Food, Food and More Food

As you may have realized by now, I love me some good food and living here is a great way to try things I wouldn't get to try in the states. I've had a few wonderful food experiences in the past few weeks that I thought I'd share with you.

First of all, with all the incredible fruits and vegetables here in Taiwan, you would think it would be easy to find vegetarian restaurants. They aren't that easy to find. You can get vegetarian food but usually, when you order what they call a vegetable dish, there's often some meat thrown in there - ground pork, little dried shrimp or tiny silver dried fish. I think they are missing that concept here. One place you find vegetarian food is in buddhist temples. Many of them serve food and a friend of mine and I decided to try one out.

The walkway into the building is just beautiful. The whole building (which is several stories tall) is dedicated to this one particular group and you feel the serenity and calmness the minute you walk in the door. How do they do that!?

 I love the happy buddhas. Don't you just smile when you see one?

The place was simple but beautiful. Although I'm only able to use my left hand, we decided on vegetable hot pot. I got the miso broth (which was delish!) and this is the selection that was put before me.

 This is my own personal pot and burner to control as I cook my assorted veggies.

 The sauce above is what you dip your cooked veggies in before you eat. It was a garlic basil pesto like sauce. I got seconds! The whole meal was fresh, flavorful and fantastic! YUM!

The next day I decided to get a massage even though they aren't allowed to touch my shoulder area. The rest of my body isn't dealing with this whole trauma thing so I needed some help. After 90 very painful minutes I was treated to this little meal. I'll start with the tea...it's a fragrant lemongrass tea that feels like it's healing as it's going down. The bowl is a local yogurt that is sprinkled with brown sugar and millet. I absolutely love this stuff. The yogurt isn't thick but it's tangy and combined with the toppings is a wonderful treat. Those are two little freshly baked muffins - both with fruit, and the last part is a fresh vegetable spring roll. I get a little nosh like this every time I get a massage. Come on! I know you're jealous!

Next, milk tea. This has become my new food (well drink) obsession. Often this is served with the tapioca pearls (bubble tea) but I'm happy with it on it's own. I LOVE this stuff. Basically it's just three ingredients...really strong black tea, milk and sugar. That's it and it's delightful. Sometimes you get it with some condensed milk but I find those too sweet, but still oh so good.  I usually go with little to no sugar. I don't drink coffee and have always been a tea drinker. Can I just say that I now, finally, live in the right country. Double YUM!

And...finally....Din Tai Fung. This is the most famous dumpling restaurant chain in all of Taiwan and there is one located about a 5 minute walk from my new apartment. The day I moved I strolled down to savor the amazing food there.

 The place is usually jammed packed but I was there early so had the place mostly to myself. That's a good thing because eating these "soup" dumplings with only my left hand was a bit challenging. Oh, don't you worry, I didn't drop one thing.

 First, I had a Taiwan beer to wash everything down. You make a little concoction of fresh ginger, soy sauce and vinegar to dip your dumplings in. The dumplings are called xiao long bao and I like the pork ones the best.

 I order local greens and edamame with slices of tofu skin on top. Sounds strange but it's so good!

 These are spicy pickled cucumbers. They are savory, a little sweet and have some good spice. I get these pretty much every time!

 And here are the famous xiao long bao. They are all made exactly the same way with the same number of folds. Inside is about a teaspoon of savory broth that you let seep out in your spoon before you dip and inhale. You do this to not only enjoy the broth on its own but to prevent yourself from scalding your mouth with the broth. I got 10 dumplings (5 on each layer).

Here's the link to check out their website. This will definitely be a place I bring people if and when they come to visit.    dintaifung

So, more of my food adventures in Taiwan. It sure is one of my favorite parts of living here!

It's About Time!

I know! I know! It's been awhile since my last blog. Even with being able to use dictation, the whole one-armed life has put a real dent in my style! It's not like I haven't been living during my recovery but it's been hard to sit and type it out. Well, I have to get over it and just do it.

First of all, my recovery....

It's been just over 5 weeks and I still can't lift my right arm at all without a good amount of pain. I can take the sling off here and there but overall I keep it on as much to let people know that they need to be careful not to bump into me as to help my arm heal. It's a tough break near the shoulder so the doctor said this isn't only a really painful place to break the collarbone but a harder healing process. Gee, thanks! But the pain is down from the 10's it was at for over 4 weeks to a dull roar of 5-6. I'll take it.

Anyway, this put me out of commission for 3 weeks but then I started to go back out on some adventures. There is only so much sitting on the couch I can do before I lose my mind. So, last weekend, a group of us went to see a baseball game in Kaohsiung.

The Cheng-Ching Lake Baseball Field is where the EDA Rhinos (one of the four Chinese Professional Baseball League teams) plays and this is their home stadium. It is located about a 25 minute taxi ride east of Kaohsiung. This is the team Manny Ramirez played for that year he played in Taiwan.

As per usual there were thousands of people waiting in line and milling around but it is so easy to get tickets. They cost only about $13 each and we were sitting right behind home plate.

The capacity is 20,000 and I'd say it was about half full but you would never know it from the noise the crowd makes. Team fans are dressed in team colors and sit in separate sections to cheer their team. The cheering is led by trumpets, drummers and an MC that leads the crowd through chants, yelling and noise-making. It NEVER STOPS! This goes on every time there is a player at bat, which is pretty much 90% of the game.

A rhino mascot and the cheerleaders warming up the crowd. We're aren't clear on the other mascot...a horse? Donkey? Ass? Who knows?

 Here's what the crowd sounds like during the game. It NEVER STOPS! Just in case you don't get the idea, there's a bit more below.

 Purple on my right (Rhinos) and yellow on my left (opposing team).

Even with all of the noise it was a really great experience and I can't wait to go back. I love me some baseball and if I can only watch my Red Sox on-line, I can enjoy the game easily (and much more cheaply) right here in Kaohsiung. Play ball!

Weekend Flower Market near Labor Park

On Saturday morning, my friends Kei and Leyang took me to the weekend flower market located near Labor Park. It's located in the southern part of the city not too far from the harbor area. This market was AMAZING! My apologies for the many photos but you know I can't help myself. The market is set up every Saturday and Sunday along the outer edge of the park so you can easily get around. This was by far the best flower/plant market I have ever seen...and SO inexpensive!

 The variety of plants was incredible! It's considered "spring" here so there are some plants that are in season - orchids and amaryllis in particular.

 I have never seen so many orchids in one place! What is even more incredible is that you can purchase most of them for about 100 NTD (about $3).

 I bought one of the plants in the front from this gentleman.

 You can also purchase fish for an aquarium or for your pond/water display in your garden.

 Orchids, orchids and more orchids!

 These hanging plants are also in season. They are planted in burlap bags or driftwood and they bloom for only a week or two each year.

 Look at the number of blossoms on these plants! How is that even possible?

 This may be hard to see but these "berries" grow on the trunk of the plant. It's called a jabuticaba and it comes from Brazil. 

The photo above is an image I found online of a fully grown tree.

The fruit is thick skinned and purple. The skin is really tart and the fruit inside is sweet and delicious. The shelf-life is really short (only about 4 days) so you will rarely seen outside of the areas where they are grown. You can eat them raw but because they don't last a long time, they are often used to make jam, tarts and liquors.

 I bought one of these cool plants!

 Cactus in bloom...

 See the sign, 12 orchid plants for 600 (that's less than $20)!

I bought a few plants that are now residing on my balcony and I plan on going back to get a few more. Next time, I'll concentrate on fresh herbs!