Fruit, soup and fried squid

One of our friends brought us this fruit back from the south of Taiwan, the English name is custard apple...it was really good! There are a bunch of little pockets of fruit in here and they all have seeds in them. You don't eat the seeds, so you just pull the fruit off the seed. Very tasty!

I have eaten this a few times now...it is like rice porridge. This is filled with all sorts of vegetables and different kinds of seafood, I never thought that rice porridge could be so good...and so cheap...it is only about $2.50 for a huge meal.

Ahhh, fried squid, my favorite snack in Taiwan...I love it so much...I would eat it everyday if I thought it was good for me, hahah.

A close up...sorry it's a little blurry...and to tell you the truth, this picture really isn't the most enticing, it looks much better than this normally...I guess you just have to see it in real life.

Back to Danshui | Part 1

You probably remember my note a while back about Nolan and I trying to get to Danshui to visit our friends by scooter...we never made it. Update - somewhere along the trip we apparently ran a red light and we ended up getting tickets, that was a bummer...not only did we not find our destination, we also had to really pay for it, hahah.

Anyway, we tried a different route and made it this time, it took us about an hour and 15 minutes, not too bad. The day started out great too. It was nice an sunny as we rode along the coast and the air was crisp and fresh. We were excited to make it to Danshui by scooter.

This is Stanley eating some kind of melon ice cream cone.

This was an interesting restaurant, all they had was potatoes and french fries...we all got fries, and they were pretty good, but way overpriced.

On the left, I got garlic fries, Nolan got sour cream and onion (I think) and Stanley got honey mustard.

Back to Danshui | Part 2

This guy played some kind of a shell instrument, he was really good...I felt like it would just put me to sleep if I stood there too long.

This is a Turkish guy who sells Turkish ice cream. He puts ice cream on a cone with a metal stick, and the ice cream is so sticky that it sticks to the metal stick, he then plays games swirling it around people, its pretty interesting...they try to grab it, but he is pretty quick. It's pretty fun to watch...but the downside is that the guy is a creeper, he just has this nasty look to him and he always makes creeper faces at the women.

Back to Danshui | Part 3

We stopped by a famous restaurant in Danshui. We had meatballs and Ah Gey. Danshui is famous for Ah Gey, you can't just get this anywhere in Taiwan. It was really good.

On the left is the Ah Gey, on the right are the meatballs...they are not the kind of meatballs that you would usually think of. It's more like a meatball in the middle of a rice-flour gelatin casing.



Inside the Ah Gey is a bunch of thin rice noodles. The Ah Gey comes in one piece surrounded by a type of broth or sauce. The idea is to strategically break the outside so the sauce seeps into the noodles, then you eat it all together...it's great!

Ying Ge Trip | Part 1

 We made a trip to Ying Ge with our friend Anita and her family...it was a lot of fun. If you want handmade pottery, or just any kind of pottery or dishware, Ying Ge is the place to go, it is about a 1/2 hour scooter ride from where I live. It is a pretty cool place, not to mention, there is a lot of good food there too. I tried hot fresh squeezed orange juice for the first time in my life there.

This is an old pottery kiln.  I think they fire it up once or twice a year to keep it in good shape.  It was like a long tunnel.

These are singing tea cups, they are pretty cool. If you have a little bit of tea or water in the cup, you can hold the base, dip your finger in the tea or water and circle the rim with your finger and the cup will sing. They had all sorts of different sizes which sang different notes.

This is where you try the tea at this particular shop. We didn't try any this time.

Ying Ge Trip | Part 2

We stopped by many pottery shops, this was the one we bought our stuff at.

These are handmade teapots, they cost anywhere from $60 and up.

So many tea pots.

These were all the handmade teapots and sets.

More handmade teapots.

Ying Ge Trip | Part 3

This is sticky rice in a leaf...I can't remember what kind of leaf it is.

This was my sticky rice...to my surprise it had bacon and other seasoning in it....it was so good!

This is Mark, our friend Anita's son. He bought some different kinds of tofu for us to try...it was really good. They had tofu with different texture and different tastes.

We saw this band, they were nice to listen to.

Ying Ge Trip | Part 4

After looking at all the pottery, we stopped for dessert. This was a very interesting bean/tofu dessert in a bath of tea. It was pretty tasty.

This was the dessert that I got. It had a couple different types of beans in it with sweet tea and tofu.

Me stuck in a striking pose!

Tea Time

We had cookies and tea with Anita's family after we came back from Ying Ge. It was great!