I guess I'll start with what I was most worried about before coming here-- food!
I'm a pretty picky eater, even by American standards, so this caused me to worry quite a bit. My first in-flight meal on Korean Air didn't do anything to help. The meal, which the stewardess described as "rice" consisted of yes, rice, but a lot of other things mixed in that I couldn't even identify, served with a side of seaweed soup.
My first meal the nurses gave me in Taiwan:
Pretty American, right? It's fried chicken! Looks can be deceiving though, it was served with a side of soup. What looked like weird noodles turned out to be pig intestine. Oh and P.S.--try to eat fried chicken with chopsticks!
It was pretty impossible for a chopstick novice like me.
Today's lunch was a lot better. It was pork fried rice, which was actually the best fried rice I've ever had. It came with some bamboo soup, which also was different, but good. The nurses here are having fun bringing us stuff to try. Today with lunch they brought us some stinky tofu. Tried it, probably won't ever again.
Tomorrow night is Tainan's Night Market. It happens every Thursday night. The nurses said that they serve up all kinds of wonderful things like snake meat and chicken feet and they say we have to try.
I think my favorite thing about Taiwan is the fruit! They have some of the best pineapple I've ever had. They usually serve fruit as a dessert. My favorite thing in this humidity is to get fruit juice. They take a cup of freshly picked fruit and blend it with ice and milk for the equivalent of about 60 cents. There are a lot of other various things that I've really liked that I don't have any idea what they are. We walk past a bunch of street vendors on the way to and from the hospital. When we find something that looks good we just point at it and they somehow figure out what we're asking for.
Pineapple Juice! I drank almost all of it before I remembered to take a picture.
I've been trying to put myself outside of my comfort zone, food-wise, and it's totally been worth it. I'm excited for the rest of my food adventures!
Hey Alyssa: I want some of that pineapple drink! It looks so good. The intestines, however...I could pass that up too. I hope you'll give tofu another chance. If it's prepared the right way, it's really good. I'm glad those nurses are taking such good care of you.
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Just to clarify, stinky tofu is different than regular tofu. The people here even call it stinky. It seriously smells like manure. I have no problem at all with regular tofu :)
ReplyDeleteWow. While I don't think I ever had a serving a seaweed or intestine soup served with some of the meals in the Philippines, this post brings back some serious memories. Makes me excited to get to Penang!
ReplyDeleteOh, man, Alyssa! Just seeing and reading some of those things made me nauseous. It's a good thing they have good juice there! If I were you, I might have to go on a liquid diet. haha
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