From Tourist To Local!

Thursday April 4^th, 2013

Originally I only knew today contained two events, a planned breakfast with friends and meeting host father at a restaurant in the afternoon. Other than that I had no idea what the rest of the day would contain. I went in with an empty plate and came out with a mountain load of delightful surprises! :D

As I mentioned, breakfast was eaten outside with friends at the famous breakfast near Daqiaotou MRT among most exchange students thanks to Akiko. When with her first host family, Akiko went to this shop very often when her host parents were busy and she wanted to get out of the house. It is most famous for its ‘dan bing’ otherwise known as egg pancake. The ‘pancake’ is a thicker, softer tortilla fried on the grill with egg and another ingredient. Such choices can be bacon, cheese, corn, etc. Once I’ve been here before and loved it. I was really hoping to come again before returning to America, so I’m happy my wish came true! ^_^

Our breakfast group of six lovely ladies! On the far left to the right we have Abbie (California), Ellie (Germany), Will (The Netherlands/Holland), Erin (Canada), Mariko (Colorado) and that Texan chica. :P

The meal began with a yummy cup of soymilk and one plate of bacon dan bing. Squirted on top is a special sauce that goes great with dan bing. I have no clue what the sauce actually is but you undeniably NEED to use it to hype up the deliciousness to a new level!

Not quite satisfied, I spilt a corn dan bing with Mariko. Keep in mind it was about 10:30 when we got our food so breakfast and lunch hunger were intermixing for me. :P

This is apparently some inside joke I missed out on. These chicas have taken a liking to connecting as many straws as possible to create a jumbo lengthened one. Makes a great three-way mustache! XD

Leaving the shop roughly around 11:45, I still had plenty of time before meeting up with host father anywhere from 2:00-2:30. The location was the distance of 1.5 subway stations away, short enough to travel by foot but long enough to get a nice brisk walk in. So I headed out along a main street thinking it would link with another main road, which I could take to the restaurant. It is located extremely close to Tatung’s campus so I knew exactly how to get there if I found Minquan West Road MRT Station (the station I go to everyday for high school).

Thinking the road I walked down would lead to said subway station, I started doubting myself when I walked for 10+ minutes and saw no familiar landmarks. After coming to a fork in the road, I stopped and asked someone for directions. Apologizing, they said they weren’t Taiwanese so they didn’t know where it was. Luckily I stumbled upon a map that cleared everything up. See, originally I thought the road I walked down would lead straight from one subway station to the next (east). In reality, the main road I took went at a 90 degree angle (south). Aren’t I brilliant? :P Truthfully I liked this mistake because it gave me an opportunity to walk more as well as pass by the Daiso shop branch I’ve visited before.

I ducked inside Daiso as well as a stationary/general store for some leisure browsing to pass the time. One thing left with me, a cute heart shaped ‘pancake/egg maker.’ With the cooking/baking things I’ve bought so far in Taiwan, my food is going to be SUPER ADORABLE! ;D

With time still a plenty to kill and back on the correct road, an idea popped into my mind. Something I’ve been curious to try is a fairly new coffee shop near my school called “Gloria Jean’s Coffees.” I actually watched its construction progress, taking place sometime at the end of 2012. I know I mentioned it on my Taffy blog before but that was a while back. Anywho I saw this as the perfect opportunity to give it a shot since I had nothing else to do and was in no rush.

I see this everyday when walking to school (a section of the café). It’s about time I tried it!

The environment was instantly refreshing being relaxing in color (love the orange, black and white combo :P), open in space and a relief from the warm weather outside. All the menu choices had both Chinese and English titles, a definite plus. A ‘green tea macadamia’ option caught my interest in name as well as being specially advertised in a poster as “Nature’s Best.” The hardest decision was whether or not to have it cold as a smoothie or hot as a latte. I came with the intent of having coffee but after becoming hot from my long walk, I settled on the smoothie version to cool me down. Though I thought it would just be a smoothie, there’s an 80% chance that it was a frappuccino (which is still a smoothie but with a tad bit of coffee hiding in the mix :P).

First you order at the register (to the right) and then wait on the left for your order. While waiting for the baristas to make the drinks, there is a thoughtful placement of a pitcher of water and paper cups for the customers. It’s just a small thing but something that makes this place just a bit more special.

Furthermore the employees were outstanding. Take your definition of friendly and multiple it by five and that should describe these people. The amount actually caught me off guard because I was in a daze. I struggled to catch their Chinese, translate it, think of the corresponding Chinese response and say it correctly. Even a question as simple as “do you want whipped cream on top” got a fumbling reply from me of: “有。用。我用。要。請給我” (Have. Use. I use. Want. Please give me.) XD My state of bewilderment just had a frenzy of bad Chinese. Whoops. XD But the people were very accommodating and forgiving. ^_^

This café had two floors, the first for ordering and some seating while the second floor was entirely dedicated to tables, chairs, lounges, etc. There was free Wi-Fi, lots of refreshing open space and even slow sexy sounding chill music some as strange but melodious as a saxophone’s “London Bridge is falling down.” XD I found myself a cozy corner and settled comfortably down with my icy drink.

Watching the gentleman make my drink, I noticed he filled a cup brimming with ice cubes. This automatically raised a red flag in my mind with premature skepticism of it being too watered-down. He then filled the same cup with milk (real looking milk) until it reached 5/8 of the cup’s height, mind you it still had all the ice cubes. Afterwards he dumped the cup’s content into a blender with a small amount of a green substance, the green tea macadamia flavoring of course. Blend that bad boy up, squirt some whipped cream on top (after my blunder of fail Chinese) and finally drizzle on a bit of caramel.

Even though I was still doubting the drink’s turn out, I got slapped immediately in the face with the first sip. HOLY SHIZ-NIC-ITS THIS DRINK WAS SHAMAZING! :D It wasn’t watered-down at all! Nope, instead bursts of green tea and macadamia flavors graced the taste-buds as eager new friends. The combo of the two flavors was brilliant as well. Never have I heard of green tea macadamia before but now thanks to this drink, I’m a total fan and would love to reencounter it. Even when I Googled it, there are very few recipes with such a combination. Perhaps I’ll set forth as a pioneer and try to recreate a cookie version or heck the actual smoothie in the USA. ;D

I easily killed time at Gloria Jean’s Coffees by slowly savoring this splendid drink as well as taking advantage of their free Wi-Fi. Not only was it free but it was very fast and compatible with my borrowed Taiwan phone. Numerous times I have tried to link to free Wi-Fi servers and didn’t get an ounce of connection despite being close to the source and few people using it. Therefore it was a relief to pass up the need to battle out Wi-Fi connection. This was my first time in months to connect with my phone. My mailbox exploded with multitudes of e-mails. XD

Truthfully, Gloria Jean’s Coffees is pretty much like Starbucks just with a different color scheme and variations in the menu. Both are fairly pricey, both make similar drinks based on what I had, both have Wi-Fi, etc. This being said I won’t visit Gloria Jean’s Coffee often (if even returning at all) but I’m happy to have tried it and found fondness in it. :)

Leisurely enjoying the drink and Wi-Fi, I came across a short document that covered popular memes, one of them being the “Do Not Want” meme. I learned it originated from a Chinese bootleg Star Wars movie with Darth Vader’s subtitles saying the ridiculous “do not want” instead of the original “NOOOOOOOO!” I KNOW WHY IT HAPPENED! :D See, Chinese doesn't have the simple ‘yes’ and ‘no’ options that languages like English and Spanish has. It’s more complicated but one way to say no is with “不要” which literally translates to “no want.” There you go! The subtitles were indeed correct and that’s how the meme was born. There’s some fun education for you meme-savy-peeps. ;)

Exiting the lovely café, rain was coming down. Unleashing my trusty umbrella, I made my way over a nearby intersection from Tatung campus where I was to meet up with host father. Still having thirty minutes to kill, I ducked into the petite-sized “Caves Bookstore” for a peek. I’ve been there once before when buying “The Hobbit” but didn’t browse through the content since it was a quick in and out maneuver. This time I unhurriedly looked through their selection, which was pretty fair. The food section interested me the most because I wanted to see if they had any Taiwanese English/Chinese cookbooks I hadn’t seen yet. Turned out the answer was no but above the cookbooks was a shelf that made me wish I had a bulk of money and more weight capacity in my luggage. A future nutritionist’s book equivalent of a candy shop! Oh Lord there were so many books I wanted to dive into straightaway! Some I did indeed read snip-its of and all were so riveting! This is how I can tell being a dietitian is a good choice for me if books covering the area fascinate me so. ;) Later at night, I looked up several book titles on Barnes & Nobles’s website and all were available at the same price as Taiwan’s. I want to read them all! There’s a sound gift idea for Andrea. ;P

Diagonally across the intersection lay the large, fancy-looking restaurant to meet at. Originally I thought we were having a late lunch or something with other people but was corrected when I joined my host father. What happened was several of his Rotary club’s members were having a welcome lunch for Braden’s visiting father and grandfather. They only wanted the guests and a few members so I was understandably not part of it. Actually I’m glad of it because I was still full from the late breakfast and green tea macadamia drink.

Still, I was kindly given a bit of their leftovers since I arrived at the end of the meal. There was a small cup of noodles and a red bean bun of an odd design. It looks really weird, like buttocks and an outy-bellybutton with pink and white coloring. Tasty but strange to look at. XD

Once dispersed from the dining table, host mother, father, Braden, Braden’s visiting family and I squeezed into the car and drove off to do some touring. First was seeing the Confucius Temple, a place my host family and I have previously seen but not yet by Braden or his family. It’s comprised of a restored temple (destroyed by the Japanese years ago) and educational stations of the six Confucius arts: rites, music, archery, chariot-riding, calligraphy and computation. I actually quite enjoyed revisiting there because we didn’t fully complete our exploration last time due to time constraints. Plus last time I was feeling physically bad so it sucked some enjoyment out of the Confucius Temple. This time was completely different though! Alert, happy, healthy and curious, I had a terrific time! ^_^

This would be the restored temple in the heart of the Confucius Temple area.

Braden, his father and grandfather taking a picture in front of the temple.

A chariot steering video game being braved by Braden. It was really simple but sometimes could get difficult due to the game design. For example, getting game over when your horses never touched water or ran into poles. Eh, no biggie though because the game coaxed out smiles regardless.

An activity I didn’t see last time because this station (the calligraphy area) didn’t fit into our limited time. It provides various Chinese characters and takes you step by step showing you all the strokes in order to paint its calligraphy. It was great fun! ^_^

Following the Confucius Temple (more like a museum), we went practically next-door to a real working temple. There we exposed Braden’s family to the Chinese temple routine. One such activity was the red wooden fortune telling banana. I thought it was a simple, ask a question to the Chinese gods and get a yes or no just like a magic-8-ball. Well I was mistake. It turns out to be a more complicated process, one that I don’t yet fully understand. It’s something like needing to get three “yes” answers in a row, in pick a stick from among a barrel full than acquiring a pink fortune telling paper that corresponding with the stick. Here is Mr. Joe trying out his luck with the wooden fortune telling banana. Mr. Darrel (the grandfather) did it too and had more luck than Mr. Joe. XD When you don’t get three “yes” answers in a row I guess you just have to keep throwing them down until you do…maybe. That’s still on the cultural jury. XD

Enchanting roof attribute with stunning colors and designs! Though I can’t tell if the dragon is breathing out fire, wind or just throwing up a rainbow. Either way, I like the color choices. XD

Host parents were describing the story behind this painting to us starting with “there was a girl that dressed as a girl to go to the army.” Not needing anymore information, I informed them that Disney made a movie out of it called “Mulan.” A beloved childhood Disney movie amongst many Americans, here’s the true Chinese Mulan in painting format!

Then they bought two plastic fortune telling banana charms, one for Braden’s father and one for me. They ran us through the process to bless the objects in the traditional Chinese manner. First you pray to the Chinese gods by introducing yourself, where were from (since we’re foreigners) and asking for prosperity and luck. Afterward you turn around the draw three quick air circles with the object above burning incense. As a Christian, when I must pray like that, it really is just to my God and not the Chinese religion’s multitude of gods. Nonetheless I still respect their differences as y’all know I do and still did the blessing process just for the experience though it doesn’t hold any meaning for me as it would a Buddhism, Daoism (etc.) follower.

While in the car heading to our next destination, parent’s family made the comment that Taiwan as sooooo much food. They had only been in this country for less than two days and already were overwhelmingly bombarded with food from generous Taiwanese. Since they were going to be here for about a week, people were trying to expose them to as much Taiwanese food as possible as well as accomplishing their goal of stuffing their guests as a sign of good hosting. Hearing it from them really brought out the fact that most of Taiwanese culture is pretty much based on food. Food, food, food and more food. If you ever come to Taiwan, prepare to eat A LOT! XD

Tonight I was sort of a translator between my host parents and Braden’s family. Though my host parents can speak English well enough, there were some misunderstandings between both parties. Sometimes Braden’s family asked difficult questions and sometimes my host parents didn't know quite how to translate some things. Therefore Andrea to the rescue! At least, to the rescue as best as my abilities allowed me to. XD Being a translator, even if only for a few times, was quite delightful as it provided satisfaction from helping people as well as mental reinforcement for countering thoughts that my Chinese is bad. Not saying my Chinese is good, because I think it’s only ok but it’s not downright terrible. ;) Translating is just fun period! :D

Located in northern Taipei, we stopped by an observatory deck reaching 116 meters that looked down upon the surrounding area. You couldn’t see much because it was quite foggy outside but could still distinguish closer landmarks. Four meters above that was a rotating restaurant. Here you could enjoy coffee or a meal as the circular sitting area slowly turned around the tower. Apparently it would take one hour for a complete turn. Yeah, it went slowly but it still rotated nonetheless. I proved this by placing one food on the still floor and the other across the line onto the rotating floor. Perhaps a minute or two later and I was struggling to stay standing upright as the rotating floor foot crossed over the still one in a pretzel, trying to knock me off balance. That was entertaining for sure. XD

Next was a short trip to my host family’s weekend apartment in Bali to see Guandu Bridge on the roof though it wasn’t very clear since the fog made one’s vision hazy. We had an enjoyable coffee and tea break in the lounge. Mmm, coffee. It’s nice to have a good old coffee without being dumped with sugar. Then the chit-chat going along with the drinks is always lovely too. ^_^

For the final objective of the day, we went around Huaxi Night Market (a.k.a. the place where I ate snake before). It was basically to expose Braden and his family to more famous Taiwanese food. They were in need of bigger stomachs for all the available options. XD

First was pig’s blood cake. It came on a stick and was covered with a dust and leaf toppings. I want to say the dust is like the peanut shavings I’ve had with the peanut ice cream burrito but the pig’s blood cake’s dust was not the same. I had one bite of my host father’s and found it to be anything by sweet. I’m not really a fan of pig’s blood cake so I didn’t investigate further into the food’s characteristics.

A must for foreigners new to Taiwan and a personal favorite of mine, stinky tofu was in order! ;D Following my nose, I located the fragrant food pretty easily. This kind was the good stuff! Fried tofu with a hole on top and liquid inside and of course with pickled cabbage and carrots on the side. Mmm, so yummy! I don’t think Braden’s family were fans but then again it’s something completely new to a stomach just barely starting to get adjusted to Taiwan’s food.

Another famous dish but not exactly helpful with adjusting stomachs was duck’s blood soup. It wasn’t purely solidified duck blood because it included various other things like meat, tofu, pork ball, mushroom, cabbage and more. This dish was actually new for me as well and I only had a little. The level of spice was mild but there was a definite kick to its contribution. Not bad but not quite matching my personal tastes.

Further down the night market street perpendicular to the covered market street (where the snakes are), we grabbed the thick Taiwanese sausage with rice bun and herb condiments thinking Braden’s family would like it better. Braden’s grandfather wasn't eating anything that night because he was just that full. Braden and his father on the other hand were eating but in smaller quantities so they could taste more. My host parents accidently made the mistake of ordering four sausages instead of one or two (three for each of Braden’s family and one to share between us). Realizing the mess up too late, Braden’s family got two sausages in a bag as takeout. You can’t escape the yummy sausage! >:D

Next was a place you have to go to if you visit Huaxi Night Market, to eat snake! It was both a request from Braden personally and a bonus experience for his father (since the grandfather wasn’t up for food). They got the full set this time, which included the Chinese medicine snake meat soup, variety of snakey drinks and two snake pills. What was different from mine was that there was two more different shot glasses and one larger cup of red liquid. I don’t know what the shot glasses were (I steered clear of those for avoiding alcohol reasons) but I knew the red liquid. Snake blood! The tray was entirely for the Pennsylvanian father and son but they let me try a sip of the snake blood. I can’t really recall the taste therefore meaning it wasn’t bad or good nor had alcohol in it. I’m glad I can say I’ve completed my snake-eating encounter with the topper of plasma of serpent! Whoo! ;D

Close by the snake restaurant was a bubble tea shop that we stopped at for introducing Braden’s father to bubble milk tea. As they were about to order, I noticed a peculiar menu item of taro bubble milk tea. Not knowing how it was I asked my host father if he ever had it before. A reply of “no” and taro bubble milk tea was the second half of the order. XD Turns out this drink was very delicious! I loved the perceptible taro taste in this famous Taiwanese drink and savored every sip. Though it could’ve done with a tad bit less sugar just because it was really sweet. Not as sweet as Braden’s bubble milk tea though. Woah that thing was like an exploding sugar volcano straight from CandyLand! Man, 100% sweetness was just too strong! It’s like every diabetics worst nightmare. XD

For the final food of the night, host mother eagerly led us to a shaved ice place for two bowls of the same type. An assortment of Taiwanese ingredients all piled on top of snow-cone-like shaved ice. Toppings included red bean, peanut, taro, mocha, green beans and a couple things I don’t know. It was pretty good and in my opinion the peanuts and red beans were the best. Taro can be often lacking in flavor and the same goes for this type of mochi. Pretty good overall though.

Before concluding the night we went to Longshan Temple to show our new friends. It was thankfully clear of the insane crowd I encountered during my first visit and we could leisurely view its architecture.

Dude, I really am a fan of Chinese temple roofs aren’t I? XD Plus this picture’s angle contents and lighting are so cool together! :D

I think, think being the keyword, that I’m…I’m…I’m…LOSING WEIGHT! :D Unless it’s my imagination or I’m just used to tighter clothing but I think my clothes feel more comfortable. Once again I can contentedly wear the smallest jeans I brought to Taiwan that I’ve been avoiding when it got unpleasantly tight those months ago. MAJOR SCORE! :D Though I know Taiwan has declared, “Not on my watch!” and is forming a plan as I type this. XD But seriously guys, if I’m truly losing weight and reverting back to my original size, that would be such an accomplishment and I would thank the Lord for the blessing! If I manage to achieve my weight when first setting foot on Taiwanese soil, I will cry tears of joy and throw a party in celebration! ;D

Looking back on today’s food consumption, it really is a strange line-up. Just take a glimpse at this weirdness:

Breakfast:

-Nature Valley Fruit & Nut Bar (at the house)

Brunch:

-Bacon dan bing

-1/2 corn dan bing

Lunch:

-Green tea macadamia smoothie (or frappuccino whichever it was)

-Small cup of rice noodles

-Small red bean strange looking pastry

Teatime:

-Cup of coffee

Dinner:

-Tiny bite of pig’s blood cake

-One square of stinky tofu and pickled cabbage

-Small cup of duck blood soup

-Small bite of rice bun sausage

-Sip of snake’s blood

-Shared taro bubble milk tea

-Shared shaved ice

I still can’t tell whether or not that line-up is really bad or pretty good or just neutral, especially if combined with all the walking done today. It probes at my dietitian curiosity. XD I believe I will end up really loving a nutritionist job. ;)

Good day to y’all! Toodles! ^_^