I'm back in Manila, back in the heat and humidity. The elevator wasn't working in our building and I walked up and down the stairs all day-- we live on the 11th floor! I'm sitting in an air-conditioned cafe right now in the middle of Chinatown, Manila, sipping on this really good sesame tea latte. There is an ant or some other creature crawling on my cake but I don't even care. I continue eating. Roaches probably crawl on me at night for all I know. I've mostly been packing all day with my grandfather, getting ready to head back to Toronto soon.

Being in the Philippines is always a funny time for me. It's the place where I'm supposed to fit in the most-- as it's the place of my birth-- but I almost always feel completely foreign and uncomfortable. Plus, there are so many customs and certain ways of doing things within the subculture of the Philippine-born Chinese community that are even more difficult to grasp and understand. I don't want to say anything negative or sound ungrateful, so I'll just leave it at that. In the meantime, I've mostly been staying at home watching Mad Men (seasons 1-3) and chatting with my grandfather and a few special people that sometimes drop by. Also, really enjoying the food as always. I guess eating is one thing that can always unite people!

The good stuff.

 San Hsi Tang teahouse, located on the 4th floor of the National Museum. One of our best meals, with great dim sum and nice selection of tea (we had Tie Kuan Yin.) Our favorite dishes were the beef noodle soup and taro cake dessert.

Food court at Taipei 101, too many stalls and so little time! I had tan-tzu noodles with sides of tofu and veggies. Warm tofu-hua with peanuts and tapioca pearls for dessert.

At Ching Yeh, where we waited 30 minutes for a seat. This is the food I grew up on, except that I never knew people actually served it in restaurants! It probably originated from Xiamen, where my people-- and the Taiwanese-- are originally from. I can also get this type of food in the Philippines, in Chinatown, but not this good! Above, my comfort food: sweet potato congee with radish omelette.

Honestly, I can't get enough of all the "small eats" that Taiwan has to offer. Our last meal, breakfast at the famous Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang, or "Soy Milk King" We paid 200 NTD one way in taxi fare for this 150 NTD meal! Soup dumplings, fried you tiao, and of course, the warm sweetened soy milk. We also ordered fan tuan and radish cake. So good!

Taipei, Taiwan

The tea of cool.

Look what my grandfather found for me! Indeed, I am content =)

Two months since my last post. I've not been very good at streaming my life on the web! All I can say is that things have taken an unexpected turn for me and although it hasn't been easy lately, I realize there's lots to be grateful for and I'm happy to be living one day at a time. I'm always eager to make plans-- vacations, classes, my next career, haha. And though making plans is a good way to set goals and keep life organized, sometimes I think I need to just focus on the present.

So presently, I am in Taipei, Taiwan with my grandfather. We are taking a short vacation before we head back to Toronto. The last time I was here was 1996 when my sister and I stayed the summer with our grandparents. Taipei reminds me a lot of the cities we visited in Japan-- except that I can actually understand what people are saying! I'm loving the food and I don't think I've ever had better tea. Heading out now to start our day!