A couple of weekends ago, we drove up to Orlando to visit family. My grandfather's 78th birthday was Monday, but the family celebrated on Saturday night. We ate pizza, talked a bunch of crap, the girls got their Wii on and I introduced the family to Dark and Stormies.
I read recently (on Wikipedia) that Barritt's Ginger Beer is the ginger of beer of choice in Bermuda, and that it is better for the drink than Jamaican ginger beer, as it's too spicy. Being in Miami, the easiest ginger beers to find are Jamiacan or Jamiacan style D&G (Jamaica), Jamaican Country Style (Miami/Jamaica) and Goya (US). (My usual ginger beer of choice is D&G).I found a couple six-packs of Barritt's in a liquor store down the street from Mom's house. I grabbed them and a bottle of Gosling and spent the evening mixing drinks.
Sunday night, we met up with my friend Scott, whom I had not seen since just before moving to Florida. He and his wife Becky were down for a few days visiting her family. We met at their hotel on the south side of Orlando and went in search of Hanamizukai, which I had read was the best Japanese in that area. We had a little trouble finding it as I hadn't really written the directions down. After driving all the way up to the outlet mall (some 2 miles or so past the restaurant), we found it on the way back south.
First course was a squid sunomuno. This was the best squid I've had to date. Firm without being rubbery, with a hint of vinegar. 
Main course was one of the sushi combination options. Tuna roll with chef's choice of nigiri. Ama Ebi was one of the nigiri pieces. Eventually, the deep fried head was served, as well. The nigiri was all very good, and pretty much all of my favorites were accounted for (hamachi, sake, maguro, ikura, saba). 
The interesting thing is that the first place I was served Ama Ebi was across the street at another Japanese place that James and I visited a year or so ago when he was visiting Mom. We drove up from the airport and stopped somewhere that looked interesting.
Dinner was excellent, all around. Excellent food, excellent dining companions. We got a bit rowdy eventually, as we recounted stories of the old days for Becky (Liz has heard most of them already or was there, although there were a few new bits). Most of them were old band stories (Scott and I played together in The Fink Squad (WARNING: Ugly website) and other associated acts. It was really great to see them and hopefully it won't be quite so long before we catch them again.
On Sunday, we relaxed a bit. We spent the morning sitting in the room looking at the internets and looking through our pictures. 
Around noon, we set off for the golf ball mall, aka the CPC Center. This is quite possibly the ugliest, and most likely the most poorly designed mall in the world. We had to walk down four sets of escalators to get to the food court, and to get to each escalator we had to push our way through tables of merchandise on a small walkway. I ordered a beef noodle soup from one of the food court vendors and we had an enjoyable, if a bit surreal, lunch while listening to Christmas carols both played over the PA and sung live (we think). Very strange. I think there were two different versions of Jingle Bells sung with heavy Chinese accents. All I could think of was the last scene in A Christmas Story.
After lunch, we saw Ray off. He had to return to Tainan for work on Monday morning. 
We took the rest of the day rather slowly. We eventually made our way out to the NTU area for Mexican food. 
The Mexican restaurant in question is called Tequila Sunrise and, while not spectacular, is fairly decent US Mexican restaurant fare. I've certainly had worse Mexican food in the northeastern United States and Europe (Ljubljana, Slovenia, to be be precise - I have yet to experience the dreaded "Czech-Mex"). We really just went there because we try Mexican food wherever we are. If you're spending a long time in Taipei, it's worth the visit, but if not, I would recommend sticking with the local stuff. 
I also had my second in a series of Kirin brews not available at home. The Bar was a good sight better than the winter brew, and actually better than the Kirin available at home, as well.
After the bubble tea, we hopped on the Metro and rode back to the main station. We caught a cab back to the apartment and made a brief stop at a 7-11 up the road. For the record, there were at least three 7-11s within a five minute walk, plus a FamilyMart. 
Ray and I loaded up on snacks at the 7-11, and since you have to pay for bags, we loaded it all into one bag. These pictures represent $20 worth of snack food. Items include a potato and cheese burger, a more regular burger, two onigiri, several packets of chips, beer and assorted candy.
We finished the night by watching cable on a ceiling-mounted screen in the apartment. Actually, I fell asleep transferring photos to my laptop while everyone else watched cable.
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