Sweat, Mud, and Turkey Leg

Warrior Dash is basically a 5k running course with 10-12 obstacles. Sounds pretty crazy right? Well, congratulations to ME and BETH for surviving the challenge! Throughout the whole race we worked as a team! We hopped over junkyard cars, crawled under barbwire, climbed over hay stacks, rolled through mud and jumped over flaming logs...
We ran passed the finish line - TOGETHER!



After all that sweat and hard work... we were starving!
So, what is the best warrior fuel? TURKEY LEGS!!! I love turkey legs!  You know they serve good turkey legs when people actually participated the event just for the turkey legs ... that means I NEED TO SINK MY TEETH INTO ONE OF THEM SMOKEY HOT LEGS! Did I mentioned that I love turkey legs? oh yeah I did ha!




Oh and a nice cold Bud Light to wash down the turkey meat!!!  One of the benefits you get for participating the Warrior Dash was the ticket to a FREE BEER! Yes, you get a free beer for completing the run.




Green Sneakers!!!
The 2010 Warrior Dash season donated 50,000 pairs of sneakers, which translated to a $10,000 donation to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

check out www.greensneakers.org for more information



check out more photos!!!


Most importantly, thank you Tracy and Van for being our cheerleaders!!! Next year you ladies will become warriors like us!

Dear Super Bitch

Dear Super Bitch Waitress (curly red/brown hair) @ Red Lion Tavern,

I don't know you and I don't know what I did to piss you off on Friday the 25th.  I stopped by the tavern to celebrate my friend Larry's birthday, I was in a great mood but thanks to your mean service and bitchy attitude... You ruined the birthday celebration... Thanks a lot.

Since I don't know your name, can I call you Kyle's mom?


I think you should look for a new career.  You are suppose to be a German peasant, not a diva with a stick up your ass.  Your job is to explain what is on tap, take food orders, make recommendations, distribute dining utensils to hungry people, and smile!  Well, you've failed all...when a customer ask you questions about what the restaurant is currently serving, DON'T flip the menu over, point at it and tell the customer to read whats in the menu... Or when a customer ask you if you can start a separate tab, DON'T embarrass the customer by rejecting her because she's not a regular customer...  Also, it's NOT cool after all the shenanigans you've pulled and you still add the gratuity in the check... I mean seriously! WTF is wrong with you!  Do you really think you DESERVE tips after you bitched out the whole table? do you? really?

Maybe you should look into yoga to calm your soul... Wait?! what?! Your other job is a yoga instructor??? well, you should quit that job too, cuz you are way too angry to be teaching anyone anything... you are just a MEAN MEAN MEAN person!

Next time when I visit Red Lion Tavern, I hope I don't see you again... Please resign, quit or get fired. If not, I will definitely do my best in my power to get you fired :)

Thank you,

Joe Chang
eatwithjoe@gmail.com

NOTE TO MY SINCERE READERS:
next time when you guys want to hit up Red Lions Tavern... GO UP STAIRS to the beer garden to avoid the Super Bitch.


This is the sausage platter... I was really excited about this food, but the mean bitchy waitress ruined my appetite... I can probably blame her for the poor lighting while I'm at it.


Upstairs at the beer garden is the place to be! No mean waitress up here! only fun people and good booze!


They have Makers 46!

Red Lion Tavern is a great place! Don't get me wrong, I have no problem whatsoever with the tavern... Just that one waitress in particular :)

7-Eleven Snacks!

Now that we're back to sunny Los Angeles... I still crave the little things from Taiwan... like the 7-Eleven foods... :D

Everytime you walk into a 7-Eleven in Taiwan, it smells like tea eggs and guandonzhu (oden - Japanese soup with mixed ingredients)...


They don't just carry potato chips and spicy potato chips.  They get creative!
         

Lay's Chips with a different kick!


Bacon and Egg Salad Rice Balls


Shrimp Tempura Rice Balls


Sponge Bob sponge cake (clever!)


and then there's this specially packaged Kirin Beer... called BAR BEER !!! YAY !!




and YES they are ALL DELICIOUS !!! Learn something 7-Elevens in America !!!

陽明山 Yangmingshan

This might look like a typical serving of noodles... But this spicy peanut sauce noodles was the best tasting noodles after a wet trip up the Yangmingshan National Park! we will get to the food in a bit...



"Holy Crap it's cold here!!!" That was the first thing we said when we got off the bus... We were totally under dressed for this trip up the Yangmingshan National Park. It was wet, cold, rainy, foggy and windy... this was NOT what it looked like in the Taiwan Travel Handbook... FML...



There were five other tourists from Malaysia and one hiker on the National Park tour bus, I guess we were the only people that didn't check the weather report before leaving the house, ha. Our first stop was Erzihping Trail... Everyone got off the bus, totally clueless... Where should we start?



The only person that actually seems to know where to go and where to start the hike was the one hiker that was on the bus with us... This man was awesome! He acted as our tour guide and allowed us to hike around the park with him! To entertain us, he sang and taught us how to dance like the aborigines!



After the dancing lessons, he instructed us to follow the trail back to the bus stop... and he said, "I'm going to stay behind and enjoy my daily lunch in the mountains... I'm 81 years old, and this is what i do everyday... I love hiking this mountain." Now that was quite an awesome experience... We felt so grateful and honored to meet this interesting man.

All of us, including the five Malaysian tourists decided to skip the rest of the Yangmingshan tour due to the weather conditions... bummer! Beth and I were so wet, cold and HUNGRY! So we hurried off the mountains and found a wonton restaurant, Thank Jeebus!!! That meal was a life saver!!! (sorry about the heavy exclamation marks... but man was that meal awesome!) We ordered the spicy peanut sauce noodles, wonton soup, fish ball soup, some side dishes and Taiwan Beer! Such a great way to end our journey to the Yangmingshan National Park, even though we didn't get to see the rest of the park... but with the singing hiker and great food... it was well worth it!!!

Happy 100th Birthday + Happy New Year

I'd like to dedicate this entry to Cafe Bruges in Taipei.



Mario of Cafe Bruges provided us with the warmest hospitality anyone could asked for during the chaotic New Years Eve block party in the Xinyi District.

When we first entered the crowd in the middle of Taipei, I had to pee. The city of Taipei FAILED to provide the public with enough porta potties. The line to the restrooms in Starbucks was at least 50 people deep... Same with the metro restrooms, gas station restrooms, and every other public restrooms you can think of. #taipeifail

Then Beth, my awesome wife, spotted this little wine bar in the corner of Keelung Rd. Next thing we know, I got to pee without standing in lines and Beth got her red wine :) Cafe Bruges became our NYE shelter for us to celebrate the coming of 2011 and the 100th birthday of Taiwan. We met some new friends while we were there, and we got to try out their collection of Belgium beers and complimentary Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets. They even gave us giant sparklers during our count down celebration! Thank you again Cafe Bruges!



FYI, there were so many people... we couldn't get a cab for about 2 hours of us walking around town completely LOST! People were camping out in the subway stations just cuz they couldn't find a way home... by the time we got back to our hotel... it was 4:00AM

Here is a video of the Taipei 101 firework! enjoy!

Taipei 101 NYE2010+Taiwan100 firework from Joe Chang on Vimeo.