Hot pot

A pretty common question I get whenever I have a mildly in-depth conversation with Taiwanese acquaintances is, "so, what's your favorite food here?"

Well, let me tell you, it's hot pot.

Spicy hot pot

Hot pot, legend has it, was invented by the Mongol hordes over or around 1,000 years ago. The story goes that, vegetables and whatever food was available was cooked in boiling water or broth, using a helmet as the "pot."

National Day

10/10/10 is a pretty auspicious day.
So, since this year's national day happens to be a trifecta date force, there was a huge party put on by the government.

Taiwan is a bountiful land

The date itself is pretty cool, but 10/10 happens to also be Taiwan's National Day. It's a little convoluted as far as the difference be "national" and "independence." 10/10 in Taiwan commemorates the Wuchang uprising, which eventually lead to the fall of the Qing dynasty, and the creation of the Republic of China, on the mainland, in 1912. When the KMT came to Taiwan in 1949, they brought the same national day with them.

So convenient

One thing that's been making it difficult for me to get in a lot of cooking or learn many new recipes is the convenience of eating out in Taiwan. Eating out is so convenient, that a majority of the Taiwanese that I have met do not cook. Restaurants are ubiquitous in a way that is quite different than the US. It's plain hard to not find a restaurant within sight. Maybe I haven't lived in enough big cities back in the states, and my conception of eating out is too formed by a smaller town dynamic, but, eating out is just, well, ridiculously convenient here.

Ruifeng night market

I survived the typhoon (and the hospital)

Well, it all started on my birthday.

...scalpel...

I had a terrific birthday dim-sum lunch that my co-teachers Winnie and Sunny took me out to and I thought I just ate too much, which I did. After lunch, we all headed over to the bureau of education headquarters to have our bi-weekly fulbright workshop with all the american and taiwanese english teachers. This was ok. Afterwards at about 4pm, I started having severe pain in my abdomen,

A Message from God

Jade Empress Temple

God laughed at me, then gave me a message.

Baseball is my favorite sport

Well, that's not technically true, I enjoy baseball back home, but its far from my favorite sport. Mostly, I watch Mariners games with Grandma, but I'm not a follower.

But, after going to a short Taiwanese professional game this past weekend, baseball has become my new temporary favorite sport.

Ma Po Tofu

Mapo Tofu

Howdy,

This week has been pretty busy, as with every week so far. As Fulbrighters, we are in the mutual selection process, in which we are grading possible elementary schools that we would be teaching at, while the Taiwanese english teachers (LETs), who we will be working with, are grading us. Last week we had actual teaching practice in which we were able to work together with LETs paired together by their school pairing. It was my first time teaching. I've never taught an actual class before, let alone english as a second language, to 5th graders. So it was great practice and a terrific exercise personally, and I felt like I learned a lot from that. 

Sadly, I haven't made much opportunity for cooking this past week. Luckily, Andy (my former Taiwanese roommate) was visiting and we were able to do a little cooking together. 

So here tis, Mapo Tofu: