Taipei Day 2 (cont'd): Fancy Hip Tiger, Fat Daddy & Kebuke BBT

Well.... we had a great nap back in the AirBnb after our dumpling meal.  It was wonderful.  LOL.  Don't worry, we strategically planned to return to the AirBnb after that meal because we absolutely had to do laundry before we leave for Japan.  The AirBnb has a washer (which was AWESOME) and they provided the detergent and softener.  The only reason why we had to do laundry a full 48 hrs before we left for Japan is because there's no dryer, which meant we had to hang-dry all of our laundry, and hope that everything will be fully dry before our flight.  We don't want to end up with smelly half-dried clothes inside our luggage.   

Our plan for the night was to have a chill night with the gang and to scope out the area around Taipei 101 before the new year.   We had a grand plan for new year's eve because we're spending our (possibly) last new year together as a family by ringing in the new year with a direct view to the Taipei 101 fireworks!  We splurged on a very expensive set meals at Morton's Steakhouse (I KNOW!!!! I know that we have Morton's Steakhouse in North America.  This was purely for the "wow" factor of direct view to the Taipei 101).   

We ended up hanging out at the Fancy Hip Tiger Bar, which was located outdoor near the Taipei 101.  It was indeed a fancy bar, frequented by lots of expats.  They had really great selection of internationally-selected alcoholic beverages, with a few local selections.  The bar had a couple of long (communal) tables, which ends up perfect for us because there's 10 of us.  Plus, it was outside so we got to people watch while enjoying the outdoor air.  The only downside is that there's no chairs so you're relying on your legs on giving out before the end of the night.  

Anyway; while we were at the Fancy Hip Tiger, we ordered some Fat Daddy fried chicken (via Uber, I think?) which was delicious!  The chicken was juicy, and surprisingly still crispy even though it took a while for the order to arrive.... (sometimes I hold myself back from questioning how fried food stay crispy because...I simply don't want to know).  No pictures of the fried chicken, sorry, they were gone in the blink of an eye.   The bar kindly let us eat outside food on their establishment, as long as we clean up after ourselves :) 

After some beer and fried chicken, we decided that we need a break.  So off we went for a short walk to buy some bubble tea.  HAHAHAHA.  Bubble tea is life.  On our way from our AirBnb to the Fancy Hip Tiger, we took an Uber; and our Uber driver told us that there are a few bubble tea places in the area.   True enough, within a 10 minute walk, we saw these two places side by side.  

We initially were going to try one from each place, but we then realized that TrueDan = Jenjudan in Vancouver.   We weren't going to sacrifice our calorie for something that we can get in Vancouver!  Therefore, Kebuke it was :) 

Perhaps it was just our minds playing tricks on us, but we thought that the bubble teas we had in Taiwan weren't all that different than Vancouver.  We had Milksha in Kaohsiung (we have Milksha in Vancouver, too, but we hadn't made it out to their store because we were too lazy to deal with downtown's traffic), we had multiple bubble teas at every single night market that we went to in Taipei, and we had Kebuke on our second-to-last day in Taipei.  So I think it's safe to say that we had our share of bubble teas during our Taiwan trip, mostly because we were so curious whether they'd taste different or not.  And the answer is.... they do not.  The only advantage that Taiwan has is their price, and the abundance of it!  There were bubble tea places EVERYWHERE, and they are sooo cheap that it almost feels like a sin if we didn't get a bubble tea when we walk pass by a shop.   Sigh.   To be honest, we had to work extra hard to shed these extra calories we accumulated via bubble tea during this trip.  But that's a story for another day!  Toodles!