Taiwan, Winter 2008
Sun, Jan. 25th, 2009 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterNote: Woe, I am not in Taiwan right now =(. Currently there is less food and more scenery, but that will change in latter posts. Most of these are taken from a trip we made to Yilan, which is on the upper east side of Taiwan.
My favorite place for 蔥抓餅, these green onion pancake things that are kind of flaky because the people use spatulas to thwock at them after they've been cooked. Er. It's hard to describe with just a picture.
Ice Monster yay!
Close-up view of the 蔥抓餅/green onion pancake thing, this one with egg. I cannot decide if I like them better plain or with egg. Either way, they are tasty!
菱角, or water caltrop, as Google tells me. OMG! I have not had these in years! My roommate found some at the supermarket in the US and tried to boil them, but they didn't turn out nearly as good as the ones you can get at the street vendors. This is a very winter thing; I used to get tons of them and roasted chestnuts back when I was living in Taiwan. They taste sort of nutty, but with a pretty soft texture; I think they're more legumes than nuts.
And for some reason, we had a completely random turkey dinner in the middle of December. Don't ask me! This is probably the most traditional US meal I've had for a looong time...
燒餅油條, or this pancake with oil sticks. I think some people call the oil sticks (lit. translation) Chinese donuts as well, even though they aren't sweet. The outer layer is flaky and a little salty, and the inside is crispy and tastes like oil and flour, and they're a very traditional breakfast or midnight snack.
The view on the way to 宜蘭 (Yilan). Taiwan has tons and tons of tile-and-concrete buildings, short and square and rather ugly.
Rice paddies!
The entrance to the Taiwan Traditional Culture Center. Um. Yes.
A much more traditional piece for the entrance! I feel like I should be able to identify the people in here, and yet...
Assorted wooden chairs carved by aboriginal Taiwanese people.
Pigs!
The beginning of the shops... it sounds cheesy, but they were awesome! Lots and lots of stuff that you used to be able to find in street fairs, some which you still can, but some which is getting increasingly harder to find.
麥芽酥餅. Er. They're made from this type of sugar made from barley (I think). Oh! Wiki and Google tell me it is "maltose" or "malt sugar." I now see where my love of honey comes from...
Anyway, they used the syrup to somehow make a kind of flaky-ish cookie/biscuit thing, except it only looks flaky and is a little chewy when you eat it... not quite taffy consistency, but mildly so. These were really good! I've never had them before. We bought a few boxes and passed them around the bus, which is what one does on big field trips.
The malt sugar. They were using them to make biscuits here: someone would take a biscuit on the left, quickly dip it in the malt sugar, then make it a biscuit sandwich by squashing on biscuit number 2. I sadly did not get any of these, and I don't think I've had them before either. Or if I have, it was very, very long ago.
Someone making 龍鬚糖 (dragon whisker candy). I know I keep posting pictures of these every year, but I love them so! And I'm never entirely sure I'll be able to find them.
Malt sugar lollipops! OMG! We used to have these fairs every so often, and there would be people making these on giant griddles, tons and tons of different animals shapes as you watched. I remember getting a rooster and carefully biting its tail off little by little. I have not seen these in years and years!
糖葫蘆 (candied fruit on a stick! No, that's not a literal translation, how did you guess? ^_~). Sadly, they did not have strawberry, my favorite. Apparently this is a very northern China thing, which I had no idea about.
Completely random paper sculptures. I am not entirely sure why this is in the museum for traditional Taiwanese culture... I mean, yes, there is paper-cutting, but usually not in 3D!
Sausage on a stick!
Some... not quite traditional dancers. I liked the frog dancers the best, although the fish with the googly eyes (the women in purple) are pretty good as well. For some reason, I am fairly certain traditional dancers did not have big googly eyes.
And in the midst of Taiwanese traditional culture: Starbucks.
You can't see, but right next to it is a 7-Eleven. I was highly amused.
The insides of the 龍鬚糖 (dragon whisker candy). I think we got sesame and peanut, but this is the peanut.
Temple. Um. It may be of historical significance, but I was wandering off taking pictures of Starbucks while people were explaining.
I love the way every inch of traditional Chinese (and Japanese, and Korean, I think?) architecture is decorate to the nines. This is why I always laugh a little when people go on about Asian minimalism and Zen. Because, yes, especially in Japan, but on the other hand...
A door guardian spirit.
Another door guardian spirit.
More temple ceiling.
Darn! I can't remember the guide's explanation for the scissors picture. I think it was something about it being the entrance, so you didn't want evil spirits to enter, ergo the scissors. I also cannot remember what's next to the scissors in the picture.
香/incense.
A fortune-telling cabinet. You get a number, then pick the corresponding drawer, grab the verse within, and get a monk to analyze it for you.
I also just like the juxtaposition with the plastic stool.
Offerings for the gods, which include fresh fruit (standard) and potato chips and bottled soda (not quite so standard).
Cute plastic Monkey!
Cute plastic pig!
A model of an old-style Chinese house, the kind with a gate and a courtyard and rooms that lined the courtyard. I cannot remember if this is a replica or an actual house moved to the museum.
Looking through the windows at the gate.
The dog door, of course!
Ten taboos for guests, photographed because I was too lazy to copy them down. I've never heard the phrase of laughing through your nose, but given my horrible Chinese, I would not be surprised if it was very common and I just missed it. Also, a thousand million times yes to taking off the shoes!
春聯 (chun lian, the red paper things you hang up at New Year for luck and prosperity and other such happy things). I think a lot of old houses would have big plaques over the doorway of rooms, to name the rooms, most taken from assorted literary references.
And within the courtyard of the traditional house, recycling bins and a drink machine.
Crab! And sashimi! And shark!
So the little yellow squares are these things no one could figure out how to make. They are kind of gluey on the inside, but melt in your mouth when it's hot and taste a little like chicken soup. They are very good! If only I knew what they were...
Taro cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves.
Deep-fried thousand-year-eggs (the black ones everyone seems to be scared of)! Proof that deep-frying can improve just about anything! Well, the white parts of the egg were not as good, but I usually don't like those as much anyway. The yolks were tasty though.
Shark fin soup.
Fish! Red-braised, so not my favorite kind (I like steamed with green onion and ginger, Canto-style), but still good.
SHRIMP WITH HEADS! It has been so long since I have had them!
And tasty 絲瓜 (silk melon, I think), with gingko nuts.
People selling drinks and jams and syrups made from something like kumquats. I think.
Puppets! So there's this whole tradition of puppetry wuxia that I know absolutely nothing about, save that I flip across them every so often on TV. But this store was all puppets, and the puppets have fandoms, and are maybe famous in their own right. I want to know more!
More puppets. OMG. Love the hat.
Even more puppets!
As you can tell, I wanted to get all the puppets possible.
I love this one in particular.
Fruit coated in malt syrup on a stick! Still not as tasty as the strawberries. These are tiny Asian pears, and you can eat them whole, core and all. They're a little awkward, because you have to try to break the skin as you're attempting not to drool over the stick and trying not to stab yourself in the roof of the mouth.
Someone making more of the 麥芽酥餅, the malt syrup candy.
糖蔥, which is not, as the characters imply, candied green onion. Instead, it's sugar pulled and pulled and hardened so they look a little like green onion. Well, the white parts. It's then wrapped in a mushu pancake with sesame and peanut. Sadly, this was not as tasty, because the sugar is too sweet and the entire thing smells vaguely of seaweed for reasons I cannot fathom.
The world's largest calligraphy brush! Well, probably not, but it's still giant (apologies for the blurriness).
OMG! So I love these things and eat them as much as possible, but here, we found someone making them from scratch! They are so much better than the cheap 10NT ones from the convenience store! They are still hot and the inside is crunchy and the ice cream is starting to melt and you can pick your flavor!
Plastic cartoon 豬八戒/Cho Hakkai/Pigsy. Hee.
Plastic cartoon Banana Leaf Princess (also from Journey to the West, although now I do not quite remember her story).
Pink guava on a stick! Well, toothpicks. Close enough! (OMG so goooood.)
I do not know if anyone remembers my post on the fried-chicken princess manhua, but this is a Taiwan fried chicken stand!
I originally thought these were oddly trunk-less metallic palm trees, but upon reading plaques around the hotel, they are actually shuttlecocks. Not badminton shuttlecocks, but the ones you kick around like hackysacks, with a weighted bottom and feathers on top. There was a childhood-game theme going on; the basement had giant versions of those wooden propeller things you twirl with your hands so they fly off.
Hallway of the hotel.
Outside mountain scenery.
Random fish pond!
Random lazy dog!
We then went hiking through a forest to look at Taiwan's giant trees. I used to call them 神木, or god-trees/spirit-trees/something, but the guide explained that technically you're only supposed to say that for dead trees. Anyway, this was hiking with the Taiwan definition of "hike," which means to walk along a fairly paved path with tons of people and stop every three steps for an explanation of the latest Big Tree.
As you can see, lots of people!
More mountain scenery.
Yet more trees...
Ooo, I like this one.
So all the big trees were named after famous historical personages, with explanations of the names that varied from interesting to out-there to hilarious. This is the 司馬遷 (Sima Qian) tree, named after the famous Han historian who was partially castrated for his rather pointed political views. Have I mentioned I love Chinese history's traditional focus on dissenting politicians who are banished or whatnot for their dissent?
As the tour guide said: "This tree is named after Sima Qian, because, as you can see, it used to have two balls, but one was cut off."
A poisonous plant that I was wondering if someone could identify.
And just for the heck of it, the 諸葛亮 (Zhuge Liang) tree! I sadly cannot remember the explanation, or else I wandered off while the tour guide was explaining. (My dad: "Not enough walking, too much explaining."
More fun plants!
The inside of a giant hollow log.
A very tasty little pork sandwich. Extremely fatty, and yet, so good.
My favorite place for 蔥抓餅, these green onion pancake things that are kind of flaky because the people use spatulas to thwock at them after they've been cooked. Er. It's hard to describe with just a picture.
Ice Monster yay!
Close-up view of the 蔥抓餅/green onion pancake thing, this one with egg. I cannot decide if I like them better plain or with egg. Either way, they are tasty!
菱角, or water caltrop, as Google tells me. OMG! I have not had these in years! My roommate found some at the supermarket in the US and tried to boil them, but they didn't turn out nearly as good as the ones you can get at the street vendors. This is a very winter thing; I used to get tons of them and roasted chestnuts back when I was living in Taiwan. They taste sort of nutty, but with a pretty soft texture; I think they're more legumes than nuts.
And for some reason, we had a completely random turkey dinner in the middle of December. Don't ask me! This is probably the most traditional US meal I've had for a looong time...
燒餅油條, or this pancake with oil sticks. I think some people call the oil sticks (lit. translation) Chinese donuts as well, even though they aren't sweet. The outer layer is flaky and a little salty, and the inside is crispy and tastes like oil and flour, and they're a very traditional breakfast or midnight snack.
The view on the way to 宜蘭 (Yilan). Taiwan has tons and tons of tile-and-concrete buildings, short and square and rather ugly.
Rice paddies!
The entrance to the Taiwan Traditional Culture Center. Um. Yes.
A much more traditional piece for the entrance! I feel like I should be able to identify the people in here, and yet...
Assorted wooden chairs carved by aboriginal Taiwanese people.
Pigs!
The beginning of the shops... it sounds cheesy, but they were awesome! Lots and lots of stuff that you used to be able to find in street fairs, some which you still can, but some which is getting increasingly harder to find.
麥芽酥餅. Er. They're made from this type of sugar made from barley (I think). Oh! Wiki and Google tell me it is "maltose" or "malt sugar." I now see where my love of honey comes from...
Anyway, they used the syrup to somehow make a kind of flaky-ish cookie/biscuit thing, except it only looks flaky and is a little chewy when you eat it... not quite taffy consistency, but mildly so. These were really good! I've never had them before. We bought a few boxes and passed them around the bus, which is what one does on big field trips.
The malt sugar. They were using them to make biscuits here: someone would take a biscuit on the left, quickly dip it in the malt sugar, then make it a biscuit sandwich by squashing on biscuit number 2. I sadly did not get any of these, and I don't think I've had them before either. Or if I have, it was very, very long ago.
Someone making 龍鬚糖 (dragon whisker candy). I know I keep posting pictures of these every year, but I love them so! And I'm never entirely sure I'll be able to find them.
Malt sugar lollipops! OMG! We used to have these fairs every so often, and there would be people making these on giant griddles, tons and tons of different animals shapes as you watched. I remember getting a rooster and carefully biting its tail off little by little. I have not seen these in years and years!
糖葫蘆 (candied fruit on a stick! No, that's not a literal translation, how did you guess? ^_~). Sadly, they did not have strawberry, my favorite. Apparently this is a very northern China thing, which I had no idea about.
Completely random paper sculptures. I am not entirely sure why this is in the museum for traditional Taiwanese culture... I mean, yes, there is paper-cutting, but usually not in 3D!
Sausage on a stick!
Some... not quite traditional dancers. I liked the frog dancers the best, although the fish with the googly eyes (the women in purple) are pretty good as well. For some reason, I am fairly certain traditional dancers did not have big googly eyes.
And in the midst of Taiwanese traditional culture: Starbucks.
You can't see, but right next to it is a 7-Eleven. I was highly amused.
The insides of the 龍鬚糖 (dragon whisker candy). I think we got sesame and peanut, but this is the peanut.
Temple. Um. It may be of historical significance, but I was wandering off taking pictures of Starbucks while people were explaining.
I love the way every inch of traditional Chinese (and Japanese, and Korean, I think?) architecture is decorate to the nines. This is why I always laugh a little when people go on about Asian minimalism and Zen. Because, yes, especially in Japan, but on the other hand...
A door guardian spirit.
Another door guardian spirit.
More temple ceiling.
Darn! I can't remember the guide's explanation for the scissors picture. I think it was something about it being the entrance, so you didn't want evil spirits to enter, ergo the scissors. I also cannot remember what's next to the scissors in the picture.
香/incense.
A fortune-telling cabinet. You get a number, then pick the corresponding drawer, grab the verse within, and get a monk to analyze it for you.
I also just like the juxtaposition with the plastic stool.
Offerings for the gods, which include fresh fruit (standard) and potato chips and bottled soda (not quite so standard).
Cute plastic Monkey!
Cute plastic pig!
A model of an old-style Chinese house, the kind with a gate and a courtyard and rooms that lined the courtyard. I cannot remember if this is a replica or an actual house moved to the museum.
Looking through the windows at the gate.
The dog door, of course!
Ten taboos for guests, photographed because I was too lazy to copy them down. I've never heard the phrase of laughing through your nose, but given my horrible Chinese, I would not be surprised if it was very common and I just missed it. Also, a thousand million times yes to taking off the shoes!
春聯 (chun lian, the red paper things you hang up at New Year for luck and prosperity and other such happy things). I think a lot of old houses would have big plaques over the doorway of rooms, to name the rooms, most taken from assorted literary references.
And within the courtyard of the traditional house, recycling bins and a drink machine.
Crab! And sashimi! And shark!
So the little yellow squares are these things no one could figure out how to make. They are kind of gluey on the inside, but melt in your mouth when it's hot and taste a little like chicken soup. They are very good! If only I knew what they were...
Taro cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves.
Deep-fried thousand-year-eggs (the black ones everyone seems to be scared of)! Proof that deep-frying can improve just about anything! Well, the white parts of the egg were not as good, but I usually don't like those as much anyway. The yolks were tasty though.
Shark fin soup.
Fish! Red-braised, so not my favorite kind (I like steamed with green onion and ginger, Canto-style), but still good.
SHRIMP WITH HEADS! It has been so long since I have had them!
And tasty 絲瓜 (silk melon, I think), with gingko nuts.
People selling drinks and jams and syrups made from something like kumquats. I think.
Puppets! So there's this whole tradition of puppetry wuxia that I know absolutely nothing about, save that I flip across them every so often on TV. But this store was all puppets, and the puppets have fandoms, and are maybe famous in their own right. I want to know more!
More puppets. OMG. Love the hat.
Even more puppets!
As you can tell, I wanted to get all the puppets possible.
I love this one in particular.
Fruit coated in malt syrup on a stick! Still not as tasty as the strawberries. These are tiny Asian pears, and you can eat them whole, core and all. They're a little awkward, because you have to try to break the skin as you're attempting not to drool over the stick and trying not to stab yourself in the roof of the mouth.
Someone making more of the 麥芽酥餅, the malt syrup candy.
糖蔥, which is not, as the characters imply, candied green onion. Instead, it's sugar pulled and pulled and hardened so they look a little like green onion. Well, the white parts. It's then wrapped in a mushu pancake with sesame and peanut. Sadly, this was not as tasty, because the sugar is too sweet and the entire thing smells vaguely of seaweed for reasons I cannot fathom.
The world's largest calligraphy brush! Well, probably not, but it's still giant (apologies for the blurriness).
OMG! So I love these things and eat them as much as possible, but here, we found someone making them from scratch! They are so much better than the cheap 10NT ones from the convenience store! They are still hot and the inside is crunchy and the ice cream is starting to melt and you can pick your flavor!
Plastic cartoon 豬八戒/Cho Hakkai/Pigsy. Hee.
Plastic cartoon Banana Leaf Princess (also from Journey to the West, although now I do not quite remember her story).
Pink guava on a stick! Well, toothpicks. Close enough! (OMG so goooood.)
I do not know if anyone remembers my post on the fried-chicken princess manhua, but this is a Taiwan fried chicken stand!
I originally thought these were oddly trunk-less metallic palm trees, but upon reading plaques around the hotel, they are actually shuttlecocks. Not badminton shuttlecocks, but the ones you kick around like hackysacks, with a weighted bottom and feathers on top. There was a childhood-game theme going on; the basement had giant versions of those wooden propeller things you twirl with your hands so they fly off.
Hallway of the hotel.
Outside mountain scenery.
Random fish pond!
Random lazy dog!
We then went hiking through a forest to look at Taiwan's giant trees. I used to call them 神木, or god-trees/spirit-trees/something, but the guide explained that technically you're only supposed to say that for dead trees. Anyway, this was hiking with the Taiwan definition of "hike," which means to walk along a fairly paved path with tons of people and stop every three steps for an explanation of the latest Big Tree.
As you can see, lots of people!
More mountain scenery.
Yet more trees...
Ooo, I like this one.
So all the big trees were named after famous historical personages, with explanations of the names that varied from interesting to out-there to hilarious. This is the 司馬遷 (Sima Qian) tree, named after the famous Han historian who was partially castrated for his rather pointed political views. Have I mentioned I love Chinese history's traditional focus on dissenting politicians who are banished or whatnot for their dissent?
As the tour guide said: "This tree is named after Sima Qian, because, as you can see, it used to have two balls, but one was cut off."
A poisonous plant that I was wondering if someone could identify.
And just for the heck of it, the 諸葛亮 (Zhuge Liang) tree! I sadly cannot remember the explanation, or else I wandered off while the tour guide was explaining. (My dad: "Not enough walking, too much explaining."
More fun plants!
The inside of a giant hollow log.
A very tasty little pork sandwich. Extremely fatty, and yet, so good.
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 12:31 am (UTC)The tree with one ball! HEEE!
I never heard of puppet wuxia! It's wuxia plays done with puppets? Wow! I'd love to see that!
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 01:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 06:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Wed, Jan. 28th, 2009 02:42 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 06:49 am (UTC)Hahaha! I heard the story while the guide was telling it, and immediately thought: "I MUST POST TO LJ!"
I think it's wuxia done with puppets? Usually to wuxia stories by Jing Yong, maybe, although my mom said they have original ones as well. I have no idea! I must try to rent some and see!
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 12:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 06:49 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 12:57 am (UTC)Some of that food looks so, so good (would that I could eat malt! And pancakes!). And the guava makes me drool. Yum.
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 06:50 am (UTC)Hee, me, my dad, and my sister eventually ended up abandoning the group and hiking off to the end before everyone else, which is why I may have missed other good stories about trees. Although I did hear part of one in which some part of the tree was supposed to resemble a vagina...
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 03:45 am (UTC)I think some people call the oil sticks (lit. translation) Chinese donuts as well
There's something that looks like that's called "salty donut" at a restaurant we like in Toronto. I wonder if it's the same? It usually gets eaten with congee there.
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 06:51 am (UTC)Oh! I think the salty donut should be the same, it's often cut into small pieces and eaten with congee for the crispy texture.
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 02:08 pm (UTC)The salty donut isn't my thing (nor is congee), but I know several people who're very into it.
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 04:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 06:51 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 11:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 05:36 am (UTC)Yes, Korean Buddhist temples look like this, too, to my untutored eye. I bet a specialist would find umpteen important differences between the pictures here and the pics I took of Bulguksa and similar in 2002, but my eye says only that I remember the Korean temples having a bit more green and blue, less red.
(The other examples of fancy Korean trad architecture I've met aren't so copiously decorated, but I've met only a few bits.)
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 06:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 05:41 am (UTC)on a stickattached to a base or whether they're puppets.(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 06:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 07:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Jan. 30th, 2009 05:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 07:39 am (UTC)Your poisonous plant looks like a nettle to me; genus Urtica grows in Taiwan (and has stinging hairs) so is plausible. That's the same genus as here, so they might look very similar. Do you recall whether it had square stems?
(no subject)
Fri, Jan. 30th, 2009 05:11 am (UTC)I think there's something about the poison being acidic, as dousing it with a basic substance helps if you accidentally brush against it?
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 12:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Jan. 30th, 2009 05:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Jan. 30th, 2009 05:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 26th, 2009 03:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Jan. 30th, 2009 05:13 am (UTC)Also, OMG I love Taiwan 7-11s so much! So handy! I was really disappointed when I came to the States and realized the convenience stores here are not nearly as convenient or as clean, and they do not have onigiri and bento and baozi too.
(no subject)
Fri, Jan. 30th, 2009 05:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Jan. 31st, 2009 01:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Fri, Feb. 13th, 2009 07:40 pm (UTC)