Adventures in Eating - Taiwan
Before I left Dallas Clint Mclaughin and Ken took me to a Dim Sum place in downtown Richardson. After that I told Felicia I might lose 10 pounds on this trip, she bought me a lot of crackers, nuts and jerky before I left. I am proud to say that I did not eat any of that as the food in Taiwan was great.
Although we were probably eating at nice places during our visit, we tried everything and lived through it. Our hosts in Taiwan saw how bad my chopstick skilled were and made me pick up oiled peanuts until I got good with chopsticks.
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Monday Jan 18, 2010. Lunch with Saikal, we had:
Beef Soup with homemade noodles
Pork dumplings (pot stickers)
Veggie dumplings (pot stickers)
Taiwanese hamburger that blew up and spewed out juices all over table but missed me
Taiwanese pancakes
Hot sauce
Peppers
Green tea, nothing else to drink
Chopsticks only, no fork, knife of spoon or napkins
Monday Jan 18, 2010. Dinner with Saikal and Tai E
Karl, Jeffrey, Chris, Charles, Ken and me
Had Szechwan style food (spicy) 10 course dinner which was:
Special of the House was Chicken Soup, whole chicken, very thick broth cooked in very large clay pots. They made me drink ½ gallon of this broth that was like gravy. Then we found out it had pig knuckles in it. Later on, they sent the big pot of chicken soup back to get some cabbage and tofu added. Now it tasted like a different kind of soup.
Tofu slices
Taiwanese pancakes
Tofu soup
Duck meat
Veggies
Oiled peanuts – good for practicing chop sticks
Hot sauce
Peppers
Green tea
We bought 2 bottles of our own wine
Chopsticks only, no knife, fork or spoon or napkins
Betel nut ladies are scantily dressed ladies who sell Betel nuts at small shops on the side of the road. Many people chew on these as a stimulant or picker upper – the way we drink strong coffee at Starbucks. The Betel nuts stain your lips and teeth. In Taipei, police make the girls wear a lot of clothes, apparently on the south of the island they wear bikini tops and G-strings. Their stalls all seem to be marked with bright green neon lights.
Tuesday Jan 19, 2010. Meeting with CSIST. Jeffrey, Charles, Ken and I. At CSIST, Mr. Wu asked if we would like water. He bought us hot water in cups. No tea or coffee to go with the hot water, just drink your hot water! I was a little confused.
Tuesday Jan 19, 2010. Lunch. Jeffrey, Charles, Ken and I
We were at the CSIST town in a big pink ballroom and had this for our lunch:
Green tea
A cup of hot water again, drink your hot water!
Fried tofu
Prawns, fried
Hot peanuts
Kung Pao beef
Kung Pao chicken
Teeny little fishes in a salad – I had had 3-4 big bites before I saw the fish – head, eyeballs, skin & bones
Egg drop soup
Taiwanese pancakes
Chopsticks only, no knife, fork, spoon or napkins
On way back from CSIST, Jeffrey took us to a city that is famous in Taiwan for making porcelain. We walked for an hour there. Very good. Jeffrey bought Felicia a wooden tea tray. I am not sure how to use it.
Tuesday Jan 19, 2010. Dinner. Jeffrey, Charles, Ken and I
We ate in hotel at one of the 8 restaurants. I had Taiwan Beer in big bottle, I ate salads; I was still full from lunch.
More hot water in a glass, I guess they drink hot water here instead of ice water.
Today, except for in my hotel, I think we saw 3 white or black people here out of many thousands. It seems to be very safe, not many people speak English at all making it impossible to ask for directions or shop. We have a card from the hotel with address and phone number in Taiwanese so we can give to a cab driver when we get lost.
A girl came up to me with a camera and I though she wanted for me to take her picture. No! She wanted to take a picture of me and Ken standing by her family. I was her first white guy!! They were from mainland China and they must have never seen anybody not Oriental.
After we looked around the observation deck and going outside, we went to the bottom to a giant food court serving any type of Asian food. We ended up at a sushi place where I had some eel, raw shrimp. cooked shrimp, salmon, squid and sea urchin. Felicia and Kendra may not kiss me ever again.
We took a taxi back to work at 2 PM and then at 4 we were done and took a taxi to the Taiwan electronics center, about 10 block with thousands of vendors. It was like a giant Fry’s store but even I got tired of continuous laptops, software, video games, memories, etc.
Tonight, we went to a Mongolian Barbecue where we picked the meat and veggies and sauces and a cook would cook our dinners on a red hot grill. Very good. Karl said that 99% of Rockwell Collins guys love to eat there. While there we each had 5 big Taiwan Beers but we took a taxi back so we were OK.
