A relaxed day. Started off walking around and getting our hair washed.
Grabbed a small breakfast from FamilyMart before. The drink is a bubbly grape drink, supposedly it is chardonnay grape flavor…? It had a slightly alcohol smell but tasted like bubble water with grape flavor. Not like grape soda. The other thing is a type of sushi. Sweet tofu skin pocket filled with rice.
The cost of getting you hair washed, dried , and styled is quite cheap. It obviously depends where you go, but there are many affordable places that have been around for many years.
After this we headed to a nearby shopping mall.
[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d3645.4949080530046!2d121.59709767529858!3d23.978294678515585!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x34689fbe07f61423%3A0xfe05421df91281a0!2sFar%20Eastern%20Hualien%20Store!5e0!3m2!1sen!2shk!4v1687103995165!5m2!1sen!2shk&w=600&h=450]It was lunch time so the first stop in the mall was food. The options were McD, some buffet, or ‘italian’. We weren’t very hungry and didn’t want fast food so we opted for the ‘italian’.
Then we went shopping! First headed to Uniqlo. The prices weren’t that different than UK, but I still tried a few tops on. Ended up buying a crossbody bag.
Daiso was the next stop. I remember this shop in the US. It’s a Japanese shop that sells all sorts of little trinkets and gadgets. They have a bunch of kitchenware, storage containers, snacks, small electronic things, etc.
Next was H&M. Their clothes had a lot more western styles and sizing, but there was also a large range of clothing more tailored to the trends and preferences in Taiwan.
Final stop was the big supermarket. This was a huge one selling all sorts of things. Not just food, but also kitchen things and white goods. There was also a bakery and a section of prepared ready to eat foods.
Outside the supermarket is a famous well known donut chain shop called Mister Donut.
Their donuts are different than regular ones. They are made with rice flour so have a chewier more elastic texture. They are the ones that look like a blobby ring.
The ones on the top row are regular donuts and other special donuts. As you can see, the top left three are cute little characters. These characters are from a social media app used in Taiwan called Line. The characters are part of Line Friends which are in many stickers people send to eachother.
For some reason, most of the flavors were lemon ; lemon yogurt, white chocolate lemon, pon de white lemon yogurt, pon de lemon yogurt, etc. So I tried a lemon one. Don’t ask which because they all seem to be the same, but it was the far right one with the green leaf. The donut has quite a nice QQ texture with a chew to it. If you like mochi, you will like this. The donut itself didn’t have much flavor or sweetness, so the icing on top fit well. It was a bit lemony and not too sweet. However I do think it is overrated. I may try some other flavor if it’s unusual, otherwise I will stick with other desserts. 6/10 We also got two drinks. Coffee was terrible. Tasted only like milk. Ice tea was pretty alright.
After this we decided to head home, but made two stops along the way. The first being an old industrial site that used to be used to produce alcohol. Now it has been preserved and is open to the public to walk through. There are many stalls selling all sorts of things, live music, and a hall with seating that is rented out.
There we stumbled upon a boxing competition. Watched some and it was quite cool. You could tell some had more experience and training than others, but all matches were entertaining.
The second stop was a store that sells snacks in a unique way. A relative works there so we thought we’d stop by to say hi and check out the store. They sell a lot of different kinds of snacks, sweet, savory, dried, you name it. It is eithe sold by weight, or by piece which means you can buy small packs of different snacks or buy just a few pieces instead of a whole pack somewhere else. It’s quite a cool concept and also means that the price for each item is small, meaning many people can afford a small sweet or mini pack of chips.
That evening I got my nails done because the acrylics I had had to go. Claws got too long.
The street this shop was on is filled with nail places. The nails they do are more basic. Just manicures and gel. The design is also very limited. So I just went for pink and silver gel on my natural nails.
Late night snacks bought from the supermarket earlier that day:
cheesecake ; this kind of cheesecake is very different from western ones. These are light, fluffy, and moist. Also not heavy. 8/10
five-spice dried tofu ; flavorful, slightly chewy 8/10
shrimp crackers ; despite what people unfamiliar to the smell may say, these are very good. I will say thought that this particular one isn’t as good as the ones that some in sticks. These are less crunchy and not as flavorful. I also prefer the stick shape than this round one. 6.5/10
rice cracker wrapped in seaweed ; addictive. Soy sauce coated making it very edible. 8/10
One thing I want to note is that many snacks are often in resealable bags which is so convenient.
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