Today, I had a free day by myself as Anthony has to go to Kaohsiung for a business trip. As a good wife, I walked with him to the bus stop so that he can take the bus to the high speed rail station and take the train to Kaohsiung.
On the way to the bus stop, we bought some rice roll for breakfast so that Anthony can eat on his bus ride. Rice roll is a very common breakfast in Taiwan as it's easy to carry and convenient to eat. It is also very cheap (~US$1). You can put different ingredients (such as eggs, dried pork floss, pickled radish, Chinese doughnut, etc) inside and the rice will be rolled to cover it.
After getting the rice roll and a soymilk drink for my husband, it was time to send him off while I go and enjoy my time off :-)
I went to a cafe to have my coffee and also call my mom through Facetime as the cafe offers free Wi-Fi.
The cafe also has many books there for patrons to read. However, the books there are all in Chinese, so it might be hard for foreigners to understand.
This is the view that I have while enjoying my coffee.
After that, I walked to my auntie's stall to have lunch. On the way there, I past by many different buildings. One tip: be very careful crossing the streets in Taiwan. The drivers don't really follow the rules, so you really have to watch out while crossing the roads there. When my cousins came to U.S., they were very amazed that U.S. drivers actually wait and let the pedestrians cross the street.
My auntie sells all kinds of noodles in the wet market. And below, she made me a special noodle. The wet market in Taiwan is quite dirty, so if you look past that, you should be able to eat there. If not, I think it's best that you skip that.
My uncle knew that I love pickled guavas and I can't get it in U.S., so he bought me some to take home. Guava is a kind of fruit found mainly in tropical countries. It is a crunchy fruit and has not much taste. The pickled guava is sweet as it is soaked in sugar.
After lunch, I went home to take a little nap as I was still feeling jet lag. Later the day, my cousin took my nieces to visit me.
They were getting a little restless at the house as I didn't have any toys or food at home. So, we went out to have some fried shrimp rolls and rice noodles. This is one of the famous restaurants that sells fried shrimp rolls and have been showcast in TV many times. The restaurant is right by a canal.
We bought some puddings next door for the kids.
After that, we went to buy some Chinese buns for my grandma as she loves these. One thing to note is that many people in Taiwan doesn't speak English and their menus are usually not in English. So, you can either point to the food that you want or you can use the google translation in your phone to show them. You might also want to try to see if you can find any young person since they might know some English.
After dropping off the food to my grandma,we went home to pick Anthony up as he was back from work. We went to my cousin's store to have dinner as my other family members are waiting for me there.
To be honest, I haven't finished digesting my food from earlier, so I only had a drink and some snacks. Anthony, on the other hand, had a main course and he ordered the fried pork cutlet.
My cousin ordered their fruit tea which is served hot.
I had to order their pearl milk tea with both black and white pearls since they are the founder of pearl tea. I wanted to taste and see how different they were. Their tea was pretty tasty.
