Friday

Friday night, my cousin May Gu took us to Daluan Restaurant in Ba Li (looks like Bali in English and sounds like Paris in Chinese). It's an aboriginal Taiwanese themed restaurant and there was live music that night, too.

The restaurant was pretty decked out and the food was pretty good. I've discovered that as much as I love seafood, I don't love all of it. I thought I liked oysters but I was wrong. I don't do jellyfish, either.

The live music was pretty good, especially when the band started playing oldies! I love oldies because those are the only Chinese songs I know haha. Well, they sound really good, too. My cousins and I sang along; Shing Shing tried to sing along, too. She's so funny.

Afterwards, we went to a café called Consulate in Dan Shuei for dessert. As we walked to the the Consulate, I noticed a lot of signs with 'San Domingo' written on them, i.e. 'Parking lot of Fort San Domingo' or 'Fort San Domingo (this way)'.

Apparently, Fort San Domingo, or Hongmao Castle (Literally translated? Red fur/hair castle. Don't ask.), was first built by the Spanish to aid their rule over the area. It was later captured by the Dutch, then came under British control. Fascinating. (Long live the Queen and the Empire! Haha.)

Anyway, the desserts to be had at the Consulate were pretty good. Lots of different kinds of tea (black, herbal and fruit), coffees (even frappé drinks), waffles (the Taiwanese are be big on waffles and not your regular, supermarket-type cheap Eggo Waffles) and cakes. I ordered a caramel latte - the espresso part was pretty good - but they got it wrong and didn't mix the caramel into the latte itself; they just drizzled it on top. Oi. My slice of chocolate truffle (they spelled it 'treffle' - I was so tempted to tell them that they spelled it wrong but I resisted the urge) cake was pretty damn good, though. It came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Mm mmm, I love whipped cream.

Regarding the Taiwanese and their love for waffles...well, I don't really understand it myself. It was really big the last time I was back, which was about 7 years ago. I remember May Gu telling me, 'We have to go to cafés and have waffles!' Keep in mind that was all in Chinese and I didn't know the Chinese words for waffles so I didn't know she meant waffles. When we went to our first café and our orders came, I was, like, 'These are waffles! We eat these for breakfast back home [in the US]!' But these are, like, gourmet waffles drizzled in honey or chocolate or with fresh fruit and fruit syrup. Good stuff.

My aunt, uncle and Ray took Shing Shing for a walk along the water (the café is built right along the river), leaving me, Yi Ming and May Gu behind to chat. It felt like old times, just the three of us chatting about everything and nothing, except we're 12 years older. When I used to live here, May Gu was forever taking us - me, Yi Ming and Yi Ming's two older sisters - out and about. She was the oldest of the female cousins and was a bit of an ape leader. We'd go to the capital, go shopping in department stores and night markets, wander along the streets of places like Dan Shuei, etc. It was nostalgic and comfortable, and it was nice.