Rice Dumplings

Two of my favorite people I've met here are Kei and Leyang Chen. They are the parents of one of my fellow teachers and I've had the privilege of spending quite a bit of time with them visiting places in the city, eating local food, enjoying Kei's cooking and just hanging out.

Last Saturday they took me to a family member's home to watch a group of women making traditional rice dumplings (zongzi). These dumplings are traditionally eaten during this time of year so women get together to make dozens upon dozens of them to both eat and freeze for use during the year.

They start out with bamboo leaves that have been washed and soaked so they are pliable. They make a cone shape out of it and stuff the bottom with rice. Depending on the area, the rice is either cooked or uncooked and may include different ingredients. In this case they had lightly fried rice with peanuts.

They were sitting on low stools around this center pole that had hooks with string. Each bundle will have 10 dumplings so 10 strings. Each person fills the bamboo cone with rice and then little surprises before wrapping, tying and hanging the dumpling.

Some of the ingredients they were filling the dumplings with were walnuts, tiny cooked shrimp, pork, mushrooms, and salted duck egg yolk (those are the golden orange things below).

After the bundle is complete, they are boiled (or steamed) for over an hour. You could smell the bamboo and all the ingredients in the steamy air in the apartment. They had 3 pots boiling to handle all of the dumplings being assembled.

I was so impressed with the speed of the wrappers. One woman was able to make a dumpling in about 30 seconds before moving onto the next one. She just had a handle on exactly how much rice and tidbits to add without overfilling it.

Another traditional item I got to both eat and drink involved local plums. This is the season to get these tiny plums that are preserved in sugar. Those on the left have been recently preserved in layers of sugar. The jar on the right is filled with plums that were preserved a year ago. You both eat the plums and then put the syrup in either hot or cold water to drink. I had both and they were delicious! The plums were both crispy and chewy and not as sweet as you would think. If they left the liquid ferment, then this would become plum wine.

I have been so lucky to experience so many amazing things during my year here in Taiwan. Next year, more adventures!

Lychee Picking

A couple of weekends ago my friend Lulu and her parents took us to do some Lychee picking outside of the city near E-Da Theme Park, which is this huge amusement park to the east of Kaohsiung. It took us only about 20-25 minutes to drive there and we entered a world so completely different than the city we live in. It was so hot and humid as we made our way around this lush, deeply green and bountiful farm.

First of all, the lychee trees were so much bigger than I expected. I'm not even sure what I expected but not this. Each branch was loaded with lychee with the weight bending each branch down so it was easy for us to break off and collect.

We each loaded bags full of lychee as we tasted samples along the way. What is amazing is that each tree had fruit that was slightly different in taste. Kei, our host and this is her father's farm, said that the fruit can be different on the same tree depending on what side it is on and how much sun it gets. Crazy right?

It's hard to describe the flavor. You peel off the tough outer skin to get to the grape-like center. There is one big seed in the middle and you eat around it. The flavor is a cross between a grape, watermelon and strawberry with a distinct finish that is all lychee.

The hill surrounding the property were green and lush with workers picking lychee and trimming the trees all around.

There weren't only lychee growing here but bananas, pineapple, guava, papaya, mango, bamboo and other plants I didn't even recognize.

This is a fruit related to lychee but called longan. This is in a lot of local dishes and is similar to lychee. Look at how big and loaded the longan tree is!

We then went on a stroll around the farm and went through this group of workers who were cleaning and packing lychee for sale. This was at the tail end of the process and harvest so I can't imagine how many lychee have gone through here.

As fruit grow on trees, workers will cover each fruit to protect them from insects and other elements. Those are guava above but they do this for each and every mango too! Much more patience than I have!

There were chickens, roosters and this loud and welcoming group of geese who were not to happy to have us wandering around.

As the pineapple grow they are covered with branches or each gets a little "hat" to protect the fruit from the sun. Again, so much patience needed to be a farmer.

It was a hot and humid trip but leaving the city, even for a couple of hours, was such a nice way to spend a Saturday morning. And now I have a big bag of lychee to enjoy! Yum!

It's all about the waiting...and waiting...and waiting...

Taiwanese people are amazingly good at waiting. Waiting in lines, waiting for appointments, waiting in traffic (most of the time they're good at this)...I'm impressed. I'm a patient person but I'm not even close to being as good at this as they are.

With a city this big there are lines for pretty much everything but it's the waiting in a long line at Costco for a little bite of food or a taste of a drink that amazes me. There could be 20-40 people in line and people just stand there patiently until they get their little morsel and then go join another line for a different tidbit. Honestly, I don't know how they do it. I can't even stand in one line for that long without becoming a bit antsy let alone line after line. Then, when they're done shopping, they stand in another line to pay and checkout. A quick trip to Costco can take hours! (One of the many reasons I avoid the place).

Doctor/hospital visits - more waiting! You are assigned a number like at a deli counter and you get to see the doctor when your number is called. Now, if you can read Chinese, you can log into the hospital website to see where they are in the numbers and show up when it's close but I can't do that so I just go and wait. Last Monday I waited for over 7 hours for about 35 minutes of time with my doctor, a PT consultant and the physical therapist. When I was told the physical therapy department could see me right away, that meant waiting for 2.5 hours in the waiting room for a 10 minute consult, 30 minutes waiting in line to pay before I could see the therapist, but by then they were closed for dinner, so waited another 1.5 hours to be seen by them. Everyone is very patient and relaxed while sitting there. It doesn't hurt that I seem to offer an endless amount of entertainment just by being there. All eyes are on me and little kids are especially fascinated. They even come up to touch me to make sure I'm real. No joke!

Supermarkets are okay during the week before 5 but after that or on the weekends, I often feel like a salmon swimming upstream. So many people and they all end up waiting in a really long line to checkout. Trust me when I say I don't do much shopping on the weekends and when I do I go when they first open. That seems to be pretty safe (except for Costco).

Night markets on the weekends are again with the long lines to get food. At least it's for cool things like snake, stinky tofu, chicken butt or fish balls but it's still incredibly long lines and people do it. It's so crowded and hot and sweaty yet they patiently stand in line to order their treat. I don't have it in me. I don't care how good it is, I won't be standing in that line. I just go to the night markets when they first open (around 5ish) and no problems. After 7:00? Good luck and no thanks!

What I will miss and not miss about Taiwan this summer!

I'm heading back to the states for 6 weeks this summer and as I wind up my school year and prepare to head home, I've been thinking about the things I will miss/not miss about Taiwan while I'm gone.

First I'll start with the easy list...what I won't miss.

1. The weather - It is so freakin' hot and humid here. The past few days have been in the high 80's to low 90's but with the humidity, the heat index is in the 100's. Not a fan. I never knew I could sweat so much. Gross!
2. The traffic - I'm still not riding a bike yet so I'm walking everywhere (yes in the freakin' heat!) and even then I have to dodge traffic. Scooters come up onto the sidewalks to not only park but many drivers use it as their own highway to bypass the traffic up ahead. Royally sucks. I've had to jump out of the way on many occasions as they fly by on their scooters. Also, pedestrians don't have right of way so crossing the street is an adventure all on it's own. Won't miss that even one little bit!
3. Being stared at - I'm good at ignoring it and going with the flow but I will not miss having all eyes on me as I stand waiting for a train or at a crosswalk. It's ridiculous. I recently went to the movies with a bunch of my students and the couple sitting in front of me literally turned in their seats to take a good look at me. Then they tried, not so discretely, to take my picture while pretending to take a selfie. Come on! I eventually just made a
   
   face, they snapped a picture and left me alone.
4. Juggling living alone with an injury - Let's face it, it sucks! I am still on the road to recovery and being here without a support group has been a challenge. I'll be happy to relinquish some of my independence while I continue the healing process at home.

That's it! Short list right? Now let's get to what I WILL miss while in the states.

1. The food - I love the food here. There are so many different things to try and discover just walking down one block. I've had many food adventures here and I can't wait to have more.
2. Tea - grapefruit green tea, bubble milk tea (just plain on milk tea frankly), honey lemon tea...the list goes on. I am not a coffee drinker so for the first time in my life, I'm living in a country that's all about the tea. Happy me!
3. Taiwanese people - I am so lucky to work with and know some incredible people. Included in this list are locals who have made my life here that much more enjoyable. Taiwanese people are kind, generous and fun. 
4. My students - Okay, I'll admit it. I won't miss ALL of my students but this is one of the best groups of students I have ever worked with. I really love middle schoolers too!
5. The cost of things - overall the cost-of-living here is so much less than in the states. I can go to an amazing dinner here and pay less than $10. On Sunday I got two huge bags of groceries (enough for the week) and the total cost was less than $30. That's not happening in the states. 
6. Outdoor markets - I love walking around and buying all of the local fruits, veggies, meats, etc. and the cost is incredibly low. 
7. Fruit - I know we have fruit in the states but not Taiwan fruit. I've never been much of a fruit eater but I've completely changed that here. Mangos, dates, pineapple (the best ever!), little bananas, guava and a long list of tropical fruit I had never even seen before. I will miss this each and every day.

Yes, more food!

One of my favorite things about Taiwan is the food! This food adventure took place at a wonderful Japanese restaurant on Mingcheng called Syunraku. YUM! I would have to say that Japanese food it easily in my top 3 if not #1 on my list and this place was incredible.

 First they brought out sashimi that was so delicate and fresh...

 then a salad that was crisp and beautifully presented.

 It's hard to tell but those a scallops served with sheets of nori. You just wrap the scallop and enjoy.

 This was a rice dish (almost like a glutinous rice) with quail egg on top.

 The fruit salsa on top of this was so crazy flavorful and tangy. 

 This jumbo prawn was dipped in egg white and lightly cooked. On top is a dollop of salmon roe. Delish!

 This beautiful bowl was filled with a type of savory custard with little shrimp on top. I have never been a lover of gelatins but in this country I've become a big fan!

If I need some comfort in my life, I'll always head to a place like this. It makes the whole world seem a little bit happier.