HouGuo & New Friends

(click on pics to enlarge! note camera on table that is always ready to shoot!)

I've talked about "Hot Pot" meals in Taiwan before and this one had a decidedly different twist!
First a culinary lesson: the meal consists of all things known to man that can be cooked in a pot of simmering broth and then cooked in a pot at the table. Any kind of vegetable, fish, or thinly sliced meat can find its way into a "Hot Pot" meal!

Some restaurants bring the items to you to add to an already simmered pot of broth. (FYI: the egg is to be cracked open at the table. The white is added to the broth and the yolk is mixed with the bowl of rice! HMMMM!...... i know you aren't crazy about the salmonella issue, but when in Rome.....) If you scroll down to the bottom of the "Hot Pot" link, you can see the food poisoning info!


Other restaurants bring you the "condiments" in wooden buckets! I mean there was everything in there! Clams, shrimp, crab, cabbage, mushroom, corn on the cob (i learned how to eat it with chopsticks!), potatoes, and items that i wasn't sure quite how to name them!!!!

Along with the bucket of goodies came the plate of whatever meat you ordered! This restaurant offered beef, pork, or chicken. Notice the pot of broth set into the table. You take your meat or condiments and add them to the broth and eat them as they cook! (Notice the egg sitting in a wooden cradle and the rice bowl beside it!)


Now, the restaurant that we were at this evening was like a "Hot Pot" buffet! You could have anything and as much as you wanted! So, this is the first plate of the evening!

My New Friends!

I was having dinner this evening with 2 engineers from work. The family in the background had several children with them! As the evening went on, we noticed that the two older children, my guess 7 and 5 ish, were paying a lot of attention to the strange person (me!) near their table! We watched them as they went to the dessert cart take the long way around to pass by us and stare at me! then they sat at the empty table behind us facing us! it was so funny! i looked over to their parents and they smiled and sort of shrugged their shoulders. I mean, i really stand out in a crowd!

So W. asked their parents is we could take a picture and finally convinced the boy and his sister to stop by our table so that we could take a picture together! Everybody had a good laugh and i have 2 new friends!

How about this! I have to go all the way to Taiwan to enjoy homemade pistachio ice cream! (see, it's not all fish all the time!)

I really do some work while i'm there! But, i really do want to take advantage of the opportunity that i have to make an adventure out of the opportunity that i have!