5/11/14
Today wasn't particularly eventful... it was mostly just about good food! Last night, we went to sleep at around midnight, and I woke up this morning at 9:30, so I think my sleep schedule was finally starting to normalize again. We went over to the grandparents' again for breakfast.
Porridge with scallion and seaweed pancakes.
Bleh...am I the only one who doesn't like papaya?
I then returned to the aunt and uncles' and sat with my cousins in the living room, all three of us on our laptops. I worked on catching up on the blog, while my mom searched for places to eat in Kyoto. She showed me a shop in a department store that was famous for its green tea and ice cream treats. For lunch, we stayed there and the grandparents came over. My aunt and uncle brought back boxes of prepared dishes and one of my favorites: roast duck!
Side dishes with the shop name and address.
Yum!
For the roast duck, we had the option of wrapping the duck in a tortilla-like wrap with sauce, or simply eating it by itself.
Like so.
After lunch, my uncle took my mom and I to Costco because my mom wanted to get toothbrush heads. The Taiwanese Costco was quite different from its American counterpart; like other wholesale supermarkets, it was built as a loop. The entrants first had to go down a long, sloping walkway that probably would not be considered "safe" in the states. Once in the main basement floor, there would be numerous small tables with salesladies shouting out their products while offering samples. In order to make our purchases, we then had to ride up another steep walkway and make our way through the produce floor. My uncle handed us lots of samples, including blueberries, cakes, and some sort of delicious seafood soup.
We then made a trip to a bookstore we'd been to last time, and my mom bought a giant set of Les Miserables translated into Chinese.
Back at the apartment, my aunt showed me an extremely fancy box of pastries and candies that someone had given them in advance of his/her wedding. The bakery that made them, Jiu Zhen Nan, is very famous in Taiwan. My uncle told me that the image on the lid symbolized union by duplicating the character, 喜, as in 我喜歡你 (I like you).
Tried my best to make the characters visible...
The contents.
Top one is sweet, bottom is salty.
In addition to sampling some of these, my aunt also gave me some homemade fruit candy! They were cut into cubes and cute flowers, then coated with sugar.
We then went over to the grandparents' for dinner as usual, even though it was still only afternoon. My grandma took out some popsicles for us, and set up a small table and chair on the balcony so I could sit outside and catch the breeze.
Best flavor ever.
I used to sit on this chair next to the window as a child back when my grandparents lived in Taipei.
Afternoon to evening in Kaohsiung.
My aunt's mother had sent over some food, including a special dish of chicken that had been rolled up tightly, marinated for a day, and then cooked (steamed?). My mom had recently mentioned to my aunt that a few years ago she had had dinner with them and had really enjoyed this chicken. My aunt probably told this to her mother yesterday, and she kindly made it again and sent it to us.
The stuff on top and on left is cow stomach, which I just started eating at the beginning of this trip. The rolled chicken is on the right!
That's it for today...tomorrow is probably going to be a busy day though, since it's right before we leave for Kyoto! :)