The Lazy Bird

       

      It's time to let you in on the secret of The Lazy Bird.  Anthony first discovered it hidden about 4 blocks down and one block over from our apartment when we were still new to Jhongli.  He was just out walking looking for somewhere to eat, and saw a place called Rebels, they had hamburgers and Mt. Dew, so he got some food.  We he told us about it, he said down the street further was a place called The Lazy Bird that looked similar, and we should try it.  So one day we did.

       The Lazy Bird is fabulous because it has a whole mess of American food items, plus the only place I've ever found Dr. Pepper!!  A wide range of styles of hamburgers, omelets, quesadillas, breakfast foods, and recently added steaks and ribs and salads and such. A favorite of mine is the Mexican Breakfast Burrito. No, it's definitely not traditional Taiwanese food, it's a taste of home!  All week I eat at various local food shops, often places that seem a bit sketch but are recommended to be wonderful, and they usually are, I don't eat at McDonald's every day, though am sometimes tempted, so I look forward to eating here. 

        Not much more than a few weeks after our first experience of The Lazy Bird, Abe mentioned eating at a place with Bird in the name that had really good hamburgers.  We knew they must be one in the same!  Plans were set to eat there the following weekend.  For at least the past 3 or 4 months now it's our Sunday routine to get up and go for "brunch" at The Lazy Bird.  Sometimes just us and Abe, other times many of our other friends come too and we have a table of 10! Sometimes we don't go until 1 pm when we can finally peel ourselves from bed and feel like death from a long night our clubbing at Search and we can all meet to discuss the events from the night before, or other times it's earlier and we feel much more chipper, maybe even catch a movie after.  Everyone loves The Lazy Bird.

        There's a word in Chinese "gwan-chee" which means like the relationship or friendship you have with others.  We definitely have "gwan-chee" with the manager of this place and she knows who we are and is always so friendly.  Her English is pretty great too.  Abe is a man of routine and he always orders the same thing, cheeseburger (don't forget the mustard) with Sprite.  One time he ordered coffee, but they still brought him Sprite!  We went there the Sunday of Abe's birthday and she gave him a free piece of cheesecake, well I guess I'm not sure if that's what they do always for birthdays, so maybe it wasn't special.  This has proved to be a bad thing though because now I know how fantastic the cheesecake is and I always want to get some but must restrain myself.  It reminds of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake!

A bit blurry, but it capture's the joy of Abe opening his birthday gifts at The Lazy Bird.  Plus, you get a small glimpse inside as I haven't any other photo's from in there.  It's decorated really neat, with US License plates scattered around, there's one from Minnesota!!!!!!!!! and some other cool signs.  Plus, this picture shows that the place MUST be good, I mean there's Chinese people eating here (don't you guys watch Friends?!)

          Also, through teaching a number of classes filled with both pre and pubescent boys, I've learned that the word "bird" is slang for penis here.  At first I just thought they liked birds, this one class always wanted to be team "Little Bird" and would laugh when I tried to draw a picture of a small bird.  Then one kid filled me in, by  shouting from the back of the room, "Teacher Annika bird is.... " and pointed it out to me.  Oh great.  Well no more team bird!  The exception is that everyone is really obsessed with Angry Birds here too, the kids don't seem to laugh about that.  I, however, find it funny.  So to sum up, we always eat at The Lazy Bird, and often Abe will either say or send texts like "wanna hit the bird?" Pretty great.  

     Oh, if you're wondering about Rebels, the place that led Anthony to find The Lazy Bird, well none of us besides Anthony have ever eaten there, we'd feel like traders!