The Back Alley Restaurants.

I'm going to take some time out of my blog in Taiwan to tell you guys about the back alley restaurants next to my dorm. If you plan on studying abroad here in Tai Da, you will probably be living in Guo Qing and thus frequenting the back alley restaurants almost every day. Remember one of the first posts here, where I took a picture of the back alley and said, "I think I will be frequenting this place often"? Well, I did. We come here pretty much every day before class at 1pm. So here's a list of restaurants I've been to in the alley, just so you know in case you plan on coming, or just so I have a memory of the awesomeness that is the back alley next time I'm back in America and seriously craving some gloriously cheap Taiwanese food. Starting from the beginning of the alley to the end...

This place sells various kinds of fried rice and fried/wet noodles in different styles, ie Taiwanese, Cantonese, etc. Most of these restaurants come with free soup, drink etc., but this place goes above and beyond, offering free slushies and free dessert as well. That said, the prices are a bit more expensive, and the food isn't as good as another fried rice restaurant we went to religiously.

This place sells roasted Thai chicken. Not much else to say except...

...that this place is better. But, like most restaurants in the alley, this one will make your clothes smell heavily of Thai chicken, so make sure you're wearing clothes you plan on washing, or that you don't have a date with a vegan afterwards.

Sababa pita place, in the first left hand alleyway off the main alley. This place looks and feels it could be straight from America, with its English speaking workers, American music playing in the speakers, and largely Caucasian customer base. This place is a little expensive by Taiwanese standards (ie, the price is also American) and the portions aren't very big, but the taste is VERY good. Go here if you're not too hungry but still feel like eating a little something.

This curry house gives good portions and has a lot of different, free drinks to go with the very spicy curry. Medium hotness is enough to make me sweat and panting for water, so watch out.

We came here for lunch before Man Day pt 1. This is also where Jenn ate and got really sick. The pasta is mediocre though this place is always packed whenever it's open... but it seems to close at hella random times. I know people who like this place a lot, ie Cris and David, but I personally don't like it very much.

Jenn and I had our first lunch together here. I don't remember the food but I remember the drinks being pretty good. I guess it's natural, given that the place is called "The Soda Fountain."

All hail the fried rice place. We ate at this humble little restaurant more times than any other restaurant in the alley, and by a LOT too. Why? The fried rice here is amazing. Hard to put my finger on what makes it so good, but it's just so fresh, down to the small carrots and peas. And it's cheap too: A whole plate of fried rice for 2US$? Hell yea! And the service is fast, which made for quick last minute eatings before class possible. If I could take any restaurant in my entire stay in Taiwan back home with me, it would be this one. I love you, fried rice place.

Comebuy, which is a boba store. The name isn't very good, I admit. It's a chain here in Taiwan, and it's pretty good. The boba is always the right consistency and sweetness.

Romin told us to go here for cheap, good chicken katsu. It was cheap, but it wasn't good. For good chicken katsu, look across the alley to...

...this restaurant, which we affectionally dubbed "The Red Chair Restaurant," because all the chairs are red. This is the first restaurant I ever ate at when I got to Guo Qing with Chow De Kai, and it's quite good with good portions, good katsu,and an awesome green tea calpis drink.

This bakery has not-so-great bread but awesome cake and a hot cocoa that saved my ass one night when it was raining and I was craving hot cocoa, so good on ya Kapok.

This place claims it has California cuisine, but what is California cuisine exactly? Apparently, a bevy of different pasta dishes is. Also, there's no Californian stuff inside the restaurant, just a huge flag of Brazil. Strange.

Discovery Pasta: We make it different. Yeah. You make it disgusting. Next.

This place is famous for hand-cut noodles. That dude out front with the big white blob in front of his is actually cutting pieces of noodle quickly from a huge thing of dough. The 牛肉麵 here is awesome, as is the 'ovaltine.'

Out the end of the alley and to the left, you'll find this breakfast place that sells really good soy milk and these Taiwanese omlette things. Me and Chow de kai used to come here before we started waking up too late! Good for light breakfasts.

"The Lost Tea I Found!" I can't believe that's the name of this store, but there you have it. I had some absolutely perfect lemon tea with aloe and boba here. Absolutely awesome.

Tomorrow marks my last day in Taiwan. It's been a pretty busy yet chill few days since my last post, with packing, going around for last minute giftings, and making sure to hang out with people out in the hall one last time. Sunday was a chill day after the drunkenness of Saturday. We went to this restaurant called L'Idiot, which is French with a way-cool interior and very, very good food. Today we had our exit exams, which was the same, hard-ass entrance exam we took in the beginning. It seems like I improved a little, but I think most of my improvement is in speaking. After that, it was simply packing my alternate life in Taiwan away, in addition to recording with the Guo Qing Rock Band a better version of our performance back in the awesome band rooms in Xi Men Ding.

Now, more packing and hanging out with people in the halls. I really, really don't want to leave this place, but I'm starting to come to terms with it.

Until next time, zai jian!

-Justin