What's for Dinner?

By the end of the day, we all want to stay home for dinner.  Solomon, especially, likes to be in the apartment rather than in a restaurant.

Sometimes a fellow just wants to relax.

Dinner is a bit of a challenge because of the limited cooking space, and utensils. As my friend Karen Jones would say, "This is a one ass kitchen."  It's also a clean up as you go kitchen since I have to wash and  reuse utensils, plates and bowls frequently.

The pot on the left works well for noodles and rice.  I've got two fry pans like the one of the right.  The second pan doubles as a lid.  We are lucky to have two gas burners.  Some apartments only have one burner.

One small cutting board, two dull knives, a dull vegetable peeler and one wooden spatula. What more does a home cook need to prepare a gourmet dinner?

The plastic strainer works for washing veggies and draining noodles. All dinners are eaten out of the four bowls on the left. Inside the strainer are a few plastic bowls, one of which works well for fruit salad.  I use the plates for cut up veggies waiting for their turn in the pan.

  Since David is our vegetarian, I try to cook something that all four of us will enjoy.  My dinners tend to be vegetables and noodles, or vegetables and rice. Thanks to Carissa Roth, I cooked up some tofu that was pretty tasty.  But, I can't really plan what I'm going to cook until I have the ingredients.

What shall we have for dinner tonight?

I bought this fruit at the traditional market this morning.  Fruit salad will be on the menu.

This will be the vegetable course.  Check out the baby corn - the lady was husking it while I watched.

There's nothing too adventurous in my selection of veggies today.  The big white thing on the left is daikon radish. Notice the size of the carrot.

I've got all day to figure out what what to make with the ingredients that I've got.

I went out to get some ginger and garlic to add flavor, and why not throw in some mushrooms?

Guess what?  What I thought was zucchini turned out to be cucumber.  We topped off our bowls with these deliciously fresh cukes.

Here's the final product.  I boiled up some noodles, tossed them with sesame oil and we scooped the veggies on top.  It was a pretty tasty meal.

A Typical Day in Taiwian

We have  been in Taipei for two weeks.  Our life has achieved a comforting routine.  This routine is a help in learning about Taipei and its characteristics and customs. The following is an example of a typical day for us.

We try to get up around 6 a.m. so we can take a walk.  If we start later in the morning, it's way too hot to enjoy the scenery.  We often have a destination, like a park, but sometimes we just explore neighborhoods.

I have discovered why Asian people walk around with umbrellas. The sun is very intense.  While we do our walking at 6, when the temperature is tolerable, once the sun gets to a certain height the glare becomes impossible for me to bare.  That's where the umbrella comes into play.

Everything is of interest to us, even walking the sidewalks.

The sidewalks are quite wide, and divided into two sections.  The area closest to the buildings is for walkers.  While this area is under cover so you can get out of the sun or rain, it also has a lot of steps going up and down, so it's not ideal for baby strollers or wheelchairs. I took both of these photos early on a Sunday morning before the crowds.  Normally, it's so crowded a photo would be impossible.

This is the people portion of the sidewalk.

The area closer to the street is for walkers, but bikes and motorcycles are allowed.  This portion of the sidewalk is also where you can park your two wheeled vehicle.  There is no cover from the elements on this portion of the sidewalk.

The vehicular portion of the sidewalk.

At six in the morning all the parks are busy with people exercising.  Young folks jog, older folks do tai chi, alone or in groups.  We have also seen people practicing yoga, dancing with music, playing badminton, throwing Frisbees, playing croquet.  We have even seen ballroom dancing!

After our walk, we often go to a local bakery for lattes and croissant.  Or, we might pick up our coffee from 7 Eleven.  7 Eleven is not like the chain in the US.  In addition to interesting snack foods, they have a barista who prepares custom coffee.

After we get home, and shower, shave and shine, we eagerly await the arrival of Solomon.

Sometime in the day we go shopping for dinner.  We are a short walk to Wellcome, the local grocery chain.  Taylor tends to go there about two times a day, because we always forget something.

Grocery stores tend to be in the basement.  It took us a while to figure this out.  We would arrive at the address, see the sign and not see the store.  

Jack fruit. All the produce is interesting at Wellcome.

Which noodles shall we buy?

There is a lot of rice to choose from.

It appears that many people eat out, or buy take away food for most meals.  While this food is cheap and delicious, we have found that we prefer staying home and cooking our own meals.  We have two frying pans, and one larger pot.  So far, I've made noodles and vegetables, and rice and vegetables.  David prepared delicious dumplings that we bought frozen, from the traditional market.  We're doing just fine as far a food is concerned.

Cheers!  Notice the second fry pan works well as a lid.

As you can see, our days are full.

Cleaning Frenzy

We are settled back into our original flat.  It turns out the leak was due to heavy rains the night before we arrived.  We were a little sad to leave the immaculate replacement apartment, but I knew that I would be claustrophobic after a month without being able to see outside. The positive points of moving back are the big windows looking onto the alley, and the fact that we already know our neighbor.

Ted, our host, came to collect us and took us in a taxi back to the flat.  We took time to ask questions about the flat and to make a few requests. We asked for cleaning supplies to clean the kitchen. He pointed to a disgusting sponge and said, "There's the sponge, that will work, won't it?"  I decided not to press the point.  Then we asked for 2 more chairs, so when David and Chia visit we could all sit at the table together for a meal.  I also asked for cups and glasses.  He thought that was a good idea and asked if two of each would be good.  Once again I told him 4 of us would like a cup of tea at the same time.  So, Ted went shopping last night and will come over today with cups, glasses, chairs and a pot big enough to boil noodles. Sheesh.  By the way, Ted is a French 30 something, from Paris.

As soon as Ted left, Taylor and I went to the local supermarket and bought rubber gloves, sponges, dish cloths, scrubbers, etc.  Oddly enough, Ted has lots of Mr. Muscle under the kitchen sink.  Then we went to work scouring the kitchen.  I know it hasn't been cleaned in a very long time.  We worked up a serious sweat during two hours of work.  Ted's cleaning lady has been pulling the wool over his eyes for quite some time. Now, the kitchen is spotless and we can warm bottles for our precious Soup.

Now we are settled in, enjoying the view of our alley from our windows, and loving the presence of Soup when he comes to visit.

Last night, Chia took us to a traditional Taiwanese restaurant for dinner so we finally had real Taiwanese food.  These people sure know how to cook.  And the restaurant is right down the alley from our flat.

Chia selecting the fresh seafood and vegetables for our dinner.

The bin on to right is full of fresh, young bamboo shoots.  They are fabulous and do not resemble the ones we buy in cans in the US.

This fish was so tender and sweet.

Next to the restaurant is this temple:

And when we looked past the temple, we saw this fabulous view of Taipei 101.

Even though we've had a cleaning frenzy, and the disruption of moving back and forth to apartments, we love our neighborhood.  We also love living in the same city as Soup.