味留 sushi

{ our wine of choice for the night }

{ started off the meal with an escargot and fruits salad }

{ sashimi }

{ 咸豆花 with abalone }

{ mini lobster }

{ shark }

{ song ban pork }

{ and the standard miso soup }

{ red wine jello with passion fruit and dragon fruit dressing }

To celebrate my parents' 25th anniversary, we went to 味留 for dinner. Typical Momma Chen wanted something modest and nothing extravagant, so we chose this cozy little Japanese restaurant tucked into a small corner all the way at the end of Shi Dong Rd. Their sauces are all uniquely concocted with a perfect harmony of flavor. Yumm.

tong hua hakka cuisine

I'm half Hakka so I guess it's in my blood to find this delicious. And yes, I did. Especially the dessert. Oh my god, the dessert. Here are the dishes I remembered to snap. Everything else we kind of devoured the instant it was placed onto our Lazy Susan.

kidney pains

I'm constrained to my bed with what I think are chronic kidney pains but may very likely simply be the result of bad posture during my 45 hours a week workdays. As I lie here starting my pre-sleep routine of browsing through 9gag and THOUGHTCATALOG a couple hours early, I figured I might as well waste some time adding pointless hipster filters to the pictures I already have in my phone. Because, why the fuck not?

rain rain go away

It won't stop raining and we are trapped downtown as ChungShan N. Rd continues to flood.

ccc's sans chocolate

My right index finger is so sore from the constant downwards scrolling through interior design blogs, trying to find pictures that suit my "style" to send to my designer. We met today and agreed upon a suitable layout and now I'm nothing but excited. Around midnight, I unsuccessfully tried to satisfy a semi-craving for chocolate chip cookies by baking and following this recipe. Tried it once before and will never try anything else again. Mmmm mmm! 

Only to remember halfway through that I did not have any chocolate chips in my pantry. Just letting the batter chill and soak up all the goody caramely-ness till tomorrow.

still no stars tonight

Went jogging around the canal today as my mother and Andy's mother took their post-dinner stroll and talked about agriculture and fertile squash. After two earthquakes and several days of stormy weather, it's nice to see clear skies and people dancing by the temple again. Kind of lonely to be the only TMRC member back.

summer reading

Like my makeup, I feel like I should finish reading the books I bought in the past before I go out and purchase new ones. Most of the time, it's really too hard. However, I found a couple of rejected IBHL English books and a couple of novels I used to pretend to read during "silent reading time," unforgivingly stashed away in my over crowded bookcase.

I've already gone through Norwegian Wood and The Great Gatsby as well as three other books in my Kindle but am currently trying to make my way through The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle because I really am obsessed with Haruki Murakami.

Though it means breaking my own rules, I'm particularly excited to order East of Eden from books.com.tw. It's quite difficult to find certain books when you're not in a country where English is fluent by all. 

Postojna Cave & Plitvice Lakes National Park

 Even against the harsh order of our tour guide, I purchased a box of fresh strawberries which I immediately devoured on my way back to our bus.

 We visited Postojna Cave where I made the mistake of wearing shorts and had to suffer a 20 minute ride around the interior of the cave and an additional 90 minute tour of the place. But the interiors were so grand and weird that it made it all worth it.

 The umbrellas reminded me of the multicolored popsicles I used to eat when I was a child. Always ended up with a strange colored tongue.

 An abandoned crate of cabbages on the street. We've been having a bowl of shredded cabbage with vinegar to start off every single meal. I am very sick of cabbage at this point. I would abandon this crate of cabbage too, if it were in my possession.

 Plitvice Lakes National Park

This is long overdue but I couldn't let these pretty pictures go unseen.
We went to so many other places but I don't even know how to start pronouncing their names.

croatia and vienna by instagram

It's one of those rare occasions in which I've encountered a faltering signal of Wifi from a neighboring coffee shop. But it's better than nothing.

Photos taken of great things but with small means. As my trip comes to an end, I'm sure I will come to miss the beautiful coastline view and romantic sunsets. Most definitely, I'm going to miss the breakfast of organic yogurt with fresh strawberriers and honey and the most beautiful bacon I've ever seen in my life.

graz & slovenia photo diary

This place is so gorgeous. We spent the morning in Graz and enjoyed the view of the old town from the Grazer Schloßberg. There was a clock tower with the little-hand and big-hand switched around such that the clock reads 12:10 instead of 2:00. Must confuse a lot of elementary school children. After that we traveled to Slovenia where we were boarded the Planika and rowed across Lake Bled by a locally certified rower. As I circled Bled Island, I was greeted halfway by this dog in a boat and the lingering stench of marijuana smoke. Chill.

I made the amateur mistake of wearing my Tory Burch's today. Oops. Not only were my feet bloated from the 13-hour flight but the lack of grip let my toe continuously ram into the stiff patent leather. Tomorrow I will wear my Sperry's.