As well as the beer caddies for each table. Get up and help yourself to your Taiwan beer from the fridge, load up your caddy with empties. Servers tally your consumption at the end of your meal and bills accordingly.
Beer hostess tonight was Heineken, so we strayed. She efficiently refreshed our bottles and kept glasses full. 
We could stand some US$14 novelty in the States.
Street Food. One of our enjoyments in Asia is wandering around and letting my Food-dar lead us to good eats. Sadly, our roaming has been severely dampened by the current mid-90°f temps.
Still, we’ve been able to hit a few spots. We really wanted our pre-college coed to see and taste some of what her Kaohsiung born dad enjoyed before moving to the states.
Breakfast/lunch at a true hole in wall smack dab in a street market.
Zong Zi (sticky rice dumpling), Fried Tofu on Thin Noodle Soup, Lou Rou Fan (braised pork rice), Tofu/Egg combo plate and Mixed Bamboo/Mushroom.
Greens. Locally called China Girl because so tender. 
Pork Face Meat, quite good.
Niece wanted something fried. Grabbed her a Gi Pai (fried chicken cutlet) from the stand next door.
Walked the market for awhile, sweating buckets. An oasis in the desert. Lime and Calamansi juice drink, life saver.
Retreated back to the sanctuary of our air conditioned hotel, just in time to catch the tail end of the breakfast buffet.
The Classics. Old School:
XLB.
Salty Soy Milk, Sweet Soy Milk, Pancake w/shredded Daikon and Pancake wrapped YouTiu.
The Classics Redefined. DTF Din Tai Fung:
It’s ALL GOOD!! Happy.
This basically sums up how awesome this was.
Had to quickly finish your eating tour to get back in time so as not to miss the hotel buffet.
We may be ‘mericans, but still Asian. 
We celebrated our friend’s belated birthday with a Peking Duck dinner at My Humble House, a Cantonese Restaurant in the Le Meridien Hotel.
In keeping with OG Cantonese tradition, cognac the drink of choice this evening. Birthday boy had preordered our duck three days in advance, and selected the menu. I was somewhat surprised at his mix, Dim Sum items at dinner!?!? Well, we are in Taiwan.
Braised Pork on Fried Egg. A good riff on Lou Rou Fan, the Taiwanese classic.
Phoenix Claws (ok, Chicken Feet).
Lo Bak Go (Turnip Cake).
Pork and Wood Ear strips stir fried, alongside Loofah Strips.
The star of the show, the Center of Attention. Peking Duck Three Ways.
Duckskin in thin pancake with Scallion, Cucumber and Hoisin. Disappointing. The pancake was more flour tortilla than paper thin crepe. No white crystal sugar to enhance.
The Duck meat was shredded and refried in the kitchen. To my taste, I’d prefer the Roast Duck meat au naturale. But I suppose that’s just not done at a Michelin recommended establishment.
Duck Carcass Congee almost saved the day. A good bowl of Congee is always fulfilling and comforting.
The Cha Siu was excellent! Perfect ratio of lean and fat, crisp to succulent, savory to sweet, well complemented by the zesty lime wedge.
Finished with Panda Lava Buns. Almost too cute to eat, but sacrifices have to be made. Oh nooooo!!
A good time was had by all. Only one bottle of VSOP and a couple of beers this meal, well below our usual intake. Per our Taiwanese friends’ custom, a good meal is followed by more drinks at another venue. With a “few” small bites. Details to follow.
The original Din Tai Fung around corner from night market?
Semi new location a couple blocks from the original. The original in Yong Kang is only for Uber Eats and pickups now.
You may have missed my Iceland IKEA posts. In a country where food is very expensive, IKEA is a place where locals who aren’t shopping go just for an inexpensive meal. We went the first time for the novelty but we’ve gone back a few more times because our 8-year old Spring Onion loves both the salmon and meatballs and it’s kinda fun…plus, you can drink beer/wine! (We are fortunately not going because we have to scrimp but because we are frugal New Englanders and B loves the IKEA aesthetic.) On our last (9th) trip this past April, I had the plokkfiskur, an Icelandic fish stew. This dish wouldn’t win any beauty contests but the IKEA version was decent to this Asian ‘murican. 
Sounds interesting. We tend to visit COSTCO’s as we travel, as available. May have to add IKEA to the browse list as well.
We like to look and see different food offerings, even without the intention to actually buy or eat.
Typhoon Doksuri. Looks like we’ll luck out and fly home per scheduled tomorrow.
Good day, good trip. Kicking back in room with last snack.
Stay safe. Will post more details on this trip soon.
Stay safe and dry! Really enjoying the trip reports!
Chopsticks with fried chicken drumstick?
Do tell.
Nah. I ABC’d the drumstick. Rolled up a small napkin and wrapped the handle. Use ‘sticks for most everyday home eating from potato chips to chopped salad.
