龍鳳腿 (Dragon Phoenix Leg) in 宜蘭 (Yi Lan)

Don't ask me how they name these things, because in Chinese, the name actually sounds really elegant (dragons and phoenixes are basically the favorite animals used to represent males and females respectively). Anyway, when we went to 宜蘭 (Yi Lan), we went to 羅東夜市 (Luo Dong Night Market), which isn't too famous, but this is apparently something they're well known for. We found them at a small street cart named 阿公仔 (Ah Gong Zi). I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but 'ah gong' is grandfather if that helps anyone else figure it (please let me know!). Anyway, how can I describe this... it's just a cart that has 2 guys rolling these dragon/phoenix legs and deep frying them. Just read that once more, it's a cart that just deep fries stuff. There's no way you can go wrong. If you read my blog often, you should realize, in my messed up world... anything that gets fried is something that's good in the world.

As far as what they are... it's an assortment of Chinese vegetables, bean sprouts, carrots, napa cabbage, radish, and probably a crapload of stuff I can't properly identify, which are supposed to be stuffed into two ball like shapes and stuck on the skewer stick (mine clearly did not have this shape... it looked more like a corn dog which was glazed with sugar, which now that I think about it, sounds crazy good). The vegetables are held together with some fish paste, and then wrapped with a spiderweb like fiber made from pork fat. The stick is then deep fried until golden. So if you can imagine what it's supposed to look like... it would look similar to if you took 2 takoyaki balls and stuck them on a skewer. My guy clearly messed this up, but at 20 NT (67 cents) for 1, and 35 NT ($1) for 2, who am I to complain about quality? Taste... hmm... I don't know. I had mixed feelings about this. It's a bit too oily (yeah I said it), and the skin didn't have the crunch I expected, but the nice blend of subtle sweetness from the cabbage and carrots did work well with the nice savory flavor from the pork fat (and again... I love fried food). So in my opinion it's so so. Maybe it was just this cart, maybe a different cart would fulfill my unrealistic expectations and more, but based on this one... I can't say I'm in love. For the price though, you should at least try it. You don't have to find this cart, since I thought it was rather mediocre, but at least try the dragon/phoenix leg thing itself.

I didn't run yesterday because my hip hurt really bad. Actually this morning, when I first started running, I had stabbing pains in my right hip, so I actually jogged to catch up to my mom, and asked her for the keys so I could go back to the apartment. I started running back, but at some point... my leg felt a bit better. Anyway, long story short, I shortened my run to a 5k, and finished with a total distance of 3.65 miles. I know, kinda lame, but I didn't want to jump right back and start with a 10k.

distance for the day: 3.67 miles
distance biked for the day: 0.00 miles

distance on the year: 390.14 miles
distance biked on the year: 142.68 miles