Tainan

After hearing people rave over the small Taiwanese eats in Tainan (台南小吃）， I decided to give the city one last chance. I've been to Tainan three times but it was only on my third visit-- last week-- that I actually began to appreciate the city. Why did it take so long? Well, I'd say it's because I finally took the time to explore the city on foot and more importantly, to taste all the delicious food that Tainan is famous for. My conclusion? Tainan has a more Taiwanese feel to it than Taipei because the culture and tradition is better preserved. The food was definitely worth the trip. Taiwanese street foods may not be pleasing to the eyes but they are definitely palatable. Many restaurants have been open for generations.

A roadside restaurant

Sweet rice with pork sauce （米糕）

Stir-fried eel noodles (鱔魚意麵)

Taiwanese dessert place (shaved ice and warm sweet soup)

8 treasure sweet soup (八寶湯)

Anping Old Street (安平老街)

Anping Fort Museum (安平古堡)

Anping flower tofu (安平豆花)

Fried shrimp rolls (蝦捲)

Dan dan rice noodles (擔擔米粉)

Fried fish thick noodles soup (土魠魚羹)

Shrimp/meat dumpling with shrimp sauce (蝦仁肉圓)

A visit to Tainan is not complete without visiting family so here I am with my neice

The Christmas display in the lobby of Tayih Landis (our hotel) ho ho ho!

November events

Dennis recently celebrated his 32th birthday, which was marked by dinner at the Sheraton Hotel and a birthday cake at home. Hope your wish will come true!

Somehow, Dennis and I got everyone excited about having a "traditional" Thanksgiving dinner and we held it last Friday. Since Thanksgiving is not a national holiday in Taiwan, it was more convenient for everyone to have it on a weekend.

Finding the turkey was quite a challenge. We finally found one at the grocery store in Taipei 101 and it was NOT cheap (~$45 USD for 12. 7 lbs).

What was suppose to be a small family dinner of 6 evolved into a dinner for 13 (luckily, 13 is not an unlucky number in Asian). Since the turkey was relatively large, we invited our aunt, uncle, three cousins, one of the cousin's girlfriend, and another aunt.

Cooking together with so many people was actually a lot of fun. Everybody had a wonderful time. And yes, we were all completely stuffed. We couldn't even finish the turkey, despite having 13 mouths to feed.

I have so much to give thank for this year but I'll start with good family and friends.

So many people in the kitchen.

Jennifer is making seafood pasta, I'm supposed to be making gravy for the turkey.

Left to right: Carol, Cynthia, and cousin's gf (not sure what her name is)

Dennis carving the turkey with with from Cynthia

Dennis carving turkey with help from Cynthia and Carol (is it that hard??)

After dinner, dessert time! (all homemade, of course)

After dinner and dessert, everybody hanging around in front of the TV.