My Taipei trip was whack for three reasons:
1. I had just turned vegetarian and was clueless about how to find veggie eats in a foreign city;
2. It was raining all the time, so the city was wet n' wild;
3. The trip was just too darn short.
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| Arrival in Taipei |
I arrived in Taipei at almost midnight on a Saturday; I checked out of my hotel at 4am on Monday. All I had time for, really, was my friends' Emily and Marc's wedding, plus a cursory wander around the neighbourhood where my hotel (the quirky San Want Taipei). The neighbourhood was so swish, honestly; right across was super-club Luxy.
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| Shit, the San Want has a Hyperactive boy in the lobby? |
"Where can I get something to eat?" I asked my receptionist.
"There's a Hong Kong-style barbecue restaurant just 50 metres down the road," he replied helpfully. "Or you can go to McDonald's."
"Great," I replied cheerfully. "I'm from Hong Kong. Of course I want to eat more Hong Kong food."
I got over my self-pity, though; I was becoming truly hungry, it was calamitous. This whole vegetarian thing is whack, too, because honestly I get hungry every two hours!
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| Veggie Chow Mein |
The wedding reception was at the super-glam Grand Ballroom of the super-awesome Grand Hyatt, natch, and it was truly snobbish because hey, the bride went through three super-dramatic frocks! No better time to trick out on couture, right?
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| Grand Hyatt Taipei |
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| Marc & Emily |
So it was a meat-fest and honestly I did my best to resist, but the tenderloin looked like this:
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| A slab of cow |
It was as thick as a Bible, and as bloody as a story of pestilence from the Old Testament. It was so good, I wept.
I had the good fortune to have been assigned to the coolest table which included a chic French couple from Saigon, a crazy English teacher named Jenny, the beautiful Irene, Sasha and his sexy Taiwanese paramour, the execs from the Grand Hyatt, and Stan - he was the craziest of all. Stan was once-upon-a-time a shareholder at Luxy. We talked about his wild party days in London and Ibiza and even Taipei, before he met his lovely wife Ariel, who is my new thinspiration. She's so hot.
OK, so the savoury dishes were nice, but the desserts were totally obscene. There were five desserts all in all, and I swear I got fat just looking at them.
"A moment on the lips, forever on the hips," Irene warned.
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| Strawberry cheesecake |
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| A "jewelry box" of sugar |
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| Ice cream with butter cookie "wings" |
I didn't fucking care.
I was tired and hungry, and I needed a rush.
I jumped in, practically inhaling the sugar off of the table. My new friends could only look on, visibly impressed. Hah. Darned Catholic guilt was again washing all over me but that was forgotten as soon as sugar started coursing through my central nervous system.
Shit, you think I slept after that, especially since my flight back to Hong Kong was at dawn?
With Affection,
James
San Want Residences Taipei
(A) No.172, Section 4, Chung Hsiao East Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan
(W) www.swresidences.com
Grand Hyatt Taipei
(A) 2, Song Shou Road, Taipei, Taiwan 1105
(W) http://taipei.grand.hyatt.com
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