As many of you may have realised, I am in overseas at the moment.

I am visiting my uncle in Vancouver, British Columbia (Colombie-Britannique in French), Canada (literally in aboriginal lingo, Village) currently.

Dinner was served onboard at 5 pm. We were given options to have either a spaghetti or ayam percik rice. Have you have ever tried any our traditional Kelatanese ayam percik in the height of 3000 feet in the air ? Well, I do.

Since there’s an absence of direct flights from from Kuala Lumpur, I had to transit in Taipei. And because the connection flight was only available the next day, I was rewarded a complimentary hotel stay for the night in Taoyuan town center, some 20 minutes from airport.

Malaysians are now exempted of visa to visit Taiwan for 30 days every entry.

The hotel was so cheapskate that they didn’t bother to provide dinner as they assumed you have consumed yours in the flight. Yeah, but we funny Malaysians like to dine at 5pm, remember ? Also, I would appreciate their generocity much more had the phone in the hotel room been allowed to make calls, not only room orders.

Thus, I was in the 7-Eleven by the corner (Taiwan being a republic of convenience stores) and procured a phone card. Armed with my 100 bucks phone card, I called my local aunties to say hello from the hotel lobby.

After that, I ventured onto the street again. As you would have guessed correctly, it’s dark and sleepy.

Perhaps all the betel nut chics, the living national treasure of Taiwan, live in the other half of the town.

And all the rhetorics about hospitality !

Anyway, I have found my way to a little potsticker (fried dumplings) shop, which happens to sell beef noodle and hot and sour soup as well. The makciks shouted “Have a seat!” when you pass by its door.

I ordered a beef noodle. “That’s it ?” the makcik who took my order asked. Fine, she’s not about to leave unless I order some potstickers too. Alright, here you go, 5 potstickers.

To be fair, it tasted great. More so after a 3 year hiatus from Taiwanese delicacies. Beef cubes were soft and aplenty, and the soup was neither too salty nor too spicy (which I actually welcome).

And the fried dumplings, supposedly the main course here was, ermm…. tiny. They looked very cute anyway. As cute as our Nore.

Greater adventure awaits ahead. With full of happiness inside my tummy, I think it’s time to call it a day…