Nathan Sawaya: The Art of the Brick

The exhibition sign.
There were so many people attempting to take
pictures by it I was forced to snap on with people
otherwise I would have never gotten a picture!

My friend got a free ticket from work to see Nathan Sawaya's exhibition "The Art of the Brick". I decided I would tag along with her because the ticket price was reasonable at 250NT ($8.33). We went on the second-to-last day of the exhibition s there was a high turned out which made the exhibit difficult to enjoy at times, but the sculptures were amazing.  I mean, who wouldn't enjoy art made from Legos?!

This hand is one of Sawaya's many magnificent
Lego creations!

Face-off: Xin Fa Ting (辛發亭冰品店) vs. Tai Yi Milk King (臺一牛奶大王) !

In Taipei, two of the biggest names in the iced dessert business are Xin Fa Ting in Shilin and Tai Yi Milk King in Da'an.  Unless you go to either one of these shops during a generally low-traffic time (like late-morning on a Sunday) you're going to meet huge crowds, especially on Saturday night when all the young people are out and about.  Although that may sound daunting, the staff at both shops seem to well accustomed to dealing with the high volumes of customers, and although there often are long lines in both places, the wait never seems to exceed 5-8 minutes.

Xin Fa Ting's peanut shaved ice

Tai Yi Milk King's pudding and chocolate ice

Both shops have their own style of preparing their cold desserts, so let's get down to business and compare the two!

(And just so you know - both shops sell more than iced desserts, but I'll be focusing on that since it is their specialty).