Taipei Trips

At the request of my beloved wife I will post a few things about Taiwan. First post is about food. Besides - that's the first thing people usually ask about.

A lot of what I eat in Taipei is good. Though it took a while to develop the taste for it. (About 2 years to be precise!)

Dragon Fruit is wonderful (taste and texture) AND exciting to look at.

I have found that I love shrimp in almost any dish.
But NOT raw shrimp!!!! They have tricky shrimp that are orange when they are raw (not the common blue-when-raw - orange-when-cooked shrimp). The flavor might actually be good but I was overwhelmed by the gooiness of the texture and the notable features in this photo - black eyeballs and green-brain-goo. Yikes I need some Taiwan Beer just thinking about it!!

They have a killer dish that has tempura shrimp with pinapple-and-mayonaise sauce. Yum. They insist on putting colored sprinkles on it - gotta be cutsie.

You can always find something good in the "lunchboxes".

Oolong tea is wonderful - the best tea! - if made right - light, slightly sweet aftertaste, yum! It is very bitter when made wrong - and no amount of sugar can help fix it.
Zak, the best oolong tea maker I have encountered is trying to instruct me in the art.

The stinky tofu is not something I want to have every day. But if you are ever challenged to eat it there are two things you should know: 1) It smells a lot worse than it tastes. and 2) you really DON'T want to know how it is made.

I really do like sushi. But have learned that you should eat it toward the beginning of a meal rather than when you are already mostly full. Thankfully, the nauseating results were never seen by the world... but only just.

I tried Sea Urchin eggs/roe just this last visit. They came around the resturaunt on a little conveyor - which was fun. They looked great! They didn't taste good. Maybe this is why:

- ouch!

Raw lobster is good but I wish they wouldn't be so instistant on demonstrating the "freshness" by putting the still moving head on the table.

And I was relieved to find out that they don't serve actual people despite what the sign may say!

And yes I ate this fish eyeball:

but none of this meat:

or these cute little guys:

"Suffer the little children..." - my children to be more precise

Last night I sent my kids up to bed. As often happens they come down again by ones and twos to get books or drink water. When I found my daughter downstairs and not actively drinking water I hurried her back up.

She offered no resistance nor excuses but traveled a bit slowly. At the top of the stairs I noticed that her faced seemed a little cloudy. Thinking that I had been too stern in my demand I asked her if anything was wrong and expected to hear that she was downstairs "only looking for a book". Instead, as a couple tears welled up, she quietly explained she had been doing the stations. And I still didn't understand... I asked if she was sad that I stopped her from doing the stations or if it was the stations that made her sad. She was sad for Jesus.

Each time I start to think nothing will get through her skin she does something like this. I love her. I am sure Jesus does too! What could be better?