Taiwan, June 21, 2006
My Midnight Savior - OK
Twenty-four hours of funky fresh foods
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Its late, who knows what time, and I am famished. It's been an all-night (or with jet lag, all day) bender, a Carnegie's kinda night, and I haven't eaten since sometime yesterday or maybe tomorrow. Who knows, I only know I need to eat.
Trouble is, this is Taipei, and while it wants to be a 24 hour city, nothing is open. Not a restaurant, not a cafe, only bars, and they've stopped servicing food hours ago. So where can I go? Ah, I can go down almost any side street or just across the street and there will be my 24 hour, all-night savior, an OK store. There I can stumble in, the door swooshing aside Star Trek like, to reveal a well stocked 7-11. Yes, they do have 7-11's here, but I prefer the OK markets. They have the awesome "You're in Japan" feeling that I so love in Taiwan. Rummaging through the offerings, I am undecided between two kinds of soup and three kinds of buns. Holding all of them up in succession, I have the handy OK guy point out his favorite. Beef soup it will be then. The OK guy next performs a ritual I so love and you'll never find in your local Quickie Mart; he made the soup for me. Unable to operate machinery myself, I tipped him well for the help, not that he was expecting it, and proceeded to the best place for late night beef soup consumption, the OK store doorway. There, with the soft sounds of night around me, I slurped though one of the best meals I had in Taipei, and then finished my midnight munchies with funky green tea ice cream. Full, it was time to head home. "Taxi!" |
