day 7!

Another free day. :) Oh boy we are getting so spoiled. So there was a bit of sibling drama this morning, since Kevin wanted to stay in for the day. Said he was tired, and didn't really want to do any shopping cuz there wasn't anything he wanted to buy. He'd kinda been acting like a sour puss for the last coupla days, and raining on everyone's parade. Actually Jennifer and I hadn't managed to buy too much stuff cuz we felt like we couldn't linger anywhere thanks to our resident little stormcloud. :p So you think it'd be welcome news! But M & J were both like complaining about it, saying he should try to be more cheerful, and feeling bad that he would be stuck inside the room all day. GAH!

But apparently we didn't feel too bad cuz we ditched Kevin to sleep, and went to get more green onion pancakes. Here's the master chef making em!

Sheauli ahyee recommended that we look around Zhongxiaodunhua station, so we headed there hoping to find another market-type place. What we found was...department stores and fanciness.  :o And a Uniqlo! Saved. :3 Everyone managed to find a little something for themselves at uniqlo. <3

A shin ramen tshirt!! So awesome, but it was $20+ so we said pass.

The rest of the Dunhua area was kinda blah though. No little stands!! My mom said they might come out during after-work hours. Boo. Made our way to a 7-11 and here's a pic of chinese Lays potato chips. :)

Next destination: Wufenpu! Recommended to me by the ever-so-awesome Bonnie, virtual Taiwan tour guide. :) It's a garment district that caters to wholesalers, but you can still buy individual items. It's a huge grid of alleys, ALL full of clothes. It is............super intense. Like you start getting really jaded and indifferent to shopping because there is just SO much there. Surprisingly we didn't find too much that we actually wanted to buy. All the clothing is just a tad off, like extra ruffles you don't want, length is too long, or something. Plus the things we did get weren't as cheap as I had expected? Still a really cool place to visit and walk around. Will probably come back.

 

There wasn't much food in Wufenpu, but we came across one or two stands. I got a small popcorn chicken at one, and while they were cooking, noticed some skewers with chicken on em. One had a bunch of chicken skin on it, the other one had little triangles of meat. I was like -- oh, skin is so unhealthy, I'll get the chicken breast! and ordered it. TURNS OUT: it was a skewer of chicken butts!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lolololololol. They're triangular cuz they're butts!! I know that sounds gross but it's pretty much just fat that gets fried. Oh :( that doesn't sound any better. WELL. It wasn't bad. :) Just really rich and I don't think I'd get it again, or only once in a blue moon. OH and I did share with M & J, didn't eat the whole thing myself. D:

So we shopped for a few hours and were pretty exhausted by the end. We'd promised to pick Kevin up at some point and get food, so we headed back home. After resting a bit, headed back out to meet Michael's friend Justin for some night market foods. Passed a lingerie store on the way and found this classy little number....

Our final destination was the Shilin night market food court, but we got waylaid by a bright string of shiny stands. :) Got some drinks from Coco, my new favorite pmt chain, and tried to puzzle out this stand while we waited for em. Turns out, it's baked potatoes! But not quite: they take potatoes, cook them, mash them, then re-form them in the shape of a potato, dip in breading and deep fry (of course...). They then cut it back open and drip assorted toppings on it.

So what was really interesting is that they had a promoter guy in front of the stand. He started chatting us up while we were checking out their food, and he was so good at talking!! :D Silvertongue. I couldn't understand half of it and he still made me laugh and want to listen to him. :) Before we knew it we were ushered into line and waiting to eat one of these delicious wonders. What's amazing is that there was a competing stand RIGHT next to their stand, same exact fooditem, and they had 0 people in their line. I think it's cuz their promoter sucked. :)

Behold!!! The promised food.

Also picked up some "jianbao" -- steamed bun? Michael's favorite. :)

Finally arrived at the food court (getting full already...) and ordered some oyster pancake,

stinky tofu,

and chinese sausage, from this stand:

Phew!!! All this eating really tires a girl out. So after some more wandering around Shilin night market, some more claw machines...........home! A pretty productive day, if I do say so myself. ;)

Pr