Amanda has been gargling salt water in the morning and at night, continuing her fight to stay relatively healthy. I got up as she was getting back w/ the salt for this morning’s round (from the café in the basement). It was about 9, and we needed to get moving if we were going to do a little shopping at Di Hua St market and check out the City God Temple in that area before returning here to be picked up for lunch. So we skipped breakfast, and caught a cab over there (not that far, a bit west of the north south subway line).
They have a lot of herb and dried stuff shops, plus some fabric shops at this market, and it’s in an area of town where the old style architecture is still preserved. We got some dried tomatoes and cherries, and Amanda picked up some tea that’s really flavorful (fruity) – they’d given us a sample. We contemplated getting some zhong1 yiao4 for our illnesses but didn’t. She also got some fabrics. And the temple there, though small, was really cool. Many different gods to pray to, cool atmosphere, a lot of people visiting for such a small place.
We headed back and rested a bit before Vincent uncle came to pick us up (my mom’s friend helen’s husband). We then went to pick up Helen a yi from work, and headed to lunch. We had originally thought we’d go to this veg buffet I’d found in my book, but they wanted to take us to a better place recommended by a friend of theirs. It was called Yanming Spring, on the 10th floor of a building w a bunch of restaurants. I think it’s the 2nd of a chain that started at Yanming Shan. The food was really good – we had a bunch of different courses basically. Some herb soup to start – not too overly herby. Some salad type things – one that was more like a typical soy/sesame based dressing, one w/ a green yogurt dressing, one w/ a gingery dressing, and then a plate of three different little items like amuse bouche. Then our main course dishes – two were big mushrooms that were cut like chicken drumsticks and fried like them, but served w/ different sides and sauces (one was more like a creamy pesto but different served over some noodles, and one was a wasabi cream sauce lightly applied and garnished w/ boiled/steamed peanuts). Another was a korean style rice dish w/ lots of veggies incl eggplant and kimchee. The last was like san1 bei1 ji1 but w/ some soy substitute for the chicken w/ some white bamboo and other vegs plus bean curd. We had another soup to finish the savory items (I tried one taro creamy one and ate most of my herb mushroom veggie broth one). Then, the desserts – first we tried the little cups of passionfruit (I think) juice they’d set out for us in a bowl w/ ice to chill during our meal. Sweet and tangy. Then there were some small plates of fruit slices (watermelon, guava, 2 grapes) served w/ some chilled dessert soups (red bean w/ taro rice thingy, clear syrupy one w/ lotus seeds and longan, green bean). Yum. What a treat. It was really nice to meet my mom’s friends, too. They both independently said I looked a lot like my mom. And vincent had never met my dad but said he heard that he was handsome. Helen a yi said that my eyes look like mom’s and maybe from my nose down I look more like my dad.
After dropping Helen a yi back at work, vincent brought us to the National Palace Museum. We said that it was totally not necessary, but he insisted that it was the least he could do. So we thanked him a bunch for everything, and walked up the big steps for the museum. It’s like 180NT to get in – a bargain for how much art and history is contained within. We probably arrived at about 3:15-3:30, so we didn’t have much time to look at stuff before they closed at 5. But we got to see some really awesome paintings – some contemporary in a special exhibit, some very old in their permanent rotating collection. We also looked at some bronze and jade stuff, but I enjoyed the paintings the most, for sure. The contemporary guy – Chen – made some really interesting use of color and space. I snapped a few shots even though it’s not allowed. And of course some of the old paintings were just magnificent. Some super detailed, some w/ such amazing color blends and shading. The jade cabbage… a little underwhelming to be honest. It’s cool, but I think if they put it in a smaller case and have it more elevated, maybe it would look cooler. Or at least bigger.
We left there and headed back to do a little packing/organizing.
About 7something we took off for shi lin to get some food and do some last minute shopping. Called the Sandos but no answer. The food court at jiantan was pretty crazy – not too busy but still a lot going on. Didn’t take my camera, but snapped a few iphone photos. I had my last Taiwan beer there. We headed towards the market, and ended up in a small corridor buried in between one of the main roads and the middle of the market, kind of near the big pet store and city jungle where the games are… I remembered this corridor – but remembered it being a lot more crowded w/ shirt and knickknack vendors. I had to get some cash to complete the purchases I wanted (a button-down and a tie), but we came away w/ 100 extra NT and some change (not counting the 150NT we set aside for getting back to the hotel via cab), so that was good work. We probably got back around 9:30p. I was a little sad to not have gone out to any bars or clubs, but I was also sick and by nighttime pretty exhausted, so felt like that was ok. Can’t believe that vacation is over and basically one big day of travel left to get home. But I’m also ready to be home now.
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