Playboy Bunny, Tea, and Tights = Taiwan

         When I first arrived in Taiwan I put up a post about some things Taiwanese people are quite in to.  Over the past 6 months of living here, I've definitely noticed a large list of items and trends they are very excited about.  I'll let you in on a few of them now.

1. Tea

This is one obsession I am also obsessed with.  I love tea!  Tea shops fill the streets here, so many different vendors and stores.  Now, I'm not only talking about the traditional hot water and tea bag/tea leaf tea, Taiwan is famous for it's Pearl Milk Tea.  This delicious beverage consists of the obvious tea and milk, but the pearl's- they are the secret.  No, not real pearls.  The pearls in Pearl Milk Tea are little bubble shaped tapioca balls.  Sounds a bit.. yucky? Yes, it does.  But it tastes wonderful.  You know tapioca, like tapioca pudding, I guess I can't say I've eaten it much actually.  Anyways this tea, it's great.  I order it without extra sugar added, I don't want to get diabetes from drinking too much!  Milk Tea in general is excellent, and you can order it in a variety of flavors.  My recent favorite is Peppermint Milk Tea, both hot or cold is divine!

This tea shop is right around the corner from our apartment.  I frequent it often.  

2. 7-11/Family Mart
In Taiwan you can find a 7-11 or Family Mart on for realsies every block.  More abundant than Starbucks.  Often times you can come across a 7-11, and then you turn the corner, and whatdoyaknow, another 7-11.  Family Mart is the same thing, just another convenient store.  These convenient stores are special though.  you can do much more than purchase coke, chips, or beer there.  I pay my bills there, they have hot ovens to heat up meals that they sell, you can buy tickets to concerts or sporting events, send faxes or mail, print pictures.  There are around 4,790 7-11's on this little island. If I ever need anything, at any time, I've got my options of a 7 across the street, or a Family Mart right around the corner from my home!

3.  Tea Eggs

Here's a pot roaring away at the 7-11

See, more with the tea!  Tea eggs are hard boiled eggs, boiled in tea rather than water.  This turns the outside shell to a murky brown color, and inside the egg is infused with the elements and flavor of tea.  You can find them bubbling away in a pot at all hours inside one of the ever-open 7-11's, but also many "lunch box" restaurants carry them to pop inside the meals.  I find them quite delightful, and request them with my meals whenever I spot them.  I have to yet to try one from the convenient stores though, they appear a bit scary.


4. Tights and shorts
Fashion.  Tights are seen on many legs day after day, but generally they aren't paired with skirts or dresses, it's shorts the girls choose.  They also are big in to patterned tights, anything from polka dots, squares, laces, colors.  Lots of fun things! If I had to describe Taiwanese fashion, tights and shorts is what first comes to mind.  Of course, maybe it was Japanese fashion first, whatever, I don't know, but it's very popular here.

5.  Bean
I said before that jelly is everywhere.  As is the friend to jelly- bean.  Ha, I didn't even mean to do that!  Seriously though, you've got to watch out for it.  When we were in China, I ordered some ice cream thinking it was strawberry, no, it was red bean.  It actually wasn't bad though, I didn't really notice until I saw it on the receipt. You see the same thing in Taiwan, too.  Frozen bean paste bars, matcha bean lattes (this is a green bean, that fools you into thinking it's a green tea latte, until you take a sip), and they smear bean into a lot of desserts, often mixed with the jelly.  So red bean I think is maybe ok, I'm not certain of all of the different types of bean, but there's a lot of it out there, and most of it repulses me.  Usually if I find it in something, I try to nibble at it a bit, and can handle it in small doses.






Here's some pie I had (on accident) with some bean of the bottom, covered in a jelly layer, and something sponge-like on top.


6. KTV
This stand for Karaoke T.V, or so I'm told by Rachel.  The Taiwanese are HUGE into this.  There are huge KTV buildings all over, I walk by 3 almost every day.  Well, 2 for sure, 1 is quite shady and the Taiwanese teachers say to never go there.  I think it's a prosty-shop.  The only time I've done KTV was on the last night of training in Taipei with a group of like 40 people all shoved into one room.  Last Tuesday night, however, this changed.  Some of us had planned on going to a trivia night at a small restaurant (yes, conducted in English) but when we got there, found that it was on hiatus due to the Chinese New Year holiday.  Well, we were all together and decided to check out a KTV.  The deal is you pay for a private room with a big couch and table and tv and share it with your friends and pick your songs and sing away!  Around 30 US for the room, split by 6 people, so $5 a person.  Kind of takes away the appeal of karaoke back home, being able to listen to awful strangers sing loud songs, but this way is pretty fun too.  They cater beer to you as well, which naturally aids in the enjoyment :)

Rachel, Ben, Mike, Abe, and Greta ready to sing






Ben and Abe signing... some Jason Mraz, I believe!

7. The Playboy Bunny
Yes... it's super popular here. I don't know about the magazine, but the brand name. The label is on everything. Glasses, suitcases, shoes, bags, notebooks, and these are all items that my students tote around!  I have little kids walking around with backpacks sporting the playboy bunny.  I'll just go ahead and guess they don't really know what it represents. Otherwise they are being raised to become absolutely scandalous. They bedazzle it and use flashy colors. I can see it's appeal though,  just a cute little bunny.  How can they resist the cuteness!?