A Broad Reference

After a long fun hike in the hills above Keelung, Sabina and I headed back down into town, ducking into the 3 brothers' Dou hua shop to eat the famous dessert. I had the special tapioca pearls, stuffed each with a red bean, accompanied by iced taro and dou hua with ginger syrup. Then we met all of Sabina's family and friends at the local fire station (opposite the stairs up to fort hike) before walking across town to the restturant.

Sabina and her girlfriends had decided to treat their moms to a fancy meal to celebrate Mother's day. All the girls are working professionals, Sabina is a project manager/PR for a Taiwanese economic "think tank", her friends are all in the public services- nurses, police, firefighter. I think the invitation was to the moms who were told they could bring their husbands if they wanted (but only if they deserved it). So we had quite a large table of people.

From Tang Family photos

I didn't take pics of the meal because it felt intrusive. For starters there were these soy-vineagar brined clams slurpy goodness. Followed by the best sashimi I've had since Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo Japan. There were 3 or 4 local fish really fresh firm and tasty, as well as tender squid pieces and salmon/crab rolls. A decadent plate of curried crab roe served with crusty french bread, mmm tasty. Grilled oysters in the half shell. Rock lobster heads in vermicelli, garlic lobster tossed with black bean sauce. Then we had a fish soup, salt and pepper deep fried crab. Drunken deep fried whole fish- it had been soaked in rice wine before frying so the wine cut the fat and the flesh was sweet and succulent. Mounds of vinegary shrimp to peel.

From Tang Family photos

The mayor was eating upstairs with a famous Taiwanese movie producer, a guy from the Taiwan legislate and a rich chip manufacturing magnate. Sabina's dad returned with the kind offer for us to take pictures with Lin Yi Ling (sp?) We stormed upstairs in a frenzy of hushed excitement and took pictures with the tallest super model. She was very sweet and got right in the middle with the little boy of the party, with all of us crowded around. I felt like we were invading her privacy but it seemed quite the done thing to have the picture taken.

From Tang Family photos

Everyone was very happy and cheerful. Here's a pic of the Moms and husbands.

From Tang Family photos