Friday, May 30, 2008

Frustrating

I've been in France for a few days spending time with my nieces and nephew. They are a bundle of energy as usual and it's interesting to see how they've developed in the last year. However, today's post is about my frustration in acquiring visas.

I've gone into Paris twice already. Twice to the China embassy and once to the Taiwan embassy-equivalent. The China one denied visa services to me because I don't have a French ID card. "Go back to the US. It's not our problem, it's your problem." Thanks. That's really helpful. Also really helpful are their office hours - only 2.5 hours in the morning.

The Taiwan office was much nicer. My not having a French ID card meant I wasn't eligible for the multi-entry visa. I could only get a single entry...which for the hefty 89 euro price, really isn't worth it. I could fly to the Philippines with that money and just do a visa run and combine a beach vacation into one.

The difference in the offices wasn't about what visa they could offer but in their method of communication. The China office was just plain rude. The Taiwan office was firm, but polite. It's another reminder about why I'm glad I live in Taiwan now.

I've been researching ways to get a China visa - my last one I got in Australia. Turns out I can't use France, Japan, or Taiwan. One option is Hong Kong, but their website says as an American, I have to go to my home country. So, I can definitely use the US, but even then the hassle of getting a flight ticket (why would I buy an expensive air ticket when I could just go in by ferry/bus/train from HK as I originally planned) and hotel bookings is enough to make me just want to go back to Taiwan early instead of heading into China. Plus there's no way I'm flying back to the US to get a visa...and I can't think of anyone unemployed in SF that could do me this favor.

Here's a blog all about the China Visa policy changes and the effect on business people. And another blog entry about how one guy fooled the system.

In case you need to go the Paris offices, here's the info...

France Consular Office for China
18-20, rue de Washington, 75008 Paris
2 min walk from the George V metro stop, off of Ave Champs Elysees across from Louis Vuitton
Visa hours: 9:30 am - noon M-F
On a Wed at 10:30 am I was behind 50 other people. There is a separate line for Olympics visas.
Services only available to those with French identification.

Bureau de Représentation de Taipei en France
78, rue de l'Université, 75007 Paris
Close to the Solferino metro and Musee d'Orsay RER stops
Visa hours: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm - 4pm M-F
The woman I talked to spoke Mandarin, French and English fluently. There are publications about Taiwan in English, French and Chinese that you can read while you're there or take away. There were 3 people in front of me and the office only had 4 desks and two chairs, so I don't expect it ever really gets all that busy.

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Chick Night

I hosted a chick night the other night and decided to make cream puffs for dessert. I just about always work on dessert first before entrees and appetizers. I find that if you've got a dessert ready and everything else sucks, well at least you can end on success. It's a bit of an Amelia Bedelia safety net. The first time I made cream puffs was for our Greenlake housewarming party with Theresa and Julie. They were surprisingly easy to make and tasty, too. So I gave another go of it.

My camera ran out of batteries and after recharging I forgot to snap a picture. But they were OK looking. Just trust me.

Cream Puffs
Custard Filling
  • 1/2 c sugar
  • 5 T all-purpose flour
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 c milk
  • 2 egg yolks, beaten
  • 1 t vanilla extract
Pastry
  • 1/2 c butter
  • 1 c water
  • 1 c all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 t salt
  • 4 eggs
Chocolate Topping
  • 1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips
For the custard
You can make this a day ahead to chill in the refrigerator.
  1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, flour and a pinch of salt.
  2. Stir in milk, a little at a time, until smooth.
  3. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil 60 seconds, then pour a small amount of hot liquid into the 2 egg yolks, and stir.
  4. Return now heated egg yolks to saucepan and stir, over heat, until mixture starts to bubble again.
  5. Remove from heat, add vanilla. Cover and chill in refrigerator.
Pastry
How do you get the space in the center? The dough rises by itself! At a high temperature, the pastry rises, and then the rest of the time is drying it out so it holds its shape. Easy peazy!
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C)
  2. In a medium saucepan, combine butter and water and bring to a boil.
  3. Sift together 1 cup flour and a pinch of salt and pour all at once into boiling mixture.
  4. Stir vigorously until mixture forms a ball. Remove from heat, let sit 5 minutse.
  5. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously after each addition.
  6. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto baking sheet, or pipe into desired shape.
  7. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce heat to 400F/200C and bake 20 minutes more, or until golden.
  8. Cool completely.
Chocolate Topping
This step is optional, but seriously, who wouldn't want their puff with chocolate?
  1. Melt chocolate chips in microwave or slowly over low heat.
Cream Puff Assembly
  1. Use a chopstick to poke a hole in the pastry.
  2. Pipe the custard in. You can use a ziplock bag and cut off a tiny bit of the corner.
  3. Optionally, you can cut off the top of the pastry, use a spoon to fill it with custard and replace the top.
  4. Cover with melted chocolate.
  5. Serve immediately or refrigerate.


I also made homemade burger buns (see below), burger patties (ground beef, chopped onions, worcestershire sauce, dried chili powder, fresh ground black pepper, salt), sesame noodles, and a fresh mozzarella salad.


Burger Buns
  • 2 1/4 t yeast
  • 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried onion flakes or 1 tsp.onion powder -- optional
  • 2 tablespoons butter -- melted
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup warm water (100-105 deg.)
  1. Place ingredients into bread machine in the order required by the manufacturer. Run the Dough cycle.
  2. Turn out onto floured surface and knead by hand 1-2 minutes. Add more flour if too sticky.
  3. Divide the dough into 10 pieces. Slap the dough into bun shape -- flattened balls, 4-7" in diameter. Put buns on a lightly oiled cookie sheet and let rise about 30-40 minutes.
  4. Optional: Glaze the buns with the egg yolk and 1 t water mixture, then sprinkle with sesame seeds.
  5. Bake in 375F/190C oven 12-15 minutes or until golden.

Last Week of Shida

This was my last week at Shida for the quarter. Our class finished up Chapter 9 in Book 3, 2nd edition and got started on 10. During the week I ran into 3 out of my 4 previous teachers. One of them just got a job at Mt Holyoke. She'll be gone for 3 years...which is good for them, but bad for us. She was an excellent teacher for the time I had her as a substitute.

Today we watched a strange movie in class. The morning class had leftover fruit and Pringles. One of the Jimmy's brought in peanut treats from Jinmen, and another brought in bags of popcorn and tea. Since I woke up late and missed breakfast I pigged out quite a bit. Just before class ended my left eye started getting a blind spot in the middle. Sign of an oncoming migraine. I was pissed because, well, migraines pretty much always suck. But also b/c I was going to meet my language exchange partner and have lunch at one of my favorite beef noodle shops. Instead I went to bed and tried to sleep it off. I woke up at 5 feeling better. My head still has the leftover pounding feeling, but nothing like the intense part during the peak of the migraine. It should be gone in 24 hours.

Earlier in the week I went in with a friend to inquire about signing up for classes. Jenny, the English speaking office worker, told us that they were no longer accepting new students and were even having trouble finding enough teachers to fulfill all the private tutoring requests.

Friday, May 23, 2008

YangMingShan

Last weekend, I went to YangMingShan to celebrate Dan's birthday. We had a beautiful guest house to ourselves overlooking the mountain. We spent the night soaking in the hot springs (diverted into a small tub in the house), eating burgers and cake, and even playing one of my favorite games - Twister. In the morning, we enjoyed the clean air, fresh fruit and yummy bagels. We did a short hike to a waterfall and cooled off in the water. It was quite chilly but in a nice refreshing way.

Note: Catch Bus 260 from across Jiantan MRT station to the terminal station.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Blabberings

Mangos
Mangoes are back in season! Geoff got me some from Costco that were monstrous in size.


I took these pictures to show my dad. From the first pictures you can see one part cut off from the seed...it's definitely bigger than my hand. And in the third, look how thin the seed is! I love mangoes that are all meat.

There are "regular" type mangoes in the fruit markets - these are hit or miss in terms of sweetness but always juicy. And by regular I mean what's normal for Taiwan but nothing you'd ever find in America.

MRT
On my way home from Xiaonanmen tonight, I was waiting for the train to come back from Ximen. A young woman asked me something in Chinese and I couldn't understand. I asked her to repeat and still didn't understand. I told her that my Chinese wasn't that good. Usually at this point, a questioner will move on to find someone else to ask. But to my surprise, and delight, she stuck with me. It turns out she was new to taking the MRT and was trying to get to Chang Kai Shek (whose Chinese name I can never remember or recognize which is why I didn't understand her in the first place). And then I found out she was actually trying to get to Nanshijiao and had gotten on at CKS and realized she was going the wrong way and got off where I was. I've made the same mistake before, getting on going in the wrong direction, so I tried my best in Chinese to make her feel better about her mistake. It's always nice to practice speaking with complete strangers. Turns out she is a junior in high school and planning on studying physics in college.

ShiDa
It's the last week of class and we are slightly behind the school's new schedule. They want us to get through chapter 10 but we're only just finishing 9. Most of my class opted to keep the same teacher and so 6 of them will be together again next quarter along with some other kids they found for the 8 person minimum. My plan is to review and forge ahead while I'm on vacation in June (Grr, maybe you can hold me to this by checking up on me like last time) and then come back and start classes again.

However nothing ever really seems to go to plan, so we'll see what happens.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Taiwanese Haircut

I normally don't pay for haircuts, but I'd heard about the special Taiwanese style of haircutting so decided to give it a try today. I went in to ShowLin on Shida Lu right next to the Watson's, by recommendation of my friend Sabrina. She said to ask for stylist number 8, but with my poor mandarin and confusion about the process I'm not sure if I actually got number 8 (I was seated at #6).

The whole thing started with a shoulder/neck massage for about 5-10 minutes. Oh, and I was offered some magazines to look at as well - but they were all Chinese and didn't look very interesting. Then she shampooed my hair right while I was sitting without dripping on me at all. For about 20 minutes she worked the shampoo-water mixture through my hair and massaged my scalp the whole time, occasionally working my neck and behind the ears as well. She said something in Chinese I didn't understand, but in after thought I think she was asking me if it was enough. I've heard that you can ask them to continue massaging/shampooing if you don't think it's enough. We moved on to the next step which was the hot water rinse. This one was reclining as you would in the US. This included a little massage as well. Afterwards, I was sent back to my seat.

The stylist came over then and asked me what kind of cut I wanted. I just wanted a trim to get rid of the split ends and even things out a bit - nothing fancy, and certainly nothing like the typical Taiwanese hairstyle (dyed, crimped, and/or permed). This part took another 20-30 minutes as she blow dried my hair, cut it, and dried it some more.

In the end the damage was $399 NT which is about $13 USD. It's the equivalent of a Supercuts/Great Cuts price, but with the 30 minutes of massage, is of much higher value.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Fun Chinese Sentences

My teacher is full of fun Chinese sentences. Here are some samples.

2-3 (3-3)
老闆 (小姐) 你好請你給我啤酒. 沒有啤酒只有小姐.
Lao3ban3 (xiao3jie3) ni3 hao3 qing3ni3 gei3wo3 pi2jiu3. Mei2you3 pi2jiu3 zhi3you3 xiao3jie3.
Hello boss (miss), please give me some beer. We don't have beer, only ladies.

When two 3rd tone words are next to each other, the first one changes to second tone. So use this sentence to get your 2-3 tones down.

4-3
下午下雨最好跳舞.日本電影
xia4wu3 xia4yu3 zui4hao3 tiao4wu3. ri4ben3dian4ying3
This afternoon it's raining so it's best for us to go dancing. Japanese movie.

The 4-3 word pair comes out with the second word only having the low end of the dropping tone of 3rd tone without rising up again. Make sure to go very low!

3-2
美國有錢,女人很忙...
mei3 guo2 you3 qian2, nu3 ren2 hen3 mang2...
America is rich, the women* are busy.

The 3-2 word pair changes the first word into just a dropping sound, leading into the rise of the second word.

*女人 vs 女生 vs 女的 vs 女性
The first has a sexual connotation. The second is for a student. The third is saying female. The fourth is for saying female gender.

4's
世界運動大會報告
shi4 jie4 yun4 dong4 da4 hui4 bao4 gao4
The Olympics report

1's
今天 媽媽說她發燒. 東方新生擔心...
Jin1 tian1 ma1ma shuo1 ta1 fa1 shao1. Dong1 fang1 xin1 sheng1 dan1 xin1...
Today Mom said she has a fever. Eastern first year students worry...

I can't remember the teacher's so made up my own.

3-2-1
補習班,
bu3xi2ban1

Again, I can't remember the other samples.

Ma
媽媽罵馬,馬罵媽媽.
Ma1ma ma4 ma3, ma3 ma4 ma1ma.
Mom scolds the horse, the horse scolds mom.

Shi
事實是事實.
Shi4shi2 shi4 shi4shi2.
The truth is the truth.

The beauty in these last two is that I can actually hear the tone differences and say them correctly, whereas I know that first and second quarter I was still quite tone deaf. Yay for progress!

Identity

In America, I'm Chinese.
In Taiwan, I'm American.
I identify as an Asian American.

When people in Taiwan ask me where I'm from, I say I'm American. Because of my looks they always want to know what my parents are. I reply that my mom is Taiwanese and that my dad is from Mainland Chinese (and sometimes throw in that he grew up in Taipei). This satisfies Taiwanese quite well, as they can now understand my accent (terrible American) with my looks (Chinese).

However, when I went to China and was asked the same and gave the same response, I would get some funny looks. Distinguishing the fact that my mom is Taiwanese, to them, was redundant - being Taiwanese is being Chinese after all! To them, Taiwan is just another province. So I should just say that my parents are Chinese, instead of one is this and one is that.

Hmmm. This ignores the fact that my mom can speak Taiwanese and my dad doesn't, that my mom's family came from the mainland many generations ago, whereas my dad was the first, that my dad's side speaks Mandarin with something closer to a Beijing accent and my mom sounds Taiwanese.

It's like saying "I'm American" ignores the fact that I'm also of Asian decent (and all that brings with it, growing up in a mostly white American suburb). And saying "I'm Chinese" doesn't make it clear whether you're FOB (Fresh Off the Boat) or an ABC (American Born Chinese). Even people technically within a category may not have the culture associated with it (I grew up on the low end for Chinese culture of an ABC).

* * *
My teacher has mentioned something similar - that in America she is Chinese, in China she is Taiwanese, and in Taiwan she is Taipei-ese. Like my dad, she was born in the mainland and then came to Taiwan as a young child. She also bore children in the US and lived there for quite a while. She is quite liberal and has a mixed identity, not easily labeled.

Monday, May 05, 2008

Flurry

A flurry of posts and I haven't even gotten to May yet! Well, blogging is sometimes tiring so here's a quick summary of the month so far.

Hsinchu visit
I went to Hsinchu for an interview and to see family. It was interesting to see Science Park, the Silicon Valley of Taiwan. My cousin's family is also a lot of fun. It's much like my cousin's family in Malaysia - multiple generations convening together regularly. My cousin's parents, kids, sister, sister's kids were all there. I had a lovely home cooked meal with them and then played Wii for the first time. My arms got instantly sore just from boxing -- in air!

Spring Tourney
This past weekend was the quarterly Taiwan tournament, held in Taipei this time. Renegade submitted two teams - one competitive and one for training. Spank, the former, got 1st place with the help of NA Steve visiting from Korea and our MVP Fei Fei (who had loads of layout D's). The training team Thatch had a good time teaching a whole bunch of beginners that we hope have been enticed enough to keep on with it and come to our regular practices.

Wedding Reception
Morris and Angel had a Mr & Mrs Smith theme (Mr & Mrs Lin) that was beautiful, touching, hilarious and fun. The reception was at the Grand Hyatt, just by Taipei 101 with the 12-14 course meal that is typical for Chinese weddings. What was atypical was the rejection of all hong baos (traditional wedding gift of money), an entertainment video about pre-wedding events a la Mr & Mrs Smith, and the overall high class feeling of everything. They really did a good job of making it feel like a true celebration.

Jeju 4/25-27

Flight
Far Eastern Air Transport, or FAT for short. Apparently going through bankruptcy now, but the only airline with a direct Taipei-Jeju flight (popularly used as a jumping point into China).

(5/20/08 Addendum: Apparently FAT stopped flying in May. see the Taipei Times article)

Accommodation

We took the bus to our hotel for 5000 won, which took about 70 minutes. This was also easy to find, and the stops were announced in Korean, Chinese and English. Sun Beach hotel was organized through the tourney - everyone else supposedly only had mats and blankets, but our room had 2 full on beds - one queen and one full, which were quite comfortable (especially after the hard bed in the Xian hostel).

Tournament
Gnarly Nines
Unlike the US version of 9 games to 9 in one day, this one is split over two days, making it a lot less hard on the body. My team of 9 consisted of a Hong Kong base, with a few pickups from elsewhere. Unfortunately, day 1, point 2, we lost one of our nine. Nicki got punched in the face during an intense collision and her nose was broken in 2 or 3 spots! She flew back home early to consider surgery options with her own doctor. This one's a 5:2 tourney (unlike the US 4:3 standard), so Lily and I played savage the rest of the tourney, which wasn't so bad with the 25 mph winds on Saturday that pretty much dictated the down wind points and easy going zone play.

Sunday was a lot better weather wise, and so of course a lot tougher. We were seeded 4th going in, ended 5th Saturday, and then tied for 3rd on Sunday. In the semi-finals against Shanghai we were down 2-7, but played a better second half bringing it up to 9-13.


Wilkie, Tim, Lin, Geoff, Derek, Stu, Lily, Jon

Food
I love Korean food. The first thing I ordered was chop che...a dish I haven't been able to find in Taipei. I also had some bi bim bop and mandoo (Korean jiao-zi). The field food was delicious - especially the Korean bento boxes of marinated beef with rice and veggies. They also provided plenty of bananas, tangerines and water. Plus breakfast at the hotel and Saturday night all you can eat buffet (western food).

Misc
Other than that, I didn't really see much of Korea. I'll have to go back another time to experience more of the culture. Hopefully before FAT goes out of business.

Another highlight was seeing some familiar faces. James and Chris were there - I hadn't seen James in ages, but remember him always being friendly in Seattle. Apparently since I last saw him, he's gotten married, had ACL surgery and moved to Japan! However, he's going back in July, so I'm not sure I'll see him anymore in the Asian ultimate scene. Our loss for sure!

On the way home we were bumped to first class! My first time ever. The flight was overbooked and the only seats left were up front. Yes! It really wasn't that much difference. Sure, the increased leg room (straightening my legs, I couldn't even reach the seat in front of me). Of course, with my short asian legs, the extra space was really wasted on me - I'm always comfortable in economy. The food was upgraded by having tablecloths set on our trays and delivered with salt and pepper shakers. Otherwise it felt the same as regular. Oh wait, we did get several extra glasses of orange juice and water. That does make a difference.

The taxi back to the airport cost us 30000 krw, which included an 800 krw stop at a convenience store.

Hong Kong 4/23-24

I got to see my old college roommate, Hanna, again. We went to one of her favorite restaurants in her neighborhood. After a week of meat and bread in China, I was happy to gorge myself on the most mouth watering of vegetable dishes. Eggplant and "jade pieces" never tasted so good.

The next day I went out on my own to explore Hong Kong. Last time I was there, I only had time for a couple restaurants and the tournament. This time I took the day to meander around town a little. It certainly is a city of covered walkways, which is nice in its own way, but also confusing at other times (it wasn't always intuitive for me to find out where the entrances were to the walkways I could see above me).

I love the ability to check in on Hong Kong Island early in the day. For an 8 pm flight, I was able to drop my bag off at 9 am and just take a purse around town. I spent most of the day in Stanley (bus 6) enjoying the shore, watching fishermen, and ogling all the items at the grocery store that I can't find in Taipei.

Xian 4/20-23

Airport
XIY, 40 km NW of Xian city center
When you arrive at the airport you can
  • take the shuttle bus to Bell Tower (last stop) = 25 rmb / person
  • you can get 2 taxis (just tell the driver to give us a call for directions)
  • we can arrange pick up in a minivan (180 rmb) - we went with this option for 6 people
Accommodation
HQ Hostel
We rented half the hostel, which was really one full apartment, including 2 queen beds and 2 bunk beds, a bathroom, kitchen, dining area, and living area. Great location, within short walking distance to the Muslim area. Downside was lack of any kitchenware or internet. But there is a coffee shop just around the corner with free wireless (however, their drinks are terrible - at least the italian coffee and the fresh milk were both horrendous).

Sites
Terracotta Warriors
Definitely do from least to most impressive order - museum, room 2, 3 and then 1. The folks that built the place were all killed and buried within to keep the location a secret. Only discovered in the early 70's. The places are booby trapped and only partially dug up - also because of the near instantaneous deterioration of the paint on the statues. Scientists are currently working on a way to preserve the colors so they don't disintegrate on contact withe oxygen.

Hua Shan National Park
About a 2 hour drive to the entrance, and then from the parking lot there are shuttles that take you to the base of the hiking area. We walked up the stairs instead of taking the cable car. It takes your breath away - both from the views and the steep incline. On the way, we only passed a few people. At the top, it was clear that people came in by the droves via cable car. We made our way up towards one of the peaks, but it was getting late and cold, so I rested while waiting for my partner to finish. There are toilet facilities near the top, but they aren't pretty (sight or smell).

The City Wall
On a clear day, go to the south or north gate and rent bicycles. They have tandem bikes (good for kids) and normal bikes. We circled around the whole city in one morning. Note: It's closed to biking during rain.

Food
Delicious lamb and beef. Wonderful flat breads. Great noodles (liang pi were the best). We gorged ourselves silly knowing we couldn't get the wonderful spices and breads back in Taiwan.

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Beijing 4/16-20

Airport
On our way, I read that direct flights are scheduled to start July 4 (between Taiwan and Mainland China, of course). So of course, we stopped in Hong Kong before landing in Beijing. The public bus outside was cheap and easy to find and figure out. Routes are explained in Chinese and English, with one going to DongSiShiTiao.

Accommodation
Beijing East Gate Plaza Service Apartment
Reserved online through sinohotel.com We were willing to go fancy but not so much as paying 4 star prices. This turned out to be remarkably good, especially for 3 young kids. Very spacious apartment with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a huge common room with comfortable sofas and a tv. There was a big fridge, dining table, fluffy (but strangely non-absorbent) towels, washer/dryer, high speed ethernet and A/C.

It was in a decent location as well, with a big mall next door with a supermarket, squash court, bowling alley, and restaurants. It was walking distance to DongSiShiTiao and DongZhiMen subway stations, as well as to Da Dong Roast Duck and Ghost Street (with lots of restaurant choices).

Sites
Summer Palace
A strikingly large grounds area. What was more striking was watching the Chinese reaction to seeing a Chinese woman holding a blond, blue-eyed 5 year old's hand walking around. People would not stop to gawk, take pictures, touch, and other mildly-to-extremely uncomfortable things. People usually wanted to talk to me, and I was happy to get in some Chinese speaking-listening practice in. However, after a while, it just became plain annoying. Mostly because it was freaking the kids out - having people stand 2 feet from them, staring into their faces while trying to eat lunch. No one appreciated being stroked and then picked up suddenly by a complete stranger and hugged close for a picture. I can understand the novelty of the situation, but I also think some lines of respect were crossed.

The Great Wall
Against all advice, we went to Badaling, since it was the shortest distance to the wall and 3 kids in a van for longer than necessary just puts more pain on everyone than bearable. So we braved the crowds instead. The wall, of course, is extremely impressive in person. It was fun walking the open sections, flowing with the crowds and discussing prices. There was one vendor selling shirts with your picture on it. For the number of people wanting a picture of the kids, I think we could have charged them for taking our picture instead of paying for a shirt.

On our way home, the makeshift van carrying 7 of us, was stopped by police. Apparently the van was not licensed for cabbing, nor was the driver. My Chinese still isn't so hot, especially combined with listening to the Beijing accent (after all this time hearing the Taiwan accent). However, I do understand that a driver doing something illegal and being taken away from us, leaving us stranded in the middle of nowhere would not be a good situation (especially with 3 tired kids in the car). And after the policeman asked me if the driver was a friend and watching the driver vehemently shake his head up and down behind him, I decided to say yes. "So you didn't pay him any money?" And this I was happy to answer truthfully with a no.

I think they must have seen through the lies, but luckily, he was only slapped with a 100 RMB fine and we were on our way again.

Tiananmen
The largest city center in the world - coming out from the underground stairs, we saw a Chinese woman seriously peeved off at a police officer. She was well into her tirade, chastising him for wronging her. She even went so far as to poke him a few times, and I was surprised to see he just stood and took it. Half an hour later, she was still going strong - him not budging to the apology she may have been waiting for, and her not relenting to stop the shouting in his face that she was doing seemingly without breathing.

Forbidden City
My images of the Imperial Palace all come from the movie, The Last Emperor. Walking through the grounds, I realized how much bigger it is than I imagined. Yet even for its size, imagining being confined within its walls as a child still seemed suffocating.

Other
We took a stroll through Beihai Park, bartered our way through Silk Market and then again through the much more reasonable YaShou Market. On the first night, we also spotted a garbage can in full flame. On the last night we meandered all along Ghost Street. After so many days of relentless staring, touching, commenting and general rudeness from many Chinese people, I was happy to end the night on something good. The pollution was striking as soon as we got into the city. Even on sunny days, with no clouds in the sky, it was impossible to see any blue. The haze seems to forever laze over the city. With so much sand in the air, I had a bit of trouble with my contacts. I stopped at one point to take it out, but instead of landing in my hand, it fell on the sidewalk. And this was well into the night. I stood my ground so as not to step on it, but couldn't spot it anywhere. People walking by noticed us looking for something on the ground, and they all eventually slowed and started to help. Some people were looking without even knowing what they were looking for! When I looked up there was easily a group of 15 people around me, with one particular person pulling out a flashlight (which really did the trick). We finally spotted it, I picked it up and someone asked "What is it?!" We said it was my contact, and they peered closer to look at the tiny curved lens. "Ohhh" I rinsed it off, put it back in my eye, and thanked everyone for their help.

Food
I really enjoyed the mango opportunities - we had some 'normal' sized ones, but the best ones were the kidney mangoes - shaped like a kidney, incredibly small, but with a seed that is razor thin, and a peelable skin, leaving plenty of meat to be eaten. Yum.

On the other hand, I had some of the worst Chinese food I've ever eaten. I didn't have a single good dan-ta (egg custard tart) nor any good jiao zi (dumplings). The former was mushy and gross, and the latter was poorly made (the filling was just awful - strange ingredient combinations and overly salted). I guess it's best to just get your dan-ta in Hong Kong.

We did end on a lovely traditional breakfast opportunity, walking distance from the apartment - consisting of a bowl of noodles, a tasty bing, and a bowl of a tofu-soup mixture.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Return from Korea

It's been a whirlwind of flights lately. I got back late last night from a 2 night trip to Jeju. Here's a placeholder for a blog entry and another note just to say I'm still alive. I've still got a lot of catch up work to do (chapter 5) plus preparing for and doing the big test (ch 4-6). jia you!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Return from China

I just got back from a trip to Beijing, Xian and Hong Kong. I'm waaaaay behind on word memorization and homework...so this will be a short entry just to say hello I'm alive and back.

I went with Geoff, Tim, Sam, Alani and Hannah. Some of my favorite kid quotes from the trip:

While driving to the Taipei airport and looking out the taxi window trying to spot Taipei 101, formerly the tallest building in the world, Lani's thought on big buildings, "It's bigger than Jesus!"

On the flight to Beijing, on a very quiet airplane, Hannah at the age of 3 hasn't quite mastered volume control yet and shouted "DADDY! I've got a snotty nose!"

And while eating a pile of mangoes on my own in the kitchen, Hannah came up to me, looked up and said, "You know, you're supposed to share mangoes with little people."

Sunday, April 13, 2008

The Best Chinese Study Method

I've just discovered the best method for studying Chinese. Get the kind of illness where you are bed ridden. Then you are forced to lay there with nothing but laptop internet access. After a while, you just can't read any more news or play any more Scrabulous...so it's down to studying Chinese. I've actually gotten a head start on the memorization for Chapter 5...instead of my perpetual being behind last minute cramming of this quarter.

So I've been on and off sick for a week with various ailments that I won't go into here. It really sucks. Yesterday I missed an alum lunch with my friend Tina (who I haven't seen since she moved back to TW) and all the new students and then Stewart and Vita's wedding. Today I'm missing disc (which is really unfortunate b/c I really need the exercise) and then a bbq at my friend FeiFei's house. These are once in a blue moon opportunities (besides playing disc)...ARG!

The upside is all this rest is getting me better. I know if I were to go out I would make everything worse. I've made that mistake before.

Oy.

In studying news, quizlet.com has added another game to their flashcard software. I stopped using it near the end of book 1 (near the time I started slacking off on my Chinese), but I've just entered in the first half of the vocab for Ch 5 in the new book (2nd edition, Book 3) and have been enjoying using it again. This time I input the regular pinyin pronunciation of the characters and then a separate set of meanings.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Tomb Sweeping Day

Today is a national holiday so I don't have school and most people don't have to work (only hundreds of thousands who have to go to work at 7-11 and OK Mart don't get the time off). The Chinese name is Qing Ming Jie which literally translates to Clear and Bright Festival. This is a prettier name than Tomb Sweeping, but the latter is more accurate about describing the activity that goes on this day.

My mother's side of the family still has a large presence in Taiwan. Her great grandfather came over from China oh so many years ago, and the descendants down the male line all meet every year at this time. Instead of cleaning the graves on Tomb Sweeping Day when it tends to be too crowded, my family organizes it a week earlier. So last Sunday I went with my uncle, aunt, cousin, and grandma down to Hsinchu. This was my first experience taking part in honoring my ancestors, including burning paper money as an offering.

After visiting the graves (including one of my great great great grandfather), we all went to a restaurant for lunch. Some relatives only go to this family reunion portion of the event. There are 13 along the generation at my grandfather's level. So including their kids, grandkids and great grandkids it added up to over 200 people there! The youngest man in my grandfather's generation was there as well as some wives in that same line. It was overwhelming to realize I had so much family all in one place.

Women in the direct family are allowed to go as kids, but once they're married, they become part of their husband's family. So my aunt didn't go even though she lives right in town. (But we did stop by to see her after lunch.) Every year, the responsibility of organizing rotates among the branches. Next year is my family's turn, so then I think it'll be ok for my mom and her sisters to come.

My mom has recently told me more stories about the family and it was nice to match faces to names. One of her cousins I'd heard about was particularly friendly and said as soon as he saw me he knew I was my mom's daughter. I usually think I look more like my dad so it was a surprise to hear that my face resembles my mom's so much.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Feed Your Baby

For all my new parent readers out there, I thought this Nestle study was interesting - talking about how you need to reintroduce previously rejected foods, as some babies take time to adjust. I for one can attest to a few foods that I've previously detested and now love...I'd say reintroduce throughout life - in my case, for some foods, it's taken 25 years!
  • xiang gu - Chinese dried black mushrooms. Their taste is very strong and when I first had them as a kid did not like them at all. I was still a kid when I started to not just like them, but love them. They're an essential ingredient for homemade jiao zi.
  • tofu - I couldn't stand tofu when I was a kid -- all the way to my early 20s. To me, it was a bland cube of mushiness. And sometimes it was a bland cube of fried mushiness. No thanks. Then a few years ago in Seattle something changed and I started loving tofu. I ordered it whenever I could instead of meat. I still can't get enough and like all kinds. My dad used to get cho tofu (stinky tofu) and it was just more reason to dislike tofu as it stunk up everything in the fridge, and when he started cooking it outside on the back porch, would stink up the whole neighborhood! I never even ventured a bite (why would I put something so stinky in my mouth when I couldn't even stand being within a 50 foot radius of it?!). However, last year, when I visited my aunt and uncle in Kaohsiung, I ventured to try some at the night market. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. Now that I've moved to Taipei I've had it on a few occasions and enjoy it.
  • tea - I've hated tea my whole life. Being in a Chinese family, this proved particularly difficult as every Chinese person I know drinks tea. Every Chinese restaurant serves you tea. Every Chinese host offers you tea on arrival. And I always have to refuse as my true longing is for a nice large cold cup of water. It's not just the heat of the drink that bothers me but also the flavor. And when I got older I realized that the caffeine has a strong effect on me, so just one more reason to avoid it. However, in my first visit to my cousin in Malaysia, she offered me tea from one of her many beautiful tea sets. How could I refuse? And it wasn't as bad as it usually is. Usually one sip makes me want to gag, but this was doable. Since then, I can drink tea in social situations.
  • green beans - boy did I ever avoid this dish when I was a kid. Since the rest of my family liked it, my mom would always make it. The taste was always too unpleasantly strong. At friend's houses for a traditional Thanksgiving meal, I would politely take 3 little strands and force them down my throat begrudgingly. But again, this one changed recently...maybe while I was at my sister's a couple years ago. I think the sauce balanced out the flavor and I've since become used to the natural flavor.
There's still a list of foods that I can't stand (celery, licorice, papaya) but maybe in the next 25 years that will change too.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Apples

This week everyone in class has to do a bao gao on where they're from. Since most everyone already knows the major stuff about America, I decided to do mine on where I've lived in Seattle. In researching information about Washington, I found that they are the number one producers of apples in the US. Since I always like to bake and share with the class, I found a recipe that could be easily split among 11 people using apples. WA actually produces an even greater percentage of the nation's red raspberries, but they're not in season here, so apples were the next best choice.

Anywho, I got all the ingredients EXCEPT I forgot the cream cheese! By the time I got it in the morning, it was too late to make, since the dough needs an hour to chill and I was still putting together the pictures for my presentation (as well as what I was going to talk about). So I made them last night after class and brought them in this morning.

Mini Apple Turnovers
These were really delicious fresh out of the oven. However, if you can't have them warm, they are also nice cooled off. The dough comes out flaky as if you've gone through the pain of layering it without any of the work. I found the original recipe's sugar to be too much for the kind of apples available in Taipei now (Gala and Fuji), so I've cut back in the version below. I also lengthened the baking time as the small ovens common in Taiwan aren't as efficient.
  • 1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
  • 3/4 c butter, softened
  • 1 egg, separated
  • 3 T cold water, divided
  • 2 c all-purpose flour
  • 7 c thinly sliced peeled tart apples (about 6 medium)
  • 1 t grated lemon peel
  • 1/2 c sugar (*reduced from 3/4 c)
  • 2 t cinnamon
  • dashes of ginger, allspice, nutmeg
  1. In a large mixing bowl, mix cream cheese and butter until smooth. Refrigerate the egg white. Mix egg yolk and 2 T water into mixture. Gradually add flour until well blended. Shape pastry into a ball. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
  2. In a large skillet, combine the apples, lemon peel, sugar and spices. Cook over low heat for 8-10 min or until apples are tender.
  3. Turn the pastry onto a lightly floured surface and press to 1/8" thickness. Cut into 24 four inch circles or squares. Top each piece with apple mixture. Brush edges with cold water; fold pastry over and seal edges well. (If you are working with a mini oven as I did, divide the dough in half and keep the other half in the fridge while the first half is prepared and baked.)
  4. In a small bowl, whisk egg white and 1 T cold water; brush over pastry.
  5. Place on greased baking sheets. Bake at 190°C for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Election Weekend

I'm too tired to write up, so here's a slideshow of the weekend.



John and Geoff organized a getaway weekend to LongDong for rock climbing and swimming and then to Daxi for eating, sleeping and surfing. They tend to overdo it on the food, but with 10 people there this time, we did alright. Geoff prepared a spit fire lamb roast, including the spit. It was quite impressive and even more tasty. John provided home baked brownies and Rob brought a costco bag of marshmallows.

It was great weather until night time when the wind picked up. I woke up with sand embedded in my hair.

One Big Difference

I was thinking this morning that taking care of Bodgy is akin to taking care of a baby. He has a feeding schedule, cries/barks at night (if there are fireworks), likes to play with toys... When you go out, you have to remember to bring all the gear - instead of diapers, you gotta bring the poopy bags. Instead of a bottle of breast milk, you need to bring some water and a dish. And best to bring a chew toy or ball to chase. When you go to school/work, he doesn't want to be left behind, and when you come home he's delighted to see you.

But there is one big difference. When you bring your kid to the park, I'm pretty sure your child doesn't make a bee line for the river side and roll himself in the grass coming back smelling like rotten eggs mixed with fish sauce.

Spending 7 seconds in an elevator trapped with that smell is horrendous. I'd rather change a diaper any day.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Kit Kat Bar (give me a break)

I have a big test on Friday for a scholarship, so I've been spending all my time reviewing book 1. Well, not all my time, but any time that I'm not taking a break or going to class or sleeping or eating...

It's a bit tiring, so here I go blogging again. To answer some of my sister's questions about the Japan post...

I used to travel a lot in the US for tournaments - I went all over WA, up north to Vancouver, down south to Oregon and I even flew a few times (CA, HI, AZ). The downside was all I ever did was play ultimate. I saw the ultimate fields in a lot of cities but I didn't see much of the cities themselves. So when I moved to Asia I decided I would no longer only see grass (or dirt as it may be). This first trip to Japan, I made the extra effort to extend the trip a couple days to see more. It still wasn't much time - only 2 days - you can't really cover a lot. However, for how expensive Japan is, I'm happy with what I accomplished.

In one of my pictures the caption is about Jeju - which is a tournament in South Korea. Jeju International Gnarley Nines. Jeju for the name of the town where it's hosted - on world class rugby (?) fields. Gnarley Nines b/c every team is limited to 9 members, with at least 3 women. The tournament is 5-2, with the option of putting as many women on as you want. Japan is sending an all women's team this year. It's also one of the few tournaments that offers cash prizes for the finalists and has a tournament fee that is nearly all inclusive (hotel and all meals).

Mochi. It's a Japanese sticky rice ball. Nothing but glutinous rice and water. In Taiwan it's commonly found rolled in flavor (crushed peanut, black sesame) or filled with something yummy (aforementioned, red bean, ice cream). At the tournament, players got to participate in the pounding part of Mochitsuki, the mochi making ceremony. Here you can see a Sockeye player having a go. Before I took the video he was beating the rice mercilessly over and over. They finally made him stop and the group explained that the woman was supposed to turn the rice after every hit.



While I was in Nikko, I stood near different English speaking tour guides to hear what they had to say. One was explaining that behind two elaborate temples you could see a very plain building in the back - this was meant as a bathroom for the gods. The tourist/human bathroom is actually a building in front of it, but the one for the gods has never been used. For real! Another guide pointed out that every dragon decoration is different. On closer inspection I could spot tons of differences - some with open mouths, some closed, some with lots of side swirls, some with long snouts. It was fun to look at them all and think about the creativity that was allowed in making them.



My women's team as I mentioned was an international team, organized by the women in Korea (Candacee, Turbo, Megan, Yoonee, Sarah) and joined by Jacq (Singapore), Lily (Hong Kong), Eri (Japan), Bats and Kat (Philippines), and Sherry and Steph (from China) plus me from Taiwan.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Japan

I left for Japan straight after class on Friday. I went to go play in Dream Cup, a huge ultimate tournament in Fuji City, Japan. This is the first time they've allowed foreigners to play. They paid for Sockeye and Fury to fly out and participate. My team, in the women's division, came from all over Asia. The weather held up for us and it ended up being sunny and dry the whole weekend, despite forecasts of rain. There was slight wind, but not as bad as I've played in before.

A few downsides to the tourney...
  1. Immediate bracket play. This was the first time my team had played together so we used our first game to get to know each other. Unfortunately, this meant we were stomped. I think we could have beaten them on Sunday given another chance.
  2. Only 2 games per day. I think some teams may have played 3 games, but for paying for a flight ($370 USD), a bus to Fuji City ($32 each way), a required hotel ($78 per night), and a tournament fee ($70), I was hoping for at least 4 games on Saturday. There were certainly enough teams for it, but not enough field space.
  3. A small downside was lack of field food. I'm accustomed to fruit and bagels. The only thing they provided was a bowl of soup on Saturday and some small packaged red bean buns (2 per person). However, with a 5 hour bye between our two games on Saturday, I wasn't really that hungry.
It wasn't all down. Some upsides...
  1. We got a sweatshirt out of the deal (with typical Asian typo and all).
  2. We got a free shuttle from the hotel to the fields in the mornings.
  3. The hotel included a Japanese style breakfast that was quite filling.
  4. We got to watch world class players - Fury vs Japanese women all stars and Buzz Bullets vs Sockeye.
  5. A constant view of Mt Fuji. Absolutely gorgeous. I was reminded of home (Mt Rainier) the whole time.


After the tourney, we went back to Tokyo, where I stayed with some other players in a fancy apartment hotel in what seemed like Koreatown. We got in late, and due to a mistake on my part, I left really early (I thought the clock said 9 am, but it was probably 7 am when I left). I made my way to Asakusa station to get to Nikko. I got the World Heritage Pass, but in after thought I think the All Nikko Pass would have been better (the one including the bus fare to Lake Chuzenji). I stopped at the visitor center to figure out where the hostel was.

Daiyagawa Youth Hostel (大谷川ユースホステル)

Walk about 10 minutes uphill on the main street to the tourist information center. Take the first right and follow the road up the river for a few minutes. It's a bit tucked away and directly at the Daiyagawa river. Check in is from 4-8 pm. Showers are from 5-9pm. Breakfast is filling and at 7:30 am. There are plenty of blankets provided, plus a space heater, so you don't have to worry about getting cold. They'll also give you hot tea or coffee to warm up. Oh, and the toilet seat is heated! Possibly the best hostel bathroom I've ever been in, just for that luxury.


I dropped my bag off and went to explore the temples. I most enjoyed the Toshogu Shrine and the Rinnoji Temple (which I saw the next morning). Afterwards I took the bus up to Lake Chuzenji. It's still winter and the trees are all barren, and snow is still on the ground. It wasn't the most beautiful season to be there, so I would recommend going back in any other season (for warmth and the beauty of leaved trees). I also checked out Kegon Falls. You can see them from a deck viewpoint, but have to pay extra for an elevator that I assume takes you down to the base.

On my way back to the bus stop, I saw a bunch of monkeys running around. Three adults and one baby. Super cute. That is until I got too inquisitive with my video camera and one decided to attack me. I ran away before it got me, but it got my heart pumping at about 300 bpm. They're cute until they're angry.



For dinner, I stopped at Hippari Dako, which is on the main street. It's a small establishment with just three tables. When I went in, there was an English speaking tour group there. I got the 3rd empty table to myself. Luckily, another couple came in and shared the table with me. A couple of MBA students from PA, on a 150 person school tour of Japan. They took off a couple extra days to have some time to see a bit more by themselves.

The next morning I caught the train back into Tokyo (I would have spent more time at the Lake, maybe hiking around, but it was too cold). I spent some time at Asakusa and Ueno, checking out more temples, parks, and street food. I also enjoyed some sushi at a rotating bar. Yum.



One thing surprisingly different about Japan from Taiwan is how little English is used. Very few signs have English, relative to Taipei and not as many people seem to speak it. It felt a lot harder to get around - possibly because the subway map is like a jumbled mess of pixie sticks. It helped immensely that I could recognize some Chinese characters.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Pesto Bread

I had some leftover pesto to use up so decided to whip up a batch of Pesto Bread. I looked up recipes on the internet and there were 2 variations. One was a French Bread with pesto rolled into it and the other recipe used milk and olive oil. I decided to go for a soft bread instead of a crusty one and ended up using this recipe.

Pesto Bread
Tastes great fresh out of the oven. Also works well as leftovers, but this loaf didn't last long.

Dough
  • 1 1/2 t yeast
  • 4 c bread flour
  • 1 1/2 t sugar
  • 1 1/2 t salt
  • 5/8 c milk
  • 2/3 c water
  • 2 T olive oil
Filling
  • pesto
  • pine nuts
  • mozzarella
  1. Add dough ingredients to bread machine in order according to manufacturer's directions using dough cycle.
  2. When the dough is finished place on a lightly floured surface and let rest 10 minutes.
  3. Roll out to a rectangle 10 inches long and about 3/4 inch thick. Spread pesto sauce over dough leaving a 1/2 inch border. Sprinkle pine nuts and cheese.
  4. Roll lengthwise jelly roll fashion and tuck ends under. Place in a greased 10x4 inch loaf pan (or what have you, in my case an 8x8 on the diagonal). Cover and let rise 45 minutes.
  5. Brush olive oil over the top and with a sharp knife score the top with four diagonal cuts. Repeat the cuts in the opposite direction. Sprinkle with sea salt.
  6. Bake at 215C or 425F for 25 to 30 minutes, until the bread is golden and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
  7. Turn onto a wire rack to cool.


Cinnamon Buns

...or as I like to call them in Chinese, 肉桂屁股 rou4 gui4 pi4gu3. Haha, just kidding. 肉櫃捲 rou4 gui4 juan3 is a better name, literally Cinnamon Rolls. I made them this morning for class. Chapter 2 is about food so our assignment for the week is to bring in some food and present it (describe the ingredients, how to make it, etc). I made a couple batches over Chinese New Year break as well but forgot to take pictures.

I like to use the Sweet Dough recipe from the Good Housekeeping Illustrated cookbook (which is handily not in my possession, but in storage at Angie's house). It's a large batch of dough (8 cups of flour, I think) that you end up splitting to make multiple recipes. Since I don't have it with me, I found the dough recipe on the internet, cut it in half and then just winged the rest of it.

Cinnamon Buns
Lots of people like a glazed bun, but I find the extra sugar makes it too sweet. The filling is to taste - I put a healthy dose of cinnamon, a sprinkling of sugar, and lots of raisins. If my consumers aren't against walnuts I put them in. I think they're better with but some people are allergic or just aren't a fan.

Dough
  • 2 1/4 t yeast - 酵母 xiao4mu3
  • <4 c flour - 麵粉 mian4fen3
  • 1 t salt - 鹽 yan2
  • 1/4 c sugar - 糖 tang2
  • 1 egg - 蛋 dan4
  • 1/8 c butter, melted - 奶油 nai3you2
  • 1/4 c water - 水 shui3
  • 3/4 c milk - 牛奶 niu2nai3
Filling
  • butter - 奶油 nai3you2
  • cinnamon - 肉桂粉 rou4gui4 fen3
  • optional: pinch of cloves (to enhance cinnamon), nutmeg (to complement), cardamom (for different flavor)
  • brown sugar - 黑糖 hei1 tang2
  • raisins - 葡萄乾 pu2tao2gan1
  • optional: chopped walnuts - 核桃 he2tao2
  1. Place dough ingredients in bread machine and set to dough cycle.
    Note: The following steps take up to 2 hours, depending on your rising time.
  2. Punch dough down. Flatten/roll out to rectangular shape. 12"x20" or 16"x21" would do.
  3. Spread melted butter on surface followed by the rest of the ingredients. A healthy spread of raisins will do.
  4. Start rolling the dough (from the long side). Be sure to roll tightly so as not to have any air pockets.
  5. Cut the log into 9-12 pieces (depending on the size of your baking dish).
  6. Place in greased pan. Cover and let rise in warm, moist environment until nearly doubled (30 min - 1 hour).
  7. Bake at 180C for 20-25 min or until golden brown.
  8. Serve warm for breakfast or cooled down for a snack!
I brought the dish into class, still warm from the oven. With only 9 pieces in the square dish I used, we had to cut them in half to have enough for everyone (11 people incl the teacher). I think I could have eaten half the dish but held back and ended up with half a roll.

My class continues to be wildly entertaining and I am so grateful for having this teacher and these classmates. Class change period is over, and my class has settled its roster. There was an older American man from Los Angeles trying to get in, but in the end, the school said 10 was the limit for a class. A few others also just peeked their heads in to see if there was room. It's quite a popular class. I feel some concern about the next quarter when I plan to take a month off. The school has changed their policy...instead of letting teachers go at their own pace (with a guideline of 5 days per chapter, 3 days for intensive), they are required to reach and not surpass a certain chapter. I think this will make it more difficult for students in the end and possibly limit our class. So far, I've always been in a class that has gone faster than others -- it's a shame the school is slowing us down.

Sunday, March 09, 2008

The Accidental Diabetic

After talking with Popo for FOUR straight hours yesterday, I went to IKEA which is practically across the street. I bought a 12 cup muffin tin - a bit of a splurge, but for lack of bread pans, I thought a muffin tin would do the trick.

So I decided to use up some old apples by making apple muffins. Only, after 20 min of cooking, they were so light in color, I thought they couldn't possibly be done. I left them in 5 min more, and they looked the same. That's when I realized I forgot to add the sugar! But because I had tripled the amount of apple the original recipe called for, and added some extra spices, they turned out tasting alright.

So here's the version of the recipe I made, without the half cup of sugar called for.

Apple Raisin Muffins - No Sugar Added
These make a nice snack or breakfast. They're a bit like pancakes in a muffin form. Just chock full of apples. Since there's no sugar, you get the sweetness from the apples and raisins and extra flavor from the spices. They bake to a very light color - not a nicely browned muffin like other recipes.

1 c all purpose flour
1/2 c whole wheat flour
2 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
dash of allspice
dash of ginger
1/2 t salt
1 egg
1/2 c low fat milk
1/4 c oil (I used olive, but you could use melted butter or canola or even applesauce)
3 c peeled, chopped sweet apple (most call for tart but for lack of sugar the sweet apples I used did the trick - I used 2 small apples)
1/4 c raisins

  1. In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, spices and salt. (If you wanted to add some sweetness, this is where the sugar would come in.)
  2. Combine the egg, milk and oil. Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Do not over mix!
  3. Fold in the apple and raisins.
  4. Fill 12 greased or lined muffin cups.
  5. Bake at 375F/190C for 20-25 min. Cool for a few minutes before enjoying!

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Ricotta

I had some leftover ricotta and didn't feel like making lasagna. There were just a few spoonfuls missing from the small 15 oz container, so I looked up a standard Ricotta Bread recipe and used all of it. Yum! Here's my version with some slight modifications.

Ricotta Bread

This makes an excellent bread just for eating, but also great sandwich bread. It has a nice, dense texture.

2 t yeast
3 c bread flour
4 T sugar
1 t salt
1-2 t dried Italian herbs
8 t melted butter
2 eggs
6 T milk
10-12 oz ricotta (1 1/4 to 1 1/2 c)

Place items in bread machine in order listed and set it to go. 2 lb (large) loaf, medium crust.

Q3: 1st Day of Class

I just started my 3rd quarter at Shida and had a great first day of class. The teacher is older, speaks quickly (in a natural way), and jokes a lot, making for a very entertaining class. There were 8 of us there today (Ting Zhou was missing b/c he's still in Japan). The others included:
  • Canadian who has a degree in history
  • Guatemalan who is pursuing his master's in TW
  • Japanese woman from north of Tokyo
  • French woman who studied Chinese art history (or something like that)
  • American from Minnesota who studied economics and government, and likes the British accent
  • Indonesian hua qiao (Chinese descent) whose parents also did not speak to him in Chinese when he was growing up
  • Spaniard - hmmm, can't remember any details about him
The teacher joked around about us finding a partner in Taiwan. Since the population growth has slowed down a lot, she was encouraging us to marry locally and start having babies. We are also using the second edition of the book, which has the bopomofo and now two types of pinyin. One is the type commonly used in Taipei and the rest of the world. The other was mandated by the Green party, who will likely only be around for 3 months longer. They've instated a lot of expensive changes that don't seem to have a lot of reason.

The teacher talked a lot about the history as we went through looking at some of the new photographs in the new edition. She was saying in Ch 9, of the beauty pageant picture, that there is no longer a national competition, but just smaller county ones. There was something about the national winner going off to Las Vegas and taking off her clothes and how the TW didn't think that was so great. Also, they no longer wear the "Chinese" style dress - Taiwan is promoting Taiwan culture - except no one knows what that means. For the competition, they started using aboriginal clothing colors (bright blue and red) but it's not characteristic enough of Taiwan.

Another interesting difference between China and Taiwan is married life. Our teacher was saying that in China it's common for the husband to do the cooking and child rearing nowadays and the woman to come home from work and just relax by reading the paper. Since the one child policy created a higher percentage of males, women can be choosier. "Not you, not you, can you cook? ok, you." haha

She ended the class talking about all the slang in Taiwan. When she was a kid, one of the vocab words was new - "bang". When she used it, her mom didn't understand her. This book has a lot of informal type language since the premise is of an American campus. She also talked about current day slang, especially on the computer. 520 (wu3 er4 ling2) means I love you. 3Q (san1 Q) sounds like Thank You. 81 (ba1 yi1) sounds like Bye, so they also use 881 (Bye bye). Orz is a pictograph. The 0 is the head, the r is the arms and the z is the legs. So it's someone bai-bai-ing, ie praying, on the ground.

I've switched back to the 2 hour class and what with all the laughing and interesting tidbits, class just flew by. It also helps that the weather is beautiful again - going to class when it's sunny and coming out it's still sunny.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Birthday Recap

I borrowed my friend Craig's bike. It's a Dahon - which means it folds up so you can take it on the train. If you have a non-folding kind, you either aren't allowed to bring it on the train or are forced to pay an extra full fare - lame! Dahon bikes fold up and come with a traveling case. They fit nicely in the luggage compartment on the trains and the train officials won't give you any hassle. Unfortunately, I forgot to borrow Craig's bag so had to do with some large garbage bags instead.

Tainan
We took the high speed train from Taipei Main to Tainan. From there, we caught the free shuttle into town and got off near the university and started biking around town. I enjoyed seeing a new city - the fourth largest in Taiwan. Once we got to the water, we enjoyed the sun setting. Afterwards we happened upon a street market where I got to buy a variety of eggs - I think they were salted duck eggs, but maybe they were century eggs. Anyways, they were really good - with that yolk consistency that I can gobble up - sort of creamy instead of thick and choking as in a plain boiled egg.

We also made a stop based on the line outside a store. The sit in line was all the way to the road and then some. The take out line was much shorter. So we hopped in there before even knowing what they sold. That's the Taiwan way - follow the line. It turned out to be a good choice - they specialized in jelly dou hua, which is a tofu pudding with small tapioca balls. 安平豆花 An Ping Dou Hua on Anping St.

We wandered around looking for a place to eat dinner. This turned out to be quite tough - there were a lot of mediocre looking places - catering to tourists or chain restaurants. Finally, we went back to an alley near our hostel that had some fresh seafood outside. It turned out to be an excellent choice. Inside were lots of local families and they served us the best squid I've ever had. It was roasted just right so as not to be chewy. We also got a special kind of vegetable (shan cai) that was oh so delicious. (If you want to find it, it's on your way south on Nanmen, near 259, down an alley on the left [east], on the north side of the alley. You can't see the dining room from the street, but it's quite large and has about 10 bottle openers on each wall.)

Tainan City Labour Recreation Centre

261 Nanmen Rd (a full block past 259)
886 6215-0174
They only had a 4 bed room for $1200NT when we arrived. They called another local place that had a room for 2 at $800 NT. We went to look for it but couldn't find it so came back. Then the lady offered us a room with just one large bed for $570. The room was HUGE - big bathroom with tub, TV, refrigerator, extra blankets, couch, desk, etc. It had plenty of room to store our bikes. Hot water is only 6pm-midnight. There's an elevator and Chinese newspapers in the lobby.

Kaohsiung
The next day we rode from Tainan to Kaohsiung. We were mostly on busy roads but eventually got off the highways onto smaller roads and smaller towns which made it more enjoyable. I saw a sign for hand made noodles and we stopped for lunch. I tried a 麻將?麵 ma jiang mian, which was tasty. This was technically brunch, so when we go to the Kaohsiung train station we stopped for lunch. We were biking looking for the tunnel to the other side of the station where the buses are, and happened to hear a lot of noise coming out of a nice, simple looking restaurant. A couple of large round tables were filled with family/friends getting drunk. It looked like just the place to try - filled with locals. They did not disappoint. We asked for their special dishes and got this beef one - oh so tasty, along with a tofu dish and rice. Yum.

The tunnel entrance happened to be hidden by some parked cars just opposite the restaurant, so it was lucky we stopped to eat. We hopped to the other side to get some bus tickets. The first place wanted to charge full fare extra for each bike (even though they fold). So we walked to the next one where they said we could put it in the bus storage for free (as expected).

Kending/Kenting
We got dropped right in the middle of the night market and made our way to the Catholic Church just off the road. Since we had bikes they put us on a first floor room to make it easier for us. $800 for one night. The first room was quite large with 2 double beds and a large bathroom. We decided to stay another night instead of biking with all of our gear - but the second night they moved us across to a smaller room with 4 twin beds and a shower that gave us hot water only once. However, the room suited, as it was right by the night market but without any of the noise.


We spent the next day biking all around the park, including to the southern most tip of Taiwan. There is a park that charges 40 NT entrance fee, but access to the tip is just a bit further up the road down a long bricked path - and free. I went to the park last year with Tuyet when we were on our tour of Kending. You can walk along paved roads lined with grass fields, see an old light house, and then look off cliff edges. However, if you've got a bike, it's better to just bike to the tip and then around the rest of the (free) park. At the top of one particularly grueling hill there was a truck with a load of coconuts. A nice reward for hard work. It wouldn't have been so tough except for the strong winds that Kending is famous for. They come in gusts and nearly blow you off balance unless you're quick to react. Luckily there isn't much traffic, so you don't have to worry about being blown into a car that often.

On the NW side of our ride we stopped at the natural fires. Tuyet and I stopped here last year and had some eggs and di gua. This year there was still a man there selling food illegally, but the stones that had formed a circular pit around the fires were now all in heaps around individual fires. It had quite a different feel, but was still fun to witness. Apparently, there are natural gasses trapped underground that come out bursting into flame.

Reverse
We made our way back to Taipei by doing the whole thing in reverse save the ride between Tainan and Kaohsiung. You just wave down the bus on the main road in Kenting if the ticket sellers haven't opened yet and pay on the bus. We rode from Kaohsiung Main Station to the High Speed Station (even though there is a shuttle) so that we could pick up breakfast/lunch on the way. And we high sped it back to Taipei to make it in time for disc.

Overall a great weekend! I'm ready to get my own Dahon -- except that there's a wait list and even if I order now may not get one til June! Til then, I'll try to keep borrowing other's.