珍珠奶茶 (Bubble Tea or literally translated as Pearl Milk Tea):
Tried it back at home, never really got my attention. But since this IS the originating country, I figured I'd give it a try.

Ordered this "original flavour" from the street, costs me NTD35.

At least I wasn't disappointed. The magic is both in the tea AND the pearls.

The tea is so much more aromatic and creamy (because of the milk); while the pearls are really soft and "Q" (chewy in Taiwan term). Tasted so much better than the ones I've tried back at home. If this is your cuppa tea (literally), and if you so happen to drop by Taiwan, I'd recommend u one out.

Finally met up with an old buddy who was working here. It had been years since I've last saw my friend. And it was great doing catch up work, updates from both sides. My friend brought me to this Japanese restaurant which we had to queue up 20mins to get a seat. Luckily, the food was worth the wait!

My friend told me that everybody is here for the unagi. And it tasted fantastic! The way it was grilled, hinted me of char-siew (叉燒), which is absolutely aromatic and suited my taste. This was the highlight of the day!

Then we decided to go shopping and our destination just so happen to pass by this landmark: 臺北小巨蛋 (Xiao Ju Dan). This is THE concert arena for Taipei, much like Bukit Jalil is to KL, just... nicer.

Anyways, THIS was our real destination:

IKEA! Or as it was called here: Yi Jia 宜家家居
It's very much the same, IKEA here and KL. Nothing much worth noting.

After some walking, we stopped down for coffee. Coffee houses is like THE trend in Taipei. People here can't live without them.

Anyways, just to show you the "coffee scene" in Taipei during weekend:

This is how HOT it is! You had to queue to get into Starbucks~!
Well, that's why we've decided to skip Starbucks and go somewhere with less people. And after ordering our coffee, we were given this little gadget:

It's like a beeper/pager.

The last time I was given this fancy gadget was back in Vegas, while queuing to get a table. They gave this so that u don't have to stand 45mins in the restaurant. You can walk around the casino (as long as u r within a certain radius/distance), and they will buzz you when it's your turn to be served. Frankly, for a small coffee house, with a less than 5min queue, I really don't see the point of using this. You could've just called or at most, yell and we've be right there. But that's just my 2 cents, of course!

Day11:

Still rainy day. Its still go-out-with-your-jacket day. Cool and all becos you don't ever get to do that back at boleh-land. But when the cool wind is paired with wet rainy day, it's kinda messy and troublesome with any outdoor activities.

Did some walking and found this chap-farn place nearby. Really glad and happy because this is considered the lower-end of the food chain (price wise). Interestingly, chap-farn in Taipei is charged by weighing your food (yes, they have this small scale at the counter). So it doesn't really matter how many types of food you take! Cool! I mean, you don't have to pretend to be nice to taukeh-soh and or worry if her great-grand-aunty (dai-yee-mah) is visiting.

Took 4 different types of food/vegge and this baby only costs me NTD60! FYI: It is normal to spend a little over NTD100 on a typical meal (same with fast food) here in Taipei.
So, I'm a happy man!

Day10:

It turned cold again, just like that. Was still a very warm day the day before. But it rained at night and the next day, it was back-to-wearing-jacket day.

Finally settled down today. This comes as a tough call, as accomodation here is more expensive than I could've imagined. But it was necessary and even though making the call was a scary choice, but the breath of relieve afterwards made it all worth while.

Anyways, dinner was special.

They sell Bak-chang (肉粽) that is slightly basked in this sweetish-yellow/brownish soup. Bak-chang in Taipei (the couple that I've tried) are generally tasty. Bak-chang, being the main dish, is served together with a bowl of typical chinese fish-ball-soup 魚丸湯 (fish balls with white carrot and onion leaf slices). And if you want something more filling, they do serve mee-suah soup (面線) to go with the bak-chang as well.

Of the three, the only that would be rated as "below par" was the mee-suah. And even that was because I compared it with the ever famous Ah-Zhong-Mee-Suah (阿宗面線). The Zhang and the fish balls are good (just as how you would rate most of the char-koay-teow in Penang - on par).