Our apartment is in the Da'an district of Taipei, south-west of the city center. Shi Da, one of the two major universities, is just a few blocks north of us and Tai Da, the other major university, is a bit east of us, which means that there is a lot going on in the area. We are on the second floor of a 7 floor building on a lane that shoots off of Shi Da Rd. a fairly major road. We were worried that since the ShiDa night market happens one street over on the other side of Shi Da Rd, it would be loud at night, but we have been pleasantly surprised that it is amazingly quiet at night. The only sound we hear at all is the rain, which is lovely. It is now 5:15 and I am just hearing the sounds of the first few scooters heading off to work.
The girls began their Chinese "camp" at Mandarin Daily News on Wednesday. The camp is designed to teach foreign children Chinese and will run from 10am-noon each day through January 18th. We were wondering if it would feel too soon for them to dive in to a routine, but it was the best thing we could have done. It has given some structure to our days and has started them thinking about the language. The classes are held about 15-20 minutes walk north-west of our apartment. The walk is easy and we have been taking different routes to discover new things along the way. The streets are alive with tiny food vendors, folks setting up the daily outdoor markets, hacking meat and fish and stacking vegetables and fruits. Since all the signs are in Chinese, we have found that we must slow down and really LOOK at what is happening at each spot. It's good to remember…slow down. We have the time to slow down and take it all in.
We have discovered that we can compose a delicious breakfast all from stands along our route to class. We found one fruit stand that has boxes of freshly cut fruit for sale. The pineapple is unbelievably sweet and comes with a tiny, wooden fork for eating it. The fruit lady will also take any fruit you like, throw it in a blender, add a touch of water (we were assured the water was "kai shui" - boiled - I guess we will see) and zap it into a fresh fruit smoothy. And all for a whopping dollar.
A few store fronts down from the fruit lady is a tiny hole-in-the-wall that makes egg sandwiches on a griddle. We walked right by this spot on the first day, but yesterday I noticed a line…lines are worth noting here since folks like their food and seem willing to wait. The woman at the griddle cracked two eggs into an old can, whisked them up with a fork and spilled it onto the griddle. She then topped the eggs with a crepe-like rice pancake. After it was cooked, she squirted some spicy-looking sauce onto it, folded it up and put it between two pieces of toast. It looked incredibly yummy. I plan to eat one thins morning. Cost $0.50.
About 50 yards further, we found a coffee front. Imagine a coffee cart, but in the side of a building. Right there the guys will grind the coffee beans and make you a latte or cappuccino. Need I say more?
Finally, about a block closer to the kids' Chinese lessons, Perrin and Carly found a bakery. When we lived in China there was no such thing as a bakery, and what baked items they had were worth staying away from, so I was less than enthusiastic about trying the Taiwanese baked goods. Turns out, they aren't bad. Nothing compared to the items found in a French patisserie, but certainly edible and the girls are having fun trying different varieties.
And that's breakfast from the sidewalks of Taipei. Not bad at all. Only thing is you can't sit down to enjoy it in one place. That will change in spring when we can find a place to sit outside. The great thing about this city is that if you would rather, you can go into a coffee/breakfast shop, sit down for coffee, smoothies, waffles and eggs-on-a-chinese-bun, and connect to wireless. We did that yesterday and had our first two hours of school right there in the shop. Nice to have both the street and the restaurant options.
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