The 14 hour flight here was brutal! It started out okay -- the flight was half-empty so we were allowed to move where we wished. We opted to take the first row to get extra leg room. After about 5 hours my back started hurting and I started getting restless. I watched The Kids are Alright, half of King's Speech, Love and Other Drugs, half of Mary Poppins and read a couple of chapters. I was determined to stay awake since we were arriving in Taipei at 10:30pm (6am PST). By about hour 12 I was not feeling it. My back hurt, my shoulder was in pain, my legs were aching and I started feeling nauseous from the airplane smells. They served porridge and the smell just made everything worse. I used a throw-up bag to "filter" the airplane air and sat with my head between my knees for the rest of the flight.
When we arrived in Taipei it was warmer than I expected. It was cool outside but the humidity made it easy to sweat. I was really hungry but too tired to do anything. It was about a 45 minute drive to Max's grandma's house in Shilin and I knocked out in the car. I had a bad ulcer and stomach pains when we arrived so we decided to go to the night market to eat something. I felt like a zombie but I knew I'd feel better once I got something in my stomach. We went to a random restaurant and had cold chicken, fried rice, sauteed vegetables, tofu and sweet and sour pork ribs. Amazing that such a random street restaurant tastes so much better than the over-greased Chinese food in LA! We stopped by 7-Eleven to get some tea eggs and tea and then headed back to the apartment. Max's grandma lives in a new apartment complex built by the Taiwanese government for government workers. (His grandfather was in the Taiwanese equivalent of the CIA.) Was I allowed to blog that?
I showered and knocked out and woke up at 7:30am the next morning. I forgot to turn my iPhone alarm off and the time automatically adjusted! In the morning I met Max's grandmother who was so happy to see us. We had some sweet soymilk and watched TV until Ivan and Max's mom woke up. After spending some time with the family, we headed out for some breakfast. It was about a 10 minute walk to the best Taiwanese breakfast I've had in my life. There was a salty soy milk which was served like porridge, scallion buns and some Chinese donuts dipped in sweet soymilk. Even the panfried radish cake was 100x better than the best dimsum in San Gabriel! Since I don't have my laptop with me pictures will have to wait until I get back!
We rushed back to the apartment to meet Max's aunt and cousin who was visiting from the U.S. too. We watched Asian music videos on TV while snacking on some fresh hand-rolled egg rolls (the cookie, not the appetizer) and Taiwanese fruit. Then his other aunt and cousin who live here came over and we had pork chop rice delivered to the apartment. Again, the best I've ever tasted. Doesn't even taste like any of the pai kut fan I've ever had in the U.S. The pork was so thin, tender and flavored. The rice was soft and sticky like Korean rice and it had really good steamed vegetables, corn and seaweed in it.
I am so full, it's barely 2:30pm and I feel like I've already gained 5 pounds. I'll be back later hopefully. It is a pain to type on a Chinese keyboard btw... Ｔｈｅ ｓｅｔｔｉｎｇ ｋｅｅｐｓ ｇｏｉｎｇ ｂａｃｋ ａｎｄ ｆｏｒｔｈ ｂｅｔｗｅｅｎ ｄｉｆｆｅｒｅｎｔ ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒ ｓｅｔｓ．
When we arrived in Taipei it was warmer than I expected. It was cool outside but the humidity made it easy to sweat. I was really hungry but too tired to do anything. It was about a 45 minute drive to Max's grandma's house in Shilin and I knocked out in the car. I had a bad ulcer and stomach pains when we arrived so we decided to go to the night market to eat something. I felt like a zombie but I knew I'd feel better once I got something in my stomach. We went to a random restaurant and had cold chicken, fried rice, sauteed vegetables, tofu and sweet and sour pork ribs. Amazing that such a random street restaurant tastes so much better than the over-greased Chinese food in LA! We stopped by 7-Eleven to get some tea eggs and tea and then headed back to the apartment. Max's grandma lives in a new apartment complex built by the Taiwanese government for government workers. (His grandfather was in the Taiwanese equivalent of the CIA.) Was I allowed to blog that?
I showered and knocked out and woke up at 7:30am the next morning. I forgot to turn my iPhone alarm off and the time automatically adjusted! In the morning I met Max's grandmother who was so happy to see us. We had some sweet soymilk and watched TV until Ivan and Max's mom woke up. After spending some time with the family, we headed out for some breakfast. It was about a 10 minute walk to the best Taiwanese breakfast I've had in my life. There was a salty soy milk which was served like porridge, scallion buns and some Chinese donuts dipped in sweet soymilk. Even the panfried radish cake was 100x better than the best dimsum in San Gabriel! Since I don't have my laptop with me pictures will have to wait until I get back!
We rushed back to the apartment to meet Max's aunt and cousin who was visiting from the U.S. too. We watched Asian music videos on TV while snacking on some fresh hand-rolled egg rolls (the cookie, not the appetizer) and Taiwanese fruit. Then his other aunt and cousin who live here came over and we had pork chop rice delivered to the apartment. Again, the best I've ever tasted. Doesn't even taste like any of the pai kut fan I've ever had in the U.S. The pork was so thin, tender and flavored. The rice was soft and sticky like Korean rice and it had really good steamed vegetables, corn and seaweed in it.
I am so full, it's barely 2:30pm and I feel like I've already gained 5 pounds. I'll be back later hopefully. It is a pain to type on a Chinese keyboard btw... Ｔｈｅ ｓｅｔｔｉｎｇ ｋｅｅｐｓ ｇｏｉｎｇ ｂａｃｋ ａｎｄ ｆｏｒｔｈ ｂｅｔｗｅｅｎ ｄｉｆｆｅｒｅｎｔ ｃｈａｒａｃｔｅｒ ｓｅｔｓ．
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