day 12!

Soooo, with Jennifer and Kevin gone, Michael and I took a much needed break. :) I guess up til now, we had been operating under the constraint that Jennifer and Kevin only had about 10 days here, INCLUDING visiting family/relatives and a trip outside of Taipei. So we really tried to make every night count, which is why pretty much every single post has a new night market in it.

Also as awesome as our family is, living in close quarters makes us all....very....tense. We are not an easygoing bunch. And we like our space. So having 2 people less, and being able to have your own room to relax in, well........it was a relief after 10 days I guess. :)

Anyway I don't know what Michael did but I basically slept all day. :p Finally woke up at night cuz I was hungry, and went with Michael to get some food. Bonnie (or Bonnie's friend) recommended momo paradise to us? It's a sukiyaki place, I believe it's a chain from Japan! They have a ton of Japanese chains here. Um. I'd never been though, and I'd actually never had sukiyaki. :) How exciting!!! We looked up the location, and decided on the store near Taipei Main Station. Checked the location briefly, and we were off!!

...

2 hours later.

Still no food.

Morale is low.

Please send help. One of us is going to eat the other soon, and there is a creepy glint in Michael's eye.

Lol, SO. I sort of half assedly glanced at Google Maps even though I KNOW that I've got horrible direction sense. It looked so simple! Looked like it was inside the station. We wandered all throughout the station (there is an underground mall there, so it was like walking back and forth, around and around Valley Fair). Tried calling our mom for help, searching for wireless on our phones...nothing. The more time we spent though, the more stubborn we got about wanting to eat there, and not at one of the many delicious smelling restaurants that we kept walking by. :p

We randomly found (super super random) some huge monitor that coincidentally enough, had a huge google maps loaded on it, along with our current location. Using that and various other posted maps around the mall near the exits, we pieced together where Momo Paradise should be. Turns out it's not IN the station, just nearby, outside of it. So fine. We walked outside...........and hour 2 began.

Still no fucking Momo Paradise!! We walked to where we thought it ought to be but all there was was a huge hotel thing. Crossed the street....Walked around to the other side of the station....still nothing. Asked some people where Momo Paradise was but they'd never heard of it. :( There was no Chinese name for it either.

Finally we walk into that hotel thing, which turns out to be a department store. Ask the jewelry stand lady, who points us to the concierge, who tells us "momo paradise? 4th floor." I...nearly combusted. I thought it should be in this area the whole time, but why would they have it look like a hotel from the outside?!?!?!? arghhhhh. x_x

Pound on the elevator button. All full. Sprint up the escalators. And there it was.......................

The holy grail. T_T She's...she's beautiful!

Breathlessly ask the hostess for a table for two. The final boss tells us that there is a 40 minute wait. A small tear rolls down my cheek. :'( We said ok and crawled off piteously..............hehe. Nah. By that time we had stopped feeling hungry and were just empty inside. Another 40 minutes to justify us spending all this time and energy was nothing. :) So we decide to check out the department store while we were waiting.

Found a cute little stand selling baked goods, took a couple pics while the lady was busy helping someone else.

Cute. :) High end department stores and cute foods make me nervous.

Ok....because you guys are my friends I will tell the unabridged version of the story. :( Our resolve was strong, it really was! But the smell of an Ireland's Potato was stronger. ;_; I am so ashamed....

We saw the Ireland's Potato and were like omg look! If you remember, we saw one a while back in Dansui, and were too full to have any, but this time it was the opposite...empty enough to have all of it. D: I don't know why, cuz it's just fries and sauce but it looks so so good. Actually what am I saying, that's all the reason I need. :p

Plus they have a cute Irish proverb: "There are two things in the world that can't be joked: 1. marriage 2. potato". lol.

It was actually pretty classy inside, for a potato place. Cute little balloon mascots...

fake velvet seats, and a surprising number of people out on dates. To Ireland's Potato?? Really??

No I guess they're right. This does look pretty romantic. :3 (It's honey mustard + fries).

Michael and I slowly go through the fries, waiting for our table to be ready. Oh!! I forgot to mention, the sukiyaki place is all you can eat. :) THAT'S why it's so silly that we got food right beforehand hehe. Oops, ruined the story. Oh well.

Also don't tell Michael, cuz he'll kill me, but even though I swore up and down that a few fries wasn't gonna fill anyone up, I ....got....a bit full. lol. After not eating all day my stomach shrank. :( traitor.

Seated! Here are directions for how to cook/eat the various types of hot pot they offered. You can choose from 4 types: sukiyaki, shabushabu, broth, and spicy miso.

Sukiyaki is when you cook stuff (mostly meat, but veggies too) in this really 濃い....thick? dense? concentrated? sweet  soy sauce flavored broth. You cook really thin slices of meat, so it boils quickly and soaks up the flavor of the broth. Since it's got such a strong flavor, you don't really need to dip it into any other flavored sauce when it's done. :) Most people dip it in some beaten raw egg (it gives it a more....pleasant? texture) and eat.

Shabushabu I'm sure you all know, it's just boiling meat/veggies in hot water. Since there is no flavor, they give you some sauce to dip the food in when it's done cooking.

The broth is kind of like ramen soup, minus the oiliness. It's just a pork-based soup.

Spicy miso is spicy miso. Getting lazy.

You can choose up to 3 different kinds of base, but they charge slightly more for each additional one. We got the sukiyaki and broth. :) I would recommend either that, or sukiyaki + shabushabu. The sukiyaki is really good, but tooooo strongly flavored. And sweet flavored to boot. It gets to be a bit much, imo.

Lots of little dipping bowls. They had a spice tray with salt/pepper/green onions/garlic. :D yummy.

Bring it oonnnnnn. :3

I know, Janet. Vegetables are for sissies. T_T I didn't ASK for them, they just brought it!! hehe in all seriousness though the veggies were super tasty and fresh. :)

and really prettily cut slices of pork & beef. Dono if you can tell from the pic, but they're reaaaaally thinly sliced. 

OK EVERYBODY SHUT UP AND EAT.
We had 1.5 hrs to eat, which we didn't actually quite reach, and it was super super good. :) :) Cost per person was ~$15. It's cheaper at lunchtime. But I think $15 is really good!! The quality of the food was really nice. Michael wanted to keep going but I was feeling a lil embarrassed and talked him out of it. The ladies kept coming by with more and more incredulous looks of disbelief as they doled out more food. hehe.

They give you a small scoop of lime ice to finish the meal. I really enjoyed it overall. :D We're thinking of bringing our parents/cousin back before we go home.

After dinner we were too full to move, and most things were closing anyway since it was 10pm. Went home and recuperated some more. :)

Btw, starting from when we set out for dinner, the whole ordeal took about 5 hours. :p 3 hours to find the place, 2 to eat and go home hehe.