Taiwan Tidbit

Today's meat I really thought was pork:

Squid

Day 2 -- Travel to NE Coast

We're headed to the Maine of Taiwan today and after yesterday's breakfast experiment i've decided to have my own little pre-breakfast in my room, in case breakfast is not favorable i won't starve until lunch. today, it's sun chips and pop tarts.

when i join the others at regular breakfast i decide to try the rice soup that is served every morning. i pretend it's a sundae bar since there are oodles of toppings, including what looks like some sort of dried oodle. it's actually quite good -- tastes like rice soup and my topping of choice is peanuts. i down the whole bowl and there! i am officially eating taiwanese food!!

We load into our little yellow bus and head out for the Pacific Ocean. It's so interesting to see the Pacific as the East Coast! Anyway, it's beautiful and blue and fabulous and the coastline is rocky and jagged. The eastern part of Taiwan is all rocky mountains, which plunge directly into the sea. It's quite breathtaking scenery .... I really don't know much about Taiwan and was expecting nothing but factories, industrial parks and pollution ...... but that is clearly not the case. The mountains are covered with lush greenery and brought to mind the land of Hawaii ... well, from what i've seen in postcards as i've never been.

The shoreline is all crashing waves and big rocks -- not very beachy. Sort of like Oregon Coast but tropical!

Visited a local market way up on a hilltop, and then the former gold mine which closed in 1987. this is where the japanese (who used to occupy Taiwan until end of WWII) stored their British POWs. They were slave labor in the mines and if they didn't find enough gold ore during the day they were beaten by the guards with their very own mining hammers! there better not be a gold mine at guatanemo bay .... anyway, it was very sad and humbling to learn about. :(

Next stop was lunch at a seafood joint. outside were tons of fish tanks with every type of sea creature imaginable. at first i thought we were in a pet store. blowfish, eels, crabs, lobster, sea urchin, shrimp, etc. I have been trying really hard not to be scared of my food, but today was very challenging. they served us a plate of octopus and i was like 'that's octopus!!!' then no one else really said anything, so i just tried to play it cool. i'm not sure it worked, but i didn't squeal when they brought out the shrimp with the feets, legs, antennae, eyeballs, head, etc. still attached. didn't even flinch.

anyway, johnny got another fish head to eat -- he just takes the head and sucks everything off it, leaving just the cartilage -- kind of like eating a hot wings, but with eyes. today he also pulled off the spine and bones and chewed on that for awhile -- it looked like there was some sort of goodness in the backbone? when he was done i was like 'johnny, you always do such a good job of getting every last bit of that fish.' he kind of looked at me like i was crazy and no one else really said anything -- i realized it's probably the equivalent of him complimenting me on polishing off a Big Mac.

so we boarded the bus and headed for our new hotel in the mountains -- the shangri la farming resort. it's way up in the hills, overlooking a farming valley. we went on a walking tour of the grounds and there were little activities along the way, like rope bridges to cross, log steps to climb, basically all of the stunts you see on Survivor immunity challenges. we hiked around, took in the majestic views and wildlife. peter showed us how good feng shui helped this region become prosperous farmland -- there's two mountains -- one on each side -- with a valley in the middle and the area faces the sea with the mountains at its back -- all elements of good feng shui.

After the hike I went to my room, ate some peanut butter (thanks amy!) and took a nap. I woke up 15 minutes late for dinner and contemplated skipping, but figured being late might be ok -- maybe all the gross stuff was eaten already! I filled my bowl with rice and dove into something that looked like chicken, only smaller. i took a bite and was surprised to taste nothing but skin and bone, litterally. It was a chicken neck and they don't really de-bone their chicken here i have learned. they just slice right through it. Interesting! i'll know to watch for that next time.

I didn't see much that appealed to me so I just casually ate plain rice. Poom saw i really wasn't eating anything and passed me the vegetable plate that was always safe. They then informed me that they saved me the last taro root ball, rolled in sesame seeds. Great. Everyone was staring at me to eat the last one ... it was actually quite good -- and sweet! whew! i will be eating more than rice and chicken neck bone tonight.

They don't serve water at meals -- just tea -- and that is taking some getting used to. I usually bring my own water bottle and stash it at the side of the table. i swear the waitresses scowl at you if they see water -- they think it's totally weird and inappropriate to serve a cold beverage with a hot meal and they just won't do it.

After dinner there were resort activities ...... i swear if there was an Asian version of Dirty Dancing, this is where they would have filmed it. (Caron, it was total 'one, two, clappy, clappy!').