Paul and I kicked off the exciting New Year by sleeping until 3:30 pm and then it was only the lure of delicious American food that could get us out of our warm bed and into the cold, damp world. We took our friendly 102 to Taichung where we dined at a fine bastion of American culinary culture, TGI Fridays. It was especially fine because this TGI Fridays had finally got the memo about the chain's trademark Jack Daniels sauce. I lapped it up in both sesame chicken and hamburger form. Paul, meanwhile, indulged buffalo wings and a bacon cheeseburger. (Naturally, we could only finish half of each dish, but taking some home just spreads the goodness out over two days.)
Next we hightailed it over to Jason's where I spent with wild abandon--truffles, butterscotch chips, Miracle whip, fancy jam, gravy, ginger ale, even the holiest of grails spiral Mac and Cheese. But no sour cream, no salami, no provolone, and no Dr. Pepper!!! Lucky that I hoard that stuff like it will never be here again. The somewhat bizarre selection at Jason's was struck home when I discovered that they carry all flavors of those delicious Boulder Canyon natuarl potato chips and live King crabs (which are HUGE; I felt very sorry for one who kept trying to use the other crabs as a step ladder out of the tank, but the tank was too small for him to stretch out his legs far enough to quite reach the edges. If I had a couple thousand dollars lying around and knew where a king crab could be released into the wild, I would have liberated him.). I don't understand why you would have to take hostages to get sour cream (and would still probably be unsuccessful), yet have no problem finding jalepeno flavored natural potato chips. Despite what Heloise may tell you, Taiwanese yogurt is a poor substitute for sour cream.
Well, that was the exciting second day of our Chinese New Year vacation. Tomorrow if we wake up before noon, we're going to finally make it to Tainan and maybe even the beach in Kending if the awful weather clears up. Tonight was the first time I was cold while wearing my cardigan, a long-sleeve tee, and a windbreaker and moving. It also rained off and on today.
As a tantalizing preview of my next post, I'll just say this: Ellie and Katrina (the new teachers) celebrated the New Year by getting into a drinking contest with an elderly Taiwanese man.
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