictures in Daan Park, we headed to the Taipei 101 area to eat Peking duck. The duck is cut for you at the table:
He was the same guy that prepared the duck 4 years ago when I visited! The duck wasn’t as good as it used to be (my dad said that quality has gone down a bit since the last time he visited) but we still enjoyed the meal.
After lunch, we went back to the hotel to meet up with my mom’s friend, Jenny, who took us to Kaffe Amadeus, a coffee shop in the new Sogo mall. Kaffe Amadeus has an afternoon coffee special – two desserts and coffee for $390NT. I went with the ice latte:
We ordered three scoops of ice cream – chocolate, grape, and currant:
Jenny ordered the opera cake with biscuits:
And the three of us shared a large souffle, a specialty of Kaffe Amadeus:
It takes 45 minutes to prepare and it’s all egg whites, sugar, citrus, and raisins. It’s topped with a blueberry sauce and was quite airy:
By the time we finished everything, we were stuffed, to say the least. However, after eating all morning and afternoon, we got ready to eat AGAIN! My dad picked me up later that evening to meet up with my dad’s friend, Yen ai-yi. She took us to eat traditional Taiwanese food, including fried oysters and basil:
Bean sprouts and other vegetables wrapped in tofu skin and fried:
And congee with yam (my favorite!):
Me and David with Yen ai-yi and her niece, who is also my dad’s TA/assistant:
After finishing dinner, we literally had to roll ourselves back to the hotel because we had spent the entire day EATING. I can’t believe I didn’t gain more than 6 pounds while I was in Taiwan!
I’M BACK! Did you miss me? 馃檪 I took a little break from blogging but I’m back to finish my posts on my Asian adventure. My pictures are on three different computer (ack!) so I’ve been slowly consolidating them…very slowly. I’ll finish my Taiwan posts as soon as I get the pictures from David’s computers, but for now, here are some pictures from my trip to the World Expo!
Warning: there are a LOT of jumping pictures in this post. A LOT.
We arrived in Shanghai on Monday afternoon and took a cab to the JW Marriott in Tomorrow Square, where we were staying for the night. The last time I was in China was in 2006, when I accompanied my mom there on business. Since then, Shanghai has changed so much! There are over 3,000 high rises in Shanghai and prices for the high rises are even more expensive than real estate prices in Manhattan. They also built a new airport (for international flights) and a new highway from the airport to the city. We were pretty amazed at how much progress the city has made since our last visit.
We only had one full day in Shanghai and the only reason we were actually IN Shanghai was to go to the world expo. We had to take a special van to get into the world expo; they purchased a fleet of VW minivans and only allow those new vehicles into the expo (all of the other cabs in the city have to stop at a specific entrance because they don’t match the expo look).
At the entrance of the expo:
By the China Pavilion:
Jumping by the China Pavilion:
The China Pavilion had the Macau Pavilion next to it, which was supposed to be a bunny:
A cool sculpture by the entrance:
Another picture of the China Pavilion:
You have to make reservations for certain pavilions, but people recommend not going to the China Pavilion if you plan on returning to China; they’re breaking down the majority of the pavilions, but the Chinese one is here to stay.
The China Pavilion is in the “Asian Square,” along with others like Nepal and India:
The most popular tent is definitely Saudi Arabia; they have an IMAX inside and supposedly it’s the largest in Asia:
We got in line and got ready to wait, but then we learned that the wait was going to be SIX HOURS. SIX HOURS?! We contemplated waiting since we had flown halfway across the world to see the expo, but decided against waiting because we didn’t want sun poisoning or heat exhaustion just to see the IMAX movie. Instead, we settled for a picture of me jumping in front of their tent:
And a picture of me walking past the pavilion:
The Korea tent had a more reasonable wait…2 hours of standing in the heat:
A picture in front of the tent was enough for me:
We did manage to go into the Syrian tent…absolutely no one was waiting in line to see it:
The interior wasn’t too interesting or nicely decorated; they had posters with information about their country that you’d find on wikipedia and at the end of the tour, they had a gift shop where you could buy sand art.
We continued walking through the Asian Square and saw Japan, Vietnam, and other Asian countries:
After a while in the Asian village, we decided we wanted to see how the waits were in the European village. We boarded one of the shuttles:
Getting on the shuttle was quite an experience; people were shoving like there was NO OTHER SHUTTLE ON EARTH. We couldn’t get on the first shuttle because it filled up REALLY quickly, but managed to squeeze onto the second. Who knew old people were so pushy? Maybe they all pushed onto the bus because they didn’t know how much time they had left ON EARTH.
In the European area, the waits were a little better, but they were still around 2 – 3 hours in the hot sun to get into any tent. We decided to just walk around and see the architecture because it seemed like the exterior was a lot more interesting than the interior.
The start of the European tents:
Switzerland originally wanted to build the Alps, but it would’ve been higher than the Chinese Pavilion, which wasn’t allowed. Instead, they built a ride on top of their Pavilion, which was like a ski lift:
Spain’s tent looked like it was made out of straw:
Poland’s Pavilion:
There were some free water fountains around the pavilions, but people were being really pushy and there was absolutely NO ORDER. We made David get water because no one really wanted to push him around:
We finally went into another pavilion – Ireland’s:
It was nice to be inside with air conditioning, but it was another tent that just had information and pictures from the internet (some were also really pixelated and you couldn’t even tell what they were!) A view from the end of Ireland’s tent:
Germany’s tent was very cool and I think it was designed by Frank Gehry:
Jumping in the middle of the street:
The Netherlands had sheep all over:
A lot of people brought cards and books to read – they just rested under the tent and hung out:
In front of England’s cool tent:
Jumping in front of France:
I also managed to take a picture by Haibao, the official mascot of the World Expo:
We took another bus across the river to the other portion of the world expo – this was mostly technology stuff that you had to reserve beforehand. Some other buildings:
If you end up going to the expo, you should definitely prepare for really LONG waits in the heat. A lot of people brought their own stools and chairs to rest on during their waits. You should also bring lots of containers for water (I don’t think you can bring filled containers into the expo) and definitely bring lots of sunscreen. The expo ends in October and the Chinese government has already told the people of Shanghai to not visit until the end of the expo so tourists can visit first, so it might be packed in October as well.
Today, Angie, Brooke, Josh, and I woke up at 5AM to bike Lake Shore Drive! Bike the Drive is a yearly event that closes down Lake Shore Drive and was really fun – here are some pictures from the event!
At the starting line:
Jumping with Chicago’s skyline in the background:
Me, Angie, and Brooke:
Me and Josh:
Chicago’s skyline:
Another:
The three of us by Navy Pier:
The event was really fun and Angie and Brooke have already made plans to do it again next year! Now we’re getting ready for brunch at The Publican and dinner at Alinea!
