Niu Za Tang Museum

We only had one supplier to see in Taipei, so we had a little treat of being able to go to the Niu Za Tang museum while in Taipei. When I say "little treat", I mean, we've known about this museum for a few years and have desperately wanted to go. It's a little museum built specifically to honor the Inventor of Niu Za Tang candy- built by her son after she passed away, to honor her. This is a special kind of white nougat candy with almonds in it, that our suppliers from china and Taiwan bring us. They know how much we love it. Scratch that. They know our department (and several people who work around us) are addicted to it. Our colleague in Taiwan was asking us what was the english word for it, and I said, "well, we call it Crack, because it's so addictive..." Not sure the humor fully translated, but after a minute she got it!

The museum was surprisingly hard to find, so fortunately we had these cute little cows guiding us in- appearing in a few places along the road to show us the way...

When we got there, there was a guy who set up a little powerpoint presentation for us (In English), and he sat down right to us and passed candy to us as we watched. It was very sweet, you could tell he was a proud employee.

The gift shop was about twice as large as the actual museum iteslf- really, the museum was nothing to write home about... but it was more the IDEA of the museum that we so adored. An entire museum dedicated to one kind of milk toffee- what's not to love about that?

There are only a few pics from inside the museum and most are not terribly interesting, except this one. I want this in our back yard. How cool would that be?

In the end, I never got my T-shirt. That was my goal for the day, but the only T-shirt they had was, well, uh....a little ugly, so I just went for more candy and a funny pencil case instead. But- even though it turned out to be a pretty mediocre little museum, it was a little dream come true for us!

Taiwan in Food

Did I mention it was a business trip? This is purely a food review...even though my job has nothing to do with reviewing food, but apparently this is a global epidemic- our materials team members from around the world all love to talk about food.
The second day we went up to Taipei to meet with a supplier there, and went out to lunch with that supplier and another supplier. They took us to a very beautiful and elegant restaurant for lunch. I really do love Chinese food, and I tend to not have high opinions of "very fancy" restaurants, because I don't always believe they do as good a job as some of the smaller restaurants. But this one definitely changed my way of thinking in that aspect. Everything we had from the small appetizers to the very end, were unbelieveable.
The dishes were not served chinese style, rather we each received small individual portions. The first course was a chicken soup with a chrysanthemum doufu flower in it. It was beautiful, and mirrored the chrysanthemums in the center of the table.

One of the appetizers we had were these cherry tomatoes. They sure don't look like much here, but they were a little party in your mouth! They were skinned to absorb their marinade fully- and after having these at a second restaruant on Saturday, I found they were soaked in a local plum juice with a little sugar added. They were decadant- if there is one thing I would want to try to make from that meal, this would be it!
After the soup we had several other dishes, some fish and doufu, a noodle wrapped shrimp:And a few others- My only regret was that by the time they brought the Mapu doufu, I was too full to eat it! I tried a few small bites and it was gloriously tender and soft and spicy!

High Speed Rail

Taiwan spent several years building their high speed rail system- it now reaches from Taipei to Kaohsiung- great news since we fly into Taipei and have a few suppliers as far south as Kaohsiung! We took the train last time I was in Taiwan, but just one day, one way. We were given a ride back up to Taichung but one of the suppliers. This time around however, we used it on several occasions on multiple days. It's efficient, clean, quick, and frankly, just all around FUN. If you consider spending half the time you would of in a car fun, then yes, for sure it's fun.

I was very excited when I saw this on the walkway while waiting for the first train...

My husband loved the "Mind the Gap" subway warnings when he was in London several years ago, and even came away with a hat and mug with the warning, so I had to take a photo.

And this, well, this just amused me. This woman made me think of Tinkerbell, and I had to look seriously hard at the photo to figure out what it was she was trying to sell.

Turns out it's a washing machine. The most super power magical washing machine you can buy based on Tinkerbell's magic lights. And in case you were in doubt about the design quality of this product, the little words by the bottom right corner of the machine photo say "GOOD DESIGN".

Eating...I mean Meeting...in Taiwan

I'm here for business- really I am.  So if it seems to be that all of my blog posts revolve around food, well...it's just that there is SUCH good eating here!  How can you not adore food that is fresh & hot and flavors that vary from sweet to spicy to succulent and nearly all come from just a small handful of base flavorings?? It is truly astounding the dimension of taste you find in Taiwan and China, when you consider the most used ingredients are garlic, salt, sugar, chicken "powder" (bullion), soy sauce and vingar.  And yet the way dishes all come out tasting amazingly different, shows really how skilled the cooks are. 

Our colleagues here in Taichung know of our adoration of "the dumpling"- we love them in all forms.  Most of all, we have not stopped thinking about one dinner we had here almost 3 years ago.  It was in the university district, and the place was just a dumpling restaurant.  They had steamer baskets piled on a steaming wok probably 20 high at least.  You didn't order "this" or "that" but just "how many baskets."  They had 1 or possibly two kinds of dumplings and you sit down & order however many steamer baskets you wanted.  On the tables they had plastic containers that looked quite a bit like something you'd see in a car mechanic's garage- filled with soy sauce, oil, chile oil, and more.  This was true student prices and student eating, and I have never been in a place that gives me that feeling of being surrounded by dumplings since. It is a sweet sweet memory!

But, sometimes it's good to create new memories too, and so far this trip, "Eating" (not meeting) seems to have been a focus.  Don't get me wrong, we have been doing business, we definitely have had meetings, but the eating has also been tremendous!

the first day lunch I think we had no fewer than 30 dishes come to our table.  We had a fun group and the food just kept on coming. At one point I had a little dejavu moment when the turntable in the center was completely surrounded with mini dimsum steamer baskets,  but this was definitely a different eating experience from our time hanging out in the University district. One of the coolest dishes at this meal, hands down, were the fried fritter type things in the photos here.  They were banana and shrimp, rolled in panko and fried.  I think there was also some mayonaise in there.  Those may sound like an odd combination, but it was absolutely heavenly. There is no way I could replicate it, nor will I try.  I was excited to see it on the menu and try it, as I had eaten something a little similar in Taiwan quite a few years ago.  We had gone to a Mongolian restaurant where you eat in Yurts (I think it's gone now, not sure), and one of the dishes they had brought us was lamb and banana combined and fried up in a similar way.  It was equally amazing...!

I left Thursday's lunch feeling like I was about to explode, and hoping for a wheelchair to push me out of there- so tasty, so full!

More Welcome to Taiwan!

 I had a very sweet surprise upon my arrival late Wednesday night to my hotel in Taichung- this giant fruit basket from my friend Jady.  It's filled with local specialty fruit that is so perfectly ripe, you can't imagine the taste compared to what you normally get in a grocery store.  One of the sweet things about coming to Asia is the fruit is so wonderfully ripe and tastes so much better, because it grows here, and it ripens on the plants instead of in a boat or plane. It was a wonderful welcome! Thank you Jady!

The Taiwan Airport Welcomes YOU

After a missed connection in Hong Kong, I was transferred to another flight to get to Taipei.  Fortunately the new flight was only an hour later, so I didn't have a long layover.  However, I didn't have the telephone number of the car company who was to pick me up in Taiwan, because I had put it in my checked luggage!  So I could not let them know I was on another flight.

Truly not a big deal, I just called them when I arrived and let them know I was there.  While I waited for them to come over to Termnial II, I had a few minutes to take photos of these cuties in the airport welcoming me to Taiwan.

I adored them! There were a few others, but these guys are the higlights. I especially love the black billed spoonbill- or maybe it's the black faced spoon bill...I forget.  He must be a resident here in Taiwan though because his picture (in a less animated version) appears everywhere- I even saw it on a train on Thursday! 

There is a little something about these guys that borders on 'slightly frigtening' at the same time completely adorable.  I took a close up of the blue guy's eye only, but I was afraid to put it on the blog lest it scare some small children....  but standing in the airport surrounded by these guys, you just couldn't help but smile!  They were definitely a happy little bunch!

I have a crush on a machine

Since I'm posting to blogger from email while I travel, I can't put photos in the text of my email, so they all end up at the bottom. To make things easier, I'll just to multiple small blog posts so the photos don't get too mixed up.

The Hong Kong airport is one of my favorite airports in the world- it's big, it's clean, and their book selection is phenomenal. I've bought some of my favorite books ever there. However, this little ode is to the San Francisco airport. Or more specifically, the bathroom in the international terminal at the San Francisco airport.

Have you all seen these sweet little hand dryers before? The Air Blade? I ADORE them. I get seriously GIDDY when I see them in bathrooms- and I almost cannot wait until it's time to wash my hands and use the airblade. I will use them over paper towels in an instant- and I will love every minute of it! Normally hand dryers do a terrible job- the air is not very strong, you use them 2 times even and you still end up wiping your hands on your pants to dry them. They are absolutely pointless. But these little sweeties- the Air Blade- "this aint your Mama's hand dryer...." They are fast, they are powerful- it's almost like a squeegie for your hands. I truly do not understand why these have not replaced every hand dryer in America yet. When I can use one of these in every public bathroom I go in, I will be a happy girl. Thank you Dyson! And thank you, San Francisco Airport!

life's little surprises

We love doing fun spontaneous things with Madeline just to surprise her. In the last 3 months or so, we've had a surprise movie & popcorn in our pajamas at bedtime, turned the lights off in the backyard at bedtime and gone out to play with flashlights, and a few other fun surprises.  Sunday we had a late brekafast followed by a late (4:00!) lunch.  So, by 5:30- none of us were very hungry.  Maddie and I had been working in the garden planting potatoes and onions, and it was a beautiful day outside!  We decided rather than force a dinner on ourselves, we would just skip straight to dessert!  We made ice cream cones & had ice cream in the backyard instead of dinner!  I discovered a new use for baby bottles too....

 

Maddie did end up having a snack later on before bed, but it was a fun evening treat for all of us!

 

Arrived!

after 23 hours of travel and a mistaken time change calculation phone call to a friend in Portland (fortunately she was up at 5:50 am....), I've arrived in Taiwan!

I was happy to see that while I thought our company had changed hotels, we had not. It turns out the hotel had simply changed names!  Back to the comofortable hotel, with the second best bathroom in Asia.....  It used to be the best, until I stayed in the contract hotel in Fuzhou in Fujian province.  After that shower, no other shower can compare...

The trip itself was uneventful- the only unexpected event was that my San Francisco to Hong Kong leg arrival was delayed by 15 minutes. I only had a 1 hour layover, so Cathay just booked all the Taipei passengers on a flight leaving 1 hour later.  when I got on the flight, I seemed to be the ONLY passenger in all of Business Class! Even First Class was empty! I felt bad for the flight attendent who brought the two main dish parts of the meal to me and said "which one do you want?"- I thought- they had to cook BOTH because they didn't know which I would want! oh! Hopefully they all ate the same- so hopefully it did not go to waste! There were 4 or 5 flight attendants who all seemed to be dedicated to Business & First class- they seemed bored! They asked me several times, "anything we can get for you? drink? Juice? duty free? anything?!" (and a few times it sounded like "please PLEASE let me do something!"  But then at the end of the flight I saw them all chatting in the galley, so it was maybe kind of nice for them to have a super easy flight!

There were some adorable sculpted whimisical creatures in the airport when I got off my flight- painted all sorts of wonderful colors and patterns- I'll post pics of them tomorrow. Right now, it's 1:15 am and I have a 7:40 am pick up, so it's time for me to power off- in all sense of the word!

On My Way!

After about a week of prepping Madeline for my Asia trip, today was the big test. She woke up about 3 am and wanted to come into our bed- this time I didn't even try to protest I just picked her up and cuddled her tight and brought her to bed with us. She was hungry so she snacked on Joes O's while Jeremy and I went back to sleep. I drifted in and out, but as is normal on the night before a big trip with an early morning wakeup, I was up quite a bit checking the clock, for fear of oversleeping the alarm!

We woke up (on time...) and got ready- waiting until we were just about finished to get Maddie up. She rallied and we were off to the airport! We talked about how Baba was going to drop her off at daycare and how fun that would be, and pick her up after school too. She said "I want Baba take me to school!!"

At the airport, as Jeremy was taking my luggage out of the trunk and I was taking her our of her carseat, she said, "I'm really going to miss you a lot Mama." I said, yes sweetie- I'm sure going to miss you a lot too! I carried the whole way into the airport, we checked me in, and we did lots of hugs and kisses (11- give or take- one for each night I won't be home to give her a good night hug and kiss) and we waved as I went into security & they walked away- and blew kisses. And I was the only one with tears rolling down my cheeks! I was trying very hard to not let her see, and I think I was successfull, but that just meant I was a dripping mess for the security guy once she was out of sight. I imagine they're used to that....

Jeremy called a bit later after dropping her off and I said "really? it was as easy as that? No tears?" and he said that daycare dropoff was "Eerily easy". I'm betting there will be a crash tonight- but to ease the first night (and since I'll be on a plane still and unable to call them at bedtime) they were going to go out for fried rice- Maddie's favorite.

It won't be an easy two weeks for any of the 3 of us, but they will have plenty of fun too, and so will I. I always look forward to any opportunity to spend time in China or Taiwan, even when my heart is still in Portland!

I'll be posting via email while I travel, so I'm not sure how picture formats will look- but until blogger is no longer blocked in China, this is my only option!