xoi #2

And here it is, in a "to go" box. You can see the meat is pretty fatty, cut off a big roast piece. You can also see that the portion isn't huge, but it's a good sized snack or about half of a large meal. I ate this several times. Now I need to find it here.

Xoi

Back in Hanoi, this is the most interesting restaurant I found. I followed the taiwanese tradition of going to the most popular place and this place was always hopping. Xoi, which I've never had before, was simple rice, with some thick yellow paste with a texture similar to polenta, I'm guessing some kind of bean, put on top. Then some meat (the pork was better, and cheaper, than the chicken), some fried shallots (those things are great, and everywhere in asia) and some oil (just oil) poured over the top. Yum. And very cheap, less than $1 us.

last one

I have a lot of photos from Halong Bay. Here is the sunset. I had a very nice time there, though it was only 2 days and 1 night. And I just did silly touristy stuff like the cave, went canoeing, climbed another mountain for a view. But it was relaxing and pretty nice. Not as much aggressive selling and you could just relax. After this sunset, I drank a couple of beers on the deck of the boat and looked at the stars. Chatted with some other passengers about nothing. Read a book in my cabin. Pretty good.

Nice, isn't it

This was a view after we came out of the cave. Yes, it's nice.

blending in

My fashion sense. Amazing, isn't it? Note the Arsenal cap.

I went to a cave while I was there, the usual stalactites and stalagmites. But very nice and cool on a hot day. Damp. And interesting graffiti from 100 years ago when it was discovered, mostly in french and some in Chinese. It had been discovered, and then lost, and then used by the viet kong to hide people and weapons from American detection. I haven't been to a cave for a while, and I enjoyed it. Touristy as hell, of course, but occasionally I was actually alone in a section, so it wasn't objectionably crowded.

Halong Bay

Here is a shot from the junk I was on in Halong Bay. It was really beautiful there, not quite as hot as hanoi, cleaner air, and these views. The Junk I was on was nice, I had a very comfortable bed and a private shower.

water puppet dragons

Here are the dragons squirting water at each other. They also breathed fire at each other.

another water puppet

Here is a standard water puppet. Hand painted wood, they fall apart after a few months of use. Apparently, they provide work for a whole village somewhere. This style of puppetry was started in the north of vietnam when the rice fields would flood every year. Apparently, there were lots of secrets that were passed down in families. Women were previously not allowed to do this. And the people who did do it, prior to the waders that they all wear now, got all types of horrible illnesses and problems from spending so much time with their body in the water.

The orchestra at the water puppet theater

More Vietnam

I'm going to try to put up some more before I forget it all.

A highpoint in Hanoi was the water puppets. I'm generally a big fan of puppets, and these puppets were especially cool, appearing and disappearing out of and into water. Lots of fire and squirting water too. They had all kinds of dragons, animals, boats, animals and elaborate moving sets. Also, the orchestra played great, sometimes chinese style music, and occasionally interacted with the puppets, talking to them and emphasizing their movements. Of course I didn't understand, but the stories were pretty simple and generally easy to understand from the action. It's a pity my camera isn't good enough to take good pictures in the dark (too far away for a flash) but you can get an idea from my photos. The one above is the stage.

I was trapped trying to come back from Sapa when this happened. I was in both Lao Cai and Yen Bai. I need to post more soon before I forget too much. http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportId=79779

churches and temples

Apparently the communists in Vietnam are very tolerant of religion since there are buddhist temples and churches everywhere. This one was in Hanoi, but my favorite was up in Sapa. It was nice to hear the church bells echoing around the town at night. The temple is the one pillar pagoda, built to resemble a lotus blossom. It was destroyed by the french (out of spite) when they were driven out in 1954 The church is St. Joseph's cathedral, built by the french in 1886.

Hanoi Street video

I hope the sound works on this to give an idea of the honking horns, but even if not, you get some idea of the streets. no lights or signs, just people driving from all directions, often on both the right and left side of the road on all sides. total driving anarchy. It's amazing I only saw 2 or 3 accidents. crossing involves looking all directions, moving slowly so people can try to avoid you, and possibly prayer.

Vietnam post #1

So I'm back from Vietnam. The trip to the usa isn't going to happen because I missed my flight and couldn't reschedule this month. And I'll be tied down to Chinese classes for the next few months, oh well. It's so expensive and difficult to fly - it really is a bad time to travel.

For the record, I should mention that I finally got the Typhoon day I was bitching about on the last week at my job.

So, on to my trip. I flew into Hanoi, which is an interesting but tiring city. So much noise and chaos. It reminded me of many other cities mixed together. The streets felt like Calcutta, in some disrepair, but lively and filled with interesting smells and street stands. But also like Taipei, with ghost money smoke and masses of scooters and a certain east asian energy. And certain stretches had trees and buildings that reminded me of Tours, but maybe not Paris. And there was something about the strange tall, thin, long buildings that reminded me of Oman. And certain industrial stretches reminded me of the Bangkok Charlie and I visited in the early 90's. But actually, the chaos and noise were unique to Hanoi.

I stayed in the old quarter, which is located to the north of a large lake. It's interesting, but again, swarming with people grabbing at you, stepping in front of you, trying to sell you all types of things. The most common are the motorbike guys who greet you with "Hello motorbike!"on every corner or every time you step out of a hotel or restaurant. I met a dutch guy named Jan who would try to reply "Hello motorbike! How are you, Motorbike?" which kind of underlines how often you hear this phrase in Hanoi. There are also ubiquitous ladies with the conical hats and the balance scale carryalls who sell everything, but usually the tiny bananas and pineapples that seem to be all over Vietnam. I heard many foreigners talking about how great the fruit is in Vietnam, but I'm spoiled in Taiwan, which, I swear, has the most delicious tropical fruit in the world. Then there are guys selling rides on their cyclo (a bicycle rickshaw, basically) which I wasn't interested in but I heard was very expensive. Also, I felt there was something horrible about seeing a 120 lb. Vietnamese guy peddling a 250+ lb. white woman around the street. I decided I didn't want to be that 250+ lb. white woman. Occasionally, some guy would jump off the back of a scooter and follow you around trying to sell you photocopied books, that still weren't at much of a discount, actually. I burned through the one book I brought quickly (excellent) and was curious, but who wants to pay $10 us for a photocopy of a crap book? And finally, occasionally one of these different types of hawkers would try to sell me drugs or women. Not for me, but even if I was interested in that, I get the feeling that time spent in a Vietnamese prison would not be fun.

soccer 2

oh i saw a soccer game on saturday. russia v holland. i was tired and the game was boring. without england, i just don't care that much. it certainly isn't worth staying up until 5am and eating crap bar food just to make the minimum charge.

i shouldn't complain...

...because the past couple of days there was no rain. Although it was around 100 degrees and humid and standing in the sun felt like standing in fire. But the stupid typhoon which killed lots of people in the philipines is missing taiwan, we just get some rain and lightning but no day off. I should be happy - I'm not looking for massive devastation or anything. I just can't help remembering all the typhoon days i had when i got paid by the hour and needed the money, and the more i needed it, the more they came. and now that i'm on salary, not one. and most of the holidays have fallen on weekends. that just sucks. i have a lot of stress at work right now, with a performance for my kindergarten approaching, and other things approaching, and i could really have used a day to relax. but no.

soccer

I still haven't been able to see a damn European game. And unless I stay up late tonight (unlikely) I won't get a chance until the final. I was hoping to call in sick, but because of the kindergarten graduation ceremony we are preparing for, I really can't call in sick without screwing myself over (I need the practice). My only hope is a typhoon comes and they cancel school on monday. Come on Typhoon!!!

every day it rains

I used to blame keelung for the never ending rain. But all of north taiwan is unbelievable. There hasn't been a completely dry week this year. I'm almost positive about that. It always rains here.

This past weekend I smoked cigars and drank scotch with some friends and tried unsuccessfully to
see the spain/sweden game.

Here is a picture of me being silly at the aquarium in Kenting. Note the Doraemon T shirt and ugly red sweat pants.

puppet show

Here's a recent picture of me in front of a puppet show at the top of the mao kong gondola.

Someone offered to buy my blog for $50 this week. I guess that's what happens when you don't update for 7 months. Of course I'm tempted. But I'm also unsure why he thinks there is value in the blog. Where is the value? In the name? In the content? I don't get much traffic, of course, since I update so infrequently. But the very fact that he offered me money makes me unsure about selling. There must be some way to make money with this, I guess. Interesting.

In other news, I'm learning some basic vietnamese f0r my trip. Makes taiwanese seem easy.

no promises

well, i'm leaving my ymca job in the end of july and hoping to start full time studenting this fall. In between i'm hoping to sneak over to vietnam to see and then back to the east coast of the usa to see the family. Lots of stuff needs doing between now and then, yay. maybe i can post a bit more.

t's

One of the most popular tshirts here has a red apple on it and says "Algebra is for lovers"

Nian gao

So here is my nian gao. I hope you can see the shape, which I enjoy. It's a little bit noodle like, but more solid and chewy from the sticky rice. The mushu at this place is fresh and delicious. You can see in the front that I got some taiwanese style pickled cucumbers on the side prepared with chili, garlic, and sesame oil alongside some sweet vinegar. It's crunchy and a nice counterpoint to the chewy nian gao.

Fried beef noodles

And here are the fried noodles with beef. On this day, my boss ate this but kindly allowed me to take a photo. You can see cabbage and onions and carrots which give it a nice flavor along with the beef.

fresh noodles.

They make their own noodles at this place. Basically that means that they keep this big hunk of dough under a towel until they need it (no pun intended). After kneading it, they cut it into a big pot of boiling water to cook briefly before they whisk it away to the back to be fried. You can see a flying piece of noodle near this guys curved blade if you look closely. The noodles are slightly uneven, which gives a texture i quite like.

Here are the small plates of side dishes that are available at this place. I usually get a kale type thing that has been sauted with garlic and chili and something sweet. They always have a variety of green things along with some tofu, noodles, and maybe a few pig's blood related items.

Food near my new job

So, I have a new job now and a few new places to choose from for dinner. The job provides free lunch for me, but it's pretty simple stuff. Maybe I will get some photos up of that soon. But today we are looking at one of the two places I like that I have discovered. This one has excellent, homemade noodles and Nian Gao. Nian Gao is made from sticky rice flour which is steamed into cakes and cut into oblong shapes. It is famous in a Korean style, but I get it here with mushu (mushrooms and pork).

Merry me!

i can't resist. someone was asking his girlfriend to merry him by dancing with cheerleaders and mascots during the break. it was a little embarassing to see him dance, but his future wife probably thought it was sweet for him to humiliate himself for her. hope you can see the sign clearly.

Coors girls

One of the joys of Taiwanese baseball is cheap beer brought to you by pretty girls. Here, Michael and I pose with our beer girls, one of whom seems to have a halo. I abhor coors generally, but what the hell.

companeros

Note my ridiculous yellow noise makers and suave black shirt from Thailand (perfectly matching the black and yellow coloring of the victorious elephants). Seated next to me are Michael (teacher from New Jersey of cuban descent - gave me his family's recipe for black beans), Dan (from Canada), and his girlfriend Rebecca (from Taiwan).

bows

At the end of the game, the losing team (losers!) applauded and bowed to their fans to thank them for their support. I was sitting with the losers as my yellow team enjoyed their triumph.

my baseball lunch box

Because the fried tofu wasn't enough, I also ate this "lunch box" at the game. It's pai gu fan (pork cutlet rice). On the left you can see a yellow thing (pickled radish - tastes sweet) next to a hard boiled egg (brown because they cook it in some stock with spices). On the right are pieces of sea weed tied in knots with carrots (salty - not the best version of this I've had), next to gray bamboo shoots (they have an interesting vegetal flavor) and a kind of pickled cabbage in the back (salty, this stuff shows up a lot. you might remember it on my gua bao).

drums and flags

without seeing my video, it's hard to understand the cacophonous nature of sound at a taiwanese baseball game. I bought stupid plastic horns that can be used to bang together or yell into like a bull horn or make terrible trumpet sounds with. The taiko drum and the marching band drum combine with the plastic noise makers to make a tremendous racket, over which the distorted mike pumps crazy cheers in mandarin. These pics show one of the drummers and the flag waver for the brother elephants. By the way, in the color sympolism here, yellow can sometimes mean perverted, which just adds to my enjoyment of the "think yellow" signs.

baseball 2

so, I made it to another baseball game a couple of weekends ago. My team (brother elephants) playing the La New Bears (who i don't like). Unlike the last game, it was a pitchers battle - we won 2-1. This is a picture of me (looking awfully scruffy) eating fried tofu on a stick covered with pickled cabage. yum.

oops

Sorry. Took a little break there. I haven't been eating anything new lately - just the same old stuff. But I have some news. I may have a new job where i will make more $$$ for less work, paid vacations, and no weekends in a beautiful school near to my home. It seems to be better in every way, but we'll see if it works out. I hope so.

I had a fun experience last weekend. I went with my buddy Dan to see a baseball game. Baseball is the most popular sport in Taiwan, and although most of the taiwanese people I've asked think the quality is too crappy, I had a great time. Admission is around $9 us and the stadium is more than half empty so sitting in the front row, or anywhere else is no problem . The game i saw had plenty of action (the pitchers suck) and at least one home run per inning for the first few innings. Taiwan beer (which is cheap swill, but not undrinkable) costs about $1.50 us, and is brought to your sear by beautiful girls in short skirts. The fans of the 2 teams sit on opposite sides, and when their team is at bat they chant songs in chinese (frequently to the tune of Popeye the sailor man) and play drums (a taiko style drum and a western marching band drum, in the case of the game we went to) along with those noise maker sticks and deep horns. It was a lot of fun. The teams we saw were the La New Bears and the Sinon Bulls. The bears won by one run. My favorite team in taiwan is the Brother Elephants - On the back of my baseball cap it says "We are all Brothers." I realize this doesn't have anything to do with food. just fyi, they don't have American ball park food. I ate sweet popcorn (not good), a fried chicken cutlet (ok), and some salty soup with grn. onion, cilantro, and pork balls (pretty good but a little too salty). After the game i went to a pub to watch arsenal win and had fish and chips (good, but no malt vinegar). sadly, i forgot my camera for the day - next time.

Speaking of drums and horns, the park where i go running is also the practice space for some Dragon dancers - I see them if I run in the afternoon. It's great to run with that throbbing drumming and resonant horn echoing around the park. And so cool to see them practicing the dance - without the dragon it looks the same as a kung fu form, with kicks and jumps and punches (which would move the thing around I suppose). All the kids doing it are covered in tattoos - my understanding is that young gangsters attach themselves to temples here and do this kind of thing. Great.

Korean Kimchee fried rice

Sometimes I need some extra variety at work. This pao tsai chao fan (kimchee fried rice) is really excellent. Not fiery hot, but with a good amount of kimchee flavor mixed in. The nori on top adds a nice salty-ness. You can see the extra kimchee in the back right of the box. In front of that is bean sprouts in sesame oil. And in front of that is seaweed and carrots. It tastes a little sweet and a little sour - I think it is sort of pickled. In the back is a basic dashi soup with big chunks of seaweed floating in it. They also give you some ginseng tea with the meal. After I eat this, I always feel very full but very good.

wonton soup

Since I've been here, I have learned how to make a fair wonton. But my home made version can't match this stuff I buy near my work (at the same place as the beijing tsong yo bing.) It contains at least three kinds of onion, with a funkyness that smells a little bit like lamb (I find this odor inexplicable.) The broth is rich and deep, with a nice stock flavor. The wontons are full of flavorfull meat, and they are generous with the wontons. You can have this with noodles added, but why bother. The wontons are the point, and they are delicious. Whenever I get this at work, at least one of my female coworkers will exclaim "hao xiang!" (good smell!) and look around to find the source and ask me where I got it. This place is a little expensive by local standards (this soup costs $2 us!!!) so others seldom go. But I love it.

tu two u gang

This is a fish soup that I quite like. It is a thick soup, with egg and probably corn starch thickening the broth. Mixed into that are pieces of cilantro, nice chunks of fried fish, and usually a little of the chili paste I like to add. It's not overwhelming, but there is a soft sweeness mixed with the herbal cilantro flavor and the flavor of the fried white fleshed fish that makes this an enjoyable meal, especially when the weather is a little bit cooler than it is now.

stinky tofu

So this is the fried version of stinky tofu (cho dofu). It is sold in little stands, seemingly in every neighborhood in Taiwan. You can usually smell it before you see it - it smells a little bit like old, foul gym socks. But when you eat it the stinkyness is just one of many strong flavors, alongside chili paste, sweet/sour pickled cabbage, minced garlic and/or ginger, and salty soy sauce. My favorite is the fried, though the bbq is ok. I don't usually like the stewed version - though that was Richard's favorite. A little too stinky for me. We used to get an extremely stinky version of fried tofu at work that would make the whole office smell awful. Everyone seemed to like it better and it was more expensive, but again, too stinky for me. I do like this version though. At night after 10 or so, the only food available is fried, so this is often a late night option. Like fried rice or congee, this seems like another example of not wasting old food that became a favorite as time went by.

My local fried rice

Fried rice is a pretty basic staple in chinese food. It's a good way to use up leftover rice and it tastes great. The place I get it here is always busy and always good. I think the key is a well seasoned wok on a very high flame. They bang the hell out of it too - Lots of banging and clanging as they stir the rice. The ingredients are fairly simple - you can see the one I get just has green onion, shrimp, and egg along with salt and possibly msg. But the high heat must carmelize the rice or some such thing as the flavor has a subtle smoky-ness. I always get some vegetable along with my rice - on this day it was fried cabbage, which they prepare simply with sweet, salty brine shrimp. Chili paste is involved and I get a delicious meal.

Chinese Class

This week I have started back into a chinese class with a private teacher. We meet every monday, tuesday, and friday for an hour each time. I really think this is going to help my chinese, especially my speaking and listening skills which are currently very weak. I don't understand everything my teacher says, but I like struggling to understand. I am doing homework every night, trying to write sentences with any new vocabulary I pick up and writing a short diary. It feels good to be getting back into my studies in a more serious way again.

Bing (ice)

If I haven't mentioned it before, the summers here are monstrously hot. Because of this, Taiwanese people have created a lot of delicious drinks and ices. This is one of the iced deserts you can find in most neighborhoods here. Basically, it's shaved ice, but whereas in the US shaved ice consists of just ice and sugary, artificially colored syrup, Taiwanese people bring the Chinese focus on texture and contrasting flavors to their ice. This particular ice has some sour apple green jelly (i usually get sour mango, ching ren guo, which literally translates as lovers' fruit, I think), black jelly (which has a subtle flavor almost like tea or coffee or chocolate, but is softer and isn't really any of those) and those strange little pearl things, which don't really have much flavor but add interesting texture. I may try to post a photo of one of the shops soon - there are usually a great many options including various flavors of jelly, various starchy creations (like these pearls, tang yuen (gooey rice balls), and other tapioca based things), along with fruit in syrup and other unidentified items. In Keelung, I used to get a simple version with taro soaked in simple syrup and an unsweetened custard. This was nice and not very sweet - I enjoyed putting a little lemon juice on it to give it a sour touch. Recently, near my work I had this with tang yuen (entirely textural), taro, and sour plums (the syrup gave the whole thing a nice flavor - for me the sour flavor is important). On a hot day this can be really good.

gua bao

I may have mentioned before that I'm not a big fan of the Taiwanese take on western bread. I have yet to have anything here that was better than okay, and most of what I have eaten is terrible. The same cannot be said of chinese style bread, which is great. This is a gua bao, sort of a Chinese version of a hamburger. It is wrapped in a steamed bun, the chewy, slightly sweet, breadlike thing that they do very well here. Inside, they put a big hunk of stewed fatty pork. Yum. They smear some chopped, pickled, salty cabbage on that, then throw cilantro and sweet, ground up peanuts on that. Peanuts and cilantro are an excellent combination, especially combined with the richness of the fatty pork, the salty goodness of the pickled cabbage, and the spongey base of the steamed bun. To top it of, I usually throw some Taiwanese chili sauce on top, because that's just how I roll. I get a bowl of some kind of soup and one of these little numbers, and I'm very happy.

Cold beverages 1

Because Taiwan can be so hot, there are an amazing variety of drinks available. And 7-eleven, center of life, has half the store devoted to drinks. Above, top left is cantaloupe juice. I am increasingly fond of cantaloupe and I often get this sweetened (only 20% juice) punch. They also have some cantaloupe sodas, which can be too sweet. The next one, honey herbal jelly, has a soft honey flavor with little bits of jelly floating in it. Taiwanese people seem to enjoy texture in their drinks, and while it takes a little getting used to, I'm getting used to it. The jelly has a delicate, slightly herbal flavor with just a hint of something like menthol that makes your mouth feel a little bit cool. The last beverage here is almond milk, which I love. Many stores have stands selling a version of the stuff and the smell is hard to resist. Unfortunately, I often find the stand version has more odor than flavor. This store bought stuff has a perfume-y flavor that is especially good hot in the winter (7eleven is happy to nuke it for you), but also good cold in summer.

Vietnamese Food - Keelung

Here are some shots from my favorite vietnamese place in Keelung. It's just a stand, at the end of the textile section of the market, with uncomfortable stools and a cd stand next door that keeps the same taiwanese song on repeat for the entire night, and has had that same song on repeat for going on a year, and my god, it drives me crazy, though I think it may be teaching me taiwanese. But I go there because the food is delicious and the old vietnamese lady who runs it with her husband is nice and usually understands my poor mandarin. Anyway, I get pretty basic stuff there. You can see the spring roll above, a rice flour skin with bbq pork, rice vermicelli noodles, basil leaves, and green onion inside. My favorite part is the sauce, which is a sweet brown bean sauce with peanuts, chili, and this sour-sweet pickled carrot radish concoction. You can also see it on my huh fen on the left. Those are fat rice noodles (I'm particularly fond of the) that you find in thai rahd nahr. This dish is served cool, with the noodles, slices of imitation turkey, actual pork preserved in it's own skin with black peppercorns and flavors I can only describe as french, peanuts, chili, more of the sweet-sour pickled radish-carrot concoction, chopped mint and basil, fried shallots, bean sprouts, and a sauce that is a mixture of lime juice, fish sauce, and sugar. On a hot day, this "cold" dish really hits the spot. I tried to create it at home, but, no.

Mohinga!

This is the mohinga I get in the burmese neighborhood near the nan shi jao mrt station. You can't see all of the details, so let me explain. It is an incredibly rich and thick fish broth with sweet little onions, rice noodles, boiled eggs, cilantro, and a cracker made of deep fried yellow dal, which adds wonderful texture. The richness of the flavor comes from whatever else they do to the broth as they liquify some unknown fish. You can see some chili in the right hand pic - that went in there too. It's a great mix of south asian and southeast asian flavors, and is the national dish of Burma, or Myanmar, or whatever. I usually order some burmese tea, which is the same as thai tea (orange, spiced with some unidentified spice - I've heard tamarind seed - and mixed with condensed milk) as far as I can tell. These pics were taken last friday - I went with my friend Lyon. He ordered 2 bowls of mohinga to go, and told me he ate one for dinner and couldn't resist eating the second. And I'm not surprised - it's the kind of thing you will eat even if you aren't hungry.

Crap!

The other night I noticed I had a very large moth in my apartment. How odd, let me just get a shoe, oh it banged into my arm and fell on the WAIT A MINUTE! THAT'S NOT A MOTH, THAT'S A GOD DAMNED COCKROACH! Needless to say, I pounded the hell out of it with my shoe and took a shower, scrubbing my infected arm thoroughly. I sometimes forget that those fuckers have wings - I wish that I could forget that forever.

curse of the golden flower

I just saw this movie. I was very impressed visually. Anyone who appreciates impressionism, and could imagine it animated with a psychedelic chinese palate would enjoy the first 2/3 of the movie. Zhang Yi Mou is a painter, and his composition and use of color are always amazing. Although the last third is also visually stunning, I would only recommend it to fans of over the top tragedy and wholesale slaughter. It's pretty bloody and pretty much everyone dies. Chinese people really seem to enjoy tragedy. Like Hero, I sometimes feel like the martial arts is thrown in to attract viewers, but it doesn't seem like Zhang cares very much, other than as an excuse to use more color and set up another tableau.

my shopping at trad. mrkt.

Here is a pic of all the stuff I was able to buy at the market for under 500 nt. Laundry detergent, 2 sponges, 2 potatoes, 2 jhong tse, I huge carrot, 3 bananas, 1 package mushrooms, 1 chinese eggplant, 1 massive mango, and one papaya milk. And I had change in my pocket.