Local Flavor

Cody had to work a Sunday about two weeks ago so he had last Friday off. We took a three hour train ride to Douliu, Cody's favorite area on his mission. Contrary to what you might expect, I don't have very many friends that are Chinese/Taiwanese. I kind of wish I had more of an opportunity to interact with the "locals" though. It would be so fun to learn about their culture first hand and be more fully immersed in their ways, but also because the Taiwanese friends I know are so, so very nice and hospitable.

Our friends in Douliu were no different. They booked a hotel for us for the night and entertained us all weekend. Kailyn really likes pasta, so we tried the new pasta/pizza place in town for dinner Friday night.

The place ended up being all-you-can-eat. As soon as I hear that phrase, I think to myself "lower your expectations, Nicole, this is not going to be very good." I'd rather have a small amount of quality food any day. Then add on the fact we are in a "small" Taiwanese town (small being relative--the girls kept saying what a "small" town they live in; granted it is much smaller than Taipei, but it is still 100,000 people--SLC is not even double that), so very far removed from Western cooking. Imagine this if you can: bad crust, worse sauce, and cheap cheese, then add toppings that Asians apparently like, such as kimchi, seafood, corn, hot dogs with ketchup and pickles, roast beef, and salty egg. Yum. I bet you want to try this place, don't you? Yah, we would have been better off to stick to Chinese food for dinner. Still, we had a great time. We had wonderful company and Jadyn loved playing with one of the gal's cute kids.

Saturday we started our day with our favorite Chinese breakfast: shao bing yo tiao for Cody and shao bing jia dan for me. It was kind of funny when we asked the restaurant lady to take our picture. She acted like she had never used a camera before. Maybe she hadn't.

Our next stop was the morning market. Cody went picture crazy thinking this might be the last time he visits this place.

Later in the morning we met back up with our friends to head up Mt. Hwa for lunch.




This was my lunch:

Some sort of cold mashed potatoes with sprinkles on top, pumpkin, chicken (pretty good, but a bit too fatty), and corn chowder (I'm actually starting to really like corn chowder).

Then dessert:

Green bean soup. When I first heard the Chinese use green beans for dessert, I was of course uninterested in trying it. I was thinking green beans--like string beans, you know the kind we grow in the garden and eat as a vegetable with dinner? That is not what they are talking about here. It is more like a lentil of some sort, so the green bean soup tastes like sugar water with barley and oats in it. It's not bad--certainly not what I would call dessert, but it is far from gag-worthy. Cody and I term those types of dishes "safe."

After lunch, we toured around the mountain a bit and took more pictures.




Check out these ladies using the American flag for shade. They had another one covering their produce.

These big barrels are used to cook large chickens.

We finished our trip with the oh-so-delicious mango bing. It is a dessert of shaved ice, sweetened condensed milk, and fresh mangoes. It is sooo amazing and pretty much a necessity after being outside on a hot, humid day. (Are these Chinese kids not just the cutest!?!)