oyceter. Food picture spam + assorted rambling

So far, I have very little to do here save eat and watch TV. I've also been going to calligraphy lessons and cooking lessons with my mom, both of which are very fun, although my calligraphy is still pretty ugly. For cooking, we learned how to make Dong Po pork, salty eggs with pumpkin, pipa tofu, some stewed meat, winter melon tomato soup, and bao.

As you all can probably tell, I've also been mainlining dramas like mad. I just found out that Blockbuster charges by every two episodes as opposed to per disc, grrrr. Still, cheaper than buying and faster than downloading. Also, it makes me practice my Chinese (subtitles for the kdramas, spoken for the cdramas). I've decided not to keep watching the Taiwan Hana Kimi, as it seems to be the same thing over and over, and I am much less invested in Sano's high jumping than in restauranteering. I also caught an episode of the Taiwan Honey and Clover, and I think I will also not watch that, as the actress who plays Hagu has an incredibly annoying fake baby voice, and as they seem to be putting in more romance twists. The humor works better in animation as well.

And now, giant pictures of food! And some scenery. But mostly food.

My bookshelves at home! My sister and I used to have a lot more, but I pillaged the collection when I graduated and didn't have to stow all my stuff in storage every summer, and my mom delights in throwing out old things. You can all laugh at what I used to read in my adolescence, though most of the Piers Anthony and Terry Brooks and David Eddings that I tore through were borrowed from friends.

The Taiwan high-speed train! It's actually a bullet train from Japan, and it is one of my new favorite things about Taiwan.

Beard Papa cream puffs! I am so jealous. The Beard Papa here has a cream puff shell with little crunchy bits (on the left) and ice-cream cream puffs (on the right)!

Pipa tofu from cooking class. It's basically mashed-up tofu with flavoring, reshaped into a pipa shape (as in either the instrument or the fruit; none of us could figure out which), then deep fried. I think I will try to make this for Thanksgiving, only I will find Chinese ham or bacon and green onions and mix them in with the tofu before deep frying.

The bao zi we made in class! The teacher made the skin, but we wrapped them! Mine are very ugly.

Dry noodles (i.e. noodles without soup) from my mom's favorite beef noodle soup place. You can sort of see plates of tofu gan (dry tofu? uh....), tea eggs, and pork cheek behind the bowl.

Cute dog! Its owner was feeding it bits of meat the entire time.

Beef noodle soup, oh how I missed you! The place is pretty good, although I tend to like my noodles fatter and chewier.

Assorted, um, foodstuffs.

Restaurant owner with assorted foodstuffs! I think the foodstuffs are mostly chicken wings and innards marinated in soy sauce and other stuff.

I tried to take a picture of the low clouds, as it's been raining a lot lately—OMG people! It rains in the summer! Now I know I am a properly assimilated Californian.

My dad gets a lot of weird wine-related gifts, since everyone knows he likes wine. This one is by far my favorite. I know I've taken pictures of it before, but this is now with wine bottle so it no longer looks quite so much like a dead duck. Instead, it looks like... a dead duck clobbered by a wine bottle?

We had the first Fancy Dinner on Sunday. The table was ginormous.

Kung pao stinky tofu, marinated bamboo shoots, stir-fried beans Szechuan style, and fried crab legs.

Bamboo pith and tofu in chicken soup.

Peking duck!

Peking duck doled out! Mmmmmm, duck.

Shrimp in lettuce cup.

FISH! Steamed fish! And tasty tofu underneath, but mostly, fish!

A really tasty piece of steak, which was good, but odd in the middle of the otherwise Chinese dinner.

Soup made from the carcass of the Peking duck.

Greens! And fish stomach as well, which is a little chewy and slippery but otherwise tasteless.

Shanghai soup dumplings!

Almond milk dessert soup with an oil stick/Chinese doughnut on the side. I thought this was going to come with tapioca in it and was very sad that it was just soup. Also, I let mine get too cold before starting, which meant it was a little congealed.

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Posted by

littlerhymes

Oooh, food photos! And now I have a really intense craving for duck. Thanks. :)

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Food picture spam + assorted rambling

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