December: Taichung and Holiday Fun

The holiday season has been upon us here in Taipei, and much of the city is decked out in lights and Christmas decorations. Christmas is not much more than an excuse for increased commercialism here. While the festive lights and decor help to induce some Christmas spirit, I will still have to work on Christmas day.

My decorated bedroom

December has brought increasingly lower temperatures and although I'm aware 11 degrees doesn't sound all-that cold, when you are without central heating, it makes for some chilly nights.

Early in the month I visited a "3C" exhibition at the Taipei World Trade Center. 3C, as I've recently learned, is a commonly used phrase in Taiwan meaning: computers, cameras and cell-phones. The place was packed full of young men drooling over the newest tech-products and the gorgeous women hired to promote them. 

In Mid-December, I took my first overnight trip outside of Taipei. I chose to visit Taichung, Taiwan's 3rd largest city, which is only a 3 hour bus ride from Taipei. I enjoyed exploring a new city and getting to experience a different part of Taiwan.

 

 A highlight of the trip was the Fengchia Nightmarket. The Nightmarket, which some claim is Taiwan's largest, surrounds the Fengchia University. The market has an exceptional selection of tasty eats including some very famous vendors of my favourite food 大腸包小腸 （sausage in a sausage).

Cuttlefish filled with rice.

大腸包小腸 is comprised of a sweet, fatty, Taiwanese sausage served in a greasy, slit, sticky-rice sausage which acts as the hotdog bun. The resulting concoction is one of the tastiest snack foods I've had anywhere in the world. 

I also discovered a new contender for the title of My Favourite Taiwanese Food. I don't know exactly what the dish is called but I'm going to call it Portable Peking Duck (PPD). PPD features all the familiar fixings of a Peking Duck meal wrapped up in a pillowy soft steamed flat-bread; absolutely delicious.

Another culinary discovery I made in Taichung was the first real brew-pub I've come across in Taiwan. The beer was of very high quality and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

The second day in Taichung, was dominated by a visit to Taichung's massive National Museum of Natural Science. The sprawling museum complex featured a wide range of exhibits about everything from Chinese Traditional Medicine to the Mayan Doomsday prediction. The best part of the museum was the interactive science exhibit, much alike that at Vancouver's Science World.

 
I have been working a lot lately, with plenty of acting work for the magazines so as to get it out of the way before everyone is busy with holiday festivities. I also worked this Saturday, teaching, as a makeup day for a day-off I will get on New Years Eve. The Saturday shift wasn't all-bad though as the school had their annual Christmas party for half of the usual lesson time. It was nice to do something Christmasy to get into the holiday spirit.

This weekend, I also checked out the light displays at Taipei's Xinyi shopping district. The lights and Christmas displays were impressive but the Sunday evening crowds were a bit overwhelming.

Santa's Sleigh riding around the top of 101.

With Christmas just two sleeps away, I'm not certain yet what I will do to celebrate and I wonder if it will truly feel like Christmas without family and familiar traditions. What I do know is that my parents will be arriving in Taipei on the 27th and I'm anticipating that day more than the 25th.

Merry Christmas! 聖誕節快樂！

November Rain

At the beginning of the November I was thrilled to welcome my sister and her fiancé to Taipei. Not only was it great to see and spend time with them but their visit also allowed me to test my tour-guide skills as well as to cross a few things off of my list of things-to-do in Taipei. I wanted to ensure that Carrie and Steve were able to experience as much of Taipei as possible during their short visit and I think I did a pretty good job helping them to see and taste the best of Taipei.

Steamed pork

On the first day of their visit we had lunch at a renowned beef-noodle restaurant. I had been told about this restaurant by friends several times in the past and Carrie, too, had it recommended by a Taiwanese friend in Vancouver. We waited in a short line for seats before placing our orders for three of the famous noodle soups and a side dish of steamed pork. The soup, lived up to the hype and the melt-in-your-mouth tenderness of the beef was an experience in-itself. Beef-noodle soup was just one of the many taiwanese delicacies sampled by my visitors.

We also had lunch at one of Taiwan's most famous eateries: Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung is an international dumpling restaurant with branches in 10 countries. I've been wanting to try their highly acclaimed soup-dumplings, since I first arrived in Taipei but I have never built up the nerve to brave to long lines for seats. We chose to go to DTF's original branch, the place where it all started, nearly 30 years ago. Our wait was only about half-an-hour, during which we were able to pr-order our meal and stroll around the neighbourhood.

After we were seated we were quickly served our order of the renowned Xiaolongbao (小籠包) accompanied by some zhengjiao and sesame noodles. Both the service and food were exceptional, especially the soup-dumplings for which they gained their reputation. Although an excellent dining experience overall, I have to concede that xiaolongbao can be purchased at a variety of family-run restaurants in Taipei and given the high-price of the food and the rushed atmosphere of the service, I believe the smaller, hole in the wall places offer an equal, if not better, meal option.

Carrie and Steve did an excellent job covering all bases of Taiwanese food. Their list of foods eaten included:

Iron eggs (鐵蛋), stinky tofu (臭豆腐), mapo tofu, pepper buns, hotdog in a hotdog (大腸包小腸), green onion pancakes, xiaolongbao (小籠包), Taiwan beer, re-chao (熱炒) restaurant food, beef noodle, pork bloodsicle (豬血糕), 3cup chicken, chive bread, pineapple cakes, tea eggs, pan fried buns, ice-cream + shaved peanut pancake, bubble tea and a mountain of mango shaved ice.

In addition to the restaurants visited, Carrie and Steve were also able to see most the major sights in Taipei as well as a couple of my favorite watering holes (some of which are 7-11s).

I was sad to see them go as after just 4 busy days they were on their way to Bangkok to enjoy the rest of their vacation. I thoroughly enjoyed having them here and getting to show them around this city that I've come to love.  I am now eagerly awaiting my next visitors from home, so.......book your tickets.

The weather has taken a slight turn for the worse lately. The coming of winter has brought along cold and rain; weather that reminds me of home. As a result of the less pleasant weather I have been spending a lot of my time visiting some of Taipei's many museums.

I started off with the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) which s housed in an old school built in the Japanese colonial period.  I found the exhibitions of the museum to be, for the most part, creepy, weird, experimental art.

Next I went to the Taipei Fine-art Museum (T-FAM). T-FAM is huge and altogether very enjoyable. The museum is also home to the Taiwan Excellence Center which exhibits Taiwanese innovation and domestically produced products.

The next museum I explored was the Taiwan Astronomy Museum. Admittedly, the museum was geared towards children, however, I'm still a kid at heart so I had a fun time browsing the exhibits and playing with the interactive displays despite the lack of English information.

I also took a ride on their "educational space simulator" which may be the worst ride I have ever been on. Not only was it boring, but to make up for lack of pace of the ride they compensated by having the cars do a great deal of spinning, as if intended to increase the excitement. It was a nauseating 15 minutes that left me feeling not-well for the rest of the afternoon.

The final museum that I visited was the 228 Museum. The museum is named for a political protest movement which began on February 28th 1947, and resulted in 40 years of marshal law, human rights crimes, and political suppression. The museum focused on the events leading up to 228 and commemorated the subsequent atrocities which followed. The museum was well presented but suffered again from a lack of English information available.

On top of the museums, I also visited some other popular attractions. I headed to Taipei's downtown airport, Songshan Airport, to check out it's outdoor "airport observatory". The observatory allowed me to take some photos of airplanes but apart from that it was not entirely worth a visit.

I also took a look around Taipei's most famous luxury hotel; the Grand. The Grand Hotel is an incredibly lavish hotel housed in a massive complex styled in a grandiose traditional Chinese complex.

Situated only a short walk away from the hotel is the National Revolutionary Martyr's memorial. The memorial honours those who died fighting for the Republic of China, both before and after the ROC existed solely in Taiwan. I had a chance to watch the changing of the guards and I navigated my way through a maze of Japanese and Korean tourists to have a pleasant view of the beautiful architecture of the memorial.

The temperature have begun to drop here in Taipei and given the evident lack of central heating here it is very noticeable.   I've had to invest in a new blanket and several long-sleeved shirts to prepare for the 'chill' of a Taiwanese winter. 

I've been in Taipei for about 8 months now and, as much of a cliche as it is, I can't believe how quickly the time has passed.   This is now the longest I've been away from home for, narrowly edging out my travels from last year.    I'll be spending the holiday season here and although I'm told that Christmas is not widely celebrated here, most stores had their Christmas displays up the day after Halloween.   While I don't know yet what I will do to celebrate Christmas day, I will be welcoming my parents to Taiwan on December 28th so I think Christmas will just have to come a little late this year for me.