Thursday May 2nd, 2013
Something of a surprise but we have homemade tea eggs! They
are just as tasty as the ones at the convenient store since there’s not an
outstanding difference to me. I snatched one myself when host grandmother
didn’t wake up yet. Later she did arise but I had to leave for school.
Therefore she quickly handed me a bag with three little Taiwanese flaky round
cake things. Y’all have seen these doo-hickies before but I still don’t know
the English term for them. Heck, the Chinese term eludes me right now. XD
The inside, which I believe has green onions as fillings.
That’s my guess anyway. ;P
Today was the day! I finally went to 7-Eleven to try a
curious section I’ve seen all these months but never ate. That’s due to lacking
the knowledge of how it works. XD Teacher helped me out with some questions
concerning it so I at least had an idea of what to do. As best as I can tell,
it’s a close equivalent to a hot pot except that the food is already cooked. It
would be a shame to leave Taiwan and not at least give it one shot. The
ingredient selection is on the main counter with noodles and sauces underneath.
First you grab a red bowl and lid to use, well obviously,
for placing the food inside. The selection divided into two containers, the
right being normal and the left being spicy.
Options cycle what looks to me as processed sausage and fish, some in the form
of balls, cubes and so forth. There were so many choices, all of which were
unfamiliar to me that I just picked a few that looked most appetizing. Sure,
there’s a sign below that labels out each food and their price but, come on,
don’t except my Chinese to be that good. XD
Once you’ve transferred the desired food into your bowl with
tongs then take a ladle and scoop soup from the same container to add to your
bowl. It’s just the same liquid that the ingredients are submerged in. Noodles
would be the next step but I voluntarily nixed that and went straight to check
out. For five separate ingredients, it cost me $57NT total ($2US). That seems
like an ok price but nothing cheap for Taiwan’s standards.
This was my final bowl. The four ingredients to the right
were from the normal container, as well as the soup, but the egg was taken from
the spicy container. I wanted an egg but only the spicy section offered them
and figured it wouldn’t make much difference.
A stick with three fish balls. At least I think they’re fish
balls. They’re pretty condensed but not bursting with flavor. It has a modest
taste though agreeable.
Something else I guess to be of fish relation.
Fish…rectangular prism? It follows the same basic description as the above fish
balls.
Do I really need to show a picture of a normal hard-boiled
egg? No, everyone is a big boy or girl now. ;P The only thing to remark is its fieriness.
Though it came from the spicy container, I tried to drain any spiced liquid
from its surface. The inside of the egg was completely ordinary but the outside
still had speckles of bright orange droplets. I didn't taste any difference but
my lips touched the substance and caught fire for a bit. Whoo! That stuff packs
a punch even upon touch!
This was very curious. It seems to be a lump of meat (much
like a fish ball with more character) wrapped in soft cabbage. Whatever it was,
it was delicious! Tis my favorite out of the five chosen, most likely because
the combined flavors were outgoing and provided more savoring consumption
pleasure.
Another strange thing to describe. There’s two main parts:
meat and a vegetable like cabbage. Let’s get creative for a moment. Imagine two
short mushrooms with really thick stems. Have the stems face each other and
squash them together so they merge with a sliver of space between their top
hats, if you will. ;P Now fill that space with the vegetable as if it was a
frilly lace. That’s what the shape is like. Weird huh? But interesting! Tasty
too!
The soup was good but I stopped drinking before all was
gone. I was too full to finish it. Just five ingredients without noodles or the
normal amount of soup and I was more than satisfied. Twas a yummy meal as a
whole but I really wonder what exactly the food consists of. I’m 88% sure it’s
mostly meat and fish but the question is, fake processed or real? The answer
would determine healthy or not. Yeah, no idea of the nutritional value but
that’s fine. I finally tried this experience, enjoyed it and am happier for it!
^_^
Tatung high school had P.E. class that tired me out,
followed by some Mother’s Day thingie in the 9th floor
auditorium/basketball court. Two hours long, students did various things like
charades, Asian version of ‘Simon Says,’ calling their mothers on speaker and
bringing up several real Moms for their son to rub their shoulders and wash
their hands. None were very invigorating. Btw, Mother’s Day is the on the same
date in Taiwan as it is in America.
The Asian ‘Simon Says’ was taking two signs, one green and
one red, that reminded me of a hand stop sign. A person then rapidly speaks
Chinese commands for bringing up or putting down a sign, one in each hand. If
you incorrectly flinch, like in ‘Simon Says,’ you’re out. Looked fun to play
but I would automatically fail if I tried. Someone would have to teach me the
Chinese first. XD
Students calling their mothers was a bit of a fail. A wire
was plugged into a phone so the mom’s voice would project through the speakers
for everyone to hear. The student would basically call and say their thanks to
their mother with the finishing line of “我愛你” (I love you). I
found this strange because Taiwanese rarely ever say “I love you” to anyone,
not even family members. One person admitted to me that it was way too bizarre
for her to tell her parents that. A definite culture difference! Anyway, when
students were randomly selected from a box, over half of them had fail calls.
Some would go to voice-mail and some would connect but the phone didn’t work to
allow them to speak. Because of that mishap, the mother’s didn’t hear anything
and after a while, just hung up. Technical difficulties for sure. XD
A trip back to the
Konica store and viola! Printed photos were promptly given to me! YESSSSSSS!
FINALLY WE HAVE SUCCESS! The pictures turned out really well even though some
of the photos had poorer quality (from taking the picture, not the printing).
Now I nearly have my temporary host family’s photo album complete! It’s really
satisfying to know there’s an easy, close and reliable place to print out
photos. When I get around to it, my current host family’s album should be a
breeze then! ;D
Back at the house,
here’s part of dinner. First off, this is what our homemade tea eggs look like.
They are heavily bombarded in black tea leaves, are they not? XD You can barely
make them out underneath the leaves and above the black liquid.
It created a remarkable
outcome. The grid crack pattern was there all right but there were several
colors of brown around the egg, even black. It all depends on how the
particular egg was soaked. This one has a dark black bottom, light section with
the crack pattern and a chocolate brown on the side. If there was a greater
exposure to the liquid and leaves, the darker the color will be. Obviously the
black bottom had the most exposure. Anyway it soaks, it’ll all come out
delicious in the end!
Peanuts. But
different from the hard, crunchy peanuts we associate with, say, elephants.
These were curiously soft and moist. The reason, I believe, is that they were
steamed. This makes the shell a cinch to break open and the inside peanuts tender.
Nummy!
Final Taiwanese snack that my classmate gave me this week
was finished off! Another rectangular bar of some sort, it greatly resembled
last night’s version. They appear to be from the same company, which could
explain a thing or two. Whatever vegetable is advertised on the front, it
doesn’t register in my mind. Looking up two parts of the printed Chinese
characters, it says “Delicious” and “Vegetarian.” Ok well I still don’t know
the flavor. XD But heck, that’s what taste testing is for!
The verdict! NUMMY! It’s extremely similar to last night’s
Taiwanese snack. The texture was exactly the same, code for delicious. Honestly
the taste didn’t differ much either but there was a smidge less sweetness.
Perhaps the sweetness comes from an added ingredient that’s similar to honey,
like something to hold the crunchy bits together. That’s just a wild guess. No,
I don’t have a sophisticated palate to tell which spices and how much was used
to create this food. :P
And that’ll conclude this Thursday. Catch y’all later!
