Taiwan trip Part 4

[oyceter]

And finally, I have gotten to the last of my pictures!

Anyway, this is New Year's day proper and the following day. We ate lunch on New Year with my mom's family (well, her older sister and husband, given that everyone else is elsewhere), at a nifty Taiwanese place, which might have been nicer if they hadn't completely altered their menu for the new year. So alas, everything my uncle wanted was out. Luckily, they had the peanut mwaji bits that are the best thing ever (rachelmanija and telophase, sort of like the black sesame mwaji that we had at the Chinese place during YaoiCon). And then we had Shanghainese for dinner with a whole bunch of family friends, which was nice. And wow, everyone is so much bigger now! I'm perpetually surprised by this.

We had everyone over at our place for snacks and talking first, and I arranged lovely snack plates that I forgot to take pictures of =(. But they had the traditional watermelon seeds and peanuts and milk candy (very tasty... I took two packs home, and they were incredibly soft and chewy and not brittle at all), along with chocolate and cheese for that whole mix of cultures and whatnot. And so there were Chinese snacks and tea and coffee and wine for all. And lots of fruit, of course.

The next day, we had lunch at this very nice Japanese place, courtesy of some other family friends, in which I ate my fill of good sashimi. Ahhhh, sashimi.

Then for dinner, we went up to Beitou to a hot springs place, where I got to soak for a bit. Of course, this is where we had a fancy Italian dinner, which I really wanted to take pictures of. Unfortunately, just as I was passing off the camera to my mom to take pictures of me and my dad at said hot springs place (very pretty place), the camera slipped to an untimely death. So I have no pictures of the fun two-colored soup (half green something and half pumpkin, I think) or of the very tasty beef or of anything I ate. It is sad. We mourned the camera. The hot springs were very nice though! They have pools of varying temperatures and a steam room and a sauna, as usual, but some of the pools were special mineral water. So some were opaque, and there were two that were brick red. Also, Taiwan people must be slightly more shy than Japanese people, because they actually had individual showers for you before getting into the pools. The Japanese ones just have everyone showering in the same room.

Yeah, no swimming suits allowed in the pools. I was completely freaked out by this the first time I did hot springs in Japan, and so completely missed being able to soak in outside pools in Hokkaido while it was snowing (supposedly the best hot springs experience). Grrr. When me and the rest of the kids finally decided that being naked was ok, we had missed all the traditional hot springs and only got to soak at the last place, which wasn't the full-blown tatami room, futons, everyone dressed in yukata, giant traditional dinner experience. So sad =(. But yes, I have discovered that if I take off my glasses, I can't actually see anything, so I have the false impression that no one can see me as well.

Also, they are just so relaxing!

And then after that, my vacation was over =(.

As usual, all personal pictures are friends locked and won't display.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

New Year's, proper Muhahaha, my hong bao (red envelope).

Hong bao again And here's me and my dad with the hong bao.

Drummers The hotel we went to for lunch had a whole show going on in the buffet area. These guys were sort of like taiko drum guys.

Lion The lion dancers preparing for their entrance.

Lions among lunchers The lions in the crowd.

Lions dancing I'm always amazed by the lion and dragon dances! I don't know how they do it, but once those two guys have that sparkly polyester costume on, they start moving just like a dog or something! Even when the costumes are old and threadbare, I still always see them as lions, not as two dancers in a costume.

Lions bowing I always feel bad for the guys who have to be the hind legs. My back aches for them.

Mochi Taiwan-style mwaji! I didn't take pictures of this meal because it was only ok. But these were awesome. They're little mochi balls, but they don't have anything on the inside. Instead, they're warm and rolled in peanut powder and sugar, and they're wonderfully chewy. Yum.

Dad, uncle, aunt, mom Here's my mom with her older sister. This uncle always scared me as a kid because he yelled at me for holding my chopsticks improperly (I still don't hold them right).

Me included! All of us at the table.

New Year day dinner Little appetizers... I think they're red-stewed bean curd and... pickled celery? I don't remember now.

All the moms and dads While New Year Eve dinner is usually with the guy's side of the family, either the first or second day of the new year (I don't remember which one) should be with the woman's side. We are, instead, just having a big party with friends.

Same people again

The kids We're still the kids even though most of us are in college and two of us are working.

Cold appetizer platter Pork something on one side and jellyfish on the other. Mmmm, jellyfish. I like them because they're crunchy and slightly rubbery.

Little shrimp Little, delicately stir-fried shrimp. They're tasty! But still not the same as the giant steamed ones with the heads still on.

PEAS!!!!!!!! Ahem, yes. PEAS!!!!! In winter!!!! OMG SO HAPPY.

Bamboo shoots and pickled veggies Bamboo shoots and pickled vegetable (zha cai). I have no idea what the vegetable was prior to pickling, save that it's often cut into smaller strips and served with noodles.

Fish of some sort Fish that look and taste just like eel but apparently aren't. So I don't know what they are. But they taste good.

Lettuce cup Stir-fried something in a lettuce cup. I love these things, even though they are completely impractical when it comes to actually eating without dripping everywhere.

Baozi! Pork buns! Mmmmm, tasty.

More crab The third and fourth crabs that I had while I was in Taiwan! I love the yellow bits (the eggs).

Sea cucumber Sea cucumber, aka, one of the things I don't actually eat. I dunno, I don't particularly like gelatin-y things.

Fish! Mmmm, more fish! I always take the cheek, since that's the tastiest part.

Chicken soup Mmmm, soup. Chinese dinners usually leave soup as one of the last courses, as opposed to the appetizer that soup usually is in western meals. I guess it's supposed to cleanse the palate or something?

Dad, J and T A blurry picture

Dad, J and T again A better picture! Look how tall J is!

Dad and two guys

Stuffed Lotus Root and fruit And here's the lotus root stuffed with sticky rice and boiled in sugar water that I saw people making in the market! I didn't actually like it because it was too sweet. And you can see the platter of guavas and wax apples and watermelon, mmmm.

Fancy Japanese food Yay for fancy Japanese restaurants that I don't have to pay for! I love how pretty all the plates are. Anyway, this is a handroll Taiwan style, which means they put too much sweet mayo in. Otherwise tasty though.

Fancy sashimi dish Fancy sashimi! The thing in the martini glass is marinated toro, and oh, it was good! Tangy vinegar cut through the fat of the fish. And the toro was so, so beautiful and marbled and melt in your mouth. The other fish was wonderful as well (look how red the tuna is)

Me, mom and dad Ahhh, my mom is still not smiling properly

me, mom, dad A somewhat better smile from my mom?

Family friends They treated us. Wow, their kids are so big now!

Toro Another look at how pretty the fish was. The front piece is toro.

Sauteed veggies Mmmm, sauteed vegetables with mushrooms. By the end of the trip, I was dying for fresh vegetables.

Santa Claus of Chinese New Year We're standing next to the guy who gives out gold wrapped chocolate ingots that are supposed to symbolize money. I can't quite remember what he's called, but it's something like Guy Who Is in Charge of Wealth.

Beef on rocks OMG SO GOOD. They put a raw steak on hot rocks and let it grill. And oh, the meat was so tender and you could take it off before it was too thoroughly cooked and it was fatty and juicy and great. The little yellow things on sticks are gingko nuts, which are supposed to be... something. I forgot if they're good for women, or bad for women, or lucky, or what. Anyway, they're tasty.

Pretty sushi Ahhh, pretty sushi (unagi and tamago). And two little gold-wrapped chocolate ingots that the Guy Who Distributes Wealth gave out.

Tiramisu, Taiwan-style OMG best thing ever! Not the cantaloupe (I don't like cantaloupe). But that little white thing is actually a tiny piece of tiramisu wrapped in a very, very thin layer of mochi. I bit into it, and the mochi was incredibly soft and the tiramisu inside was creamy and light, and I never though tiramisu mochi would work, but it does. Ohhhh, now I want this again and I doubt I can find it anywhere.

The Last Picture My mom and dad in front of the hot springs place, before the camera tragically fell to its doom.

Comments

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

he yelled at me for holding my chopsticks improperly (I still don't hold them right).

Heh, I don't hold them right, either. On one hand, since I have picked up steak and pork chops to take bites out of them and have peeled shrimp with chopsticks and peeled off fishskin with them, I don't feel a super burning need to change. On the other, it is true that if, when gripped tightly in back, the tips do not match, then I have trouble. Plus, I have broken about a half dozen chopsticks (mostly plastic, maybe some wood/bamboo). But I'm pretty they were all old, and had been weakened by multiple trips through the dishwasher.

Pork something on one side and jellyfish on the other.

Looks like pork tendons and/or pigs' feet?

Bamboo shoots and pickled vegetable (zha cai).

Ah, yes, hot spicy pickled (some kind of root?). I love zha cai!

And before my family's trip to Taiwan, I'd never had fresh bamboo before. *So* tasty!

Sea cucumber, aka, one of the things I don't actually eat. I dunno, I don't particularly like gelatin-y things.

I guess then you don't share my fondness for the fin areas of steamed flounder, with its yummy jello-y skin and goo.

Beef on rocks

Alton Brown of Good Eats has this trick of using a hairdryer to blow the ashes off of hot charcoal, and then laying skirt steak right on top of the coals. Some day I hope to try that; it looks tasty!

gingko nuts, which are supposed to be... something

I think they're supposed to be good for memory, but Chinese people say they are "hot-humored" (term?) and warn that eating too much will give you nosebleeds and cause you to break out (paraphrased from memory; this "hot" and "cold" stuff doesn't make much sense to me, especially about how if you mix them it could be deadly).

the camera tragically fell to its doom.

Aiee! One thing that's prevented me from getting a digital camera is the fear of losing or breaking it.

[oyceter]

Yeah... my mom always tells me about the hot and cold thing too. Usually I discount that type of stuff, but I find that if I eat too many mangoes or litchi, they do cause those little annoying bumps to appear on my tongue. So... something in it does something!