Dumplings for lunch

I stayed home and worked for the majority of the day today, though around lunch time Johan and I took the car to Jhong Li because Johan needed some cheap ear buds.  After Johan deliberated for 30 minutes over which $3 ear bud set to buy, we left the store and found a nice beef noodle place.  For $2.30 you get a nice bowl of beef broth soup with 10 large shrimp/beef dumplings inside (kinda like Wonton Soup).  It was delicious and hit the spot cause I was craving some soup.

Avocado is finally finished...

Remember that huge $2 avocado from a few days back?  Well I finally finished eating eating it this morning.  I've been eating large bowls of it every day for breakfast for the past 3 days.  Time to try the new hybrid mango/honeydew :)

Scooter Practice

Ali had to go to the HSR to pick up Niki and I asked if I could join him, except on the scooter behind his car :D He said that's no problem as long as I'm safe!  I followed him to the HSR and it was the first time I'd been on a scooter with actual other vehicles around me.  Now keep in mind it's 10pm at night, and we're in the country.  So by "other vehicles" I mean Ali's car, maybe 2 other cars and a scooter. lol.  And the ride is less than 5 min away.

I ended up surprising Niki by showing up on the scooter while Ali hid around the backside of a 7-11 delivery truck.  She was saying "where's Ali!  where's Ali!"  and then he popped up around behind her :)  Anyways he snapped a picture of me while I was on the scooter and then I rode off to practice my scootering skills.

Ali gave me permission to go anywhere I wanted, so I thought I'd start by driving to the places I knew around the area.  I drove by the baseball stadium that Ali took me to in my first week, and then rode along the MRT construction line to a park with a small lake in it.  

I snapped some photos and proceeded to ride back by the house, and then past it to the MetroWalk Mall.  The driving was smooth with very traffic and I felt safe because I had the cell phone with me and the GPS if I really needed it.  Even at some point along the road to the Metro Walk the song "just cruisin'" by Will Smith popped into my head.  Damn I'm cool! ;)

Adventure with Rob!

So the last few days have been a bit busy at home trying to plan out stuff.  I just finally finished all the planning involved for my parents stay in Taiwan.  Thanks mom for doing all that hotel research :D  And also I found out that my good friend from university, Rob, was going to be in Asia and had a week to spare and wanted to go somewhere!  Very cool :D  I was going to originally go to Vietnam by myself in the next few weeks, but since he wants to go somewhere, I think we will be going there together in late November after his vacation to Japan.  I was pretty bummed because I was kind of thinking about heading home to Vancouver a bit earlier to see Eliza since my Visa will be running out, but after thinking about it for a long time I figured, "how many times am I going to have the opportunity to travel cheaply to Vietnam, with Rob?  Probably never (well especially the with Rob part).  And it means only 2 extra weeks longer than I was originally planning and I'm still coming home sooner than I had originally scheduled.  I really want to see Eliza and my family and friends but I know that if I don't go, I'd probably regret it and wish I had gone on the fun adventure with my friend :)

Dongua Cha Bubble Tea

Ali was at the bubble tea place.  Johan and I were at home.  Ali called us up and asked if we wanted anything.  I wasn't sure what to order so I just asked Ali to buy me something I've never had.  Dongua Cha Bubble Tea was his response!  I like it, though I find that the Coco store puts a bit too much sugar in their Bubble Tea for my preference.  It's good though.  And the spaghetti bubbles are definitely a new thing for me. haha.  Thanks Ali!

HTC Aria

Bought a new phone yesterday!  The HTC Aria.  Now honestly I'm not really a person who buys expensive phones because personally I don't see the value in them.  I mean $500 bucks for a freakin phone?  Yah... I don't see the value.  Buuut I bought one anyways because we're developing Android applications and we need one to test our apps on.  After some researching it looked like the HTC Aria was probably the best choice so we simply went into the store and bought one.  It was about $460.  ouch :S  but it's the first "bigger" hardware investment I've made since purchasing the computers for ubiq, so I think if I we really want to be serious about this, we need to buy the necessary hardware.  I mean if we're making cell phone apps and don't even have a cell phone to test them on that's pretty lame.  And the plus side is that the phone is actually really nice.  I thought my iPod Touch was going to be good for traveling, but the Aria will be way better because we can use it as a phone, it has Satellite GPS, and I don't have to worry about finding a computer to charge it.  Hello 21st century.

yes i'm totally getting cut out of the picture but the screen
scrolls horizontally so don't worry I'm okay.

HTC twins (mine is on the left, Ali's is on the right)

Avocado Continued...

Here are the fruits of Niki and I's labour :D  What a delicious breakfast :D  The best part about the size of this thing is that you can have gigantic whole pieces of avocado, which is not so easy to get from smaller one.  When I had cut the avocado into quarter's, it actually felt more like I was peeling the skin off of a banana than an avocado.

Bucket-o-Congee

Ali picked up a bucket of seafood congee for diner paired with a delightful avocado milk beverage.  Both were very delicious! Especially the avocado milk (it's literally just avocado's mixed with milk and some sugar).  The whole meal was $3 each.

Congee with Avocado milk, and Papaya milk

Tastes pleasantly deliciuos

Papaya Lunch

The 30cent papaya must be the best one I've had in my life.  Niki cut it up for us today (thank you Niki!!) and plunked the bowl in front of me and told me to help myself.  I've never really been able to "enjoy" papaya because I found the texture strange and the taste also a bit strange, but this papaya was delicious!  I've been eating it all afternoon (and I'm eating some now).  I'm now a fan of papayas.

Taoyuan Farmers Market aka. Fruit Heaven

I hope the Taiwanese people know how to great they have it in terms of produce.  When Niki took me to the Taoyuan farmers market I was blow away.  The size, variety, and beautiful colours blow away the best markets I've ever seen in North America and Europe.  Now, I haven't seen a whole ton of farmers markets so take it with a grain of salt but just check out these pictures!  They had avocado's and mangoes almost as big as my head!  And there's just massive amounts of fruits and veggies and they are all fresh and there were very few that were actually not good quality and un-sellable.

There was actually some sort of "damaged" fruit section at the check-out and if you buy fruit you can take some home for free.  When we went to the check-out there were 3 papaya halves.  The clerk let us take all of them home for 30cents!

I could have gone crazy there but we don't eat a lot of fruit so I restrained myself and only bought a few things.  One of those things was a yellow melon.  Niki and I had never seen this before so we decided to try something new.  Eliza and I love avocado's so I picked up the biggest avocado I've ever seen and we bought that for $2.  It's probably about 3-4 avocados in 1.  We also bought a bag of apples and pears.  I really wanted to buy one of the massive mangoes but we already had plenty of fruit to last us for a while.  It would be a shame to have anything go to waste.

two different types of mangoes.  huge!

3 sizes of avocados, cigar, regular, and massive

The whole tab for everything was $9.  Which I think was pretty good considering the quality and volume of fruit :)  Thank you Niki for taking me!

Oh yah.  fun fact:  Item prices are based on their "catty".  Catty is a traditional weight that has been used for a long time and 1 catty = ~1.3 lbs.  Most of the prices you see beside the fruit are in catty weight.  30 = $1CAD if you want to see how much things are.

Home cooked Italian Meal

It was Valentines and we wanted to do something special for diner so we decided that I would cook pasta for everyone.  Pasta is not a common meal over here, especially to eat at home, so everyone was really excited :)

Shopping for ingredients was actually a bit of a challenge.  We went to one super market and they did not have any tomatoe sauce or cans of tomatoes.  They also didn't have ground beef (so we opted for ground pork).  We were unable to find regular white mushrooms at both grocery stores we went to so we used these really fat mushrooms instead.

When I actually proceeded with cooking, we realized that we had no spatula so I used chopsticks for the most part.  We also had no plates so Johan had to make a run to the store.

In the end the pasta actually tasted quite good and it was served with a side of garlic bread.  Johan and I paid for everything and I wanted it to be a sort of "thank you for everything so far" to Niki, Ali and Jeff because of their gracious hospitality.  I plan to make more food for them in the future.  There is talk of doing a Mexican diner night :D

Another Bike to Jhong Li

Niki wanted to get Ali a present for Taiwanese Valentine's Day but Johan had the car so we decided to bike.  When we left the house the sky was very dark from the big storm clouds.  As we biked closer to Jhong Li, lighting started to strike from the clouds and by the time we got to the Sogo mall (25 min bike) it had started to rain.

The AC kind of works in reverse when ur soaking wet and it actually makes the malls very cold.  Luckily the store had what Niki wanted and we were outa there in 15 min :)

When we left the mall, the rain had turned into a pour and the drops coming down were huge.  We were hoping it would have stopped by this time but it looked like it was going to continue for a while.  We decided to bike back in the rain.  I had my poncho from the other day in my back pack so I used that and Niki bought one from the 7-11.

Despite the rain, the bike ride back was awesome!  It was soaking wet, but not cold, and biking alongside the traffic was exhilarating. haha.  There's lots of traffic lights along the route, and the road is fairly wide for Taiwanese standards so I didn't feel that I was really in danger.  Plus the road is slightly downhill from Jhong Li to our house the it's easy to bike almost as fast as the cars.  We even passed a few scooters :)

Here's a picture of proud Niki with her gift for Ali, and the destroyed paper bag it was in (note her different pant colours)

Ant attack...

k the past 2 days I've seen an ant crawling around my computer screen, or the desk, or on my arm.  Is it the same ant every time?  or different ants, and there's ants all around me but I only see 1 at a time.  I can't seem to find where they are coming from but every 10-20 min I see an ant. (ps - these ants are like less than a milimeter in size)

Taiwanese Diner with Ali's Family

Had a great visit with Ali's family today!  After the Ghost month formalities everyone came inside and we chatted for a while over some food that they brought (bbq chicken, pig blood/rice on a stick with peanut powder.  yah sounds really weird but actually has the same texture and taste as a peanut powerbar).

The family was impressed that I could play Mahjong with the neighbours, and even more intrigued because I can't speak Chinese, yet we were still able to play together.  Noone there really knew how to play so I kinda felt special. haha.  I was also showing off my chinese counting skills but apparently I was counting too slow cause Johan's grandma butted in with her speed counting and stole my glory. haha.  She can speak Japanese too so we did some Japanese counting together because at least I know the Japanese numbers pretty good.

Ali's mom saw my framed picture of Eliza beside my desk and then looked at me and made a funny gesture to her chest area saying "very nice!!" indicating that Eliza had a nice body. hahaha.  Ali's mom is funny.  And when I told Eliza this on the phone later on in the evening she was well embarassed ;P

Left to right: Rebecca, Ali's Dad, Mom, Grandma, Niki, Ali, Me!

After chatting for a while we decided to go have diner at a local Taiwanese restaurant.  It was nainai's treat which was extra nice.  I don't know the names of anything we ordered so I'll just show some pictures and try to explain.

Thinly sliced pork in some garlic soy sauce topped with cilantro

Deep fried oyster and fried rice

Veggies with soy chees on left and beef with veggie on right

Stinky Tofu is the center piece :D

ps - a small dish of peanuts were served before the food came.  I grabbed a few easily with my chop sticks and popped them in my mouth.  Nainai was impressed at my chop stick skills!  She said peanuts are not the easiest thing to pick up and was surprised that I was able to pick them up with ease.  I guess they don't have very high expectation for Westerners to have good chop stick skills.

Welcome Ghost Month

According to the Lunar calendar, it's Ghost month over here in Taiwan.  And what better way to give thanks and welcome the spirits than a little offering in our back alley :)  Ali's mama, baba (dad), and nainai (grandma), came over with a few bags of food and fruits to eat and also offer to the spirits.

Ali grabbed his bedside table from upstairs and brought it down into the alley, where nainai and mama proceeded to place candles, 3 types of meat (chicken, pork, and squid), and a bundle of dragon eyes (longan fruit).  Beef cannot be one of the meats used because the cows are farmers friends.

Nainai proceeded with some prayers and I was asked if I wanted to join in.  Of course!  As nainai prayed we were given incense sticks and lit them, putting them between our hands and raising them to our forehead.  Ali, Niki, and I then placed our incense sticks into a cup of un-cooked rice.  The incense sticks represent chop sticks, so they have to be held up by the rice as it is symbolic.

Next, a large round metal drum (hollow container, not a musical drum) was wheeled out in front and paper was thrown in and lit on fire.  Everyone proceeded to throw in this special paper which represented money.  Paper with a gold foil was money that would go to the gods.  Paper with a silver foil would go to our ancestors in "hell".  This religion has gods in heaven and everyone else (regardless if they are good or bad) go to hell, and hell has 18 levels.  Think of them as parkades.  P1 is if you are good, and P18 is if you are really bad.

Just as the fire started to die down it started to rain, which I though was really neat and it definitely felt like something spiritual was going on.

It was time to start packing things up.  We brought the food back upstairs and Ali stick the incense between a pipe and our house.

Taoyuan hand made dumplings for breakfast

These huge dumplings are quite famous in the Taoyuan County area.  They are hand made and filled with pork, green onions, and some special sauce.  All you do is boil them in some water and voila!  Best dumplings ever.  I added some satay sauce on the side for dipping.

Spider in the house!

Gaah.  Now I'm not totally freaked out about spiders, but I'm not really their biggest fan either.  Especially when it's in my house on my wall right by my desk in the morning.

I quickly proceeded to chase this 2.25" in diameter monster out the front door with a broom :P

Food Heaven

While the first half of the day was turning out to be pretty boring and I thought the day was a lost cause, Ali and Niki took me to a new part of Jhong Li to walk around and kill some time.  It was awesome :D

Johan had the car for the evening so we took the free shuttle bus from the HSR station which took us right into the heart of Jhong Li.  We hopped off the bus and took a walk through this outdoorsy shopping district for young people.  Most of the streets were closed off to traffic and lined with trees and little shops.

Near the end of one of the streets, on the corner was this dingy looking place along a main road.  The place had no walls so it was open air to the street.  Niki was excited.  She loved this place and after we ordered I understood why.  They made this fantastic desert of fresh fruit mango icecream on top, on a bed of mangoes on another bed of shaved Sprite ice (Ali thinks this is the special ingredient) on another bed of mangoes.  Mango heaven for $1.70.  It was delicious.  I couldn't believe this hole in the ground made such fantastic tasting desert.  Apparently the place has been open for over 50 years.  Though I guess it wasn't too hard to believe because the place looked like it hadn't been re-furnished for 50 years.  Even the mixing machines had large motor belts and gears all exposed, which could easily take off a curious child's fingers.

After the desert we walked to the Sogo Shuttle Bus which would take us back to the Sogo shopping area.  We were lucky!  The bus was there about to leave.  We ran over to get in but crap; It was full.  The driver wouldn't let us on so we grabbed a cab for $2.75.

It was still hot out despite being 8pm so we went into the Sogo Shopping Mall and headed downstairs into the food court/grocery store area.  We walked through the grocery store observing the different types of imported food they have.  Ali had been reading about a new beer that is coca-cola flavoured.  We went in search and found it!  We bought the tallboy for $2.  We were able to crack it right open in the grocery store and yeap, it tasted just like cola! haha.  Well you could tell it was beer still, but it was probably 70% cola taste and 30% beer.

Coca Cola Beer and Cookies

Diner time was quickly approaching and Ali and Niki were having a debate over where to eat.  Niki wanted to go back to the BBQ place we went a few weeks ago, while Ali wanted to go to this all you can eat Thai place around the corner.  After several minutes, Ali gave in and we went to the BBQ place.  Unfortunately for Niki the place was jam packed with over an hour wait!  There was no way we were waiting that long to eat, so we walked to the Thai place which was still quite busy but we managed to get a table upstairs.

The menu fortunately had English, and every dish had a picture, but I let Ali order because he knew what was good and I trust his taste in food.  Soon after ordering the food started coming to the table, and after 10 minutes there was a massive amount of delicious dishes that I had never tasted before!  What I have pictured below isn't even everything that we ate :)

On the left a papaya salad, and on the right a sea food salad.  The dressing was this spicy lime concoction that was amazing

raw prawn with lime and chilli sauce topped with tomatoe and chilli and cilantro.  phenominal flavour going on here

fish cooked in a lime/chilli sauce

foi gras encrusted chicken with cilantro and some tamarind sauce

skewers of chicken in a coconut sauce, tofu in some thai sauce the back left
shrimp bread in very back, and back right curry rice with raisin and pinapple

Everything tasted amazing and there were many new flavours that I hadn't had before.  I was thinking about my Mom the whole time knowing that she would absolutely love it there.  Oh!  And Ali treated me to the whole thing which was so nice of him.  The all-you-can-eat costed about $14 so it was expensive in Taiwan terms, but for a westerner it was amazing value!