So with things getting sorted at home I have been exploring the neighbourhood.  We live in Da’an (大安) area of Taipei.  It’s incredibly central, well connected with metro stations but also our street: Renai Road (仁愛路) is particularly green.  This is what our building faces on to:

very green (at dusk)

green (at midday)

It makes for some very pleasant walks.

Every lunch hour i get ambitous and think today is the day i am going to try some local cuisine, and then I always encounter a menu board like this:

I was promised pictures of my food - where are my pictures?!

I will say whatever they are serving its cheap.  25NTD = $0.80 CAD I just wish I knew what they were serving.  And no amount of pointing and smiling could really help me in this situation (say if I just point at random things on the menu and they say something to me, they could be saying do you want hot sauce with that, or they could be saying they ran out, or they could be saying do you want fries with that, this is my predicament).   So generally I admit defeat and sulk into the local 711 (or ‘7’ as its locally called) and buy some dingy ready made noodle dish.   A few weeks with menu flash cards and I should be able to recognize a few things off those characters – i hope! Otherwise it may be time to pick up a 711 loyalty card.