When It Rains

Sometimes, when the weather in Taipei is just unremittingly crap - when it drizzles for days on end and the sky has been bleak for as long as you can remember - I wonder what the hell I'm doing here.

The feeling rarely lasts long because I genuinely love this country, but it does come. I really don't like overcast skies. Rain is fine, as long as it's good and heavy, or a relief from humidity...and thunderstorms are, of course, awesome. But a gray sky and a light drizzle? Ick. It's unfortunate that this seems to be Taipei's dominant weather pattern.

After chugging a CC Lemon (I need my C) I usually cheer up, but yesterday that wasn't doing it for me.

Then, after our workout, Brendan and I met my sister at Zhongshan to get something to eat. We took the bus to Jilin-Nanjing, planning to go to Ali Baba or Silverfish Thai (such an unfortunate name). Both were closed before the dinner rush.

We ended up in an alley on the north side of the road, by a 7-11...I realize that doesn't help much direction-wise. We had beef noodles under an umbrella, sitting on damp stools.

Those noodles were delicious. They weren't overloaded with MSG, weren't too thin or cheap but not gummy or fat either. I'll take gummy and fat over thin noodles anyday, though. The soup was hearty and the beef chunks were high-quality without being too fatty.

And that - a typical Taiwanese dish that you can find on any streetcorner for 50-90 kuai - cheered me up immeasurably.

You can find the beef noodle guy near the Nanjing-Jilin intersection, north side of Nanjing, by turning right at a 7-11. I realize "turn at the 7-11" is not very clear as there are usually 5 or 6 of them to choose from, but it's not hard to find. Facing Nanjing at Silverfish Thai, it's to the right.