Gastro Monkey // 美食家

There were a few places that I ate at in Longtan, but I didn't always take pictures. At the time I only had my D700 and didn't like lugging it everywhere. That and a lot of the time I would just bring the food home and eat it while grading. I feel like all I really did during that time was grade papers and hate my job. On the way home from work, there was always this one restaurant that I would pass that looked interesting. I normally ate at a place with no name that served rice with chicken and pork over it with a side of tofu and veggie soup for 80NT, but this day, I thought, I will be like a Murakami character and try something new. Book in hand, I asked the proprietor what they recommended and also ordered a side of veggies. The owner told me that this was a Hakka dish, and that the noodles they serve are hand made. They have other dishes that people might find more familiar, but this noodle dish was certainly interesting. It had these dumplings made from a translucent...

Back when I lived in Longtan for a minute (the longest 8 months of my life, actually), I had very little time to travel around so I was stuck exploring this armpit of a town. I grew to accept it there, even though I wouldn't recommend anyone move there. There's definitely good and bad. Since work was pretty terrible, I had to really reach deep to find the good. One of the good things was this cafe not far from my apartment. Big space, airy, lots of windows. And a ton of books I couldn't read. It was a nice cafe to escape to though. Generally quiet with others who are reading or studying together; there was one time that I went and someone was playing something that sounded great on the baby grand piano. The coffee and food available are standard Taiwanese coffee and food. Nothing too stand out, but it's reliable. I preferred not to eat the food there because being on a budget, it is pricey. I would rather eat at a rice or noodle shop for much less. The coffee was alrea...