Transit Method

Transit Method

Sunday, June 1, 2014

THE CRAZY ASS FOOD SCENE THAT IS TAIPEI

We ate everything you see here in 3 days. That makes us either superheroes or fat pigs. You decide.

Churning out dough balls to drop in the fry pot

The final product -- springy sweet dough balls in the cutest bag

She seemed nice, but her foods were pretty gnarly...

For those of you who know how large Cecily's head is....well this fried chicken was enormous.

Digging into the $2 piece of chickengasm.
   
Cream
Red Bean
He makes bomb scallion pancakes

These are them
The best goddamned beef noodle soup you will ever eat.

Spicy Wontons

Pork noodle

Spicy Cucumbers

Soy bean sprout salad

Pork and Crab Soup Dumplings (Xiaolongbao)


They may not look like much, but these were seriously the best sesame noodles either of us had ever had. And off a plastic bag!

He's a big Solt Lake City fan. And he makes fried things on sticks.

We got the seafood balls


This was amazing to watch being made. It started the size of a golf ball and ballooned in the oil...
Through a misunderstanding, I accidentally bought 5.

There were tons of crazy bakeries...


These hot dogs were very shiny

I miss this one. It was redonk.

They put hot dogs in everything
This is Sushi Express. 

Every plate is $1

Mmmm

We got a lot of plates

And after sushi, it's time for a pussy coffee.

The many shapes of stinky tofu

Beautiful fruit

Animal parts on sticks

Looks like tasty dumplings, right?

Just wait until he unloads the jelly. These were not good.

Single-bite Sausages

Braised pork and mushroom rice

Crab Thick Soup. More thick than crab.

Night market sushi. $2 for roe, scallop, eel and two uni (sea urchin). 

Tasty skrimps

Literally the best fried oysters you will ever eat. A huge ass pile for $5.

Pick your plates to put into your hot-pot.

When you're ready, a dude will come over and get it going for you and add their special broth.

Then they give you a ladle to stir it so you feel like you did something. And what we made was delicious. 
And when you think you can't eat any more, you eat shaved ice.
It's shaved milk ice with your fruit of choice, and a drizzle of what you hope is condensed milk. Bomb.

Sunday, May 18, 2014

TEN SHOTS: BALI



Offerings to the Gods are made constantly throughout a Balinese woman's day.  Whenever a meal is cooked, an arrangement of flowers, food and holy water is placed on the alter as well as on every tool and surface used to make the meal.  There are countless other reasons to make offerings.  On any given street, you'll find at least a dozen flower offerings.  Every time we went to use our scooter, there was an offering on the seat and at the entrance to the driveway.
Local coffee with local coconut milk, local paper.  For being a coffee destination, we were surprised to find that the coffee is not cheap! (almost $4 for this one).

BUGS EVERYWHERE.  Crickets and snails and moths and beetles and frogs and geckos galore.
I understand that some of these things are not bugs.

Our house had a garden full of guavas!  We made a lot of jam.  Everything smelled like guavas.

Balinese massage in the rice fields.  $9 for 80 minutes made it one of the most ridiculous deals we've found on our trip!
View from our room during the afternoon storm.  Every day around 3pm, the clouds would move in and darken and just flood everything.  The sound was deafening.  Our room was like an amphitheater. 


But that's why things are so green!
Babi Guling, the famous Balinese whole pig.  This was not our favorite pig, as the meat is chopped up into small pieces before being served and that made Read sad, but their method of take out (in that handmade paper cone) is pretty sweet.
This is a Balinese family compound, where families as large as 30-40 people live together.  The left building is where all the ceremonies take place - every deceased family member has had death rites performed on that bed.  The small narrow building to the right of it is where they store their rice.  In the front yard, all the children's placentas are buried in the ground and marked with a rock, so that visitors can count the rocks and easily know how many children the family has.  Most locals in Ubud still live in compounds.
Food stalls in the street and market were often pretty inaccessible to foreigners.  Lots of dishes were made with blood, from sausage to salad, and were super spicy.  The chilies in America that we call hot, the Balinese call sweet peppers.
Also: this woman is staring at me because I am Asian and Read is white.

READ'S TERRIBLE HAIRCUTS



About two years ago, Read decided to start giving himself haircuts.  It was one of his worst ideas ever.  Not only does he have no experience giving haircuts, he also likes to give himself haircuts at absurd times.  We'll be on our way out to dinner or late to meet someone and I'll find him in the bathroom buzzing away in a rush.  Obviously these haircuts look like shit and after a few days of asking him when he's shipping out, Read always agrees to get his next haircut done by a professional.  Alas, for the last two years, Read has continued to give himself shitty haircuts.

Then, in Bali, this happened:



Only after seeing this picture did Read understand the extent to which he has a problem.

There is apparently one man in all of Ubud who gives haircuts.  His name is Rudi and his shop always has half a dozen dudes waiting outside his purple room.  His haircuts cost $1.



You'll notice that in the center poster for Rudi's "Top's Collection", it's all super Asian hair styles + one picture of Colin Farrell.  On the left poster, the surprise celebrity guest is Rob Thomas.

Read's turn.  Rudi's like... wtf.



Rudi wears a face mask.


Read's hair has never looked better!  I forgot to take an after shot so you'll just have to picture the glory of all his hair cut in a uniform length.

Has Read finally been converted to professional hair cuts?  The hope is this post will shame him into change.