My Taiwanese celebration of the year of the mouse

Ya-wen preparing the table with yummy dishes.

New Year's Eve dinner
Near the door Dong-dong startled by loud firecrackers shot into the sky to welcome the year of the mouse. I was invited to Ya-Wen’s house in Zhonghe (中和市) for a dinner on this night of New Year’s Eve. After dishes were placed on the table, Ya-Wen’s dad popped a bottle of champaign for cheers, and we started to savors these delicious dishes bearing names whose sound resembles auspicious word in either Mandarin and Taiwanese; therefore, they are must-have dishes for New Year’s Eve dinner. For instances, fish (yu), fish balls (yu wan), meat balls (rou wan), and Chicken (ji) were on the table tonight. However, I did not remember all what they mean (sorry Ya-Wen). For soup, we had “Buddha jumps over the wall”—very delicious! Ya-Wen’s dad and mom as well as Dong-dong had been entertaining me. At one point, Ya-wen's dad mentioned a situation when he worked as an engineer for various tunnels in Northeastern area of the island, while her mom wanted him to quit the job and come back home because of the job's dangerous nature--diggning a hole into a moutain is not an easy job then; many lives were spared. As we continued savor the dishes, many stories had been shared and I had become stuffed. But....dessert was yummy too! Of course, I had a space for it! At the end, Ya-Wen gave me some of her home-made “cai tou” cake to take home for tomorrow (I guess “cai tou” must refer to something with a nice meaning too). Well, not mention other dishes that would last me for couple days during this break. By the time Ya-Wen and her dad drove me home, firecrackers were even louder because New Year already arrived!

Cheers!

Delicious Dessert

Ya-wen is slicing her “cai tou” cake for me to take home.

New Year Lunch
Wayne invited me to have lunch with his family (mom, dad and a younger sister) in Banciao (板橋市). His mom prepared many dishes to welcome three of his cousins and me. His dad had been to Thailand for seven times, and he loves the country and is a very fun person to talk with. While his mom was preparing dishes, we had a very lively conversation about various subjects—I must admit, he knows about Bangkok much better than I do. He said that every time he was in Bangkok, he went to pray for Erawan shrine, which is one of the most sacred places in the city. One of Wayne’s cousins and his in-law cousin are news anchors in one of TV stations—often the discussion turns into the coming election.

Wayne's family eats spicy food!! All dishes made my tongue so happy! Wayne’s mom had me try a type of Chou doufu, which was different from what I had had earlier. Though it had a stronger smell, it tasted good! After I had been well fed, Wayne’s mom did not let me go home empty handed. She packed me some fruits before I left around 4 o’clock. It was such a wonderful afternoon visit.

Dinner in Raohe night market

New Year evening at Roehe Nightmarket

When evening arrived, TeChing sent me a message and offered to take me out for a dinner at Raohe night market. This market is the one where I made a turn back when I biked on the first evening I arrived in Taipei. After couple rounds of finding a parking space, we lost ourselves in a crowd filling this small street, sprinkled by light rains (I kept taking my camera in and out my jacket). I thought it would not be that many people here, but I was wrong! We had a type of soupy dishes in Chinese herbal medicine, which are very good. Then, we were standing in a snake line for a famous hu jiao (pepper) ping. Although TeChing does not eat it because pepper bing contains meat, he knows it is good. And, yes, it is! But it was very very hot (temperature-wise)! When we arrived at the other end of the street, we went into a temple of Matzu crowded by worshipers.

Thanks to Ya-Wen, Wayne, TeChing and importantly their families for taking me into their home and their heart during this special occasion of my very first Taiwanese New Year celebration.

Enjoying his dish.

My dish--Black Chicken.

Famous hu jiao ping

Non-stop assembly line of hu jiao ping

Matzu Temple

A carved lantern piece in the temple.

Thai iced tea, but the sellers are not Thais.

Eating shenkeng tofu and visiting Zhinan Temple kick off my Chinese New Year

As labmates started to leave for their long holiday with their family, TeChing prompted to plan for an outing trip as the starter trip of my Chinese New Year break. Shenkeng (深坑) followed by Maokong (貓空) was our destination for this evening. Considered as a back garden of Taipei, Shenkeng Township is famous for its tofu and where TeChing knows best. From our lab (actually, he picked me up from 家樂福 near my apartment), we drove over a mountain to Shenkeng’s famous tofu alley, where many restaurants offer their specialties. When approaching the entrance of the alley, I acknowledged the presence of the (in)famous dish of the town, chou doufu, which its glory has been credited to Shenkeng’s pure water suitable for tofu production. Not all shops sold tofu, however. Some were selling several colorful and tasty snacks. A number of shops closed its business today as did TeChing’s regularly visited restaurant. This was a bit sad, but he took me to a place right by it. I assured him that we would order all “su shi” (素食; vegetarian) dishes which made him smiled because he is a vegetarian. By the time I realized I was full, all of the dishes were almost gone. One of the dishes were, of course, mala chou doufu (stinky tofu in spicy soup), along with mian xian (cold noodle), hot-plated tofu, and a vegetable dish. After the dinner we got our snack. TeChing bought two boxes of snacks, and I got a piece of rice cake, gui (in Taiwanese), which was very yummy. The snack is native to Hakka, but I do not know to call it in Hakka tongue (well TeChing did not know).

Facing a new restaurant, TeChing is thinking hard for what to order. "Chou Doufu, man! I am hungry."

Savory Mala Chou Doufu!

Mian Xian.

Hot-plate tofu.

TeChing really enjoys the dishes as do I.

Continuing with his plan, he took me to Maokong with an anticipation for a nice spot to view Taipei City at night. After many right-angle turns and high graded slopes and because rains and dimply lit street made it eery to drive, he would take me to Zhinan Gong. Such weather contributed to our mis-turn, veering us down to mountain foot at the other side. Even though I told him that I was fine if we had gone home, TeChing was still determined to climb up to visit the temple which is a famous temple in the area. And finally, we found it! However, all the shops at the entrance of the I-forgot-to-count steps were close. At the time we arrived, there were only two old men chatting loudly in a small building right next to the main shrine. Then, I realized that people had really left Taipei.

Door art at the main shrine of Zhinan Gong.

We could see scenery of the city down below, and I was trying to take a picture but not successful. A story goes because of his unsuccessful marriage of the main deity of the temple (Lü Dongbin), a couple should not come to this temple together. If so, they are doomed to be separated because it believes that he is jealous of lovers. I guess TeChing never came here with his girl, or did he?

Zhinan Gong walkway decorated by beautiful lanterns.

We walked along the walkway from the main shrine to the other two shrines that are devoted to different deities. All shrines had its door shut because of no more god visiting hour. Walkway was decorated with numerous yellow lanterns and big board signs were placed to inform visitors that Rat and Horse year peoples will be in bad luck this year and they should call the numbers (they are numbers of the temple) to donate, and the temple will pray for the god on his/her behalf. I am a horse but I don’t think that I would call these numbers. There is a shrine of Confucius at the other end of the walkway but we decided to turn back after reached Maokong Gondola Zhinan Temple Station (TeChing planed to take me here by the gondola but the gondola did not service today). In front of the station sits a bust of “a-not-so-famous” gentleman (that is why I do not know his name) who helped Taiwan during Japanese colonization era. By the time we got back to the car, it was well beyond TeChing’s bed time. After I requested another visit to Shenkeng tofu, he retraced his way back to my apartment and turned back on the same route to his Shenkeng sweet home.

In front of Zhinan Temple Station, sitting a bust of "not-so-famous" man under several lanterns hung on leave-less tree branches.

A colorful Sunday without sunshine

Gugong in a no-sunshine Sunday

Sound of small grains hitting water surface, followed by sound of moving fish tearing water surface apart, repeated intermittently and was regularly interrupted by aww-sounds of people above a school of multicolor-stripped large-size carps. Ya-Wen mentioned that these carps were not this big and in a large number when she was here last time (how long has it been?). Carps, specifically koi, are considered to bring a good fortune to an owner since when Japanese farmers domesticated them for food and for pleasure from their colors generated by mutated genes. Koi can survive and eat little (or nothing at all) in sub-10C cold water of winter months. I believed that the water in Dragon Lake of National Palace Museum (NPM or Gugong) today was not cold enough to discharge these koi from gulfing food that a girl had been throwing down for almost half an hour now (she really had lots to give to the koi). I quickly snapped the actions of these beautiful, colorful koi (even though I saw a very large black (rather ugly) one too).

Ya-Wen and I in front of Main Exhibition Hall

Colorful koi in Dragon Lake of Chih-shan Garden

Bright colors of these koi were very different from those rich deep colors and intense light and shadows of Baroque paintings in “Splendor of the Baroque and Beyond: Great Habsburg Collectors,” a special exhibition of NPM we saw this morning. These paintings involving subjects such as portraiture, natural history and religion often depicts a pronounced moment of subject, similarly to the movement of these koi fighting for food. These European style paintings were contrastingly housed in Chinese architect style exhibition hall. The famous treasures of Chinese Emperors, however, are housed in the main exhibition hall, which will be the destination of my next visit for a full day tour. A fun short movie introducing NPM, a much shorter version of "Night at the museum" but without Ben Stiller, made me want to spend a good quality time with the treasures. Since the opening time remained only couple hours today, Ya-Wen and I decided to enjoy a walk in this traditional Chinese garden of the Sung and Ming dynasty style, decorated by colors of late-winter blossoms and birds, where I stumbled into the koi.

A feeding girl looking down at gulfing koi

Mother with two children admiring koi

Treasury Style trash jar in Gugong.

Yummy Da chang bao xiao chang stand in Shilin Night Market

Leaving colorful koi behind, I faced colorful xiaochi in Shilin night market (well, smells too). Ya-Wen introduced me to various dishes such as famous oyster omelet (e a jian), squid soup, da chang bao xiao chang (big sausage wraps small sausage), da bing bao xiao bing (big bun wraps small bun), cold noodle and infamous (fried) stinky tofu. All of dishes were good in their own right but I must make my own comments: Thais have a similar dish to e a jian but, instead of oysters, use mussels, bean sprouts along with tofu and ground peanuts. It is called หอยทอด (pronounces hoi tord; fried mollusk) and tastes much better than e a jian. While da chang bao xiao chang tasted very yummy, da bing bao xiao bing was not impressive. After I tasted a series of colorful dishes, I hopped on the red and blue lines back home in a loud underground tube. Even though the sun did not brighten up colors of today, thanks to Ya-Wen my third Sunday in Taipei was painted colorfully.

Cooking e a jian

Famous Taiwanese xiaochi: e a jian

Squid Soup

Shilin's Da bing bao xiao bing stand

Ya-wen with cold noodle and fried Chou doufu; the former is quite spicy.

Amid a jolting crowd on Dihua Street

Lining from shoulder to shoulder in a less-than-two-meter-wide space, I was tucked in a jolting crowd and resounded by loud noises. Oh, I was not standing in front of a famous pop-star concert stage but in Dihua Street Market (迪化街), a famous Taipei shopping destination for Chinese New Year supplies. A normally wide street was narrowed by rows of tarp-covered stands on both sides, creating a bottleneck flow of shoppers passing through its Section 1. This sardine-packed crowd reminded me of Jatujak Weekend Market in Bangkok, even though Dihua Street Market is much smaller but in a more pleasurable weather than Jatujak Weekend Market. Usually, Dihua boasts for herb and dried-food shops and its architecture of the Baroque decoration from Daisho Era, but this size of crowd easily blinds one from seeing the buildings’ architectural style (the about-one-mile alley packed at least 7,000 people today, my own non-scientifically estimated number).

Architectures of Dihua Street Buildings in Baroque decoration of Daisho Era looking down the jolting crowd.

Most Taipei-ren (台北人) here came for their New Year Party supplies, but I joined the crowd for a feel of it and plus for enjoying free samples offered by all vendors (I learned about free samplings from an article on Taipei Chinese New Year). I was quite sure that a large proportion of this crowd also loves such free samples. All shops were decorated by red paper with golden Chinese letters as “red for good luck,” but offered similar products from one another, ranging from auspicious-name dried fruits to colorful sweet candies. I did not know much about these goodies but I was puzzled by strangely red-orange interesting flatten heart-shape stuff. I latter learned that these were “Mullets’ eggs,” and it is a must-buy-must-eat New Year dish, as a saying goes "eating gray mullet's golden eggs can bring you lots of good fortune every year!"

Kids and adults are circling piles of colorful sweets.

Tanghulu (sugar coated fruits or vegetables) and frog leg stands.

Colorfully wrapped, candies were piled high as if one could taste how sweet they posses in a glance. Kids and adults circled and dug into candy piles as if they were mountains of gold. Dried fruits displaying their colors invited me to stop and taste. I decided to buy some dried sweetened green beans and apple slices home. People were not only circling the piles of goodies but also enclosing one another. Nonetheless, a glance through space of the touching-shoulder wall entertained my brain by colorful displays and scents from one vendor to the next, from a strong smell of hot ulong tea to savory scents of fried noodles and steamed buns.

A lady preparing fried stinky tofu nearby a Taiwanese sausage stand.

Attractive displays and aroma of goodies were not enough. To persuade potential buyers, the shop keepers worked as a team, dressing in an eye-catcher costume, speaking into a microphone to amplify their products’ specialties, while handing samplings out to moving crowd. Some vendors put on a demonstration, especially at toy shops. A roasted pork stand even displayed whole roasted baby pork, which attracted attentions fairly well. Too bad, I did not taste the pork whether it was good or not. In addition, xiaochi stands were located on the north end along Gueishuei Street and spuriously on Dihua Street. Often, shoppers veered out to pray for blessing at the Xiahai City God Temple, one of Taipei's most reputable worship places. Some released themselves from the crowd to enjoy various performances and programs running throughout the day on stages hosted by Taipei City as Dihua Street is a part of multilocale 2008 Taipei Big Street New Year Shopping Festival.

Sellers speaking into a megaphone to persuade a crowd of shoppers.

Roasted baby pig on display (though its size is relatively large). Shopkeeper is narrating how good the pork tastes, I assume.

Yummy noodle soup and fried noodle being prepared by chiefs.

After pilgrimaging the full circle on Dihua street and filling my stomach along the way, I continued walking down to Ximending to find myself amid another type of crowds watching wannabe-star performers.