there are numerous inexplainable reasons of why I still ate ice cream even when I was (and am still) sick. In my defense, having been born and raised in a tropical country, it is only natural to get sick after experiencing the extreme climate change. Anyway, Nadia's last day in taipei was my number one excuse of why I guiltlessly ate a cup of cold gelato (and some spoonful of ice cream) in a 16° C weather while being sick (proven with this crime evidence).  Our visit to 8%ice was actually unplanned, we were only walking around randomly but hey, we'd be lying if we said we wouldn't enter an ice cream parlor which is recommended by practically everyone (plus the building was so pretty). It was actually my second time there and it wasn't as crowded my first visit there. The staff were very friendly to tolerate our my broken chinese. (rest assured, people. they speak apprehensible english). Torn between hojicha with honey and blueberry banana sorbet, I finally chose the latter while Nadia ordered a cone of sesame-slash-matcha ice cream, they're NT$100 each. We went straight home after taking a lot of polaroids (also after gaining a lot of confused stares from strangers).

8%ice 冰淇淋專門店

Address: No 6 Lane 13, Yong Kang Street, Daan District, Taipei City

Today was pretty laid-back since my lecturer announced that our test was cancelled. I'm feeling a bit feverish so I'm spending the day listening to nujabes and watching The Great Gatsby (and crying my heart out while doing so). x

-M

Ending the long week with your sister from another mother brings a certain pleasure, which resulted to enjoyable (not to mention fattening) weekend. Nadia (18, Applied Foreign Language student) paid Taipei a 4N3D visit. She went all way from Taichung to Taipei to enjoy the urban atmosphere, cute cafés, and good food, basically everything she couldn't enjoy in Taichung (or so she said but not sure about the good food tho). We spent the whole friday walking around Yong Kang Street. Being a loyal reader of ladyironchef's blog, we decided to follow his recommendation and had our late lunch in Yong Kang beef noodle shop. Fortunately, they had 2 vacant seats when we arrived (albeit it was as crowded as it always is) so we didn't need to queue. The shop was packed with the chatter of both foreigners and locals (and some occasional "Thank you, please come again!" from the owner). We ordered a portion of spicy beef noodle each. The generous portion of chewy noodle and the tender beef made me would've ordered for more, too bad we have to save some space in our belly to try another food. We spent NT$180 each, it was slightly more expensive than most of the beef noodles here in Taipei but it was worth it (recommended by Ladyironchef,duh).

永康牛肉麵

Address: No 17 Lane 13 Section 2, Jinshan South Road, Taipei, Taiwan (Yellow line, Dongmen Station, exit 3).

Dessert was next. After getting lost for a few times (excuse my inability to comprehend google maps), we finally reached Yong Kang Street. Yong Kang is basically a paradise street filled with nice cafés and good food, it was quite hard deciding what to eat for dessert but we went to Morita Bakery (also recommended by Ladyironchef).The friendly owner and the smell of freshly baked breads made us left the shop with quite a lot of things on our hand. I bought  5 macarons for NT$320 ($60 each). the owner kindly packaged it in a small transparent ball with cute ribbons for me. Personally, I am not a huge fan of sweets, so I can't say anything about the taste. It doesn't taste bad, but it's so-so for me. the breads were excellent though, the texture's chewy and they tasted great.

Morita Bakery

Address: No 6 Lane 31, Yong Kang Street, Daan district, Taipei, Taiwan.

Today is Jeff's birthday and we're out to buy him a gift. I'll update soon, x.

-M