A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I have now experienced the major downfall of any avid blogger, which would be the fatal mistake of forgetting to bring my camera with me at all times. Today, my cousins and I went to this really cool little noodle shop for lunch, and I, thinking erroneously that we would be bringing the lunch back to the apartment to eat, left the camera at home. We ended up eating in the restaurant, and going to a nearby elementary school afterwards. Both occasions would have had incredible pictures for the blog. So, I am going to challenge both myself and all of you lovely people with today's post. I will tell the story of the day's occurrence, and hopefully, my writing will be descriptive enough to make up for a lack of pictures, and your imaginations will fill in any of the blanks that descriptive language fails to acknowledge. This story will be told in two parts, (kind of like the last installment of the Harry Potter franchise, but without all of the panoramic views of the beautiful English countryside, or the death of a beloved house elf at the hands of a mad woman).

Part the First: Wherein Noodles are Consumed 

Down the narrow twisting street, in the thriving metropolis that is Taipei, lies a small, unassuming restaurant. The shop is quite literally overflowing with clientele, and the smell of food wafts out into the street. This particular restaurant has a layout that would seem unusual to Westerners, but is actually rather a common sight here. The restaurant is partially outside. Now, when I say outside, I want all of you to instantly banish any thoughts of quaint little out-door tables covered with umbrellas, where glamorous people eat in movies and in large, southern cities. All of the tables were inside. All of the people waiting for a table were standing outside, and filling out orders on miniature clipboards. Also, half of the kitchen was out doors. The kitchen was basically a room that straddled the building's boundary line on both sides. It was a whole room that was half inside and surrounded by walls, and half outside surrounded by a low fence and covered with an awning. Because of this arrangement, one could watch the chef prepare the meal while they waited to take their seat. It was here, that You Humble Narrator found herself. 

As my cousins were deciphering the menu's Chinese characters and deciding  on what to order, I watched a man roll a vast amount of pasta dough into a cone shape. Then he picked up the massive cone with one hand, and started slicing strips off of the cone with a semi-circular blade in the other hand. He ran the blade down the length of the dough, and half-inch thick strips of pasta dough would fall off and into a large pot. I was fascinated, I had never seen pasta made in such a way before. My cousins noticed my awestruck face, and asked me if I would like to try those noodles for lunch. Never one to turn down a new and interesting food, I said yes. I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. 

When we were finally seated, we were served some cucumbers that had been marinated in vinegar, and tasted a lot like cucumber salad. Then we also had a green onion pancake. But don't let the word "pancake" make you think that it is sweet. It is a flat bread that contains green onions to give it a subtly savory taste. It is delicious. In addition, I had a bowl of beef and noodle soup. The beef broth that made up the soup had a rich flavor profile, and the pieces of beef that were in the soup were tender enough to make a beef-loving Texan cry. The noodles were good as well. They were thick and coarsely cut, so eating them was a different experience from eating regular noodles. They were very good. They also might be the answer to ending world hunger. They seemed to multiply, just when I was starting to get full, and thinking that I had eaten most of the noodles, I look down into the bowl, and see that I haven't even made a dent in the noodle population. I swear to you, these noodles multiply. My cousin calls them the "never ending story noodles." Talk about bang for your buck. We left the restaurant happy and satisfied.

Part the Second: Wherein we go Back to School

After we had consumed our delightful noodle dishes, we decided to walk around the nearby elementary school that my cousins used to attend. Now, if this doesn't say anything about the super low crime rate here, I don't know what does. Apparently, in Taiwan it is okay to just walk into elementary schools during the holidays. We simply walked right through the gates. We passed a couple of teachers while we were inside, but none of them paid us any more attention than a cursory glance. This elementary school was much like the other schools that I have visited here and took pictures of, (see "Hello from Beitou" and "My Cabbages"), in that most of the school is out doors, (seriously, go look at the pictures, that is hard to describe). Except this school is extremely nice. There are window boxes overflowing with blooming flowers on the railings outside of every classroom. There is a huge tropical garden in one of the courtyards. The landscaping in this garden could be featured on HGTV-it has an elaborate stone walkway winding through the garden towards a large pond with a waterfall. The other courtyard contains a volleyball court and playground equipment. All throughout the halls, colorful artwork is displayed. Signs displaying English words along with Chinese, can be found on the walls. It is the nicest school, I have ever been in. I really hope that I can return and take pictures to share with you all. 

So ends my tale. I hope that I have given you enough information to portray an accurate vision of my experience. Now I will go charge my camera so that I can take pictures tomorrow. Good bye, and good night.