Tea eggs

A pot of tea eggs brewing away at 7-11.  Wikipedia says this about tea eggs in Taiwan:

"In Taiwan, tea eggs are a fixture of convenience stores. Through 7-Eleven chains alone, an average of 40 million tea eggs are sold per year.

Also some people would say that the tea eggs' flavor is very addictive. It tends to linger in one's mouth because of the star anise used in the preparation. This spice has also commonly been used in teas from other countries, where they also report a similar addictive quality. Tea eggs can be made with or without cracks, but will still have the same flavor, but a different appearance. The most traditional way to prepare them is simply to make cracks in the shells after they are finished hard boiling, but before one soaks or boils them in the brine made out of tea, sugar, soy sauce, star anise, and cinnamon. All of these ingredients can be modified depending on a person's preference. Soaking the eggs for longer will result in more flavor."

We haven't tried them yet, but will soon!

Hualien trip through an iphone

We just got back from a few day trip to Hualien on the east coast of Taiwan.  We were warned not to travel during Chinese New Year because of traffic but in fact had no trouble.  The highlight of the trip was seeing Taroko Gorge, but until I edit those photos here are some others from our phones:

 Tea and dessert

 Citrus tree - popular at Chinese New Year

Market food - candied tomatoes and strawberries 

Rice served wrapped in a leaf

7-11 character dressed for the year of the rabbit

Art from Irawaddy restaurant serving food from Myanmar 

(good food, but not very true to Myanmar dishes says our friend who lived there) 

Chili flavored ice cream - so spicy!  

(found at a "chili world" rest stop between Hualien and Taipei)

Taichung christmas

Walking around Taichung there are a lot more christmas decorations and items than I expected. A lot of it seems a bit... well... odd or out of place. There are trees in the 7-11s and OKmarts. Malls have "x-mas" signs hanging (most references to christmas are written as "x-mas"). Stores are stocking christmas foods like these "broiled rib" santa and "crispy salmon" snowman chips. Interesting, no?


It's fun to see the differences in christmas decor, but I'm not sure how many people actually celebrate this holiday. Maybe somebody knows?

here and there

Things I like here:

• paying for everything at 7/11. so easy. so nice. except it gets a little tricky when you can't speak chinese. i kind of just hand them a bunch of money and hope they're honest.
• going out to eat and spending $3 to get 15 vegetable dumplings and a bowl of noodles. it did help that we had our friends girlfriend speaks chinese. or ordering 5 items at the thai place, plus rice, plus a tiny dessert and paying $15
  
• not having people honk at other people all the time. most relaxed drivers ever over here. amazing how it looks "crazy" and "out of control" when you're not driving in it, but once you get out there, the cars/scooters are like ants... they just go with the flow
  
• going and buying housing stuff to put in our place that makes allison happy. (we're still working on having her not automatically pick up the first split pea colored thing she sees!)
• water bills that are $5. granted, you're not getting the cleanest/freshest water. but it is still nice.
• catching and releasing cockroaches. long story short. allison "kill it!" me "no, just move the whole bed to the side and i'll throw a box over it." done.
  
• getting multiple boxes of sandpaper-y kleenex when you fill up at the gas station that i never use
  
• spending $60 per month on gas instead of $360 when we were at home. amazing
  
• working at the same school as allison
  
• staring at other westerners because it is so rare to see them
  
• going out to eat. a lot. too cheap to pass up.
• buying electronics for cheap. they're made here, they better be cheap. (except apple. damn you apple)
  
• dear espn360, thank you for letting me watch the ucks lose to boise state. and then accepting their victory with pride and without any... oh wait. nevermind.
• skyping with people back home. especially video skype.
  
• hanging out with some of the other teachers here. they're pretty nice.
  
• light switches on the outside of a room. i mean, whose idea was it to put a light switch inside of a dark room? makes much more sense. and all the light switches have little green dots on them if they're off... so if it is dark, you can actually see where you need to be going to turn it on. genius.
• reading other people's blogs about living abroad: columbia, taiwan, used to live in taiwan, and kazakhstan are the ones i check out the most often... just because i know them. or have been looking at them the longest. if you're out there, leave us a comment so we can read about you too.
  
• paying way too much for good beer. seriously. just import some micro brew in bulk and charge less
  
  

what i'm looking forward to in portland:

• taco cart on se 84th and woodstock, vita, herbivore, sweet pea, food fight!, taco bell fire sauce, mexican food
  
• sidewalks
• humidity under 80%
• hub, deschutes, rogue
  
• watching football with my dad
  
• talking about wedding details with my brother (joke)
• playing wii with sister and her bf
  
• making food with mom
• being cold
• kicking tk's ass in anything
  
• buying allison a new computer
• flying from portland to taiwan and knowing what to expect

i probably missed a lot, but realized it'd been a few days since we posted, so wanted to get this out. hope all is well.