Adventures in Grocery Shopping (or how the Japanese and Citibank conspired to make me miss home at Xmas)

To begin with, apologies all around for not blogging all week. My internet was out the last couple of days and the rest of the days... Well, there were X-rays and blood draws and visa applications and papers to fix that just got in the way. But rather than recap the last couple of weeks, I'll just skip to today. Sunday, 18 December, and my mini-adventures around 101 and the Xinyi area.

The weekend has all-in-all been on the calm end of the spectrum. Well, as calm as I can be. Yesterday was Shilin Night Market, which, along with Raohe Night Market, is a whole other post. Today I was lured to the shade of 101 by promises of tangyuan, these pretty pastel sweet rice balls that are apparently to the Chinese winter solstice what tamales are to Christmas. So I'd heard there was some sort of festival in the parking lot of Mitsukoshi Department Store and decided that was good enough reason to take my search for breakfast to the Xinyi District. Ok, now where to begin...

So Taipei is broken down into various districts. The Xinyi (means 'honest' I'm told by Wikipedia) District was one of the last developed and has grown into the financial and shopping hotbed of the city. As such, it is also one of the most decked out for Christmas, as everybody knows evergreens keep department stores ever green ;-). This is where Taipei 101 holds court and where you'll also find Shin Kong Mitsukoshi (新光三越), a Japanese-based monolithic department store. Only, to say "department store" is like saying Taipei 101 is some building. The origins of Mitsukoshi dates to 1673 when it started selling kimonos. Yeah. Not a typo. 1673. BUILDINGS 4, 8, 9 and 11 reside in Xinyi and I think it would take a few days just to tour those four. 

Not my pic, mind you. Bored from http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2071/2126488587_b0b21e6bd5.jpg because they were just too fun to pass up!

But back to rice balls. Apparently, the Hakka -- that's the aboriginal folks of Taiwan -- tradition around the winter solstice is to gather the family a-round for a round sweet treat. And not unlike the Native Americans, the Hakka are working hard to not only keep their traditions, but also to share those traditions. By share, I of course mean it wouldn't hurt to make a few NT (think: $$) off the native wine, coffee, marmalade and hand stitched crafts. This is quite the good luck if you're in the market for marble-sized multicolored rice flour delectables or if you just won't feel complete as a human until you try mulberry vinegar or kumquat jam or nougat candies. Or if you're in the market for cute kids dressed up and singing.

While there were no children singing at the "Taiwan Hakka Glue Pudding Festival" (yeah, tang yuan IS a little more appetizing) there was plenty of indigenous flavor in the form of coffee, wine, nougat, jam, moon cakes and  kumquat juice, all produced right here on the island. I did not actually get around to the tang yuan, stupidly, I know. But I'm in luck as this week's Christmas festivities at the Institute includes a tang yuan party. I'm excited. So stay tuned.

On to Christmas. The English radio DJ this morning said that this year there was more Christmas crap than ever before. And for the last few weeks I would have been ok with it. It was really not more of a slightly commercialized hum and a few trees here and there. You probably noticed the Calvin Klein sad christmas homage and the Ferrer Rocher chocolates tree in some of my other posts. But now we're pulling out the cutesy stops.

The area around Mitsukoshi and 101 recently seems to have become littered with cheer actually. No, really. This tree is made of sporks. Where's the Grinch when you need him? 

So moving on, I had a nice cream cheese frosting cinnamon roll with raisins from one of the MANY beautiful bakeries in the basement of Mitsukoshi. In other news, I discovered where I could scratch the cupcake itch should it arise.

                          

Also in the basement -- the basement below the bakery basement, I think -- there's a killer food court (one of several in the Department Complex):

And -- drum roll, please -- a grocery store. Which brings me to next big topic of this post. What you can get and where in Taipei that smacks of good old fashioned American processed food. So Florida bakery has tortillas and salsa and tortilla chips and pretty iced sugar cookies, along with the usual Taipei bakery awesomeness. I've HEARD you can also get masa harina there, but I think you may have to ask for it.

I was amused about the salsa and filed it for later until I discovered that you can also find this at Mitsukoshi. My mother was excited that they care La Costena even, a brand familiar from my beloved H-E-B back home. They also carry AMERICAN cheddar cheese, in addition to the "good" stuff, although price-wise you're probably not much better off with the "cheap" American cheese. American cheese, for those interested, isn't terribly hard to come by. As for quality, I haven't much to say as that stuff is too far below this cheese snob. Also, I spotted Rosarita refried beans, Campbell soup, Duncan Hinz cake mix, pancake mix, and jimmies. You know, sprinkles. Like for cupcakes. Oh, and marshmallows, which for some inexplicable reason American's always seem to get gooey over and miss terribly. I always see people asking on expat boards. Also in stock was McCormick's buffalo wing spice, spaghetti mix and gravy I think. They also carry a couple of varieties of Tabasco sauce.

On top of it all, you can get all sorts of Japanese, Taiwanese, etc. tasty vittles that I couldn't even BEGIN to catalog.

A bit further down the road at a Walmart-clone, A-Mart, I was able to find the same McCormick envelopes of spice in addition to dried pinto beans, Nature Valley cookies (I noticed this because they were giving out samples, a big thing apparently on Saturdays at the grocery store ;-) ), inexpensive olives, more Tabasco sauce, pasta sauce, and Miller Lite, (in the "foreign foods" section where they put all the American, Vietnamese, and Indian foods, lol).

So what do you find in the regular supermarket? All sorts of things! First off, about a solid aisle (short though it may be) devoted to varieties of rice. The cold food section varies in size, but at minimum you'll find frozen dumplings, buns, ice cream, one or two brands of butter, cheese limited to some American-esque slices and shredded "Pizza Cheese," milk, lots of juice, a small selection of beer including several light but decent Taiwanese brands, a wide selection of tofu, and meats that are frequently sliced and ready for a hot pot. The fresh veg sections aren't as big as you'd think, but I think that's because many people do their produce shopping at open air markets. For my money, I've found the quality to be better at these markets than the supermarkets. The "hypermarkets" like Carrefour or A-Mart are a lot like a Super Target or Walmart in that they have in-house bakeries with some pretty good bread -- and free samples, too! -- and also prepared foods like chicken and lots of vegetables and tofu. There are also frequently bins of dried fruits and meats (or what I take to be meats anyway). Even the smaller grocery stores have lots of junk food like the cookies and "pepper steak flavored potato chips" I have previously mentioned. Cereal is pretty easy to come by and if I'm ever going to break my quickly-becoming-an-addiction morning bakery run habit I'm going to have to invest in some corn flakes and milk. Lots of soft drinks, but I haven't paid much attention as I prefer my drink calories to come with some alcohol. Also some low-grade coffee, lots of instant coffee and tea. In the tea section you'll find milk tea, black teas, green teas, etc. The "baking" aisle has flour, baking soda, MSG (Don't laugh -- I nearly bought that when I was shooting for baking soda!), tapioca flour, rice flour, bread crumbs, and something called "crispy" flour -- haven't gotten to the bottom of that one yet. And something like pancake batter mix, which I think may for something along the lines of okonomiyaki, the tasty japanese savory pancake.

AT ANY RATE, I think you really can find just about anything here, given the energy to look and possibly the NT$ to drop on it. I haven't really been LOOKING for American goods (except the tortillas, por supuesto), but as I haven't figured out the logic of the Taiwanese supermarket layout I have to wander around a bunch. And stare and labels to figure out whether I'm buying rat poison or MSG or pancake batter mix. So my advice is if you ever see a foreigner at a grocery store looking confused -- and chances are good if you take ten random snapshops of THIS foreigner on any give day you'll come out with at least nine VERY befuddled snuggly cactus pictures -- be nice and ask them if they'd like some help. 'Cause you just never know when you'll be staring at the can with a label that hints at corn chowder, condensed milk, or tapioca and reminding yourself not to get your little heart set on anything in particular because no matter how long you stare at, there's always the chance you'll be cracking open a can of pears in light syrup.

All the junk you can stand

So I've been here exactly one week and one day. And I am only just now discovering the fancy feast that is my cable line up! Now granted I've been eagerly and whole-heartedly exploring the other junk fest I want to address briefly here: food. I'm afraid I've given some people the impression that it's been all dumplings and Peking duck since I landed. But not so! I find nothing combats the homesick gloomies better than finding and exploring homestyle food. So I was plenty proactive and hit up the Wellcome supermarket pretty soon upon moving in. I think my first grocery list was something like: trash bags, air freshener (the Asian equiv of the snuggle bear went to the mattresses with that vague lomeiny smell on night 1!), bottled water, beer, and, you guessed it, kids, zero-kCal food reminiscent of home! The only rule is that I'm only allowed to buy ONE thing at a time and have to finish it -- regardless of how lomeiny -- before I can grab anything else. I've been lucky so far. As I said in the last post, the Taiwanese have embraced delectable French desserts like nobody's business. Well, except maybe the panaderias that I still hold so dear. But my first junk food experience was a flat French wafer cookie with a thin chocolate oreo-esque frosting. 

Also popular, and very light but tasty, are those wafer cookies. I went with a "milk" and hazelnut cream filled and wasn't disappointed. They have a thin coating of chocolate and sort of remind me of vacation bible school for some reason. Probably because they were INFAMOUS for cheap cookies LIKE the vanilla, chocolate, and "pink" flavored wafers.At any rate, a good choice. Not sure why so many cookies here have some sort of "milk" theme going, though. It's like they're trying to convince me that my junky indulgences are good for me.

My latest purchase was an Oreo knockoff. Not to say that all sorts of Oreo products aren't available -- you can even get the chocolate and mint frosting ones. But then, when in Rome one really SHOULD try the Roman oreos, right? If you've ever been a poor college student and gone the knockoff Hydrox route, then you know pretty much how these taste. So I'm gonna give Imei's the "Saturday morning toons and milk" seal of approval.

On the savory side, and I'm sorry I didn't take a pic, were Lays Potato Chips. Fried chicken flavor. Now I was torn at the time between "Spicy Pork" and "Fried Chicken," but I felt like either way I wasn't gonna lose. I just HAD to know what fried chicken potato chips tasted like. And the answer? Vaguely like fried chicken. Kinda like if you had plain chips with your KFC (which, for those of you interested, the DO actually have here). As a side note, I will say that the Taiwanese do seem to love their fried chicken in a way that the South would find endearing. It's huge! Often it's pounded out sort of thin -- not quite milanesa thin though -- and breaded with some seasoning that might include a little bit of star anise? Not quite sure there. Only to say that it's quite a nice addition to the recipe and another reason why I'll probably need a crane to help me off this island. Oh, and not to worry -- the supermarket had PLENTY of chips in stock. So yeah. Spicy Pork Lays Potato Chips review coming at you from a Snuggly Cactus near you.

Ok, so on to TV. I HAVE turned the stupid thing on, but the subtitles just remind me I'm as illiterate as I was at age 3, so I usually pop in a movie or something. But I have noticed a few familiar shows. Supernatural comes on in the morning just as it does back stateside. What's that about, anyway? People like watching demon-slaying over their morning coffee??  But my 10 p.m. review is something like this:

• Some guy and chick talking... A sign in the background says "economy". Oh. And knowledge. I guessed it was a political thing except the graphics are now showing an angel and MBA keeps popping up amongst characters I still can't read.
• Ooh CNN! Can't believe I didn't know that was there!
• Soap opera. Okay I'm gonna start the tally now. I. I know it's a s.o. as there's a girl saying passionately "Pa-pa!" and a guy saying something about NOT "Pa-pa!"
• Religious TV. Buddhist I think. I already know there are several of these .
• historical soap opera? Or comedy? Or romance??? Not sure. 
• Like creepy life-like puppets?!?! And ALSO some sort of historical theme. Really. Weird. I can't watch anymore. I'm sorry. I don't know what it is, but it will probably give me nightmares. The sacrifices I make for your edification!

Alright. So now I'm totally horrified and I'm gonna have to run through a whole bunch of TV and FAST to wash that one out, so the rest will be a quicky recap... news,news, ??, talk show with interracial couple, news, Nat Geo (! so excited), DISCOVERY(! wow oh why hadn't I done this sooner), TLC, Animal Planet (in Chinese tho), Chinese Disneytm Channel (some kind of hokey hs musical looking crap idk...), Cartoon Network, knockoff Cartoon Network, knockoff CN 2, talk show, s.o., weird country music with Asian family... oh of course it's a Ford Escape commercial, gonna go with Eastern Jay Leno with wacky sound effects in the back drop, UM totally over-the top-soft-core-oh-no-i-think-its-a-mattress-info-mercial???

Ok, enough is enough. I've gone through like 35 channels of 100. And this mattress commercial is going to require A LOT more study. It's like a home shopping network, but... What the...??!?!! Now they've put wine glasses on it and this dorky guy is jumping up and down?!!?!  Anyway, sufficed to say, a LOT of channels. In case you were worried that moving to Taiwan would ever stifle a Snuggly Cactus' access to junk, be assuaged, dear reader: I'm in stockings and gin with Imei cookies, fried chicken flavored chips, and mattress commercials.

From light-as-air breakie to light-as-air zzzz's

SO today was just too busy for Facebook and WAY too busy for my poor tootsies! Half way through the day I found myself pondering the penalty for mugging over uggs in a country that actually advertises its death for drug trafficking policy on its visa application. Where to begin....

After falling asleep early on the couch last night, I woke early and got a head start on the day by calling a few of the ones-I-love-and-actually-even-like over a cup of coffee. Deciding to take advantage of the oh-my-god-is-that-really sunlight (that's right, kids, the first bit of blue sky since I arrived), I retaped a tour of my apartment. Seems the fish were pretty upset for getting short shrift the last time and were beginning to eye me menacingly every day when I came home from work. Or maybe it was just they hadn't been fed in a few days. Regardless, I'm still not convinced that all the weird cubbies in my apartment aren't inhabited by bad-hair-day Japanese ghosts, so having little fishie friends, regardless of their inability to breathe air, could be useful if ever the ghosts tire of me.

Now on to breakie. Before coming to Taiwan, one of my greatest concerns was that they would have followed in the footsteps of their Chinese brothers and lamed out in respect to the all-important desserts and baked goods. Sorry, Mao, but bean paste does not a delectable tasty make. But on arriving I was quickly reassured that they followed in the Japanese tradition of learning the French methods of baking and then perfecting. That's right. I'm saying it. PERFECTING French baking. All week I'd been passing display cases that called to me almost as loudly as the dumplings.

So today was the day. I was going to have my way in the worst way with some baked goods. The plan was this: start on my walking way towards Taipei 101 -- I'd seen a few potential victims the day before when I'd missed my stop at Houshanpi Station -- and find some breakfast and more coffee, continue along to the shoppers mecca I'd heard the 101 area could be, then maybe up to Ikea and possibly Costco. Yeah. You heard right. You know a joint is civilized when they have not only 7-11 and Dominos BUT also Ikea and Costco!

As promised, the weather was a gorgeous 60F -- that's 16C for the rest of the world -- and the walk pleasant. Well, except for the reminders that no matter how far you go, you can't quite escape Christmas cheer:

But totally worth it in the end.This particularly lovely was absolutely AMAZING! It was a bit dense and buttery, almost cheesy, but slightly sweet. Oh. And did I mention still warm? Yeah. Heaven.

 Nibbling on my breakfast and sipping my coffee, I moved on towards 101. Unfortunately, one of the highlights of my day was a street market that I was too awed by to actually photograph. But here's a brief listing of a few sights:

• Live eels with little baby eels squirming around on a shallow pan with a group of Taiwanese women gathered around haggling. Or betting. I'm not sure which.
• Chickens with heads
• Chickens without heads
• Chicken heads
• Women plucking chickens with tweezers
• All sorts of meats that would make any Mexican grandma proud
• Fruits the like I'd never seen nor tasted. HEAVEN. Well, heaven with dead chickens everywhere.
• Socks, shoes, tights, capri pants, shoes, and more shoes
• Cold weather wear. I think the Taiwanese have somehow convinced themselves that this 60F-some-odd weather is winter like. That's the only way I can explain the knit hats and scarves. This makes me worry for summer...
• Electronics. Everything from navigation devices to wireless routers, which, although I am in the market for, I had little intention of buying from a guy standing next to a guy taking bets on eels.

This is, of course, an abbreviated list. But you get the idea. I'll try and sneak pics next time.

I did, however, get bu-ku pics of buildings I liked and thought illustrated the personality of my new hometown.

 

If you're trying to follow along on a map, these were all, I think, along Zhongxiao around Section 5. I think. Hard to keep track...

But there's a definite playfulness that's sweet. 

Well. Until they come to life of course. And override that whole "Do no harm" clause the genius bar geniuses put in after that whole HAL thing.

So now we come the gratuitous photos of 101. I apologize for the repetition but I'll start with my fave.

 So just a side note: the building was designed to model a bamboo shoot. It WAS the tallest building until the one in Dubai usurped it. But inside you'll still see a ton of stuff claiming it's the tallest GREEN building in the world.

Ok, so to keep Thelma happy, I didn't actually go UP. Well, to keep Thelma happy and because the line was a little intimidating. Especially with Ikea on my mind. But eventually I'll make it up. Anyway, the sights in and around were enough to occupy me for a few solid hours. First off, an electronics fair that was burning my cash from inside my pockets! EVERYTHING imaginable from the flyest of the fly game consoles to super duper small/slim/fast/light/awesome tablets/laptops/phones/navigation devices. It was NUTS! And soooo crowded! Mostly youngish boys and men whose eyes couldn't seem to decide on the electronics and the young scantily clad girls handing out flyers like this one:

A betel nut to anyone who can explain to me why happy schoolgirls are made sad by green monsters jumping out at them from their laptops. And are those maxipads or what?!?

The first five floors of 101 are, of course, a monument to consumerism. A mall. And not just any mall but a mall with nothing costing less than my first car. Tiffany, Coach, Swarovski, Armani, De Beers, Cartier, Versace, Louis Vuitton.. I kept waiting for them to chuck me out. But I think brown American chicks alone confuse them, so I stayed. And took pictures. I think they're going for what Will-and-Grace once termed "Sad Christmas."

But with sparks of that playfulness I mentioned above:

Now before you gripe that they took Santa out of Sad Christmas, I direct you to this:

  Made me sad. But not exactly in a classy CK way.

Outside again was another small fair, but I think this one probably more directed towards tourists. Read: No dead chickens. Or living eels. But traditional dancers. 

So FINALLY to the business of the day. Ikea. But on the way I got lost. I swear. I wasn't looking for this. I know some people will say, "Poor sad brown girl. Not a week away from the Land-of-Taco-Cabana and she HAS to find a taco!" But it didn't happen that way! I was looking for the Tourism Bureau! And then I got a little lost!! I wasn't looking for tacos!!!!

Macho Tacos. Check them out at machotacos.com if you like. You'll see. It's just the kind of place you find when LOST! But then, of course, presented with prospect of Taiwanese Mexican and pictures of Lucha Libre heros, who could really blame me?!?! Just to point out, the corn tortillas were actually homemade. And the carnitas exactly what you expect from carnitas. Corn salsa was good, if a little bland. The salsa kinda tasted like ceviche-hold-the-seafood, but alright. But if you do check out the menu, don't get all offended by the tofu burrito/chimchanga/quesadilla offerings. Ok? There are a lot of vegetarians around! I did get a lead, btw, on where to find corn masa. A Songshan bake shop. That helped make the exorbitant US$3.60 for two tacos go down a little better. Like the most expensive meal I've had in Taipei!

Now just to wrap this up so I can hit the sack already,

The reason for the day. Specifically, a pillow. And a shower solution. See, the thing is, for some unknown reason, other countries, European included, don't always see a need to separate the shower area from the rest of the bathroom. It makes for a bit of a messy shower. And while it has grown on me, I still hoped to find some way of rectifying the situation. And I thought maybe Ikea could help. But a quick amble around the marketplace surrounding Ikea led me to another useful little home solutions shop: Nitori. And here I found not only a cheaper pillow, but also a "Japanese room" kit with plastic bars that fit together meant to hold a sort of mosquito netting around a bed. Brilliantly perfectly what I need! Unfortunately, the DRILL I need to mount the screws is going to hold up this perfect little plan of mine. So. :-(. It goes back on the to-do list.

Anyhoot, to the end of the day. I managed to schlep my wares onto a very crowded MRT train, then transfer to another less-crowded train, and find my way home. WHICH I now have a handy way of finding from a distance. See, as I was coming up from the subway station, I realized I wasn't entirely sure which direction my apartment was in. And then I saw it. The boob. Or turret for the more pure-of-heart-and-mind. Whatever floats your boat. All I know is that these "turrets" are directly across from my balcony and that was how female anatomy saved my day. 

Whew. Well I'M exhausted. To bed. On my nice new cushy Japanese pillow.  

Kung bao, baby!

It's 4:30 on Friday afternoon and the Friday-pm-drag is apparently VERY translatable into every culture. Especially when you've run out of things to do. I've been waiting on work the way a kid waits on summer in April. So this afternoon has been a cup of green tea, a couple of hours of Chinese language study, some prep work for this weekend's sightseeing adventures, and a whole lot of boredom. Oh. And trying to figure out how to post this second post. Not made any easier, by the way, by the fact that Google keeps assuming I speak Chinese. So for all the pains I've taken to post this I DO hope you appreciate it.

So many observations... Where to begin? At the beginning, I guess, was landing at TPE only days ago and being thrust into a whole new world. For starters, everybody is my height! That's kinda nice. And no blonde people. It's like there was a mass extermination and only us melanin-proficient were spared. But on the downside, I've become totally illiterate. That's right. I look at signs and I see gibberish. Quickly becoming familiar looking gibberish. But gibberish all the same. And my communication skills have taken a sharp turn south. I have to point and look confused a lot. But the isolation that you'd assume comes with such a situation hasn't been so foreign yet. Oddly, it's familiar. Maybe not comforting. But something... accustomed to. I think isolating myself for the better part of my life is finally coming in handy!

On to the apartment Vivi-the-most-awesomest-admin-ever found for me. Uh AWESOME. Rooftop two-bedroom (a bit of a misnomer, but more on that later) with a kitchen and pet fish. Um. Wait. Pet fish? So when thrust into a martian environment and presented with some little absurdity I tend to just shrug and convince myself that when on Mars spacewalk like the rest. But after talking to a few people about this particular absurdity, I get blank looks. Fish? You've inherited FISH?!? And so maybe the only thing that makes sense about the situation is that landladies around the globe tend towards nuttiness. But it's nice to get home at night and have fish to talk to and sing to and read to and... Oh dear. I hope I'm not just raising them to be food. Kung bao fish?? Well, so long as it's made well, I might be ok with it.

And speaking of pets-turned-tasty-meals, last night I took my first walk through a nighttime grocery market sort of thing. It was an alley that I just happened on that was lined with people hawking exotic looking fruits and veg and food and dead pigs hanging from hooks. I found the piggies particularly amusing as they'd been quartered of course with the choice bits sitting below. Dirty little piggy's feet and such. Oh. And ears. I remember reading something about pig ears being kind of a delicacy. Sort of the equiv of bringing flowers to your host, you'd bring a nice juicy pig's ear for the matriarch. I love etiquette. And hope that one day I have occasion to bring a pig's ear to somebody's old gran. At the end of the lane was the chicken guy. Freshest chicken available anywhere in the world. To prove it were the cages with pretty colorful fowl, or ji, ready to be turned into ji rou, or chicken meat. Guess my Friday language lessons are paying off. Did somebody say something about kung bao?

Alright. It is, in any language, the weekend now. At least here, fourteen hours before ever before for me. I'ma go find me some dumplings. And maybe some spicy ji rou with peanuts. Bet it'll be super fresh.