You are not in Kansas anymore Day 38

Satay - And of course, in Singapore, you can't only have one dish for a meal! So after omelette, we decided to have satay! No matter where I am in the world, I really miss the authentic Singapore satay.

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 37

Oyster omelette - I am already back in Auckland. I spend a day in Singapore before I head back to New Zealand. Therefore, I thought it would be nice to round up this Taiwan trip with a couple of posts about Singapore (of course, it is about food :D). I flew from Taipei to Singapore on July 17th, and landed in Singapore Changi airport at 10.30pm. Alfred came to pick me up from the airport, and without delay we headed to the East Coast Hawker Center for supper... Oyster omelette and sugar cane juice ... :) There are oyster omelette in Taiwan as well. However, the taste and texture are different. The omelette in Taiwan are slightly more watery. Honestly, I still prefer my homeland oyster omelette...

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 36

Cold noodles - Nothing taste more refreshing than a bowl of cold noodles in the summer. It is just cooked noodles which have been soak in cold, icy water, and some ingredients such as cucumber, a bit shredded chicken, a bit of sesame oil with satay sauce poured over it. Simple and delicious!

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 35

Views - Taipei is actually located in a "basin" surround by mountains. Therefore, in the summer, the temperature is really high (~35degC - 37degC). This weekend, a couple of colleagues invited me to have dinner with them in the Maokong hills. You can access the hill by driving, but the easiest and best way is to take the cable car. We enjoyed a nice vegetarian meal while looking at the sun setting in Taipei "basin".

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 34

More shopping - More shopping! Hannah told me to buy a couple of pants and t-shirts for myself since I only have that limited wardrobe. I went to my favourite store in Taipei - Uniqlo. This chain clothing store originated from Japan, and is very popular with the locals. This is because the clothes are nice and cheap. I bought two pairs of pants and two t-shirts for NT2300 (NZD 87)!

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 33

Tea - Taiwan is famous for their tea, especially Alishan tea, where the micro-climate and soil yield very high quality tea leaves. During our visit in January, Hannah and I had the chance to taste really nice tea that was prepared by my godfather's friend. It is an art seeing him making the tea. Timing is everything, otherwise the tea may be too bland or too bitter. This trip I bought two bags of Alishan Oolong tea and Pu-er. One for us and the other for a friend in NZ who also enjoys a cup of good tea.

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 32

Doggies baby carriage - Went to a pet show during the weekend to support a colleague whose pet rabbit taking part in a obstacle race. There wasn't much other pets except dogs and cats. Taiwanese are OBSESSED with their dogs. Not only they are dressing them up as humans, but they transport the dogs in baby carriages! I have seen people pushing their dogs around in carriages, while their kids are walking beside! Needless to say, one of my colleagues has three Pekingese dogs, and she will take them out for a walk - in their carriages!

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 31

Hot pot - This is also one of my favourite food in Taiwan. There are a variety of them - seafood beef, pork, vegetables and smelly tofu. And they come in three different spicy ratings as well - mild, medium and super hot. The interesting thing about the hot pot restaurants is that the chairs and tables are usually very low... I asked my colleague why, but even they do not know the answer.

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 30

Betel nut beauty - When you are in Taiwan, you will see shops which have neon lights on it. They are very bright and colourful, and you won't miss them. Similarly, it is to attract drivers, especially long distance truckers. The betel nuts helps to keep this drivers awake on these long distances. However, the chemical in theses nuts are nasty and could cause gum diseases etc... It was rumoured that the girls which sells betel nuts (betel nut beauties) would dress in their scantly dress bikinis to attract the drivers. However, nowadays (after the governmental control), you can only see older, weary betel nut beauties... :)

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 29

Rice with mince pork, shrimp/pork dumpling - I went around the neighbourhood the other day to just see what else that is interesting. Food are particularly cheaper here in the outskirts of Taipei city. At lunch time, I decided to have a small bowl of rice with mince pork, accompanied by a side dish of shrimp/ pork dumping. Hannah used to love these rice with mince pork. There is really nothing special about it - it is just plain white rice, and the shops would put mince pork on top of it. I think it taste delicious because of the mince pork juice... the salty, juicy, fatty pork on plain rice is purely divine.

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 28

Cow tongue biscuit - Ching-Hung (who is the bioinformatics guy in the lab) is the boyfriend of Chia-Ling (another colleague of mine in the lab). I am currently staying at Chia-Ling's apartment. The other day, Ching-Hung bought me a cow's tongue biscuit. It is not actually made from cow's tongue, but it is shaped like it. The selling point is that this biscuit is so thin, that it just melts in your mouth. The biscuit is about less than 1mm thin, but according to him, he remembered that there were even thinner! It helps that it is coffee favoured as well :)

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 27

Shaved ice - Summer in Taipei can be unbearable! Due to tall buildings located very near to each other, the city is a heat sink. And in the mid-summer, temperature can soar as high as 37degC! Thus, shaved ice is a hot item in the summer! I went to Kangxi Road today to shop for some gifts for Hannah. There is a famous shop there that sells the most expensive shaved ice in Taipei. The mango sorbet shaved ice cost NT180 (NZD 6). It is a huge bowl of very finely shaved ice, with fresh mangoes around it, topped with  mango sorbet. The queue was about 15mins long. I was very reluctant to join the queue in the hot sun in the first place, but I was thinking to myself "What the hell, I am a tourist.." So I joined the long line of people in the hot sun, and after 15mins, I finally got my famous mango shave ice.

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 26

Xizhi - I have moved out of the hostel because it was fully booked, and I was only able to stay there until end of June. I have moved in to my colleague, Chia-Ling's apartment. I moved into her empty room which her grandma would stay while she is visiting. Chia-Ling stayed in Xizhi, which is in the New Taipei district. Xizhi in Mandarin means "end of tides". What happen was in the past, Taipei would always get floods due to it being surrounded by the Keelung river, and the flood would stop at Xizhi, thus that's how it gets its name. Nowadays, after the improvement in the drainage system, floods rarely happen anymore.

Xizhi is a very busy place, lots of shops, lots of food, lots of people. The apartment is just like any apartments in a small city - pretty small, but in the case of Chia-Ling's apartment, I would consider it relatively big, with two rooms, a kitchen and a lounge. It is warm because there is no wind moving through the apartment. Her apartment is located in a building which is sandwiched between two taller buildings, thus she doesn't get much wind blowing through her place. There is really nothing much to take in her apartment, so the pictures are shops around her place.

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 25

Breakfast - Breakfast in Taiwan is slightly different from that in Singapore, US or NZ.

First, our (Hannah and I) favourite breakfast store is by the road side. Cars and bikes would pull up to the shop, hop off (while cars and buses are waiting patiently on the road), get their breakfast and drove off... the Taiwanese version of drive-thru!..

Second, the type of breakfast. My favourite is the pig intestine vermicelli and a cup of warm milk tea. Hannah's favourite is EVERYTHING! :D.. they have buns, fried carrot cakes, dumpling, soya milk, rice dumplings etc.

Third... the shop opens at 5am in the morning, and is constantly busy (sometimes I wonder who comes at 5am in the morning for breakfast!) until about 12pm, and then they are closed. They do their  cooking and washing in the same place. Hannah was joking that mom would say this is a recipe for food poisoning if she saw how they are washing their bowls and cups in the dirty water by the side of the road.

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 24

Made in Taiwan - If you ask any Taiwanese, they will tell you that "Made in Taiwan" is NOT "Made in China"! That was what my colleagues were arguing about this afternoon over lunch. There are few very famous made-in-Taiwan products such as Asus, Acer and HTC, and these were very good, durable products. To give you a sense of another grand Made-In-Taiwan product is this huge marine vessel - MV Blue Marlin. The website is in Chinese, but the pictures are clear on the size and amaziness of this ship...

Check this out ----> M/V Blue Marlin

You are not in Kansas anymore Day 23

Tissue paper / own utensils - You may or may not be aware that EVERYONE in Singapore and Taiwan carries a small packet of tissue paper. In Singapore, the packet of tissue paper can be a handy "tool" to help you "reserve" tables in a busy hawker centre. In Taiwan, if you forget your tissue paper, it is fine because all restaurants have a huge box of tissue near the table. However, you will notice that everyone do not just use the tissue to wipe their mouth or face, but they use it to wipe their utensils as well... I was curious and ask one of my colleagues. His answer was that there have been cases where the supposedly clean utensils have washing detergent on it!

Besides tissues, most Taiwanese started carrying their own personal utensils everywhere. Thus, they would be using their own chopsticks instead of the restaurant's. Pretty good in terms of hygiene reasons, while at the same time help to reduce waste.