lowei and loneliness

I've been getting off work around 22:00 lately, which limits food options. Tonight I made in important discovery. The best and cheapest 滷味 in Taipei. There's a dumpy neighbhorhood near mainstation and the other night, I noticed a late night set up in front of a crumbling brick wall, with some plastic stools and metal tables. Things are piled up all around, so it's hard to tell what's trash and rubble, and what's actually part of this open air food heaven. The owner had one arm, and even at 02:00, every seat was full on a weeknight. They had beer (both kinds, jinpin AND classic). It looked so awesome that I saved teh pin but I didn't make it back for a couple of days. Some thuggish old dudes were stacking up bottles and playing a dice game. A man happily told me to have a good meal as I sat down. It was a perfect meal, and it cost $45. I struggled to order because even if I have guessed what they sold, I didn't know much of the words. Of course there is no menu, and of course they don't even have the ubiquitous red basket to put your selection in. You just tell her, and she makes it. I finally spit out that I wanted "some kind of soup, any soup is good." There is no way to make food as cheap as that at home. I think I'll just go there every night after work. Maybe I can learn how to be an old man from teh old men there. And since it's open air seating, it's really perfect for post skating. I bought a couple of cans for later at seven, and hiked up the six flights to my rooftop hideaway. It's peaceful up here, dark and quiet, but not too dark, and the traffic noise never totally dies away but never gets really loud either, except when a scootard roars down my alley with aftermarket exhaust, sounding like a two wheeled chainsaw through a loudspeaker. I guess that's what you get when you live in the hood.