Mark's birthday was on Friday and we celebrated by eating our faces off AS PER USUAL. On Thursday night- his birthday-eve, A-mei (our school's hilarious tigress/accountant) invited us out to her father's BBQ restaurant to eat and for Kris to have a photo shoot. We met under Jesus and she and Kris's friend drove us all to the restaurant, which was near Longshan Temple. I've eaten at a lot of BBQ restaurants but the food here was out of this world, and I'm not just saying that because I'm biased. As soon as we sat down beers were poured, and the dishes started arriving: the softest, creamiest deep-fried tofu, glazed short ribs, steaks, hot pot, squid, fish chins, veggies and probably more stuff I can't remember. She said that all the food is cooked with charcoal first, which gives it a nicer flavor as opposed to other restaurants here that will mainly cook with gas. And she wouldn't accept a penny for the meal. We love A-mei!
On Friday, Mark's dream- like many 12 year old girls before him- of celebrating his birthday at the Hello Kitty restaurant was fulfilled. We were even seated at the most enviable and pinkest of all tables in Kitty's kingdom, the one raised booth which overlooks all the other lesser tables. Really though, the table was comically long for the six of us but we needed the extra room after all the food we enjoyed!
You may remember from
my last visit that the Hello Kitty Cafe serves the sweetest food imaginable. As in diabetic coma levels of sweetness. Mel and I decided to share an entree (Kitty's spaghetti, ordered without the raw egg on top, thank you) and a dessert set (Kitty's creme brule with sesame cookie and sugar covered fruit. It was all very tasty and didn't leave my head spinning nearly as much as the chocolate tart from last time.
After the meal came the obligatory photo shoot, which is probably the main reason most people go to this cafe. If you are a Hello Kitty fan, this is the place for you. Everything, from the napkins to the urinal have Kitty's mouthless face on them. Above: tough guys with some Victorian-looking Hello Kitty art. There are more like this but I'll spare you.
When the staff found out that it was Mark's birthday, and it was proven with ID, they stuck a candle on his chocolate tart (yes,
that chocolate tart) and played "Happy Birthday" over the speakers for him. On his way out they also let him choose any cake under $280NT to take home with him in a very special little pink bag, which he proudly carried around with one pinky up in the air. How nice of Kitty!
"Puffy" figures out our bill. This is always a big deal because when Taiwanese people dine one person usually pays for the meal. Our asses go dutch.
Mark is a big movie fan and since he'd already seen every movie at the theater we went to the one movie no one would ever go see unless it was the last one in town they hadn't watched yet: Old Dogs. The things you do for a friend. Summary: Robin Williams (in a demure, under-acted role) finds out that he fathered some children with his Vegas wife 7 years ago and babysits them with his BFF John Travolta while their mother goes to jail for two weeks. Then for some reason they wind up in a series of zany misadventures, they get attacked by penguins, a dog needlessly dies and a hand model loses her hands. Damn I wish we could have seen this in IMAX.
Next we went to Mark's favorite gay bar, the Bear Bar. Who doesn't like to go out for drinks on a nice night on a patio? Well the only patio that we've found is in the gay district of Ximen. The Bear Bar is a bit of a running joke with me and my friends because the bartender, Butt Crack guy, has a crush on me and there's lots of funny gay things happening everywhere at all times: tonight we even saw some beautiful drag queens there (yes, we went back tonight). It's fun. Oh yeah, the above photo is of Nareesa once again having a problem with stairs- a single step up to our table.
We were given a complimentary gay magazine filled with lots of fun ideas for things to do in Taipei such as a body to body massage where the masseuse comes to your house. I think that's called prostitution. PS: Mark took the magazine home with him.
We had some beers and teas and dissected the Hello Kitty-shaped cake Mark had been given (I'm sure this made us the envy of the gay bar), and then at the end of the night my boyfriend took a picture of us with the Bear Bar's giant stuffed bear. Happy birthday Mark, it was fun- hope you had a bear-y good night!
Mark's birthday was on Friday and we celebrated by eating our faces off AS PER USUAL. On Thursday night- his birthday-eve, A-mei (our school's hilarious tigress/accountant) invited us out to her father's BBQ restaurant to eat and for Kris to have a photo shoot. We met under Jesus and she and Kris's friend drove us all to the restaurant, which was near Longshan Temple. I've eaten at a lot of BBQ restaurants but the food here was out of this world, and I'm not just saying that because I'm biased. As soon as we sat down beers were poured, and the dishes started arriving: the softest, creamiest deep-fried tofu, glazed short ribs, steaks, hot pot, squid, fish chins, veggies and probably more stuff I can't remember. She said that all the food is cooked with charcoal first, which gives it a nicer flavor as opposed to other restaurants here that will mainly cook with gas. And she wouldn't accept a penny for the meal. We love A-mei!
On Friday, Mark's dream- like many 12 year old girls before him- of celebrating his birthday at the Hello Kitty restaurant was fulfilled. We were even seated at the most enviable and pinkest of all tables in Kitty's kingdom, the one raised booth which overlooks all the other lesser tables. Really though, the table was comically long for the six of us but we needed the extra room after all the food we enjoyed!
You may remember from my last visit that the Hello Kitty Cafe serves the sweetest food imaginable. As in diabetic coma levels of sweetness. Mel and I decided to share an entree (Kitty's spaghetti, ordered without the raw egg on top, thank you) and a dessert set (Kitty's creme brule with sesame cookie and sugar covered fruit. It was all very tasty and didn't leave my head spinning nearly as much as the chocolate tart from last time.
After the meal came the obligatory photo shoot, which is probably the main reason most people go to this cafe. If you are a Hello Kitty fan, this is the place for you. Everything, from the napkins to the urinal have Kitty's mouthless face on them. Above: tough guys with some Victorian-looking Hello Kitty art. There are more like this but I'll spare you.
When the staff found out that it was Mark's birthday, and it was proven with ID, they stuck a candle on his chocolate tart (yes, that chocolate tart) and played "Happy Birthday" over the speakers for him. On his way out they also let him choose any cake under $280NT to take home with him in a very special little pink bag, which he proudly carried around with one pinky up in the air. How nice of Kitty!
"Puffy" figures out our bill. This is always a big deal because when Taiwanese people dine one person usually pays for the meal. Our asses go dutch.
Mark is a big movie fan and since he'd already seen every movie at the theater we went to the one movie no one would ever go see unless it was the last one in town they hadn't watched yet: Old Dogs. The things you do for a friend. Summary: Robin Williams (in a demure, under-acted role) finds out that he fathered some children with his Vegas wife 7 years ago and babysits them with his BFF John Travolta while their mother goes to jail for two weeks. Then for some reason they wind up in a series of zany misadventures, they get attacked by penguins, a dog needlessly dies and a hand model loses her hands. Damn I wish we could have seen this in IMAX.
Next we went to Mark's favorite gay bar, the Bear Bar. Who doesn't like to go out for drinks on a nice night on a patio? Well the only patio that we've found is in the gay district of Ximen. The Bear Bar is a bit of a running joke with me and my friends because the bartender, Butt Crack guy, has a crush on me and there's lots of funny gay things happening everywhere at all times: tonight we even saw some beautiful drag queens there (yes, we went back tonight). It's fun. Oh yeah, the above photo is of Nareesa once again having a problem with stairs- a single step up to our table.
We were given a complimentary gay magazine filled with lots of fun ideas for things to do in Taipei such as a body to body massage where the masseuse comes to your house. I think that's called prostitution. PS: Mark took the magazine home with him.
We had some beers and teas and dissected the Hello Kitty-shaped cake Mark had been given (I'm sure this made us the envy of the gay bar), and then at the end of the night my boyfriend took a picture of us with the Bear Bar's giant stuffed bear. Happy birthday Mark, it was fun- hope you had a bear-y good night!
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