Taipei City - 12/22/08
Wednesday, 24 December 2008 19:51
In a lot of ways, Taipei City is just like being in any major city--high rise buildings, traffic, pollution, and plenty of other trademarks of metropolitan lifestyle. The only difference is the homogeneity of people you see, but even that is the same in Chinatown. The air quality is pretty poor, and it seems the abundance of scooters is to blame. There are millions of them, as if every Chinese person (or Taiwanese) traded in their stereotypical bicycle for a gas-powered version. In any case, it makes for some nasty air.
Vanessa, Auntie Rebecca, her mother-in-law, Vanessa's mom
On Tuesday, we went to Din Tai Fung, the original (there are three in Taipei, and one in Arcadia). The specialty is a dumpling that has "soup" inside. I imagine the meat of the dumpling releases soup-like juices in the cooking process; the process doesn't matter because it makes for some amazing eats. For you Koreans, it's like very savory dukk-gguk within each small dumpling. Incredibly delicious--I probably could have finished three orders myself (10 in an order).
After that, we went to the National Palace Museum. Apparently, when the communists came to Beijing, the Chinese took the artifacts from the Forbidden City and moved them here. Thus, the local claim "they have the building, we have the stuff" or something to that effect. Records of Chinese civilization go back 4,000 years before Christ, but still was heavily influenced (in art, at least) by the Western civilization of the 17th and 18th centuries: I would think it would be the other way around, but it goes to show China's slow and ongoing coming of age.
We had dinner at a traditional Japanese shabu shabu restaurant. Different than the typical shabu shabu of LA.
On Wednesday, Christmas Eve, we had lunch at the same place we had breakfast our first day, but not intentionally. We followed two separate family friends on two separate occassions. Following lunch and a brief visit to Taipei 101,we visited the Ling family garden (way bigger than a garden), which was home to Vanessa's ancestors way back to the 1700's. It was nice to see some of her cultural heritage, especially so closely and personally linked to her.
We spent the rest of the day with "Uncle Donald," who owns a bakery that makes 0% sugar products, as well as sugared products. He sells a lot of his stuff to hospitals, apparently since they have special diet needs that his foods happen to appeal to. He took us to the Eastern coast of Taiwan, then to a hot springs area to soak our feet. We finished back in Taipei City with some Shanghainese food, which I must confess is not my favorite. Stinky tofu would not be on the list of my favorite foods so far.
Vanessa's mom, Vanessa, and "Uncle Donald"
Shanghainese food
Taipei City at night
Tired today, jet lag is catching up with us...
Taipei City - 12/21/08Tuesday, 23 December 2008 09:32
There are a lot of Chinese people here in Taipei City. There are also a lot of scooters. There are also a lot of very poorly dressed women. There are also many tall buildings. Sorry, we're staying by a place that offers classes in TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language), hence, the remedial Engrish.
It's only been a day and we've already experienced both the ghetto and the fabulouso. We arrived here at around 6am, got to the apartment (thanks Uncle David!), showered, then went for breakfast. The place we went to pretty much sums up all that I imagined Taiwan to be like; let's just say nothing was unexpected. The breakfast was delicious, and incredibly cheap. The exchange rate is about 30 Taiwan dollars to 1 USD, so if you can see the menu, each item is about a dollar.
 Soy milk porridge with egg, pork sung
Then back to the apartment, to rest between meals, of course.
Lunch was at Mitsui, a Japanese restaurant that was the polar opposite of the place for breakfast in every way possible (thank you Auntie Rebecca and Uncle Danny!).
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