3rd treasure of Taiwan: "199 all you can eat"

aka eat til you feel like exploding at the buffet. Tonight a Jo-ma (mom's 3rd eldest brother's wife) invited us to eat at an upscale hotel restaurant, called Brother Hotel Xiong di fan dian. This is the same exact place I ate last time I was in Taiwan 8 years ago--the place where I tipped over a porcelain plate, and it smashed my big toe. So I remember this restaurant because of that, and well the food is sooo amazing. We ate at the Rose Room, which is the buffet on the 13th floor. I didn't take any photos, unfortunately, since it is kinda fancy. But the food was ahhh heaven. Best buffet food ever. I mostly ate seafood--cocktail shrimp, sashimi, mussel, albalone, cold octopus... and I ate a tiny piece of steak because I was desperately craving it when I saw the juicyness of the medium done steak [yeah, I know I'm a very bad pescetarian]. The desserts were the highlight of the night. I had the BEST creme brulee ever here, 10 times better than the $9 creme brulee at that one overpriced restaurant on Forest Ave in Laguna. What I love about the desserts in Taiwan is that they are not overly sweet, so you can eat as much as you wish to and not feel like a pig. I totally got up three times to get more creme brulee. There was this other dessert that was out of this world. I have no idea what it's called, but it was mm mm good. Even my mom, who claims to be on a diet, ate two cups of it. It was kind of like flan, but not as caramely, more like cream/milk. And it had a thin overlay of jam on the surface. This will have to be my last time stuffing my face in Taiwan...or for the rest of the summer.

c'est bon!

Earlier tonight I went to a cute French dessert/afternoon tea place with my intern friends, Chloe and Shi-jia. We first ate a quick dinner at this chaofan (fried rice) restaurant nearby on Yong Kang St. This was my first time eating chaofan in probably almost a year! It was pretty good. I almost cleaned up my plate, but wanted to save room for dessert at Patisserie la Douceur--especially since I was planning to eat a supersized macaron :)

The pictures say it all...(but I will add captions tomorrow)Macarons (those three hamburger-looking things) ~ left to right: lemon, coffee+hazelnut+white chocolate [what I ate], rasberry

Dark chocolate mousse with mangoes in the center of bottom half--what Shi-jia ordered

Latte ~ two hearts

The most luxurious dessert - sugar and nice :)

let them eat cake...and peking duck, steamed sea bass, taiwanese style shrimp, and...and.....

We Taiwanese, or actually Asians, love to eat, and eat, and eat til our stomachs can't bear to digest anymore food. Eating is a huge part of our culture, and it is disrespectful to refuse food from others. Today my mom and I were invited to eat a banquet feast by her college friend. There were nine of her college friends in total, so you can imagine how many dishes of entrees we had--dish after dish after dish! Chinese banquet-style meals are set on round tables with a circular lazy susan, and you just rotate it til the food you want to eat is in front of you. I ate to my heart's content, not stopping to think how many calories I was consuming because the food here is not greasy, and there was a lot of food in front of me, how could I stop :)

For those of you who aren't aware [because I had a friend say "I hope you're having fun in China!" to me], Taiwan is an island SEPARATE from China. It is not part of China. nor will it ever be--at least I hope not. Even though I am Taiwanese/Chinese, I am partial to Taiwan because of this cross-strait issue. China's president has rejected Taiwan's bid to join the UN as an independent nation 23 times. The PROC claim Taiwan to be an inalienable part of "One China." So, I just have to put this out there because when my friend, who will not be named, said that I got pretty offended.

peekchurs of Jiufen~

making yuyuan - chewy taro with flour mmmm

the view from the yuyuan place

hi mom

view from the observatory in downtown - mountains+ocean...ah, I so wish I could wake up to this view every morning!

that mountain is a popular hiking spot. My uncle and Wenwen both have climbed to the very top! There are three gazebos/resting spots, and the stairs are so steep. I've read somewhere that some have seen women hiking in miniskirts and heels. Oh, what the women do here to be pretty every second of their waking life.

this breed of dog is Taiwanese. I don't know the English name, but she sure is pretty :) *edit: It's Japanese

Lao Jie (old street)

We ate our lunch at this quaint Taiwanese restaurant that overlooks the beautiful ocean and mountains. We listened to Moon River and other oldies that mom and A-yi both reminisced about.

bead bracelets for sale.

and dragon puppets!

Jiufen = beautiful place spoiled by tourists

This morning David, my cousin whom I had just met today, picked me up at Ahgou's place to take me, mom, Jojo, and da A-yi (mom's older sister) to Jiufen. Jiufen used to be a gold-mining town, and therefore pretty wealthy back in the day. Then, I guess the gold-mining business declined and so it gradually became kind of dead until Hou Hsiao-hsien (famous Taiwanese director) filmed his hugely popular film, A City of Sadness, in Jiufen. Jiufen's downtown also inspired director of Oscar-winning Spirited Away--that city in the film was modeled after Jiufen, so because of these two films Jiufen is now a destination spot in north Taiwan. According to a folklore, or maybe reality I'm not entirely sure, Jiufen used to be occupied by 9 households. The dad or mom would go out to buy groceries for nine people in each family, so the name Jiufen is originated from this story [jiu = nine; fen = fraction].

We were stuck in traffic in Taipei for awhile. The roads here are so narrow, like in San Antonio. I'd never have the guts to drive in Taiwan, even mom said that Taipei is the only place where she'd never rent a car. The people here are crazy drivers--worse than the drivers on Bellaire/Chinatown in Houston! Basically no one follows the laws (except for traffic lights)...

Finally after winding and winding around the sharp curves of the mountain we get the Jiufen, which is already so renao (crowded). David drops us off in front of a 7-11 while he goes further up the hill to park the car. Jiufen is a quaint, little town with vendors on every street selling all sorts of desserts and snacks--most popular are pineapple cakes and fried stuff. Jiufen is also known for its yuyuan (chewy flour with taro) and teahouses with balconies that overlook the Pacific Ocean (Keelung as well).

This place is filled with tourists and tour buses. that I feel the beauty of this place is spoiled. It kind of makes this place less enjoyable, especially when you're trying to move through the crowds within such a narrow space that is probably about 5 feet wide. While waiting for David and Jojo to meet us at 7-11, mom, A-yi, and I go inside 7-11 because it's air-conditioned. The 7-11's here are different from those in the states. They sell fine wine, hard liquor, and $1 beers. You can buy pre-heated ready-to-eat meals here that contain steak... I'm so hungry because all I ate for breakfast was a slice of bread so mom crosses the street (runs for dear life actually because a tour bus wouldn't stop for her) and brings me back a sweet bun with taro inside. Everything tastes much better in Taiwan, even this simple bun that we usually buy at 99 Ranch Market. So, after David and Jojo meets us, we head towards the narrow road. There are lanterns lined up overhead and a plastic cover for shade. On our left and right sides are vendors, each offering samples. We stop at a famous yuyuan eatery. We get shaved ice with yuyuan, grass jelly, and green bean then head upstairs to see the gorgeous view of the mountain and ocean. After finishing we sit there for awhile, catching up with each other. David, my cousin, talks about his job and China. He's like a Wall Street type of guy and works for a global finance firm. His company sends him to Beijing and Shanghai frequently--and now his Mandarin has a Chinese twang.

We walk and walk, up the pebblestone narrow roads, all the way to the end of downtown. I realized that I haven't seen the famous Jiufen scene--the picture that shows up most on Google images when you type Jiufen. I guess I must have missed it because everyone else remembers seeing it. It's sandwiched between two buildings--the stairs/scene. We head back and climb the steep stairs. At top there is a Taiwanese restaurant where we stop by to eat lunch. The restaurant is five floors, the fifth floor being the best to see the view because we sat on the 2nd floor, and there were electrical wires in our view. We were too tired to climb more steep stairs, but the view is spectactular nonetheless. I shared a plate of mushroom+bamboo and sauce with rice and a side of a Taiwanese green vegetable with mom. And I have to say this again...everything just tastes better here. The ingredients are fresher, and there is rarely ever MSG used or tons of grease. We sit there for an hour after finishing our lunch, and then we make our way through the even more crowded street back to the car.

I pass out in the car and wake up to see Taipei again. David drives us to Beitou, where Jeffrey is staying at a 5-star hotel for hospital volunteer training. We make a surprise visit, and luckily he was on a 5-minute break from his intensive class. Afterwards David drops mom and I off at Shilin Night Market, which is the busiest night market in all of Taipei. At merely 5pm it's already crowded, and the sun hasn't even gone down yet. We don't buy anything, even though I see cute cheap stacked heels [the shoes that I've been wanting to buy for summer] and tasty snacks. And, I don't trust night market foods anyway after getting sick from eating crepes at Shida Market. I should save my money too since Judy, my cousin-in-law, is taking me shopping tomorrow and I'm eating out on Monday night with my new friends from the museum (fellow interns). Anyhow, we walk up and down the street looking for a restaurant that doesn't sell fried cod fish or beef noodle soup. Finally we spot a seafood restaurant. We had mango shrimp, pho Taiwanese style, and clams. The food was pretty good.

I will post the pictures from today tomorrow since there are a lot, and posting pictures between paragraphs on blogger is a pain.

wo shi taibei ren (maybe)

I know my way around Taipei like I know the lines along the palm of my hand. I pretty much can tell a lost tourist how to get to his/her destination via subway, of course, without having to look at the route map. I know where all the teens flock to on the weekends, where the sea is, where I can buy accessories (a 4-story store near Taipei Main Station), where I can eat Italian food (literally,the only place where you can order a salad!), where I can get mochi-on-a-stick...It's always so fun being able to explore a city without having someone to drag you around (aka my mom who drags us museums and botanical gardens). Although, I do wish I could read traditional Chinese characters and speak Chinese more fluently so that I don't have a hard time figuring out what to order at the smoothie stores or noodle vendors. Like NYC, you're never alone in Taipei. I feel like it's more crowded than NY here. Maybe it's because I'm crammed in the subway every morning on the way to work. These people force their way onto the train, even when it's obviously too full to fit just one more person. I noticed that their tactic is: door opens-->turn back to train-->walk backwards into the train-->take itty bitty steps all the while use back to push people into train-->lean back when door is closing. You know that box or zone you make for yourself i.e. don't step within x many inches/feet from me or you're in my space. So, there is no such thing as "personal space" on the subway. People are literally toppled onto each other, and you can feel that person behind you breathing hot air onto your neck, where you can feel each dew landing on your skin. Not a very good feeling...at all.

Chinese poetic titles

I am by no means a poet nor am I poetic with words, but one of my assignments given to me by Cheng boshi at the museum is translating artworks' titles from Chinese to English. It is more difficult than it seems even if there are only three or four characters in the title, which is so much more when translated. A four-character title may be a whole sentence in the English language, and it must be poetic. For example, 红天秋晚 literally translates to Broad Sky Autumn Evening. Now that doesn't sound very eloquent. So, the [my] Chinese-->English artistic translation is The vast sky overlooking a river one autumn evening. The Chinese like words such as "tranquil" and "stillness". Most paintings are of landscapes, waterfalls, and mountain+river with titles including the word 清 qing, which defines "quiet" and "pure". So I do have fun with the titles even though I'm not witty or a literary artist =)

Speaking of Chinese to English translations, I have seen the oddest and funniest sayings on t-shirts. I'll try to take some pictures to show you...because sometimes when you see what kind of person is wearing it, you'll understand why it's funny. But I remember seeing this little 8-year old boy wearing a shirt that said "Marijuana something something" with a pot of it in the center. His grandma's shirt said "Crazy bitch" in gold letters and was splashed studs all over. I have to wonder what goes into the minds of those who design these shirts. Maybe they think of some random Chinese words, insert them into an electronic dictionary thinking they are concocting a clever English phrase, and voila there goes a very inappropriate, yet extremely hilarious, phrase to be stamped on a t-shirt and be sold at street markets for $3. Oh yes, I love Engrish!!