Cooking Up Some Good Times

Hello pengyous, as you can tell I am feeling much better. I cannot believe I didn't tell you this but I believe it was last week that I went to a Taiwanese Cooking Class here in Taipei. The class was Introduction to Taiwanese Cooking and was four hours long! We went through a lot of recipes and different techniques, and I am totally geeked to try some of this stuff out at home. And it is too bad sesame seeds are so expensive in the US. Some of the dishes I learned include (English approximate) Spicy Pineapple, Homemade Soy Milk, Tofu, Sweet and Sour Soup, Sesame Paste Noodles, Taiwanese Dressing, Szechuan Spicy Pepper Oil, Eggplant with Ginger Dressing, Sesame Oil Cucumber, and Spicy Noodles. Ah yes, my other regret--and a much bigger one--is that I don't think you can (easily) obtain Chinese eggplant in the US. Which is why my solution is to eat it 3-4 times a week. Anyway, I will be on for the Dumpling class in two weeks and I am excited! (**Note: I have been told by some that this is not "real" Taiwanese cooking, once it was revealed that the soup base was made of tomato and pineapple instead of duck's blood. My yen for cultural translation notwithstanding, I am perfectly ok with this)

Speaking of culinary accomplishments, there's this street vendor near where I am that always has this line around the block, day and night, and I stopped one time and saw that they were making the ubiquitous scallion cakes--some combination of fried bread stuffed with scallions, or topped with scallions, or in this case stuffed with scallions with a fried egg on top. I finally got up the gumption to wait in the (endless) line and these things are so. good. Like greasy Taiwanese fair food. A+.

Another example:
http://en.tw.tranews.com/Show/Style203/News/c1_News.asp?SItemId=0271030&ProgramNo=A000203000002&SubjectNo=3232163&CityId=22



Finally, last Sunday I made the required trip to one of Taiwan's Hot Springs. Hot Springs are big here. You can go (like I did) to the cheap place where you pay less than $2 for some hot springs and some cold springs, or you can really make your whole trip to Taiwan into a leisurely spa event and stay at a hotel literally built around hot springs. Considering that it's still pushing 90 every day here, I was underwhelmed by the hotness of the hot springs but I acknowledge their probable attractiveness when it is cooler. And I did enjoy the cold springs. For the record, despite this picture there were plenty of people there even on an above-90 day, and I hear that is because hot springs have healing properties and improve your circulation. I'm sure they do. That's your heart pumping more blood to your head so you don't faint from the heat. I kid, I kid. Kind of.