Ginger and Sweet Potato Soup [薑汁番薯湯]

We left the flower show in the early afternoon and took a bus to Zhuzi Lake [竹子湖]. By the time we arrived it was raining fairly hard so we took shelter at one of the nearby restaurants for a late lunch and to wait for the rain to lighten up a bit.

Fried Tofu [炸豆腐]

Of the three dishes pictured, by far the highlight was the Ginger and Sweet Potato Soup [薑汁番薯湯] which really hit the spot on what was one of Taipei’s coldest days of the year.

Fried Bread [炸銀絲捲]

A lot of people I keep in touch with from Michigan wonder why I complain that 5 degrees Celsius [41 degrees Fahrenheit] is cold. Well it does seem pretty cold when that 5-10 degrees is accomanied by five weeks of almost daily rainfall, a lack of sunshine, and unheated buildings.

After lunch we set out to one of the many Calla Lily [Zantedeschia] gardens that dominate the area’s landscape.

Although it was cold and rainy, at least there were no crowds. Although it would have been nice to walk around without heavy jackets and umbrellas like when we visited two years ago.

We just missed one bus as we were walking towards the bus stop. We had wrongly assumed that because it was a holiday, there would be a lot of buses running. We were wrong. A few cabs were poaching people who were standing in line with the rock-bottom price of $150 NT per person to the closest MRT station. After a little more than an hour the next bus out of the park came.