Saturday, June 19, 2010

Taiwan series-food

Dr. Eric and Grant in the middle of a deep conversation while Violet stuffs her face and Rune eyes something he wants on the other side of the table.


Mia, Aliana and Johnson. Mia says the sweet and sour squid is the best and I think she probably didn't get enough because I ate most of it.


Shabu Shabu. We almost Shabu-ed ourselves into Shamu the whale. Very memorable here were the cooked, then frozen sweet potatoes, whole and in their skins. It's like vegetable ice cream! Except it doesn't drip. Awesome!

Chou dou fu (stinky tofu) and oh-a jian. This stuff is truly delicious but we could not do it justice at the moment because it was already our 4th meal of the day. However, it involves oysters so I did eat until I felt sick. And please notice my super straight hair. You can't even tell it's about 90% humidity. My gratitude for $100 straight perms knows no bounds.



Yeah, I'm still trying to fit as many oysters as I can into my over stuffed stomach. In the background is Hwei Wen, the Lin's daughter. We attended her wedding dinner many years ago and now she has two daughters who I am sure are gorgeous because Hwei Wen certainly is.



Rune concentrating hard on getting the best piece before anyone else can get it. C'mon Alexis, slap his hand!



Mandy, Kelly and Alexis were very nice and let us eat most of the food! This is Bei Jing duck and A tsai.



This is syan su ji. It is made by one of the coolest families ever. It is so yummy that Violet can't keep her shirt on. I know several of you that read my blog are slobbering right now.


John's wife and I with the salty/sweet peaches she taught me to make.




In the process of being taught and discussing the question of tsau fen versus mei dz fen. I will devour both, of course.



Here we each ate a $5 piece of sashimi along with a whole bunch of other sashimi and a bucketful of oysters. And a lot of other stuff. Shen Ai Yi is the provider of the feast but Jie Ting is the master of ordering. I think I am beginning to be noticably fatter in this picture.




An accidental picture of lichees. The lichees were a gift from Chiu Hwei and Lin Ba Ba. They warned us to watch for worms because they hadn't been sprayed but promised they were tastier than the sprayed ones. They were right.




Several great memories in this restaurant. A Thanksgiving with You Can School. Take home im-shee ordered for my birthday as a surprise from Grant when I came home from work. Or was it our anniversary? I don't remember the occasion, but I remember the im-shee! Several desperate trips for dinner when my kids were starving and I could not even bring myself to open the fridge because I was pregnant and sick. I would load the kids on the scooter, cry all the way to the restaurant and order shao long bao and dou miao. And give thanks that I lived in a country where dinner desperation doesn't have to end in PB&J or fast food. And now another great memory: lunch with Jeng Jye Mei and her sister.


Rune still has room for the watermelon after pigging down all the feng li sya chou.



In this picture I see sz gua, xiao bai tsai, bo tsai, kong xin tsai, ju swun, ku gua, qie dz, qing jiang tsai, bai luo bo, dong gua and ... okay, I'm just going stop before I start crying.



Need a fish head for the dinner's soup? Such a simple matter in Taiwan.

Need a pork stomach, intestines, fresh sausage, a pig's foot or rou pian for hot pot? Such a simple matter in Taiwan.

Wait? You don't want to cook? You just want to buy something easy and cheap but that isn't junk food? Such a simple matter in Taiwan.

I can't talk about about the fruit, it's too painful.

Wa Gwei and Mi Gao. The breakfast of champions.


Tuesday, June 8, 2010

I went to Taiwan for two weeks

And I didn't want to come back. Even though three of my kids were still in America. I had so much fun I didn't miss them at all. It's okay, though, because as far as I could tell they didn't miss me either. I was easily replaced by Grandma. In fact, Alma has only recently stopped calling me 'Grandma'.

In any case, if I was Cinderella my happily ever after would be to spend the rest of my life in Taiwan. I may have waxed too rhapsodic about the virtues of Taiwan and my preference for all things Taiwanese because my niece asked me, accusingly, "Are you even American?" Sorry, Beth!