Taiwan Day 6: Taipei

Our last day in Taiwan was as jam packed as the rest of our trip. We had another delicious breakfast at John and Julie's apartment. We ate pork buns that Julie had purchased the night before at a convenience store in the freezer department. I wish they had the selection of filled buns in the U.S. that they do in Taiwan. We also had guava juice, wax apples, tangerines, and custard apples/Buddha's head, my favorite fruit (although the passionfruit I had at lunch (see below) is almost as good but tastes entirely different).


L-R: Pork Buns, Tangerines, Asian Pears, Custard Apple/Buddha's Head, Jujubes, Wax Apples

We headed to the National Palace Museum for the English-speaking group tour at 10 AM. The National Palace Museum holds many items from the Sung, Yuan, Ming, and Ch'ing dynasties. The items were sent from China to Taiwan in 1948 when the political instability caused by the Communists made the museum's directors fear for the items' safety. The items range in date from thousands of years old to 100-200 years old. It is clear that the ancient Chinese were far more advanced than Westerners by looking at the items. One interesting item was a cauldron made around 1000 B.C. In the basin is about 500 characters; they have been very useful to scholars as an example of ancient writing. Also interesting is the Tsung-Chou Bell, made around 1000 B.C. It is a large bell with no ball inside. It was rung by hitting it with some external mallet. It also has numerous knobs on the front which was apparently used to produce different sounds. Our guide said that the bell can produce two different sounds. Modern scholars have been unable to reproduce a bell that can make the same sounds. During the Ch'ing dyansty (1644-1911), jade was carved into a piece of bok choy cabbage with two grasshoppers on to. It is believed that the piece was carved as a dowry gift for Consort Chin to symbolize her purity and offer blessings for many children. Scott's favorite piece in the museum's collection is the Carved Olive-Stone Boat. In 1737, Ch'en Tsu-Chang used a tiny olive pit, not more than an inch and a half long to carve a boat. The boat is unbelievably detailed, with eight detailed people carved onto the boat. Also, the entire text of a poem with more than 300 characters is carved onto the olive pit in miniscule print. A magnifying glass is provded to look at the olive pit. We stayed at the museum for about 2 hours. We easily could have stayed there all day and not seen everything, but there was much else we wanted to do.


Mao-Kung Ting Cauldron (Picture From NPM)

Tsung-Chou Bell (Picture From NPM)

Jade Bok Choy & Insects (Picture From NPM)

Carved Olive Pit (Picture From NPM)

Front of National Palace Museum


We left the museum and drove into downtown Taipei. This is a thoroughly urban area with many tall buildings. It is filled with fancy department stores. We walked through a Japanese department store, Mitsukoshi, that seemed to fill an entire block, although I'm sure it wasn't really that large. We headed toward the restaurant where John had made reservations for lunch. Jogoya is a buffet restaurant with numerous locations around Taiwan; this one located in a mall near Taipei 101. It has a vast array of Chinese and Japanese food. Like most buffets, I doubt the dishes were the quintessential versions of Chinese cuisine, but I thought the food tasted very good. Most importantly, it enabled me to try a lot of different varieties of food. I liked nearly all the dishes. The following are pictures of most of the food we ate.


L-R: Lamp Chop w/Black Pepper Sauce, Southeast Asian Pork, Miso Baked Fish, Thai Style Scallops, Pumpkin Seafood Tofu Stew (Delicious), Garlic Crab, Burning Paste Shrimp

L-R: Fried Shrimp Roll, Turnip Cake, Fried Chinese Yam, Fried Gold Durian (a smelly fruit), Salmon Nigiri

Crab Soup - Really good.

Fried Shrimp Balls - Cute, but not much flavor

Grilled Bamboo - Kind of bitter

Hand Roll w/Shrimp & Asparagus

Tuna Sashimi, Salmon Sashimi, Tomatoes, Pickled Fruit

Pork Filled Dumplings

Clay Pot w/Pork, Beef, and Squid

Open-Mouthed Sea Bass - Very good

Dessert: Chocolate Fondue w/ Marshmallows, Fruit, Macadamia Nut & Chocolate Ice Cream, Japanese Pancake W/ Cream & Red Bean Paste Filling (Yum!); Passionfruit; Rock Chocolate (Chocolate w/cornflakes, I think)

Passion Fruit - Delicious!

At the fondue area, they offered three items to dip in the chocolate: marshmallows, red grapes, and cherry tomatoes! Of all the different dishes I saw at Jogoya, the only thing that I could not get my head around was dipping cherry tomatoes in chocolate. Fish chin, I happily ate...but I could not eat cherry tomatoes and chocolate. It may actually taste good, but the two just don't seem to go together.

After our enormous lunch we walked over to the mall at the base of Taipei 101. On the way, I was excited to see a large sign for Coldstone Creamery. I went inside to see if it was any different. Other than featuring less chocolate-themed ice cream creations, it was basically the same. Even the offered toppings were the same. There was also a cute Snoopy Metlife ferris wheel and a replica of the Statue of Liberty. The Taipei 101 mall was lots of fun. We spent a few hours looking around. It was largely filled with designer shops that were prohibitively expensive. There was Tiffany's, DKNY, D&G, Prada, Gucci, Escada, Louis Vuitton, etc. I think clothes were more expensive there than in the U.S. (based on a comparison of a shirt from Armani Exchange). They also had a large English/Chinese bookstore that I happily looked around. We spent so much time in the mall both because I love looking at expensive clothes and purses (and books of course), but also because Scott wanted to wait until dark to go to the observatory.








Taipei 101

After dark, we ascended to the 89th floor of Taipei 101 to see the sights of Taipei in the interior observatory. Taipei 101 is a 101-floor skyscraper opened in 2004. It is currently the tallest building in the world, but will be eclipsed by a 141-floor building in Dubai in September 2009. It was the first building to be taller than a half-kilometer. Its height is listed as 1,667 feet (Comparison: There are 5,280 feet in a mile). It is designed to resist wind gusts of 60 miles/second and the strongest earthquake in a 2,500 year pattern. The building has a 728 ton tuned mass damper suspended from the 88th floor to the 92 floor designed to offset building movements caused by wind gusts. It is the largest damper in the world. Taipei 101 capitalizes on the damper by having its own mascot, the "Damper Baby." The elevator to the observatory is the fastest in the world. It took us from the 5th floor to the 89th floor in only 37 seconds. We spent a lot of time walking around the observatory listening to free audio guides that told us about the sights of Taipei that we were seeing. I was sad that we couldn't really see the city due to the darkness.










The Mass Tuned Damper

Me and Julie with the Damper Baby

Scott and John with the Damper Baby


To leave the observatory, we had to pass through numerous shops, selling food gifts and jewelry. We fell prey. Scott bought several boxes of cakes to take to work - they had samples of all the different flavors - quite good. And I found a gorgeous necklace of pink coral with a little jade. Taiwan is apparently known for its coral - the shop made sure we were aware of this. I was just happy to find a pretty necklace that ended up being inexpensive with the exchange rate and a little bargaining by John. After spending a long time in the jewelry shops, we headed back down to the main floors and left Taipei 101.

It was getting late by this point, but I really wanted to do one more thing in Taiwan - go to a big grocery store. So we went to one of their large supermarkets called Carrefour. Essentially a combination of a grocery store and a Walmart, this had everything a household could need. We bought a few pairs of house shoes and sandals for about $3 US each. Scott found a backpack for about $5 US. I also found a packet of chopsticks as well as a portable pair of chopsticks that I can fold up in put in my lunchbox for less than $2 each. We did not get to the grocery store portion of the supermarket until just before it closed at 11 PM, so many things had been removed, but I saw the vast array of fruits and vegetables in the produce section. Not surprisingly, they also had a much larger selection of fish than any store in the U.S. After finishing our shopping, we headed back to Julie and John's apartment for the night.

Hong Kong

Our flight to Hong Kong left at 7:40 AM. We got up at 4:30 AM to get to the airport on time. We didn't go to bed until about 1 AM the night before, so we were all quite tired. Our final Taiwanese breakfast was something John put together quickly, but was still delicious: wheat buns eaten with dried fish powder, buns with taro filling, wax apples, jujubes, tangerines, and Asian pears.
Our flight to Hong Kong was uneventful. I slept most of the way. The only high point was breakfast. We had fruit juice, a warm roll, and noodles with egg and ham. It was quite tasty. From the Hong Kong airport, we took a shuttle to our hotel, the Marriott Hong Kong Sky City hotel. The hotel was practically within walking distance of the airport. It just opened the week before. One of the benefits of a newly opened hotel is that the staff are falling over themselves to help you. We checked in early - around 10 AM, so they did not have the room we'd reserved available. To "help" us, the staffer put us into a deluxe suite on the top floor. Our suite had two rooms and two bathrooms! The bathroom in the living room had a toilet and sink - a powder room. The living room had a couch and some comfortable chairs with a flat screen TV. The bedroom had a king-sized bed and another flat screen TV. The bathroom had a bathtub and a shower. The shower had two heads: one conventional shower-head and one located on the ceiling above the shower. Everything in the room was high quality furnishings. The room also had a beautiful view of the harbor.

After freshening up, we took the MTR to Hong Kong station. Directly next to the station is the International Financial Center (IFC). The IFC consists of two skyscrapers and a mall filled with designer shops. The 2IFC is the tallest building in Hong Kong and the seventh-tallest building in the world. It is 415 meters tall and has 88 stories. In the IFC mall, we saw my favorite London sandwich shop, Pret a Manger. I insisted that we eat lunch there. I had a smoked salmon & rocket (arugula) sandwich and Scott had a Swedish meatball wrap. We also had a mango/passion-fruit smoothie and a package of chocolate chunk cookies. We both thought it was a good lunch. Scott approved of my love for Pret a Manger.



After lunch, we walked from the IFC to the Peak Tram station. We walked through Hong Kong's financial district. Next to the IFC is Exchange Square, home to the Hong Kong stock exchange and an impressive-looking building. Down the street is the HSBC building. Built in the 1980s, it is notable, because it has no internal support structure. It is supported by five exterior steel modules. Inside it is very open. You can see to the top of the building from the base.

L: The Exchange Building on the left, 2IFC on the right; R: HSBC Building

The Peak Tram station has a large cable car that takes passengers to Victoria Peak. The Peak is the highest mountain on Hong Kong island, at 1,810 feet. In the late 1800s, the Peak area became a popular place for wealthy British residents to build their homes. The path up the peak was so steep, that it could only be traversed by sedan chairs carried by local Chinese residents. The Peak Tram opened in 1888. It is a large cable car, holding up to 120 people, that runs on a 1300 meter track. The track is very steep - at some points it seems almost vertical - although the steepest part is really only 27 degrees. It takes about 7 minutes to reach Victoria Peak. At the Peak, are two shopping malls, mostly filled with cheap tourist junk.

The Peak Tram Car

We walked around the Peak Galleria for awhile and bought some cheap souvenirs. Then we walked up Mount Austin Road to the Victoria Gardens. Many expensive apartments are located along Mount Austin Road. We saw numerous Mercedes, Lexus, Audi, and BMW cars in the apartment garages. We even saw a Maserati. The Victoria Gardens were not particularly impressive. There were some pretty flower gardens and many people were there with their families and dogs. What made the Gardens impressive were the views - simply incredible. There were fabulous views of the harbor, of Hong Kong's Central district and the entire city.


R: 2IFC Tower

Tsing Ma Bridge

After taking lots of pictures of the view, we walked back to the shopping area and looked around the mall. We had a light meal of clam chowder, garlic bread, and a chocolate chip cookie sundae at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. I was a bit embarrassed to eat at a very American chain restaurant in Hong Kong, but the view made it worthwhile. We had a table next to a window that directly overlooked the city. It was gorgeous. We also spent a lot of the meal talking to two British tourists who were sitting next to us. They were on the first leg of a month-long trip that was taking them to Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia, and Los Angeles. After dinner, we went up to the Sky Tower, located outdoors on the roof of the Peak Tower. The view was fabulous. Hong Kong at night is gorgeous. I took many pictures and a few turned out well. It was very windy and uncomfortable on top of the Tower, but I so enjoyed the view that we stayed longer than we would have otherwise.


There was a long line of people waiting to go down the tram. To prepare for the cold and windy wait, we bought hot chocolates from Starbucks. It helped some. We had planned on checking out some of the areas of Hong Kong known for nightlife, but were too tired. Instead we took the bus back to Hong Kong station and went back to our hotel. We had also planned on staying up most of the night to help prevent jet lag, but the hotel room bed looked far too comfortable. We slept from about 1 AM till 7 AM. I think we both fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow. In the morning, we worked out at the hotel's fabulous exercise room. Each piece of exercise equipment had a TV attached to it. I walked the Phoenix (FBR) Open on TV while listening to my iPod.


Hong Kong Airport from window of hotel gym

We arrived at the Hong Kong airport around 9:30 AM. It was not crowded, so we passed through security and customs quickly. We ate breakfast at one of the restaurant in the food court. I had a delicious glutinous rice ball wrapped in a large leaf and filled with chicken and pork. Scott had a macaroni soup with ham and egg (he didn't think it was that great). And we split a pork/seafood congee dish.


Our plane left at 11:30 AM. Due to a tail wind, the flight was an hour shorter than our flight to Asia, about 14 hours. They showed four movies, Night in Rodanthe, The Duchess, Flash of Genius, and The Secret Life of Bees. I watched The Secret Life of Bees - quite good. The food was not very good. Our first meal was a roll, salad w/1000-Island Dressing, beef and potatoes, and some kind of berry/chocolate cake. Our "snack" was a ramen bowl with a lemon cookie. Our second meal was teriyaki chicken noodles (the chicken was awful) with a stale pastry/danish. Both Scott and I intended to sleep through much of the flight, but after our excellent sleep the night before, neither of us were very tired. Scott slept 5 or 6 hours, but I only got about 1 hour of sleep. As a result, once we got back to Minnesota, I was very tired. We went to bed around 8 PM.

Our trip to Taiwan and Hong Kong was absolutely fabulous. I can't wait to go back.

Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

For the past six months, I've had a package of cut-up chicken in my freezer. The other day I decided I should actually use it rather than let it sit there as decoration. I made a fabulous roast chicken and potato dish last night based off a recipe from Everyday Food. I served it with leftovers of the escarole saute I made on Monday.

Roast Chicken and Red Potatoes

1.5 lbs red potatoes, cut in large chunks
3 T butter, divided
Salt and Pepper
2 tspn Herbes de Provence
1 chicken, cut into eight pieces

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees
2. Layer potatoes in roasting pan and dot with 1.5 T butter. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and 1 tspn Herbes de Provence.
3. Bake potatoes for 20-30 minutes.
4. Place chicken, skin side up on top of potatoes. Dot with remaining 1.5 T butter, salt and pepper, and 1 tspn Herbes de Provence. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until done.

Dinner: Beef with Broccoli and Dessert: Pecan Tassies

I made dinner and dessert last night while blaring music over my iPod at high volume, because the fire alarm in our bedroom was going off. The past two days, I have arrived home to five blaring fire alarms. No fire, no smoke, just annoying beeping. The only way to stop the noise is to physically remove the fire alarms. I can't figure out what is setting them off. Perhaps the cold weather has something to do with it, but I'm not sure. Of course, as my luck would have it, the fire alarm in our bedroom is too high for me to reach, even with a ladder. Luckily I could tune it out with music. But it was a long few hours until Scott got home.

Here are recipes from last night's dinner and dessert (belated Christmas baking):

Beef With Broccoli Stir-Fry from www.recipezaar.com

25 min | 15 min prep

SERVES 4

3 tablespoons cornstarch, divided
1/2 cup water, plus 2 tablespoons water, divided
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 lb boneless top sirloin steak, sliced thin
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
4 cups broccoli florets
1 small onion, sliced thin
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
hot cooked rice

1. In a bowl, combine 2 tablespoons cornstarch, 2 tablespoons water and garlic powder until smooth. Add beef and toss.
2. In a large skillet or wok over medium high heat, stir-fry beef in 1 tablespoon oil until beef reaches desired doneness; remove and keep warm.
3. Stir-fry broccoli and onion in remaining oil for 4-5 minutes. Return beef to pan.
4. Combine soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger and remaining cornstarch and water until smooth; add to the pan. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Serve over rice.

Pecan Tassies

Makes 24

3 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup flour
1 egg
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1 tspn vanilla

1. Mix cream cheese, butter, and flour until it forms a dough. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
2. Mix remaining ingredients.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
4. Form dough into 24 small balls and shape into small muffin tins.
5. Spoon filling into dough.
6. Bake 25-30 minutes.

New Year and New Books

The first week of the year was eventful for Scott and me. On New Year's Eve, I awoke to a bad ear infection and went to the doctor for a prescription for Penicillin. On New Year's day, I awoke to the itchy realization that I am allergic to Penicillin. This was a surprise, given that I've taken the drug numerous times before. At first, I thought I might be overreacting, because I had strong memories of last year's allergic reaction to a different antibiotic. But by the end of the day, I was pretty sure that I could add Penicillin to my list of allergies. The physician's assistant started me on a low dose of Prednisone on Friday, but by Wednesday the reaction was getting worse instead of better. So I switched over to a high dose of Prednisone. I'm currently weaning myself off the drug, but I'm at the point now where I'm feeling the side effects - extra hunger, extra energy, and screwy sleep patterns. I'm definitely on the mend now, but no more Penicillin for me.

Scott opened up his new year with a cold. After hearing people rave about their Netti Pots, he decided to try it. He says that it works pretty well, but it's not a cure-all. The sight of him pouring water into one nostril and seeing it flow out the other is, to me, hilarious. Personally, I'd rather suffer than have the self-drowning feeling of pouring water down my nose. But that's just me.

Here are reviews of a books I've read since Christmas:

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

A spell-binding book. The first in a trilogy, Hunger Games takes place in a post-American world where the country is divided into twelve districts. To punish citizens for prior revolts, the government requires each district to send one boy and one girl each year to the Hunger Games. This is a Survivor-type reality TV show where the participants fight to the death in a wilderness course. The winner is rewarded with wealth and status for their entire families. Katniss is from the poorest of the twelve districts. She volunteers to participate in the games in the place of her young sister. Her companion from her district is Peeta, the baker's son. The Hunger Games is a fascinating spectacle of show, bravery, competition, and sheer brutality. Katniss has to learn whom she can and cannot trust, or perhaps most importantly, just to learn to trust in anyone at all. The ending is inconclusive, obviously setting up for future books. The world Collins created has a lot of holes in it, but I am hoping that future books will clear up some of the poorly developed facts. Rating 4/5

Revelations by Melissa de la Cruz

This is the third book in the Blue Bloods series, which I wrote about in previous posts. I don't really have much new to say about these books. The third one is just as shallow and fluffy as the others. The storyline still intrigues me enough to continue with the series, but I was not as interested in this book as the other two. Rating: 2/5

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead

This is the third book in the Vampire Academy series. All these books are an easy, thoughtless read - not as stupid as the Blue Bloods series, but still pretty shallow. Rose continues to mature in these books, becoming less annoying with each one. She was depressed most of this book. I felt bad for her rather than wanting to strangle her. The ending was really depressing and I'm hoping there is some sort of twist to the next book. I'm looking forward to continuing this series. Rating 2.5/5

Princess Academy by Shannon Hale

Princess Academy is a sweet, innocent book probably most appropriate for girls ages 10-12. The main character is a 14-year old girl named Miri, who lives in a poor mining community of a great kingdom. Tradition dictates that the prince choose a wife from a region of the kingdom named by the astrologers/priests. When Miri's region is selected as the location of the prince's future wife, all teenage girls are required to go to a "Princess Academy" for a year to train them to be proper princesses. The academy starts out with a fiercely competitive spirit which gradually changes as the girls grow closer and come to rely upon each other. The book ends with a little bit of action and a nice conclusion. All in all, it was a satisfying book, although nothing too special. Rating: 3/5

Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson

A prequel to L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gable series, this book covers Anne Shirley's life before she arrived in Avonlea. It begins shortly after her parents marry and ends as she is leaving for the Bright River train station. The beginning of the book, before Anne was old enough to have a personality, was slow and boring. But the book picks up as Anne gets older. Wilson envisions Anne being placed with people who mean well, but are too busy or downtrodden to do anything but treat her badly. She is essentially a servant from the time she is a toddler. The book stays very loyal to Montgomery's series, although it lacks some of the innocence and hope of the Green Gables series. Perhaps this is due to the era in which Wilson wrote her book but I think it is mostly due to the fact that Anne's childhood had little joy in it, except for what she created herself. Rating: 3.5/5

Sunday Dinner and Leftovers

Sunday I made a tasty, improvised soup with sausage, beans, and spinach. Other than chopping up a bunch of vegetables, it was very easy. And I made my favorite pop-overs to go with the soup.

Sausage and Bean Soup

1 small onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2-3 stalks celery, chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
8 oz turkey kielbasa, sliced thin
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes
1 can (15 oz) cannelloni beans
6 cups chicken broth
1 sweet potato, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tspn Italian seasoning
pinch rubbed sage
1 tspn salt
Pepper
3-4 oz chopped spinach

1. Saute onions, celery, carrots, and garlic in a bit of olive oil until soft. Add kielbasa and cook until sausage is slightly browned.
2. Add rest of ingredients. Cook until potatoes are soft.
3. Add spinach.
4. Serve with grated Parmesan.

No-Beat Popovers

I found this recipe last year on www.recipezaar.com and make it frequently. I usually forget to add the salt, but it really is better with salt. You won't find a simpler pop-over recipe. I served this with homemade honey-butter.

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 tspn salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Mix together ingredients. Pour into pop-over pan (you could probably use a regular muffin pan, but the baking time will likely differ).
3. Bake for 30 minutes.

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On Monday, I mixed the rest of the sausage with a package of Asparagus Risotto from Trader Joe's. For a side dish, I made a dish out of escarole. I had bought a head of it to put in Sunday's soup, but when I got home, I wasn't sure if it actually was escarole - I thought it might just be lettuce. I looked it up on the Internet today and realized that I had indeed purchased escarole, so I found a recipe to use it.


Sauteed Escarole, adapted from a recipe on www.recipezaar.com. The balsamic vinegar adds a lot to the dish. Don't leave it out.

1 onion, sliced thin
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 head escarole, chopped
1 cup chicken broth
1 tspn salt
pinch red pepper flakes
Balsamic vinegar

1. Sautee onion and garlic over low heat until soft.
2. Add escarole, chicken broth, salt, and pepper. Increase heat to medium-high until escarole is wilted.
3. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar to taste. Add more salt and pepper as necessary.