Food, Apartments and Gods

The past few days had been pretty boring, so no updates. Now I finally have stuff to talk about.

As I'm sure you all know, my first month in Taiwan has been dedicated to figuring out life. Papers, work, apartment, etc. I'm sure that all of you would love to read about apartment hunting, but I'll spare you too many details.

Rinpoche has been helping me a lot since arriving here. This is the Rinpoche I met by accident through a wrong number, but he's been helping me out a lot. Several of his students offered to help me find a place in Taipei. However, Taipei is like any other major city and it's very expensive. Tiny bedsitting apartments for too much money. After some discussion, I decided to go to Taoyuan instead.

My friend Lily (who is currently hosting me) introduced me to one of her friends in Taoyuan, a really nice girl named Mandy who helped me find Rinpoche's center on my first trip there. As it just so happens, the complex where she has her office had an open apartment. As of yesterday, I am the proud renter of a beautiful, top floor, new, well furnished apartment in Taoyuan. I might post photos. However, as my family knows, I'm a bit superstitious about posting photos of my apartment.

Big bedroom with a queen sized bed, dressing table, wardrobe, TV. Living room with laquered wooden sofas and chairs, table, lots of cabinets and drawers. Kitchen with 2 gas ranges, mid sized fridge, brand new washing machine. Tiny second bedroom which I'm going to turn into a study room. Oh, and a bathroom. Western style. Shower, bathtub. Hot water.


Rinpoche invited me to sing at a Green Tara empowerment that he and some other lamas were hosting. The ceremony was really nice and I met several nice Taiwanese students. Afterwords I was invited out to dinner with Rinpoche and several students.

We went to a restaurant called Kiki's cafe. It is apparently a very famous Sichuanese restaurant owned by a popular Taiwanese singer or television host. The food was unbelievable.

Crispy egg tofu. A faux tofu made of steamed egg then lightly fried on the outside. Softer than silken tofu.

Ground pork with chinese chives and fermented black beans, spicy, sweet and crunchy.

Crispy fried duck skin with green beans and chilis.

Mapo Tofu, tofu with ground meat and chilis.

Some sweet beef stew thingy.

Some difficult to eat pork thingy.

Cold chicken with chilis and garlic.

Cold Chicken with sesame sauce.

A big soup of lots of stuff, including sausage. Delicious, light broth.

The meal was stunning. The tea, however, was horrible. For the first time ever in my time in Taiwan, the tea was terrible! At my first taste, I recognized it as Lapsang Suchong 拉普山小種, a smoky tea that my parents flavor. I've always hated it, complaining that it tastes like sausage tea. My dad cooks with it, and that works well, but as a beverage? I'm not a fan.

But this? This was unforgivable. Lapsang Suchong iced tea, with lemon and honey. Sausage Lemonade. EWwwwwwwwwwwww!

The meal was good, though. But the tea. Blahhhh.


Yesterday I went back to Taoyuan with Lily and Mandy. Mandy and her family made Numb-Spicy Hot Pot 麻辣火鍋. It was pouring rain outside as we went out to sign contract on the apartment. The street was full of floats and cars decorated with flags and images of the Taiwanese gods. There was lots of music and parades all day and tents with life sized images of the gods. Yesterday was the birthday of one of the gods, not sure which one.

As Lily and I took the bus home, we watched the fireworks. I do love living in a place with local gods, like Thailand and Taiwan. Makes life more interesting.