Loved And Lost

Gutted! This has been a day of loss for Melodie and I. It all started when Mel went to our local Family Mart convenience store to buy a caramel macchiatto. It is the closest convenience store and the only place where the employees have memorized our drink orders. This is where we did our faxing and where we bought our first beer. It was always busy. Well, today when Mel turned the corner to go to the store she saw a bunch of workers removing tubing, shelves, fixtures... everything. It's all gone!!! It was dark, just like our hearts now are from the sorrow.

Then, another great and (in my opinion) more devastating loss- we went to Mister Donut and there were no Maple Flockies. There were no flockies at all. This is my FAVORITE donut. It is probably my favorite snack in the WHOLE COUNTRY. I'm such a big fan that when I google image searched "maple flocky" this blog had 3 of the top 6 results and Mister Donut's own website was the 7th result. So, Christine asked a cashier,"Nali flocky?" ("where flocky?") on my behalf (I was too hurt to speak) and we were told that the flocky has been replaced! By cruellers! WTF!!! Who cares about cruellers??? I can get a plain crueller ANYWHERE!!!! The flocky is a crueller cut in half (like a sandwich), filled with whip cream and (maple, mango or chocolate) syrup and then covered in powdered sugar. It is MUCH MORE than a crueller! I made a huge scene, clutched my chest and walked out with a much lesser donut, a pon de chocolate. Taiwan has become a slightly sadder place today.

The Family Mart and the flocky are just two in a growing list of things that have already come and gone while we've been in Taiwan. It is certainly a here-today-gone-tomorrow kind of society. Just when you find a new food, drink or store that you enjoy it is often taken away without warning or explanation. In memorium, I have compiled a list of the special things that we have already loved and lost:

The Maple Flocky

Our local Family Mart (I hope they replace it with a 7 Eleven or a Hi-Life!)

Melodie's Jasmine Green Tea- I have tried this and it tastes like ass, but she loves this plastic jug of floral-tasting tea.

Nareesa's special lemonade with jellies- Personally, I don't believe this ever existed but she claims that she had this amazing bottled lemonade with little jellies in it one time when she first moved here and since that time she's never seen it again. But that doesn't stop her from looking for it every single time we go into any store anywhere.


Buddha's head- Melodie's new favorite fruit was available for approximately 3 weeks. This fruit is green on the outside and is covered in bumps that make it look like buddha's head. Inside, it is creamy like an avacado, but white and sweet. It's not a berry, not citrus and not a melon- it is a very unique fruit indeed. And, if by chance you are lucky enough to spot a rare buddha's head at some some fruit vendor's stall... it will be rotten.

Hamburger- Why did this go away??? When we first moved here it was readily available at our local Carrefour and Wellcome grocery stores, but I haven't seen any in months. You can buy ground pork and diced beef but it's not ground to the consistancy we like. How is hamburger seasonal?!

The papaya salad man at the night market- For weeks we saw the papaya salad cart at our local night market and wondered what the salad would taste like before we finally tried it... and it was awesome! And then the next day? He was gone. And he never came back. He was coughing a little bit on that final night so I hope he's okay. But don't worry, if you're headed to the Sinjhuang night market, the duck blood popsicle guy is still there every damn night.

McDonald's organic burger- about a month ago, McD's introduced an organic burger that was really delicious. I'm not a big fan of McDonald's hamburgers but this was really good and, most importantly, didn't come with ketchup (which I hate) so it made ordering very easy. It has now been replaced on the menu with onion rings. WTF! And they suck.


Ice cream wraps- A thin sheet of rice paper filled with three scoops of ice cream and covered in shaved peanut brittle. It was so delicious and unlike any dessert I've ever had before, but in the last several weeks the ice cream wrap cart has been missing from Longshan Temple market. Sure, it's not as hot as it was last month but there are still a million shaved ice stores that are as busy as ever. Bring back my wrap!

Mark's special blackcurrant drink from 85 degrees- the hardest coffee shop to ever order from because they refuse to let us order in English from their English menu- changes their drink list pretty often and the blackcurrant has disappeared. Thank god the juicy peach smoothie with the little peach jellies in it is still there.

PH Water- There's something different about this bottled water. It's an almost creamy consistancy, but it still just tastes like water... if that makes any sense. Loved it for a month and now it's gone off with the flockies somewhere. R.I.P.

In just the block where we live there's also been a breakfast shop and a pet shop that have disappeared in the last 2 weeks. Our street's been dug up and even the sidewalk's been replaced twice. I guess we'll have to try not to get too attached to things around here, because nothing is guaranteed to stick around.


And it's too bad that we aren't big fans of fish jerky, grass jelly and Klim, the drink that tastes like oatmeal floating in sour yogurt- something tells me that will never go away.

12/16/09 UPDATE: The Family Mart re-opened today and we promptly purchased some beer and sugar. Buddha's head (AKA the custard apple) suddenly reappeared at every fruit stand the day after this post and Mel's eaten at least three of them in the last 2 weeks. Flockys were found at the Global Mall but remain absent from most Mister Donut stores. Hope remains...