Le Jardin du Petit Prince Restaurant

Finding new restaurants in Taichung is always a good thing, because we often end up going to the same ones over and over. Yesterday I was taken to a new vegetarian restaurant - Le Jardin du Petit Prince - and I really hope it stays open because I loved it.

Between the 4 (and 1/2) of us, we ordered Fried Rice with Pinenuts, Risotto with Porcini, and the Quesadilla. Each meal came with a salad chock full of fruits, soup and bread, sesame pudding, brownie, macaron and drink (juice, tea or coffee) for around $380NT each. It was all fabulous.

Logistics (taken from Compass Magazine):
(04) 2295-6488
178, ZhongPing Rd
Hours: 11:30am-9 pm
(closed Mondays)
Credit cards not accepted.
*There are dairy products used in many of the dishes


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Then and now: Happy Halloween

Then:

Pumpkins carved in 2005

Now:

No pumpkins to carve?  That's ok - 

there's an app for that - "carving" pumpkins on our phones

What do I bring to Taiwan?: Cool weather wardrobe check

We often get asked by people moving to Taiwan what they should bring.  It's a hard question to answer.  But, as we go through this second year I'm able to get some perspective on the things that we found important.  I'm hoping the "What do I bring to Taiwan" posts can help give some ideas to those moving here about what to pack.

Last year at about this time I started wishing that I hadn't filled my bag with only shorts and tank tops, because it started getting chilly outside.  And worse than that, I quickly found out it was often cooler inside than out (I guess when you have tile floors and concrete walls you should expect the cold to stay).  We're more prepared this year - each with a few long-sleeve overshirts and sweater/sweatshirts.

The last few days it has cooled down a lot in Taichung (currently 67 wunderground says); people are bringing out their pants and sweaters.  Not this cold yet though:

Cool rainy day in February

Tea-licious

Wonderful things can be done with green tea, here are a few of our recent discoveries:

Green tea flavored ice cream - wasn't J's favorite, I love it.

Green tea black sesame frappuccino - we both love this!

Green tea kit kats found in Japan 

(photo from here because I ate mine before remembering to take a photo)

Safety first

It's amazing how much of a different feel you get of the city when you see it from a scooter rather than a car.

Sometimes I get moments of panic when holding onto Jeremiah though. I wish I was one of those kids with the super over-protective parents riding their bikes with full gear - helmet, knee and elbow pads, and wrist guards. But I think maybe I could also use shin guards on my legs and some for my forearms too. Just in case.

For now I'll hold back on the excessive protective measures and stick to my helmet (plus sunscreen).

Lantern love

I just can't get enough of the lanterns, I love them!

Midnight escapades

My second day in Yokohama was full of volleyball games and activities (including a dinner where I accidentally ate chicken cartilage) so by the time I got back to my hotel I was ready for bed.  You can imagine my upset when I was so rudely awoken at 1:00am by a constant knocking in the hallway.  I tried to stick it out wishing I had brought earplugs, but finally I crawled out of bed to investigate.  Through the peephole I could see a man who appeared to be locked out of his room.  Nothing too unusual, but I had to stop myself from laughing out loud because not only was he locked out, but he was locked out with no clothes on!  No clothes!  How does that happen?  It got better a few moments later when I heard voices.  I thought maybe someone had finally let him in.  But no, it was only the couple next door who had come home.  They stood only a few feet from the naked man but pretended like he wasn't there at all!  He persisted knocking for at least another good half and hour and soon after that I fell back asleep. 

In the morning I was glad to see he was no longer in the hallway but I did really have to think to remember if it actually happened or if it had all just been a dream.  We've enjoyed coming up with many different ideas about how he came to be in the hallway sans clothing.

Yokohama

I went to Yokohama this weekend as the coach for our girl's volleyball team.  Most of the time this was my view:

But I did get out a little to see some of the sights:

We will certainly have to go back to Japan to see more than just the inside of a gym and the airport!