Anping Museum EXPLOSION!!!

Friday March 1^st, 2013

Well, I’m for sure going to be late to school considering I’m on the opposite side of the country! XD No today’s not a holiday but my host father talked to my school and got permission for me to be pardoned, which is how we were able to go on this trip in the first place. Thank you Tatung letting me off! :D

Tada! Breakfast consisting of these plus soymilk hiding in the top left corner. The far right is exactly what it looks like, a wrap. The middle is white radish cake to be used with the sauce over yonder. Lastly is a soft Asian tortilla with egg and a snip-it of veggies inside. All of that together is very filling!

One thing can’t be denied, I have gotten fantastic at falling asleep in the car. Give me five minutes tops and I’ll be out cold. It’s a great skill to have when it comes to catching up on rest. ;)

Today we traveled to Tainan, the south of Taiwan (“nan” means south in Chinese). Half our time was spent in the district of “Anping” where various types of museums and landmarks seemed to spring up every which way. First was the Anping Treehouse, a once abandoned salt storage that was taken over by Banyan trees. No seriously, it was like claimed by the Banyan trees. XD You can find roots squirming through even the smallest cracks to completing dominating the roof.

The walkway way here looks as if you’re passing through a mini forest. That’s how awesome these trees are!

This kinda looks like the tree is doing an avalanche across the roof doesn’t it?

Ok, come on. You gotta admit this looks flipping cool!

This doo-hickey was fun. A two-person pedal water wheel thing. Why was it there? No idea. Why not? My host mother and I did it first she being on the right and I on the left. I pedaled with ease but host mother was struggling to get a rotation going. She panted, “No fair! I got the bad one! Switch with me!” So we swapped spots, began pedaling aaaaaand same results. XD Caused a good laugh among us.

Next museum was a quick Chinese/Dutch culture whatnot exhibition with things like housing, government, education, etc. My favorite part was the ship section with miniature models and sailing tidbits.

Following that was a short Chinese calligraphy display. Here’s several of them. The one on the right looks as if a kid scribbled all over the paper to me (that’s from an untrained eye’s perspective). XD I like the ones further left more, the last one being really interesting to observe.

The Anping crew of the day! Host father, host mother and host mother’s brother’s wife.

Lunch was filled with surprises. We went to a little shop with short stools and ate four different dishes.

This was glutinous rice with shrimp popping up every now and then in its pudding-like texture.

A soup with a fish apparently called a milkfish.

Something similar to the leaf wrapped rice I’ve shown y’all before but with differences.

The last one was a medicinal soup. All the dishes were tasty and I was satisfied afterwards even though each small dish was divided among the four of us. But woe is me. What I wasn’t told was those foods were only the appetizers. Are you picking up my foreshadowing? XD

For the main course we ate dishes including shrimp and the famous oysters in Tainan.

The two plates on the left are some kind of fried seafood whatnot. In the front is the shrimp one and the back having oysters. Both are very delicious.

I can’t seem to properly name or describe these creations other than seafood, egg, pancake thing-ma-whats-it. Again, shrimp in front and oyster in the back. Still very tasty.

Were we done with food for the afternoon? Nope. Not at all. XD We then walked down a narrow market street. First we stopped by this friendly man’s stand of a dessert creation. These are basically made out of condensed rice with some ingredients like taro, peanuts, etc. added. I can’t say I was too fond of it because I couldn’t taste much of anything even though I sampled quite a few.

Next was “coffin toast.” Yes, a coffin. XD That is a clever way to refer to a hollowed out piece of bread with ingredients placed inside that’s covered with a thin slice of bread. The coffin was quite tasty. ;P

It’s…ALIIIIIIIIIVE!!!! Liquid nitrogen is so cool! That’s most likely what was used here to make a flavored ice.

White would be milk flavor and the yellow being passion fruit. Yummy stuff even cooler with the liquid nitrogen effect. XD

There was a little section with shops that all seemed to relate to the famous Sword-Lion Square of Chinese culture. My host parents sweetly bought me the below souvenirs, one explaining the origin of these symbolic figures I inquired about. “(Navy) soldiers would put their lion-faced shields on the main gates of their houses and inserted the swords crosswise in the lion’s mouth when they came home. The thieves knew that the houses belonged to soldiers and dared not to intrude in. The habitants saw this and imitated it in order to protect themselves from being harmed.” Fascinating! :D

Would I call my host mother’s brother’s wife my aunt-in-law? I think? Either way, she visited an eggroll stand to purchase the sweets. I don’t know why but the process of making them intrigues me greatly. If you would direct your attention to the woman on the left please. She plops two scoops of a batter onto the machine in front of her and then closes the lid. Less than twenty seconds later she lifts the lid to reveal a perfectly flattened and cooked pastry sheet. The next step is to take a metal rod and roll up the pastry into a roll then setting it aside to cool. It was…so…cool! :D

Right next to the eggroll stand was a tiny little cart of iced coffee. My host mother purchased two cups, one for me and the other to me shared with everyone else. See, they’re not much of coffee drinkers but they know I am. XD The first few sips of the iced coffee was great, a bit too sugary but good. But then I soon came to the realization, the cup was 80% ice, 15% sugar and 5% coffee. Not to my liking especially since it was a rip off being 50NT when it should be 20NT for something like that. But life goes on and is no big deal. ;)

Our following touring was at a fort once Dutch then overtaken by the Japanese. Take note, the Dutch did used to have power in Taiwan same as the Japanese did. So influences of both cultures can be seen throughout Taiwan. From what my host father told me, the Dutch built the fort but the Japanese built the white tower, both shown here.

A view from the white tower.

On the ground lies a Dutch well surrounded by a semi-circle brick wall. Not sure why but I find this strangely beautiful.

One of my favorite pictures of the day! The tree and cannon combination just attracts me to no end!

Therefore I wanted to get a shot with them. Whoo! My scenic loves!

Why not throw in a pretty cloud photo as well? ;)

The car was then taken to Chihkan Tower, formerly known as Fort Provinta. This was also a Dutch fort built in 1653 that went through many rulers. Even so it retained its rich architecture.

Each slate has some kind of story written on it. Don’t ask me what because they’re carved in Chinese characters, some of which are hard to distinguish. XD

And randomly, Rotary emblem on a sign! Picture time with the organization I’m forever grateful to!

Being in Tainan, where my host brother is taking college classes at, we went to see him! But it turned out more than just seeing. We stopped by his dorm and waited for him to pack a backpack of essentials. Seems like he will be spending the weekend with us back at host uncle/aunt-in-law’s house! Yay! His dorm definitely had a feel of college student about it. Just think, soon that’ll be me. Oh geez-la-weez!

After all of us piled in the car, we drove around Michael’s college campus, supposedly one of the best universities in Taiwan. A fun part was the volleyball courts, which were filled with teams. Michael said a big tournament was going on between all volleyball players around Taiwan who are studying to become doctors. As he put it, all the future doctors were right there. XD

Dinner followed the same pattern as lunch. I thought we were eating dinner when we were just eating the appetizer. Even when consuming just a little to taste each food, I already felt full. Goodness me. XD

BEST PLATING EVER! I LOVE IT! Not sure what its name is but the closest English word I have to it is dumpling. The outside is very dense rice with meat and shrimp inside. Regardless of my lack of a correct name or good description, this dish is apparently famous in Tainan.

An inside look at this unknown creation. I really liked the sauce whatever it may be. XD

Then a soup with fish balls and Asian churro bits. Sorry for calling it ‘Asian churros’ but that’s the best name I have for it. An unsweetened Asian churro. :P

This guy is famous throughout Taiwan as the man who basically took back Taiwan…from the Dutch I think? I believe his name is Zheng Chenggong. Pretty statue…love the horsey. ;)

The real dinner was in three parts. First a half crispy, half soft noodles topped with veggies and meat. Btw, the noodles are hiding underneath. ;) They were very interesting in the texture department and pretty good in the taste section as well.

Beef rice but in a form I’ve never seen before. However the heck they made the beef, I really liked it.

You see oil chicken before you.

Michael told me that the owner of the restaurant was from mainland China and married a Taiwanese girl. With this union came the combination of two delicious types of food into a fantastic food child. It was definitely an enjoyable meal!

We passed a high school at 9:00 and students were just getting out. That’s right, at 9:00PM their classes end. That’s from 8:00 in the morning to 9:00 at night. Holy goodness gracious almighty that’s too long! Michael then said that some get out at 6:00PM…only to attend cram school. I could never do that. Too insane.

To finish the feasting of the day, we grabbed an ice dessert also famous in Tainan. Its basically shaved ice with sugar sauce squirted on and ingredients plopped on like almond tofu, grass jelly, miniature tapioca balls, taro and more. The taste was quite good and I savored the flavor as if it was my last. I wasn’t sure if I would have this again in Taipei and I know Texas 99% doesn’t have it. My host family joked that I should start a shop in Houston and instantly get famous and rich because many Asians reside there whom would love this treat. XD Not sure about that but I think I could recreate this back in Texas. After all it’s just separate ingredients all piled in together. Doesn’t require much culinary skill at all. :P

With my stomach feeling a little too full and round for comfort I decided to ask permission to use the beckoning treadmill in the room I sleep in. They readily gave it and soon I was chugging away. Lemme tell you, nothing beats the feeling of running to an energizing song, getting hot and sweaty then taking a cooling fresh shower. I’m alive again! And I limited the weight gain from all of today’s consumptions to boot! XD At this point, I don’t regret a couple more pounds if it means eating special food such as famous dishes of Tainan that I’ll never be able to have again any time soon. And I’m glad I did. ^_^

I’ll admit the shower frightened me a bit. It didn’t have any kind of curtain or tub, only a drain underneath the sink. So it felt like I was flooding the bathroom floor and getting everything wet but that’s just the style. I now realize why the toilet and sink are sometimes wet for the reason that someone will point the hand shower hose over in that direction during their shower. Quite a different type of shower!

Ok, good night my peeps! Dream pleasant dreams!