Taiwan

New site design and some changes

by

Well, I’ve finally gotten around to do something of a custom design, not sure it’s the final choice, especially the colours, but it’s a work in progress. I’ve also updated the supermarket list, as some things were not up to date and I added another small chain called Kuma to the list.

I still suck at blogging regularly, but hey, such is life I guess. Been keeping busy with tons of work recently, too much in fact, but the good news is that I’m at least finally starting to make some money. Been doing a couple of video projects and learnt a lot along the way and I’m still learning. If this works out to be a regular thing, then I’m going to have to invest in some better equipment and as tempted as I am by Sony’s new NEX-VG10, it’s a bit outside of my current budget to say the least.

At least the weather has been ok the last couple of weeks, although a tad on the hot side with it hitting 36 degrees plus. Either which way it’s better than rain…

Computex is over, yet work hasn’t slowed down…

by

The first week of June was Computex, which is usually the busiest week for me in the year, but for whatever reason, I’m getting requests to do freelance work from left, right and centre. I guess it’s a good thing as work has been slow, which in return means I haven’t been making a lot of money. Things are looking up though and if things work out as they appear, then it looks like I’ll be doing a lot better than I have since I moved to Taiwan. I guess these things take time, but when you’re down and out it just doesn’t look like there’s an end to the misery, but apparently there is

Otherwise life is treating me pretty good these days, need to start moving my ass, as I’ve been getting way too lazy and put on too much extra weight these past six months or so. I just don’t have the drive to go to the gym and there’s really no-where to walk to where I live now, so I don’t go out for walks either. Anyone got ideas on how to make me want to move my backside? 😀

I’ve got a few new eateries I need to add to the blog as well and I’m looking at sorting out a new design for the blog, as I’m seeing this one all over the place. Sure, it’s a good template, but I think I’m going to try to go with something a bit more original.

Anyhow, I’ll try to at least update things once a month, as I’ve been really bad at this whole bloging thing. Until next time…

Easy come, easy go…

by

Well, I guess it’s not exactly an accurate description of things, but I’m no longer with netbooknews.com…

Still, I’ve got more work on right now than I’ve had in a while and hopefully I’ll also make some money on it all, it’s just that I seem to be sitting around waiting to get paid by a bunch of people/companies that owe me money.

Life’s been a bit rough as of lately, but it seems like things are getting better once again. I guess you never really know what to expect, no matter what you get yourself involved in.

Now I’m working on something on my own on the site as well and hopefully with the help of a few friends, it’s not going to take too long to get it all sorted out. I guess it’s not hard to figure out what it is that I’m working on if you know what I’ve mostly been doing for a living over the past few years. I really should’ve done this years ago, but I guess I just never got around to it.

Tomorrow is “Typhoon holiday” here in Taiwan, as we’re about to be hit by a rather large typhoon up in the northern parts of the island. This means that most local will be haning out in the malls, as I have yet to be here during a typhoon that’s bad enough to close up the malls…

I’ll try to be a bit more of a frequent blogger as well. I know I keep saying this every time after I’ve been absent for a while, but I guess this is just my little personal thing and not something I have that much time to focus on.

Until next time…

Yuma SouthWestern Grill

by

Ok, this was supposed to have gone up some time ago, but I’ve been so busy that we in fact have managed to eat a few at Yuma since our first time there. I guess that in itself is a good sign, as we don’t tend to go back to places we don’t like…

We’ve tried all sorts of things ranging from ribs and pasta to starters and Quesadillas. The Fajitas might not be as authentic as the stuff served up by Eddy’s Cantina, but it’s more to my taste. The tortillas seem to be freshly made by Yuma and are at least grilled before being served. I found the Peri-Peri ribs to be a bit on the sour side, but they were way better than the fatty stuff that TGI’s serve up.

The pasta was good too and the cheese Quesadillas are great. Just be aware that both the Quesadillas and Fajita’s come with a side of rice, so you get a pretty big meal, unlike what you get at TGI’s once again. The starters are also good, although a bit more dip sauce wouldn’t go amiss, as it’s not quite enough sauce to go with all of the starters on their sampler platter. Yuma also have a bunch of different sauces to go with your food which is also a bonus.

One oddity is the fact that the coleslaw comes with lingonberry jam, although I think they’ve mixed it up with cranberry sauce, but the two doesn’t taste anything remotely the same.

I suggest you head over to Yuma and have a try yourself, as the food is great. You can find their website here and the location is marked on on the FindIT map.

Update: Sadly this place has closed and On Tap, a UK style pub has taken over the location, although they’ve kept some of the menu items, or at least something fairly similar.

Gen Tei Shoku

by

Last night we ended up trying out a fairly local Japanese place after a terrible experience on Friday night in a really awful Japanese place that I don’t know the name of. Gen Tei Shoku is a semi chain-restaurant (six locations in Taipei, two further south), but we were pleasantly surprised.

I ordered some kind of beef with spring onion (大蔥牛肉燒) and peppers in a small skillet and it came with rice, soup, a small salad and two kind of pickles. Brenda ordered some deep fried chicken with peppers in a light sweet and sour type sauce (a limited time special) and she got the same side dishes. We also got in a side ordered of deep fried prawns which was an extra NT$30 each. The food was very flavourful and tasty and not overly expensive for what you got. As this is a Japanese place, you also get free hot green tea.

Their sushi and sashimi also looked very fresh and nice and they serve it in big pots filled with ice that look really cool. We’ll definitely be back here again, although it’s not a super cheap place, so it’s more of a weekend eatery than an everyday place. They do lunch boxes for NT$150-250 which seems very expensive.

You can find their menu here