A Broad Reference

click on the mp3 to listen to me talking about the fabulous Wulai Hot Spring
For the 2/28 holiday, some friends & I caught the bus to Wulai, about an hour south of Taipei. This is an aborigine mountain township where the volcanic hot springs are used by many little spa resorts. We climbed up the hill to "Cloud Spring Garden". A pink slice of Nirvana.

It's a hotel/spa/restaurant and was quite busy due to the holiday. For a mere NT$500 you get 2 towels, slippers and locker. In order to enter the pool area you must scrupulously wash and rinse off 3 times, before you can get into any of the pools. The complex is divided into 2 sections for men and women. Each month, the resort switches sections between the genders, so that there is a change in facilities available. This month the women's section included a group of four pools covered by a Japanese style roof with open sides looking out into the lush garden surrounding the pools. Each pool was a different temperature- super hot, really hot, plunge pool cold, and hot with massage bubble beds/spouts. These were the "loud" pools where groups of women- aunties, grandmas, cousins, mothers, daughters and friends all gather to soak, gossip and laugh on seating ledges submerged along the edges.

Along a tiny deck, you could relax with a face mask, and look out over the view of mountains across the valley. Another area included thundering massage waterfall spouts which pounded streams of water down on one's head & back. In the middle near the showers, the dry sauna, steam room and cold plunge pool were grouped strategically. First scrubbed down with handfuls of mineral salts, then sat in the cedar planked steam room and waited for the salt to dissolve away. Taking a deep breath, jumped into the COLD plunge pool to rinse off and then sat in the dry sauna to warm up and work up a good sweat. In between took long drafts of green tea to replenish fluids. Then relaxed in the "quiet" super duper hot pool until melted. This pool was surrounded by rocks and plants so it felt very secluded from the rest of the garden. The whole garden was fenced Japanese style where the slats were cleverly designed to allow you to see out, but no one to see in. I was a little doubtful, but everyone else was very nonchalant, so I tried not to worry about it. On the way down I checked and you really can't see in! Of course no cameras were allowed for privacy reasons, so this shot of the pool was lifted from their website http://www.cloudspring.com.tw

Cloud Spring Garden Spa
雲頂溫泉行館
台北縣烏來鄉西羅岸路45號
02-2661-7755

With legs like jelly, we hiked down the hill to the nearby Atyal community, where we sample the locally grown boar sausage. Crisply grilled over charcoal, the casing was crackly while the meat was dense, chewy and sweetly flavorful- in a way more "pork" than pork. The special spices made each bite an explosion of deliciousness.

Sustained by the hearty snack of pig on a stick, we headed back uphill on the only other road, and trekked for 45 minutes to a local Atyal restaurant with a view of the mountains and emerald blue river running thru the gorge.

Cherry blossom restaurant
櫻花餐廳
台北縣烏來鄉環山路181號
02-2661-8085
Unfortunately the business card is all in Chinese, so I'll have to get Angelica to translate the address.

We ordered several local specialties including
betel nut flower salad- lite sesame and brown vinegar dressing,
rice cooked in bamboo-the flavors were delicately nutty with a smoky hint of charcoal


green stir-fried fern tips,
clay pot mountain chicken with wedges and chunks of garlic/ginger in in caramelized soy basil sauce,

grilled boar with preserved garlic in vinegar.

Angelica got a bottle of brewed cloudy millet, which tastes and is made in a way very similar to sake.

One of the best meals in Taiwan so far. Banzai.

Posted by Misty at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

click on the mp3 to listen to me talking about Exploring Hong Kong Central

Caught the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Central today to hang out with Scott and Steven (my Mom's godson). They live in Central and work on the island so they know all the great local joints. I wanted to check out the Mid-Level escalators (中環至半山自動扶梯) which basically run from Central up the steep side of the mountain. For some reason that escapes me now, I decided to make separate albums for my couple of days in Hong Kong. So don't forget to click on the photos to access the rest of the pics that aren't included in the main body of my blog!
Here's a picture of the steep stairs that you'd have to climb if you wanted to get to the Mid-Levels. The streets are really steep, and connected by switchbacks, so cars were having a hard time going up in the rain, pealing out tires to get enough traction. If it ever froze here, HK would be in deep trouble.

These are apparently the longest outdoor covered escalator in the world (2,624 feet with a vertical rise of 442 feet), and were constructed to alleviate traffic congestion of people trying to commute down into town.
Most of it is escalators but parts are moving sidewalk where the rise is not steep. It services about 16 streets, and allows access to an increased number of businesses and apartment buildings that were originally considered "impossible to get to". It seemed to take forever, like more than half an hour but according to wikipedia it's a mere 20 minutes. I took a picture from about halfway up but since it's covered, it's difficult to capture the whole thing.

I stopped at Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road to check out the antiques and more spiraling incense. For a temple experience on the island, you can combine Man Mo with the Mid-Level Escalators and Antique St. For a temple experience on the Kowloon side Tin Hua is a good one, since you can combine it with wandering around Nathan Road, Mongkok, Temple St and shopping.

At the top we wandered over to a tasty local hand pulled noodle place called Home Town Dumplings. I almost ran the batteries dry in my camera, trying to snap the magical creation of noodles from dough by waving your arms around. Here is the series for your viewing pleasure:

They were delicious! We also had succulent lamb dumplings in soup so piquantly spicy with vinegar & hot sauce, and crispy fried pot stickers that were so tasty yummerlicious that I almost burst.

Posted by Misty at 03:46 AM | Permalink

Today Lisa, the housekeeper, took me with her to the "wet market". It's a big building with lots of butchers on the ground floor selling fresh meat, any cut, chopped to order. You can even get your fresh live chicken, dressed while you wait/shop.

Upstairs you can wander the aisles of produce and poke at all the interesting vegetables, to the amusement of the vendors.

These are the 1000 year old eggs in their special treatment covering. You have to remove the concoction casing them and boil before eating. Kind of scary to look at but very tasty and interesting texture.

There was a condiment section with pickled veg and sauces.

Another aisle had dried and cured meat and fish.

Afterwards I rode the KRC train in from Sheung Shui to Tsim Sha Tsui East and strolled around the downtown Kowloon area. An interesting stop at a local temple Tin Hau, dedicated to the Chinese goddess of the sea, had spiral incense hanging from the ceiling and bamboo poles.

There was so much smoke that it was hard to breath and I didn't stay long.

The crowds on the street are surprising. Don't they all have jobs or something? It's a little overwhelming but I'm getting used to the bustle again. I walked along Nathan Road and ducked into a little electronics shop to buy myself a camera since my trusty rusty canon finally gave up the ghost. :^(
I hope this new Panasonic works out since I didn't really research it. However rather than look it up now and have buyers remorse, I'm just glad I have a functioning camera so I don't miss out on so many perfect moments.

Wandered around Temple St Market area, checked out all the neat stalls and somehow restrained myself from buying anything until I stumbled upon a "Sasa" beauty product store. The glamorous looking clerk assured me I "needed deep repair". Well there went all my resolutions, and I left clutching several pots and jars of potions and lotions of "magical deep repair".

Retraced my steps to Jordan Road where I popped into my aunt's office to say hi. She's really centrally located and conveniently close to the Jordan MTR. I resolutely averted my eyes from a pair of fabulous leather boots 50% off. Maybe I'll go back tomorrow to check them out. (Please note I managed to avoid purchasing them but it was a struggle)

Rushed over to the Taiwanese consulate (politely disguised as Chung Hwa Travel Agency) to pick up my passport and styling new student visa. It's good for 2 months and then I have to go travel around (not a bad excuse) and reset my time for studying.

This entry doesn't really communicate the level of hyper energy that I feel buzzing in the air here....

Posted by Misty at 08:13 PM | Permalink

click on the mp3 to listen to me talking about "How easy it is to catch the Airport Express" or "Missing the train to China Border crossings"

I finally got all my paperwork together for my student visa. I am in Hong Kong trying to get processed. Thankfully my aunt lives in Kowloon, and I'm staying with her. It's New Year Sales here, all the shelves are empty and being restocked or priced to go go go. Hong Kong is such a bustling and busy place compared to Taipei, it feels like 2x or 3x more people in every square inch, and they all happened to get into the same train car as me. The weather is warmer too altho it may just be warmer back in Taipei and I'm missing it.
Ducked into the Peninsula Hotel to make use of the facilities. So decadent and plush, here I am documenting the event with one of the bellhops.

I've already made my first pit stop at "healthy dessert" place on Jordan Road near my aunt's office. I had the regular mango coconut concoction and an interesting curry dish that was the sum of parts- fish balls, squid, pork skin, intestine etc. Very yummy.

Tomorrow I'll wander around and check out the real estate, I'm feeling like I'd love to live in Hong Kong too.

Posted by Misty at 09:39 PM | Permalink

This Sunday I was invited to the TLI New Year's Banquet. I got lost trying to find the place, but bumped into a couple of people who showed me where it was. Several of the teachers performed songs and dances. Some of them were really hilarious. My favorite was a teacher dressed in a traditional kimono who did a very graceful dance.

There were also raffle prizes and games of charades (all in Chinese!) I didn't win anything :^( but there were really good prizes like rice cooker, DVDs and a grand prize- a ceramic heater. Charades was hard but very fun, there were teams of people competing so spirits were very high. The food was amazing but but I was so busy eating I forgot to take pictures until almost the end. We started with a lobster salad and sushi. Then all kinds of seafood dishes- cheesy crab, black bean and garlic scallops and spicy garlic shrimp.
This is silky black skinned chicken. It was so tender and moist that you could pull it apart with a spoon. It's also a lucky dish that means "no one got fired".

Can you guess what these are? Hint- they're not to scale. I've labeled them in the album. So if you click on the picture it'll take you thru to the rest of my shots. Everyone watched me with bated breath, as I tried one of these. When I pronounced it delicious, they all laughed and gleefully informed me of the source. They were all impressed when I had another big helping.

Posted by Misty at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Down to our last package of toilet paper (which looks sort of like Kleenex) we headed to the best place to buy bulk items- Costco! It's eerily the same down to the font on the item labels. I was surprised to find that Taiwan has embraced Costco, but it really is the cheapest price for bulk items. They also are one of the few places to sell in bulk. Not so crowded on the weekend, it's still kind of a novelty I think. The food selection was a mix of western items and asian tastes. For instance, you can get your cheeses, Campbell soup and EEVOO but they also have 3 kinds of miso and 4 kinds of ramen noodles. The cuts of meat were definitely styled towards asian cooking. In the produce section they had all kinds of interesting greens and mushrooms on steroids. I wish we had these meat and veg options back home at the Costco in Richmond, CA. Down in front you can still get your pizza fix if you need it. They also have mango fruit smoothies.

There's not much room in the apartment but somehow I managed to put everything away.

In the evening we went out for spicy hot pot.
辣巴子川味火鍋
地址：台北市羅斯福路四段136巷6弄10號
電話：（02）23645669、23645650
(English address: Roosevelt road section four alley 136 lane 6 number 10)

there were all kinds of side dishes to accompany the flaming hot spicy soup and meats/shrimp/crab

We were so full afterwards that we walked 3 MRT stops to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial.

Posted by Misty at 07:01 PM | Permalink

Today Angelica showed me her favorite pastry restaurant. It's on a side street off Heping East Road. But I got so turned around while we were walking that I don't have a good idea of exactly where it is. Will update later. The specialty is the flaky pastries. They are stuffed with red bean paste or black sesame paste, seasonal salted green veggies or meat. They also serve a mean fried chicken and a steamed plain bun that is then deep fried. All so interesting and tasty.

I was so stuffed that I couldn't eat dinner.

I found some interesting greens at the little organic store. Can you guess what they are? I've labelled them in the album, so you can go check the answer.

Posted by Misty at 06:45 PM | Permalink

I'm re-posting this as Valentine's Day food for thought.

I recently watched an amazing Japanese movie- Tampopo.
It's a food movie, which deliberately pays homage to most of the genres including Spaghetti Western, mobster, samurai and chic flicks. The main story of the search to create the perfect bowl of ramen is interwoven with vignettes of a/typical Japanese life and the role food plays. Food is used in an overtly pornographic role, yet the movie itself is not overtly sexual. I enjoyed it tremendously and recommend it without reservation.

Let me know your thoughts.
********************************************************

This issue of "Food as porn" came up in a conversation at a party over the new year 2006 with a couple of friends and we continued it via email. It came up in another conversation just a couple of days ago with my new room mates so I thought I'd post the old debate. Feel free to chime in with opinions.

Originally we were talking about the food network demographic. Where they are targeting the statistically significant group of 15-35 year old males who make up approximately 50% of their viewing public. I cited this statistic as interesting, since this group traditionally doesn't do much cooking.

here's the primary article I was referencing altho there have been
subsequent follow up interviews.

http://www.barbaranitke.com/harpersmag.html

Here's Les' response:
"It's not that I disagree. But I would venture that shooting porn or food/cooking doesn't have nearly the degree of difficulty as a feature movie, or even a music video. Meaning that it would be easier to replicate, reproduce, imitate.

The analogy can be titillating, and food is obviously very seductive. But the same parallels can be drawn with car shows, animal (wildlife) shows, fashion, certain sports such as figure skating and gymnastics, beauty pageants (which are not actually porn), swimsuit related shows (such as the annual SI issue), and a host of others.

Camera work, comments, close ups and angles, seductive curves, lighting, zoom, etc - all that is part of film making, right? Story arcs, characterization, climax, etc. - all part of storytelling.

I would be more convinced if they persuaded me that food = porn to the exclusion of other subjects. For instance why banana = plantain, but not other fruits. But I understand their argument is meant to be provocative, not complete.

Interesting though. "

My response:
"My overall impression from the article was that these
shows are not trying for true story telling with plot lines arcs etc.

Rather they're appealing largely to a group that isn't especially well
known for their interest in cooking. One could argue that
this demographic may simply watch the most tv. Certainly they're also
the major audience for some of the other shows you listed- car shows,
swimsuit episodes etc."

Posted by Misty at 07:19 PM | Permalink

After wandering the fabric warehouse, and starting to feel faint, Angelica suggested we swing by her favorite cafe in that district. Lunch was @ Taste of Tainan Past= Tai2nan4 Gu2 Zhou3 Wei4- a local street cafe on Nanjing Xi Lou (Nanjing West Road). Angelica's opinion- "I don't know why but their flavors are more complex and intense than other places." With that kind of recommendation, I'm there in a flash.

We had rice w/ red cooked pork, tofu & wilted spinach, fatty fish fillet w/ crispy skin, and Fish skin soup. The most different and interesting dish was the fish skin soup- basically a clear fish broth with green veg, fish balls and chunks of fatty fish skin. then grab some skin with shreds of ginger and dip in soy/wasabi to cut down on the fishy taste. Wow a medley of flavors. Yum.
All of the red cooked items were a tasty deep brown salty sweet goodness that had hints of anise, cardamom, orange peel and maybe cinnamon? The pork was succulent and tender, (and I made a tofu exception- also very delicate and juicy). Very scrummy mature master sauce which is the house pride and joy. I didn't get a clear shot, but the pot looks positively stratovolcanic. Apparently this pot has been red-cooking continuously since the cafe opened many moons ago, and is considered the source of the complex flavors. It was sooo good, but I'm glad I saw it after and not before.

The shiny part is the caked layers of soy, pork etc. I'm sure it would be an excellent candidate for the JGI's biodiversity sequencing project.

Language classes are going quickly so I have to work very hard to keep
up with the pace. Since I'm still in private lessons, I don't
have a very good idea of how my pace compares to anyone else's. I'm
constructing sentences now. have learned how to use ma? and
negative bu in questions. I'm confident enough now to try my baby chinese on the unsuspecting public at Shi Da Lu Market. Today I communicated successfully with 4 people- my highest number so far! They were all very kind and helped me with my pronunciation, tones and numbers. (Somehow confusing wu and liu).

Posted by Misty at 10:18 AM | Permalink

It's still raining, 3 weeks into my stay. I bought an umbrella and wellington boots to stay dry. Can you tell I like polka dots?

I'm getting into a routine which is nice, and learning where the
grocery stores are. There's a great organic store near the house.
Contrary to the USA the organic store is cheaper coz things are a
little less pretty- holes and spots , but very fresh and tasty.

We have a washer and dryer in the apartment, but it's about 1/2 the
capacity of a washer in the states. I've had to revise my laundry
style to accommodate the loads and of course sharing with 2 other
people.

I had hot pot with some of Angelica's friends and family up in the mountains.
Jenny's family have a house inside a national park. and run a nature conservancy garden of
endemic Taiwanese ferns- representing close to 400 of the almost 700
native species. It's very tranquil and green outside the city, away
from all the hustle bustle and concrete.

a friend- Samson, took me to Shi Pai hot springs just out side of Taipei- for lunch and a good soaking.
I'll blog about it later. But it's amazing how great one's skin feels after a mineral bath. The stream flows by and mixes with the mineral water making a kind of milky cloud. The water is super hot and steaming!

Posted by Misty at 08:39 PM | Permalink

Today took the MRT out to Danshui, which is one of the oldest regions in Taipei
to play mahjong 麻將 with Angelica's friends- Jenny, Maggie & Bri'de (Maggie's boyfriend) and Eli (an american scholar working on ethnic minority groups in Thailand, south western China and Taiwan). Bri'de played Maggie the nite before and beat her so he was designated as floating advisor. Mahjong is like bridge, you only need 4 people (for the different directions), the tiles have different suits- bamboo, coins, numbers (characters), winds (directions), cardinals (dragons) and flowers.

(This Old Fashioned Mahjong Tiles picture lifted shamelessly from www.majongtiles.com)
Tiles are stacked into 4 walls of 18 pairs of tiles. The object of the game is to build five sets- 3 of a kind or straight and 1 pair from 17 tiles. We didn't do any of the complicated scoring since we were just starting (and also not playing for money). I won a few games of mahjong with Bri'de's help but i think that Jenny and Maggie were being nice to the newbies so that we'd play again. There were six of us so after a while I sat out so Eli could play. Maggie was so good that she doesn't even sort her tiles. Good thing we weren't playing for cash.

We stopped at the Danshui street market afterwards and I took some pics of food stalls and interesting things. the brown thing with the cream sauce on top is a tofu skin pocket deep fried, stuffed with fish then steamed and topped with cream sauce. It's considered a local specialty, & soy sauce quail eggs.

Another interesting one was a whole roast pig! yeah they just carve slices off. mmmm the stall next to the whole pig has special regional sausages
that are amazing, kind of like fresh lap cheung and bbq'd so smoky.

I tried eggs on a stick-yeah so yummy, they were fun coated with a salty sauce thicker than soy but not sweet like teriyaki and then hot pepper to shake on top, little soft in the middle but in a good way.

I also had a burrito and pizza today they were both not quite right but it was fun to see the Taiwanese interpretation. I'm not missing American food per se, but the other folk were really
excited to eat it. next time I'll just eat the Taiwanese st food next to the burrito stand.

guava & sugar cane

all their foods are really healthy or interesting, i think i like them
All incredibly yummy, well I guess it's that way until you get
homesick and then you want to have familiar things I haven't got to
that stage yet, altho it t feels like I've been gone for ages but I
haven't even been here a month?- just a little over 2 weeks

I even took a picture of a manhole cover for gwynie-
interesting and show s that it drains to the ocean too
i shall try to do one touristy thing every day this week
like going to the national museum.

I went to the cookies and pastry museum today it was pretty neat
They have all these molds for making pressed cookies and moon cakes etc
it was all asian dessert stuff which dates back ages.

I think everyone is kind of tired of hanging out with their family
so they all go out and wander the streets together
eating and buying souvenirs -positively social and fun
garbage still running but limited schedule
ambulances and emergency type vehicles and transit all still running
but also limited schedule
I'm guessing they get compensated big time for working

brr the house is so cold tonite
it's like an igloo. speaking of the weather, i'll be in the Taipei
Times newspaper tomorrow - I got interviewed for a comment on the weather. so I said i thought
Taiwan was supposed to be warm tropical kind of island. I'll see if it's in the paper.
Guess what? Here it is!

Posted by Misty at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's officially New Year's Eve, and folks here started celebrating at midnite (or rather- this morning) with firecrackers that went on for minutes at a time. Angelica, Dee and Jessie took me to the New Year Night market yesterday, it only happens around this time. It was so packed with crowds of people, you had to just keep walking at the same pace else you bumped into people in front or behind. Everyone was selling some kind of amazing snack, specialty food item or fancy purses/toys for presents. There's a hum of energy and excitement mixed with anticipation in the air, so everyone seems oblivious to the rain. It was so packed that Ange and I got separated from Dee and Jessie pretty much immediately- it was just too hard to stay together. The noise levels are quite high. People are trying to attract customers by having a good energy- and that entails using a microphone and loudspeakers. There was even one guy rapping in Chinese about how we should buy from his stand- pretty funny and kind of inspired performance art at the same time. The other very effective strategy was to block the stream of pedestrians and redirect everyone physically to your stall.

Unfortunately, my camera chose to die during this excursion (I think coz of the pouring rain), so no shots of the dried candied squid (魷魚 yóu yú) stalls or the mounds and bags of beans/seeds flavored with lavender or green tea (my personal favorite- wasabi coated black beans 豆豉 dòu chǐ) or the spicy whelks (辣螺 là luó) piled in bowls and served with a twist of lime. Freeze dried vegetable/fruit chips (薯片 shǔ piàn) were popular, as were deep fried and spicy flavored shrimp and taro chips. Candy stalls, dried fruit & fish/shrimp stands were surrounded by people trying to pick up last minute supplies before all the stores shut down for the week. No pics of the wicked sharp steel knives made from Chinese artillery shells.

Everyone including my teacher has warned me "stock up on food, the stores will all be closed for family time". On the way home from class yesterday, I found a Cantonese roast meat place and bought a massive roast duck, which should last us through the week. As predicted, the city is pretty deserted today. Traffic is light and the rolling shutter doors that line the sidewalks are locked tight.

We hung out at the apartment today, just vegging. I helped Angelica walk the dogs, it's a great way to explore the neighborhood. It's pouring rain still, so not quite as fun as when it's dry- I'm glad I brought my rain shell.

Angelica had to finish her feature article which the computer ate the night prior. Mostly quiet. Around 7pm we cooked dinner with Dee as sous chef.
We had fresh asparagus, roast duck, rice, ginger cooked squash and a huge salad. Drinks were guava juice spiked with pear-infused vodka. Not super traditional food but tasty. It was fun to hang out and cook together.

Ange wants to play Chinese New Year music, get a lucky pineapple and put up lucky posters. I think we've left it too late. We'll be playing mahjong and eating snacks with some friends later this week. So I think we're partly covered in the tradition corner.

Posted by Misty at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was invited to the southern end of Taiwan by a friend Chih-Fang, whom I know from the Bay Area. I boarded the bullet train at Taipei Main Station @ 8:30am. Train left the station promptly at 8:42 am.

The car was full of people in a happy and festive mood. Strangers and families joking with each other for the 1 ½ hours high speed ride down the island to Zuoying Station.

Chih-Fang and her sister Yi-Fang met me at the gate. I guess I was easy to spot- the only foreigner getting off the train. Chih-Fang explained the itinerary as Yi-Fang navigated the crowded and sprawling city streets. Family and traditional activities were the emphasis.

First stop was the family house in Kaohsiung where I was invited to the honoring the “House Foundation God” ceremony before lunch. The kitchen table was set up as the alter, with food, wine, incense and candles.

We burned incense and prayed. After which Chung Tai4 Tai poured wine and Chung Xian1Sheng1 burned the joss paper money in the front by the gate. I felt very honored to be included in their family traditions.

The offerings then became our scrumptious and delicious lunch including
Spicy and sweet cured sausage 香腸 xiāng cháng
Roasted pork 烤豬肉 kǎo zhū ròu
Steamed yellow chicken with preserved ginger 只雞斗酒 zhī jī dǒu jiǔ
Whole Fish fried 炒整条 chǎo zhěng tiáo
Braised Tofu 麻婆豆腐 má pó dòu fǔ
Fish cake slices 魚丸 yú wán
Tea-Soya cooked eggs 紅茶蛋 chá ye dàn
Stir fried vegetables 菜 飯 cài fàn
Rice noodles 炒米粉 chǎo mǐ fěn
Fish ball soup 魚丸湯 yú wán tāng
Home grown bananas 香蕉 xiāng jiāo
and tangerines 橘子 jú zi/柳丁 liǔ dīng

After lunch CF and YF took me to the British consulate and neighboring temple out by the harbor. At the top of a steep flight of stairs, it was a workout to climb all the way up!!

It was very beautiful and kind of old from the 1800’s. It was the first western style building in all of Taiwan. Lots of Taiwanese tourists taking snaps of the stellar view.

Then we went down into town and braved the crowds on the streets to go shopping. We drove out to the Chung family farm at a stately pace of ~55 mph. Along the way we passed rice paddies, banana fields, papaya groves, tobacco fields and scores of tomato fields.

Fallow fields are planted with flowers of all kinds. Just really beautiful, verdant and lush.

The roadside vendors have stalls of fruit: rose apples-蓮霧 lián wù (a reddish pear-shaped fruit), dragon fruit 火龍果 huǒ lóng guǒ (lurid pink magenta with greeny yellow spines), green lumpy sweet sop/chirimoya- 番荔枝 fān lì zhī, pink guava 番石榴 fān shí liu, green guava 扒拉 bā lā- to name a few and vegetables of all kinds and tubs of various pastes in lurid colors –green tea, red bean, orange pineapple, purple ube.

Out in the countryside the Chung family compound is sprawling, with old and new buildings juxtaposed. CF’s family home is part of a duplex shared with another uncle. The aunties are wrinkled and friendly, hanging on the doorstep, chatting happily in Hakka (a minority dialect local to the area), while they pull together bunches of greens plucked from the fields out back.
CF and I borrowed some bikes and wandered around on the back roads by the fields for a while, stopping to look at one of the family plots.

I recognized cauliflower 花菜 huā cài, squash 瓜 guā, tomatoes 番茄 fān qié, snow peas, chives 蝦夷蔥 xiā yí cōng, pumpkin 番瓜 fān guā, cabbage 甘藍菜 gān lán cài and lettuce 萵苣 wō jù to name a few. Of course there were others that I didn’t recognize. The sunset was a vivid red peach in the haze which was medium bad today, slightly obscuring the rolling hills in the distance. I feel like I’m in one of those watercolor paintings.

The place is spacious and has an interesting mix of wood and tile. My bedroom- the “guest room” is warmly finished in wood with a old fashioned futon in the corner and sliding rice paper doors. It’s elegantly Spartan, with a futon like “cement” which makes me so happy I could almost cry. It’s in stark contrast to the unbearably soft mattress that I have in Taipei. I immediately make up my mind to find a futon as dense as this one, for my back. I only hope my snoring doesn’t keep everyone awake.

In the morning CF and I got up early ~ 5am (Jet lag still) and ate dragon fruit (火龍果 huǒ lóng guǒ ). Chung Tai tai showed me how to prepare it. Apparently you peel it like a banana- if you can't, it's not ready. Wow, it was so delicious, sweet, creamy with a kind of tangy taste. Way better than the first one I tried in Hong Kong- which was kind of like eating sturdy cotton wool with kiwi seeds sprinkled in. Now that I know the secret I'll be sure to buy more of this fabulous fruit.

CF and I got the bikes out and went on another ride around the fields, only it started raining. We decided to keep going coz it wasn't too bad just lightly sprinkling. Well we got pretty far out and then it started pelting down so hard that I had to wipe my eyelids to see properly. We ducked into CF's cousin's place where they have a massive passion fruit (百香果 bǎi xiāng guǒ) vine trellised over an arbor. Knowing my love for passion fruit CF's cousin presented me with a bag of early harvested passion fruit. Yum! Just as we were borrowing umbrellas for the ride home. CF's dad showed up in his truck with umbrellas and instructions from CF's mom to return post haste for the trip to the temple. It was pretty tricky riding holding an umbrella, especially trying to turn corners and brake but we made it back intact.

At the temple, the traditional offerings of meat-pork and chicken, fish-dried squid, noodles, cake and rice wine were placed on the alter. Then we burned incense and placed sticks in various points around the temple. CF's family is very devout and donated money to the temple for the coming year. In addition CF's Dad asked for my protection and success in my endeavors to learn Chinese in Taiwan. This time I helped burn the joss paper money in the courtyard.

After temple CF and her dad took me on a tour around Meinung. We saw people harvesting the long stemmed field greens that are only found locally. They are really long and planted in ponds, so the workers wear high chested long waders in the deep water. We stopped by a local pottery studio next to an earth god shrine, where local monkeys come from the jungle down off the mountains behind to raid the alter. Nestled into the side of the green mountains and covered with mist you could imagine it way back in the 1700's when it was first established. The pottery studio was very interesting with local Hakka style earthenware pottery. It's very powerful, and I think the local artist seems quite famous for large installations.

Then we stopped by a local Hakka artisan village to look at crafts- they're especially renowned for their wicker and umbrellas. Of course I had to stop and sample the local snack of crispy deep fried giant mushroom chunks. Bliss! Crispy out side, firm yet succulent mushroom inside, coated with a spicy salt. How could something so simple be so amazingly good?

Then we went to a local restaurant that serves Hakka style food. There were 9 of us so we were able to sample all the specialties. We had
Zhu1 jiao3- soy cooked pigs feet
jiang1 se1 chou3 da4 chang2- pig chitterlings cooked in ginger and vinegar

jie2 ji3- drunken chicken white cooked in wine
Bian4 tiao4 thick spicy rice noodles
Ye lian- long stemmed field greens like the ones we saw harvested earlier
Gao li tsai braised cabbage and winter melon
chao cien zhou ro stir fried salted pork
stir fried squid
pickeled turnips
and of course steamed whole fish
We ended the feast with pickle cabbage soup
you can see that as the meal progressed I was les interested in getting the tones/names and more interested in getting stuffed!
wow sooo good
han bao la, hao chi

Tired and stuffed but very happy I headed back to Taipei. What a great weekend and an amazing privilege to stay with such a welcoming, warm, and happy family.

Posted by Misty at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)