A few days ago Mel and I were looking through a display of Taiwan postcards at a souvenir shop to see if there were any interesting places on the postcards that we hadn't visited yet. Nope. It felt like we had pretty much gone through the whole list of touristy sites in the Taipei area but of course we were wrong. There was still one important place left to visit- The Nougat Museum. Weak!
The Nougat Museum is located near the Yongning MRT, which is at the very end of the blue line. We'd never been to Yongning, but Nareesa had been there before and promised that everything was a bit slower, the people were a bit less fashionable and that everyone seemed to have just accepted their fates in Yongning. I'd say so. This was by far the lamest, suckiest, dirtiest area I've been to in Taiwan. The entire place seemed to be torn up and under construction and there was one entire street that was literally lined with thick heaps of garbage. The sidewalk was covered in dog crap everywhere, which Mel was not too impressed to have stepped in- but it was unavoidable. We agreed that if we had gotten off a plane and were brought to Yongning to teach English we would have quickly made up an excuse to go back to the airport ASAP.
We took a taxi to the museum, which is tucked away up a bunch of side streets behind a lot of construction. The admission price was zeezo dollars- score!
When we entered the museum all we saw was this large sales floor and we wondered if a museum actually existed or if this was all just some cruel Yongning trick. After being offered some free samples of nougat by a cheery sales clerk we were ushered to the museum.
The lady who started it all. In 1957 this hot chick brought nougat to Taiwan.
The museum had a lot of old fashioned wooden nougat-making tools on display, but we were expecting to see some nougat being made. Outside of the main part of the museum, down the hall past the bathrooms there is one tiny window where you can peek in and see some modern nougat production. I'm sure they appreciated my camera pressed up against the window.
For some reason the nougat museum had just as many exhibits about traditional weddings as it did about nougat. Maybe nougat is a desired gift of young marrying Taiwanese couples? Here's a traditional couple in their traditional bed.
And in that traditional couple's traditional bed here is the traditional offspring pail. What *the hell* do you suppose goes in there? Is this an exhibit on early abortions?
These "guiding chickens" were also part of the wedding/marriage display. This might just be enough to confirm that we need to have our wedding in Taiwan.
The museum tells us that it is traditional to give cookies and cakes with dragon and phoenix designs at a wedding, and this display was of all the different cookie presses that hot nougat lady has made over the years. Wedding checklist so far: offspring pot, guiding chickens, dragon cake.
After the offspring pail, our second favorite part of the nougat museum was that there were some props that we were allowed to play with. I like the hat, but what is the advantage of carrying things with a stick and two baskets, besides looking so cool? This is why bookbags were invented.
We really liked the museum, but then again we're completely foolish people. With zeezo pieces of nougat purchased we left the museum and walked back down the scuzzy and boring streets of Yongning towards the MRT station. We had noticed a department store called RT Mart and decided to go in. We'd already visited A Mart, J Mart and Hi Mart so far while in Taiwan, so why not go to RT Mart? We started things off in a classy fashion by going up those stairs on the side of the building into the employees only security zone of the warehouse. After we got out of there we shopped around for a bit- it's a perfectly good store- and went back to the station.
It was only 3:30 so there was plenty of time for another activity, but as I previously mentioned, we've already done everything. So we stopped at a giant sized subway map and spun around 5 times with our eyes closed and then pointed at the map to decide where we would go. We each did this so we would have a choice of 3 places. Mel or Nareesa (can't remember who) landed on Houshanpi Station and since none of us had ever been there that's where we went. It was conveniently located EIGHTEEN STOPS away from Yongning and when we got there I realized that we were at the Wufenpu wholesale market, which I'd read about online. This place is massive- I really can't believe we hadn't been there yet. It's just dozens and dozens of streets of clothes shopping, and a lot of the clothes were really cool. A lot of the clothes don't have any prices on them, and I've read that some places will only sell to wholesalers, but overall I would have to say this is definitely the best place to go clothes shopping in Taipei. Good thing none of us brought any money with us since we thought we were just going to a nougat museum! No worries- we all have the next month off so I think we'll be back. There's a pair of boots so tall that they would lace up to the crotch of any normal person that Nareesa needs to buy.
For supper we went to the Warner Village food court near the 101 and got some really satisfying food. Nareesa and I got chicken and beef kabobs with a baked potato and Mel had a tom yum soup with pork which I will be trying the next time I'm there! While I was eating I could see an arcade behind the food court that we decided to go check out. Most of the arcades at home went out of business a decade ago but they are still really popular in Taiwan. We played some air hockey, a race car game, Mel tested her strength with a giant mallet and I played a round of whack-a-mole. Good times!
Yesterday we went to a great restaurant called The Diner and it served exactly what you'd expect- diner food. This might not be special at home, but comfort food like blueberry pancakes, meatloaf and milkshakes are a rare find here and they were done really well. The one disappointment about The Diner was that they were out of ginger ale, which you can't usually buy in Taiwan (it was under the "imported sodas" header on the menu). I literally had to hold Nareesa to console her when the waitress came over to say "mayo Canada Dry". So, tonight we went to Jason's grocery store at the 101 to buy some imported ginger ale. Since we were already at the 101 and since Nareesa has been banging on about this brandy milk tea drink she had there once, we decided to get brandy hot chocolates and brandy milk teas. It's great to be served brandy in a food court. You feel like you're getting away with something! And lets face it- with brandy, you smell like you're trying to get away with something.And that was our day. We covered a lot of ground and it was fun! Oh yeah, and on the subway ride home a guy with these pants stood in front of us:
Nareesa, probably thanks to the brandy, was in tears within seconds of these ridiculous pants walking onto the train. There's no way he didn't know how funny we found his pants. Especially when I took a picture of the pants. This has inspired me to write a long overdue post about the ridiculous fashion in Taiwan. Watch for that one soon, dawg.
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