Taipei - Part 2

I ate balls.... but more on that later.

Following my last post I left off at breakfast yesterday. After breakfast the group and I headed out to the Taiwan Story Museum, which is one of those 'what it was like' museums where the streets and buildings look like they did back in a certain period of time. For this particular museum, most of the exhibits focused around 1920-1945, during which time the Japanese occupied Taiwan (then called Formosa). The museum was pretty interesting and I left a message from Australia for all the tourists (although most of the people who go here are themselves Taiwanese) on a white board in a 1930s era class room.

Following this at around lunch time the group split up and Ivy and I headed out to Taipei 101, the tallest (completed) building in the world. Like Hong Kong, the weather was unfortunately a bit hazy so visibility was only good to about 5km or so, but even still this whole place was incredibly impressive.

(I'm rushing this because my plane leaves in 15 minutes, sorry)

Following Taipei 101 we went out to The Modern Toilet, which is a toilet themed restaurant somewhere in Taipei, and there are actually 2 or 3 restaurants in Taipei with this theme. You basically sit on a toilet sit, the table is a wash basin, and your food is served in a miniature toilet bowl. You can even purchase a bedpan to have your drink in, and then you can take the bedpan home. No... I didn't go for that :P

Following this I was pretty exhausted so went back to the hotel for a brief nap. It was at this point the my experience in Taipei took a pretty amazing turn. I never thought I would have this sort of experience and I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for not backing down after the first time.

So, this is why I ate balls. Ivy and I rejoined the group with her parents and their suppliers family. We all went out to a very unique restaurant near where I was staying. This is a seafood restaurant (actually called Good Boy Seafood Restaurant), and it's about as 'seafood' as you're ever going to get. Ivy's mother ordered about 10 courses for us all to enjoy, and Ivy explained to me that I was only allowed to know what I was eating after I'd eaten it.

The first dish was nice, but a litle bit salty and crunchy. After gulping it down, I was informed that it was fish intestine. This must have been a really big fish, cause I had a pretty big mouthfood of intestine.

The next dish was about the size of a chicken nugget, but it was mostly bone in the middle. Quite honestly, it was tasty, but a bit hard to eat since you had to work around a large amount of bone. After eating this, I was politely informed that I had just eaten frog!

At this point I suspected that perhaps this wasn't a normal meal for Ivy and her family, and I was right. It seems I was being treated very well so I didn't want to refuse their generous offers. So, when the next dish came around, I ate it up. At first I suspected it was some sort of patee (sp?), but it actually turns out that it was liver. Ivy insisted that I only have a little bit, and i'm really glad. It wasn't so bad, but it wasn't so good either.

The next dish, of course, come along much sooner than I wanted. At this point I was drinking Ivy's father's Single Malt Whiskey at an alarming pace. The restaurant didn't have coke or any drink I'd ever heard of before, so I was completely lost for something to wash it down with. Iced tea is not one of my favourite things, and using it to wash the taste of liver out of my mouth didn't help me much. So, I just went for the whiskey :P

The next dish wasn't so crazy, but I did start to feel a little squirmish about this one. This is because it was an actual fish, cooked, and basically unprepared in any other way. It still had it's eyes, and everything else but scales. I proceeded to eat about half the fish before I simply couldn't stomach any more. But, i was happy with the effort.

Then along came a crumbed chicken chips looking thing. I ate it, and immediately suspected that it was octopus tentacles. Boy-o-boy, I was reallllly fucking wrong on this one. After finishing what was an incredibly crunchy and at the same time chewy dish, I was again politely informed that I had just eaten pancreas - again, this has to have been from a massive fish!

Only two exotic dishes were left on my menu. The next one that came along was a soup and one of our guests actually told me what it was before I ate it. I'm glad she did, but jesus, it made it so much harder to try. I didn't want to back down from the challenge though, because I knew that I may only have had this opportunity once in my life. I proceed to eat it, and it was actually okay, despite my knowledge of what it was. I had just eaten chicken balls. :S

Final dish was easily the worst. In fact, all things considered, it's the only thing I consumed last night that I wouldn't eat again if given the opportunity. It was balls, again, but this time from a fish. It tasted absolutely disgusting and it was all I could do not to spit it out across the table. Luckily I had the intensinal fortitude (which I should, since I now had more intensine in my than I did before) and managed to finish the first bite, and left it after that.

Following dinner the first thing i did was get to a 7-Eleven and buy a bottle of Coke Zero (again 95 cents) and drank it as fast as humanly possible.

The remainder of the night was great, but it can't compare to dinner and I'm flat out of time (boarding has already been called!!). After dinner Ivy and I went away from the group again and out to the night markets. This was incredible, and not like the HK markets that I had witnessed on the weekend. I picked up a new (and authentic) Giordanno shirt for $16. I'd see this sort of shirt in Melbourne and expect to pay +$100.

Anyway, I'm going to wrap it up now. Taiwan has been a great experience and I highly recommend it to anybody with the ability to come here. You'll have the time of your life if you're prepared to be a little bit brave and really really stupid :P