Sunday, June 29, 2008

After all the walking....

By noon = Lunch time... Where do you find the food??

Look for the police station and the hawkers stalls and cafes are around it. This is the one and only police station in Taiwan that is build like that. Although it had been renovated but it maintained the original structure/ form. I can't remember what the building was used before WWII.




Cheap cheap food/ snack. TWD$50 & $60 for a bowl of rice & noodles which comes to AUS$1.50 & $2...












Of course when in Taiwan, what must you eat??? TAIWAN SAUSAGE!! hehehe

Saturday, June 28, 2008

金瓜石

金瓜石 (gold melon stone) is famous for it's gold mines and gold mining industry.


This is the miniature version on how the mining works underground. Dangerous job.

Tourist attraction: look for gold, hands on experience... try it once and never again... Definately different from digging chucks of gold; what you get by the end of the session is small amount of gold sand. There goes my dream of early retirement... sigh...















Before1946, this mining industry was control by Japan. Occasionally a Japanese Prince would go over and inspect the work done. This is where he stayed; 太子賓館, The Royal Prince Guesthouse. Huge place; and he plays miniature golf too...

















ps: Mining no longer continued there, too many pits collapsed or caved in and the eighth pit is submerged in the sea.

??Feng Shui??

Place: Cyuanji Temple at Gold Melon Stone (金瓜石) in Taiwan.

There is a statue of 關聖帝君/關公 reading a book & looking over the place/suburb.











I am ignorant in regards to Buddhist religion, just need someone to explain to me... The top of the mountain a stretch of graves. The lower part of the mountain is where "village" is. The Guan Gong statue is actually facing a mountain of graves. I understand if it meant looking after the people in the "village", but what about the graves?


ps: the statue is made out of pure copper, 35 feet tall and weigh about 25 metric ton... cool!!!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Porriage...

How do you normally eat porriage??

Pigeon and I grew up eating different type of porriage. At home, I grew up eating porriage the same way I eat rice, while pigeon grew up eating porriage that had meat already mixed togather, the type that you can buy from the hawker stalls. When it comes to home dinner, we came up with/ calling it "back home porriage"(mixed) and "Taiwan porriage"(with side dishes)


My sudden depart from Adelaide to Taiwan; the story begins...

The first meal I had when I went back Taiwan was porriage, in a Taiwanese porriage restaurant called "No Name". You start lining up from the entrance and choose the dishes that you want to eat.



These were the dishes that aunt, sis and I ordered. The white porriage and sweet potato porriage are freeflow, so you can keep eating until your heart content.

From top left: seaweed, vege, salted egg, pig ears, smelly tofu (wet), oysters and fried strips made from flour (:P). There are alot more choices at the bain marie.



(TADA!!) This is porriage "Taiwan style"... hehehehe

Monday, June 23, 2008

I found it!!

The first time I tasted and fell in loved with it was in Taiwan about 12 years ago. Since then, I could not find this dish anywhere else, until NOW!Good old Adelaide has this dish!! Happy Happy ME!!

Pick a guess; What is this dish???


Telltale sign: Korean food.... So what is it exactly??

Gae Jang

love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love love


Any idea what gae jang is??? It's raw crab marinated @ pickled in onion, spring onion, sesame seeds and chilli paste. I don't know the exact recipe is but it is a fantastic dish!!

Raw crab meat in chilli = very soft texture, slighlt sweet spicy flavour.... droolllllll..........

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Matsuri

All you can eat Sukiyaki weekdays only...
So if you are hungryyyy and too lazy to think, just pop over for some easy self cook meal without the washing up =)

Appetiser is served only once; tofu and dumpling

Start off with a pot of ingredients....


Followed by another plate of ingredients... Of course you cannot forget to order SAKE!!!


Keep ordering refilled (plate by plate) of beef/vege/tofu/noodles/rice until you are full =)

Life is funny

It's funny that I would never thought of how my life and my friends involve one another in this small small world.

Story:

When you sit among your friends now and how they complain about their work and how their superior from the Main company is a #$%#$% and forcing them to do this and that and demand alot of stuff to be done. What we do is to sit and talk how to get by the day without feeling the stress caused from the superior... meditate and hummmmmmmm "think balance"......

One day a high school friend called to say they are coming from interstates and wanna met up and catch up with old times. Sitting in a coffee shop, we talked about life, friends and work, which lead to how inefficient, whinny and lazy the workers are and how they don't get things done by the dateline.

Suddenly I realised my high school friend is the superior of my current friend... hmmm how small can the world be??

Best thing to do is smile and keep quiet.... =) hehehehe

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Running through life....

Birth Aged Sickness Death; what everyone goes through in life.

Just sitting down and look through life and people around you can be quite interesting/funny/sad/angry/embarrassing; especially when I go blog hopping, I read so many things that some people have similar life's situations as me. The comments on these situation seems to be the same as what I went through. Life was tough for a period of time in my life, but I survived and moved on. It is funny how some people would use those situation and blame it as the reason they turn out to be. See a psychiatrist and get on with life.

Friend of a friend
This Guy told his best friend (Gal) that he would no longer contact her because the girlfriend is jealous/insecure about their relationship. Of course the Gal was angry... etc. Me myself went through the same situation before. As I mature, I see both sides of the story;
My thoughts:
Girlfriend: Has no rights to tell the boyfriend who he can or cannot be friends with (vise-versa).
Guy: It was a dumb move for cutting off his friendship with his friends. He can contact them less, but shouldn't chop off the line.
Gal: Understand that he is attach now, things will be different. Less phone calls/less supper nights
BUT if the Gal is a needle poking the relationship; the guy should choose to let go and not force to let go of the friendship. If the guy refuse to let go, the girlfriend should dump the guy because you are not that important and never will be.

When things get out of hands the Gal sometimes would turn to be the third party that breaks off the relationship. B'cus the Guy tends to talk through the problems between him and the girlfriend with Gal: more and more understanding the Gal seems to be.

Why do third person who breaks off someone else's relationship always have the same statements??
- I am not the type to break off a relationship/ family
- You don't take good care of him enough, that is why he/she comes to me
- He chose me not you

It is even funny/eyes rolling when you watch Jerry Springer Show on how 2 woman fight for a man that is not worth fighting for? (vise versa)

Message in Life:
Some people are not worth your time, they can only hurt you once = lesson learn and move on

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So many weddings and so many babies in my life. As I grow older, friends my age are getting marry, settling down and some are having their 3rd kid on the way. When is the right time? In the olden days girls would be married off at the age of 12. If I lived in the olden days, I would be married by now and the "interesting" part is I know who I am marrying.

With the "freedom" to live my life, life with Pigeon is quite nice (could be better, hehehe). A path that I chose and if anything don't work out = blame myself and not my parents.

Back to the story of my "married" life.
(MLYS)My mum went to the market around my house and she was pregnant with me (5/6 months). A normal day with people walking about and buying grocery, there was a lady sitting along the roadside that caught her eyes. She was pregnant too. Further observation, that lady was her best friend back in high school (TW). They kinda lost contact after graduation, the lady went back Mlys and my mum got married (years later) and moved to Mlys. They of course were happy to bump into one another and caught up with one another's life...etc.

In the olden days, best friends' babies will be linked up. Let me explain myself. If both best friends are pregnant with girls, the girls will be sworn sisters; if pregnant with boys, the boys will be sworn brothers and if it is one girl and one boy, they will be married and the best friends family would be come in-laws.

My mum's best friend was pregnant with a boy; hence in the olden days, my parents have already found a husband for me, even before I was born (OMG). I guess the silver lining of that life is that I would be the 1st wife and not one of the younger wives. hehehe

Now marrying to a rich family or poor family is a total different story. For that story, you'll need to watch those olden days Hong Kong/Taiwanese series/movies.

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How to handle sickness and death??

I dropped everything and flew off TW to see grandma within a week since i heard the news that she is not feeling well. Only a few friends knew what was going on.

Situation like this are quite uncomfortable. Friends can be sympathetic/annoying depending on the mood/hormones levels. Honestly there are times when I feel like taking a frying pan and conk someone's head (not saying who; if you ask, I'll say you =P). This is when there are no words to console a friend. To me, I'd prefer just a "I'm sorry to hear that".

Brighter side: Grandma is getting better, which is good, but she started to pull off her drip-needle and her breathing tube, which is bad.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Next Top Model

If you watch Tyra and her American Next Top Model, you'll see that they want the models to have their own signature walk when they head off to any runway.

How to achieve this signature walk? It must be natural one of a kind "walk" that even if you wear a mask, everyone watching should know that that is you.

Acheive your one of a kind walk in 2 steps by me:
1st: do squats and duck walk for 3 hours
2nd: rest, drink plenty of water and wait till the next day

You will successfully achieve a walk that no one can imitate; this result shows better on the 3rd day.

ps: my thighs are killing me!! It's my every 6 months sowing routine!!

Friday, June 06, 2008

Argentinian food...

Too lazy to blog, I'll let the pictures do the talking =)

Place: Sosta; along Rundle Street

Started off with cocktails, tit-bits, appetisers and mains with rice and salad at the side.