Burping is hard to get used to…

I will never be able to get used to people burping at the dinner table.  We were invited out to dinner this evening by a wonderful surgeon that dad has been working with while in Taipei.  We went to a restaurant called Le Palais Restaurant in the Palais de Chine, an extraordinarily fancy restaurant on the 17^th floor of a brand new hotel.  We were quickly whisked away from the entrance of the restaurant to a private room overlooking the entire city where we were greeted by our hosts and three other doctors from the hospitals where dad has been working.  There was a couch, a private bathroom and we had our own server for the room.  We were introduced to everyone and then we took our seats for what was an unbelievable 8 course meal (but really almost 11 courses…).  We began with a shot of red wine sweetened vinegar, which helps to digest the food as it goes down along with a few appetizers- candied almonds, fish skins and something else that was gone before it got around to us on the lazy susan that was in the middle of the table.   We then were poured some sauvignon blanc and were served our first course, “cold cuts combination” which was actually some green beans, ginger, and two other veggies that I didn’t know what they were. 

Dad has informed us that we will be about 95% vegetarian on this trip (dad is pretty much 99%) and so when we went out to dinner he informed our hosts that we were also vegetarian and so they ordered a different menu for us than they had themselves.  Unfortunately, mom and I actually did want to try some of the different types of food and so our hosts gave us tastes of all of their meals as well.  We tried bbq pork, pig knee cartilage on a piece of warm thin bread, seafood soup, and a type of acorn squash.  Some of it was better than other parts… the pig knee was actually not terrible, the bbq pork was delicious; the squash was interesting- mom liked it, I didn’t like the flavor of it.

Then we were poured some terrific light burgundy wine.  Every time we drank a sip of wine, we would say cheers, salut, or the chinese version of it and then take a sip of wine.  Our next course was “boiled seafood soup with pumpkin” which was definitely interesting.  Dad ate his whole soup and thought it was wonderful, though mom and I ate a few bites and could not eat anymore.   

Next course was “sautéed vegetables” which was kale or swiss chard or some green leafy greens with a very neat dumpling like substance filled with really good veggies, mushrooms and etc. 

Also we had tea all evening long being refilled every few minutes.  For our water glasses, we didn’t get cold water, only a glass with some warm water, which was nice.  Okay, next course was “deep fried lotus root and rice crackers.”  I’ve never eaten lotus root before and it was absolutely delicious… it could have been that it was deep fried, but it was so good and it was dipped in sweet and sour sauce.   

Then more wine.  Next course was “fried noodles served with soy sauce” and shitake mushroom and carrots- absolutely delicious. 

Meanwhile during the eating, some of the doctors across the table burped a few times throughout the meal.  It took all of my will power not to throw up right then and there at the table.  I am okay if people cover their mouths when they burp at the table, but when it is loud and very close to me, it is very nauseating.  Though I have always heard that it is a sign of respect and of a good meal to burp at the table in China, I was always skeptical of that rumor.  Well the rumor has been proven this even to be true.  Okay, so our next course was “Steamed grouper with bean curd” which was delicious and probably the best course out of all of them.   They call grouper, garoupa, but i'm not sure why.

Following that was an “egg tart with steamed dumplings” – shrimp and a regular dumpling and the egg tart was sweet.  This I thought was the dessert as it seemed like a nice finish and the server took away our chopsticks and everything else.  However a minute later, she gave us silverware again and by this point I was so full I didn’t think I could fit anything else into my stomach- I could barely move, plus it was past 10 pm and I was exhausted!  However, the next course came out and it was “fresh seasonal fruits” which consisted of watermelon, honeydew, one large grape and pineapple- all grown in southern Taiwan.  But that was not served alone.  Next to that plate came a tureen of what they called almond tea, but I think it may have been similar to almond milk but tasted like marzipan.  And they gave us two Chinese donuts to dip into the “tea/milk.”  It was so good.   

By this point, all I could do was out of respect take one small bite of everything because nothing else fit inside.  And after that, the dinner was over and we took some photos overlooking the city.  Our hosts offered to give us a ride home in their car because we were late to the dinner tonight because we had trouble finding the building while walking there because we could not cross two very busy roads and had to walk an extra half a mile each way to find a crosswalk over the roads in the rain.  We made it there late and drenched and completely sweating from rushing, so our hosts decided to drive us home.  On the way home they showed us where to buy electronics- as most electronics these days come from Taiwan and they are very inexpensive (also we really need to go there tomorrow because Mom was supposed to bring the memory card reader and she seemed to have forgotten it and that is a minor problem as you may imagine!) and then drove us around the Presidential Palace which is a block away from where we are staying.  They dropped us off at the dorm and we are going to see them again tomorrow as they are going to take us to a Jade market to explore!

 

View from the restaurant!

 

Okay, so for our adventure during the day today, we did a walking tour around the Wanhua District.  We left the room fairly late as we were exhausted and are still not used to the time and our internal clocks are completely screwed up.  We walked to the Taipei Main Station of the metro and took it to the Longshan Temple exit where we began our walking tour.  We walked to the Longshan Temple which is a beautiful large and one of Taiwan’s oldest temples.  Longshan means dragon mountain and it was originally a Buddhist temple and is now more of a Taoist temple with all of its elaborate designs.  The temple was built in 1738 and it resembles the Forbidden City in Beijing apparently (though we will know at the end of the trip if that is actually true!).  There are many altar’s throughout that hundreds of tourists and I believe locals were praying at, buying food for and burning incents.  We made sure to enter the temple on the right and exit on the left- following temple lore. 

After the temple we walked down a little alley way to the Herb Lane or Qingcao Lane where there were canvas sacks and boxes of teas and herbs, which have been there since 1738!

I have many pictures from these places, but not on my little camera, so they will have to wait to be shown until I get a card reader...

Next we got a little lost walking to the next stop on the tour but eventually by chance came upon Qingshan Temple, which was wedged between two large buildings. We made some nice pencil rubbings at this temple and one of them means spring.

 

After that tiny temple we made our way a few blocks to Qingshui Temple, a larger temple which was also a school in which a Song dynasty Taoist monk was revered for giving medical services to the poor.

 

Then we went to a famous night market in the middle of the day called the Huaxi Street Night Market in Snake Alley- antique shops, snake stores with rats, seafood everywhere and lots of foot massage parlors.  We are going to go to another night market tomorrow night while it is booming, so I will report back about what they’re like.  We then returned  back to the Longshan station.  

As we were walking back to our room from the MRT, we realized that we were starving and needed to get some lunch if we were going to make it through the evening, so dad gave us a little “tour” of the few blocks around the neighborhood where he has been getting breakfast, lunch and dinner, a nice stationary store, a mos burger (where we have food coupons to in the morning but haven’t been yet) and a crepe omelet stand that dad said was excellent.  So, we decided to try a crepe omelet with veggies and you order it by pointing at it and then we brought them back to room and they were delicious!  They all cost NT$90, which is a little less than 3 dollars.

When we returned to the room, we had about an hour to rest and take a quick shower (only after 5 pm do we have hot water until midnight) and then we went off to dinner.  Mom tried to take a shower at 5:05pm but the hot water had not been turned on yet, so she took a cold shower… however I waited until we almost had to leave and took a shower at 6pm when we luckily had some hot water!  Mom has actually just taken a shower at 11:30 pm so she could wash her hair for tomorrow since we don’t have hot water in the morning.  Okay a long, nice day… I wish it wasn’t so overcast and rainy, but apparently this is a cold front coming in and its usually 70-80 degrees here now, but its only in the 50’s and cold and rainy.   Time to get some sleep!