Shopping at Ximending

Ximending is a trendy area in Taipei where lots of young people go to hang out and shop. My cousin Shuen Shuen took us around. It probably doesn't surprise you at this point that the main thing we did was eat tons and tons of food.

• Oamisua (oyster noodle soup) for lunch. We accidentally dumped too much spicy sauce into our soup and I was crying as I ate it because it was so spicy. Apparently the norm is to eat a bowl of this stuff standing up on the sidewalk, which was difficult with my bad arm. But it was ohhh so yummy and warm on a cold rainy day.
• Black herbal goo/jelly in warm milk tea. I think I liked this stuff even better than bubble tea! Too bad I can't remember what it was actually called.
• Green tea flavored muaji (mochi).
• Fried chicken nuggets.
• Mister Donut, the Japanese answer to awful Dunkin Donuts. Both these chains are popular in Taiwan, but most people seemed to prefer Mister Donut, because the pastries were much more pretty and delicate-tasting. I associate Dunkin Donuts with being stale, crusty, and having messy glaze globbed on unevenly. But maybe that's unfair of me, because I only ever went to the Dunkin Donuts underground at the Harvard T stop, where everything smelled like the T.

Longshan Temple

While we were in the area, we visited the famous Longshan Temple, where there were huge lines of people praying for a great new year.

Here's us with a rat statue, for the year of the rat: