Hungry in Taipei

On a Saturday morning after being up all night Jeremy and I were sleep deprived and HUNGRY. An ordinary 'super nacho cheese flavor' bag of Cheetos yielded not one but two giant lumps of cheese goo sans-Cheeto as Jeremy and I decided to adventure out into the city to locate a certain authentic Mexican flavored taco stand in Taipei. We found out about this place called MACHO TACOS off another blog called HungryInTaipei.com. In desperate need of some comfort food for the sick Megan we head out.



First leg of the trip, catch the red line down to Taipei Main Station.


View of some apartments from the MRT platform. Because it's fun to look into your neighbors wash room. They couldn't make these buildings any closer..


We got off the blue line at SYS Memorial hall and spotted our very first Burger King! Yey.

Cute baby in piggy outfit.

Crazy cute VW Bus. We saw a couple of these today. Don't know where they came from! COOL

Garbage truck.

After almost an hour on the MRT and a long walk we actually managed to locate MACHO TACOS. Time 1:30pm. Status, nearly dead and starving...restaurant...closed. We got all the way there and they don't open until 6:30. The gate was up and so I poked my head in to ask when they open. The were prepping the food and it already smelled sooooo good. They guy told me in perfect English that they will start opening for lunch next week. Major bummer

Yeah...

So instead we decided to check out a tried and true American favorite. Pizza Hut! Here's the sign above their doorway. Look familiar? Oh yeah egg and BBQ pork is my favorite combo too!

Jeremy sitting down at the pizza hut. Nice salad buffet behind him.

Yes they actually do serve boiled egg, broccoli, sesame seed and pork or bacon pizza. Standard at the buffet. Must be a big hit.

Or if you'd rather, there is also Korean Kim Chi BBQ Pizza or Mexican (Spicy) Pizza, and some purple one...who knows. We ordered from the menu...but I had to look.

Success! Plain cheese deep dish pizza and Taiwan beer. So much for the diet. Beer and pizza for every meal. This was so good I can't even describe. Jeremy ordered two beers off the bat. The waitress was very confused. And another round...

Window shopping at the Doc Martin's store.

Cuteness everywhere.

Cuteness! Everything is super cute after no sleep, pizza and two Taiwan beers.

Oooh, I found a skate shop. Turned out to be in line skates only though. =(

After we made it back to the MRT we decided to get off one stop early to see if the Shilin Night market was open. A few of the shops were just getting set up.

Hey dad - it's THE CLAW.

Yeah, you would be in claw heaven. There was isle after isle after isle of electronics stuff, stuffed animals, and then...and then...and thenandthenandthen

This juice shop was open and the guy who spoke really good English talked me into ordering a juice with that weird white lumpy fruit that he called a beet, and pineapple and maybe starfruit? I couldn't tell what the last one was. "Very healthful!", he said. It was also quite bitter. But I needed the vitamins and drank it up.

The food vendors inside the main Shilin Market getting started as the sun goes down.

Deep fried crabs anyone?

Or snails?

These guys would fry up any number of meat or tofu type skewers for you...

Here's me as we leave the main indoor market where most of the food vendors are. Down the street all all the way between the Shilin MRT stop and Jintan is the night market. It's about 4pm and just getting going!

Here's the start of the market as you get off at Jintan.

One of the side streets as it all comes to life.

Candy coated strawberries, mini apples, plums and roasted tomatoes.

Cute is as cute does! I want this whole outfit!

Travis, shoes for you.

The sign says 'WOW Frog eggs', but I know from last time we were here that this is actually a very good organic juice stand. You can totally tell from the sign right?

More food vendors along the street.

This is along the main road ZhongShan Bei Lu that parallels the MRT tracks. Jeremy and I went to the movie theater right here to see the new Studio Ghibli film. I have got to learn some Chinese stat. It was so bad. We didn't know the name of the movie. I couldn't say tickets. I said somthing about Ghibli and pointed and the girl behind the counter just STARED at me. Went to the girl at the entrance to ask her. She just shouted something in Chinese to the other girl, probably like "oh god, do you understand these people? I don't know what they want. Ignore them and maybe they will go away." Finally some pointing at a poster and handing money to the girl at the counter worked. It turned out to be almost $9 per person and the whole movie was dubbed in Chinese with no subtitles. Ah well. The picture was very crisp and beautiful.

You can find an assortment of very cool t-shirts with English writing on them! Just grab stuff from Google, put on shirt and $$$$

The real reason Starbucks changed their logo. there are about 50 chains in Taipei with a very similar logo...

Enjoy a whole squid if you're really hungry! I'm so glad I ate at Pizza Hut first. Some areas smelled really good, and then there was stuff like this that was just scary and did not smell fresh. Ugh!

Stuff yourself too much at the Shilin Night market, and you will have a food baby - like this guy. We got home after the movie at about 9pm...which is essentially 5am Saturday morning for you peeps back in Medford. Yeah we can still party! Wild Friday..or is that Saturday night. Whooho!