About Me

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Yilan, Taiwan
I just returned back to the States after 11 years in Taiwan with my daughter. Taiwan is an excellent base for us explore Asia, while living in relative (gun free) safety, while benefiting from a cheap and efficient national health care system. The people are amazing too. I have Taiwanese friendships that are 20 years old and I'm always making new ones! My coworker here in CO is from Taiwan.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Traditional Chinese Medicine Part 1: Food as Medicine

Taoist principles are apart of ever day Chinese cuisine and health. The Taiwanese look at food as medicine (or poison). Depending on the season, weather, time of day, a woman's menstrual cycle, etc, the Taiwanese can adjust their food/cooking to balance their body harmony and keep in health. All food can be divided into hot or cold (yin or yang), Typically, the Taiwanese try to avoid cold food for optimum health. Cold food doesn't mean just the temperature, but also its yin energy, like watermelon or citrus fruits. When a Taiwanese person is sick, they avoid all yin food, which is the opposite of Americans, when we are sick we eat oranges. All food is also composed of 5 flavors(sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, pungent) which correspond with the 5 elements (water, fire, earth, wood,metal) found in food, the body and all of nature; these in turn stimulate specific organs in the body. It can get very specific depending how deep you want to go, but the masters of this are the traditional Chinese medicine doctors and Taoist shifus. Really every plant, mushroom, meat has some kind of medicinal value and a specific combination can of course have stronger effects on the body. There is still the thinking that if you eat a specific organ you will gain that organ's strength, for example eating pig brain makes you smarter.

For the lay person or the average mom like me, this is what you cook, certain soups to heat the body. You can buy these soups in the local grocery store or the local traditional Chinese pharmacy where they have jars of herbs, fungi, dried endangered animal parts (like whole seahorses), etc and you buy by the weight. The following soups are the most common and based on plants although they are supposed to be cooked with meat, most likely pork or chicken. Thanks to my Taiwanese friend Doreen who is a "foodie" and wonderful cook. This is her advice: You just boil water, and put the herbs which are probably in muslin inside your pot like a tea and infuse. When the water is very dark add your chicken and simmer all. Add salt to taste, maybe a little rice wine and black sesame  oil for further heating properties. You can leave your herb muslin pouch in your pot as long as you want, it all depends how strong you want the flavor and the medicinal value. Typically you do not add vegetables in these. (I have to restrain myself from adding carrots, celery, etc, western style). If you want veggies make them in a side dish. Chinese cabbage is probably the only veg that will do in these.

Four things soup (si wu tang): This soup is composed of 4 main ingredients and used for women's health as a tonic for the uterus and productive hormones after her period (not to be eaten during!). It is also given to women after they give birth. It stimulates the balance of hormones, and the circulation. It has angelica root and lotus root. It is supposed to be cooked with chicken or pork in a soup. It can also be cooked with milk fish.

Eight Treasure Soup (ba zhen tang ): This soup is like they one above but only stronger, its has 8 key ingredients rather than four. It very much stimulates heat in the body and should be avoided if a person already has a lot of yang energy anyway. So if you are always thirsty and breaking out, do not drink this one.

Ten Gentlemen Soup 十  (shi junzi tang): Since men are more important (joke) they get 10 key ingredients. Most Chinese medicine for men has only specific goal in mind and thats to get the blood flowing to one area, take your guess where. Men no matter the culture share one common trait, that singleness of mind. Before there was Viagra there was this soup which is probably thousands of years old. Most of the terrible consequences of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), like the almost extinction of seahorses and other endangered animals come from men seeking to prolong erections. Having said that, women can drink this soup too if they want, it wont increase their testosterone or anything, just increase their blood pressure and circulation.

Four Spirits Soup (si shen tang ): This soup is traditionally drunk by children to increase their appetite and promote good digestion. Children like it because it does not have that dark color like the above soups, nor does it have the 'mediciny' flavor like the above. It is white in color and should be cooked with chicken or pork. You can add some carrots. Of course adults can drink this soup too to promote healthy digestion.

This is just a sample of how food is medicine and these 4 soups are probably the most commonly used in a typical Taiwanese household. I try to eat Four things soup 湯 once a month and it is safe for my daughter to eat too (although she will just eat the chicken).


Thursday, October 28, 2010

Moon Festival 中秋

Last month on the autumn equinox was the 中秋  (zhongTone 1 qiuTone 1)Moon Festival or mid-Autumn Festival. Festivities differ depending on region. In Taiwan it is a time for families to get together eat BBQ, blow off fireworks and fingers and eat. Just do not point directly at the moon because Taiwanese tradition says your face will be scratched up. (Don't ask, I am just telling you what numerous sources told me).

Last year I went down the street to Anping Harbor and walked around the family crowds with friends, ducking between the fireworks, carrying Z, trying not to get our heads blown off. It was very smoky and sounded like a war zone. I literally picked up Z like a football and ran in and out of explosions. This year my friend Grace invited me to go with her husbands family in Tainan County for some moon festival BBQ fun. Her son Jeffrey and his best friend Ethan are also Z's best friends/classmates so it all works out.

Megan and Cyprus
The day before my coworker and former housemate Megan (also from CO) gave birth to her firstborn. I visited her and then unnamed son (now Cyprus) and happy father admiring the new baby. New babies are great, makes me think of my experience good and bad. It made me miss nursing, but definitely not the sleepless nights!


Grace and family and Ethan and his mom Kelly picked us up and went to their family's shrimp farm where an old uncle harvested us a couple of buckets of fresh shrimp and fish to take back to the BBQ. On their fish farm they have their grandfather's grave and from there  a a beautiful view to the gigantic Buddhist temple complex, which we visited before going to the family home.

It was a nice evening of few mosquitoes and lots of meat. The kids were playing with sparklers. A fat uncle would light them up for the kiddies and he later would go behind one of the cars to light the big fireworks. It would all be illegal in the States, even the sparklers so I enjoyed that aspect of it although the kids were frightened of the loudness of the explosions and really they were too loud to appreciate their beautiful colors.

It was a late night for a school night. I enjoyed Grace and Kelly's company. Z was in heaven playing with her friends. I think we really got to appreciate what the Moon Festival is all about which is fellowship and family.


 
 
 
 


 

Saturday, October 23, 2010

What to bring to Taiwan

If you have been living in Taiwan and are returning home for holiday or family obligations, then your friends and co-workers will have already given you their lists. My friend went back to London and brought me back some Harrogate of Yorkshire loose leaf. But if  you are a newbie and have kids you still might not know what to bring. A new friend moving to Taichung with her daughters recently asked me what to bring and about making friends for her daughters, etc.

This is a bit of my email back to her:

Usually when I go to a new country or travel its very quick for me to connect w/ kindred spirits. But this time it took me about 6 months to find people I connected deeply with and find people my age w/kids. But thats me, I would not say that will happen for you. Most of my coworkers are 10 years younger than me and no kids so we dont have so much in common, but I do have some very close friends now. Most of dear friends here are Taiwanese. I lived in Taipei, Tamsui for 1 1/2 years in 2000-2002 to pay off my undergrad loan and I made friends for life there, who still come visit me and vice versa.

Hiring a maid or even an older auntie to help w/the kids is very cheap. You dont need to bring anything, no bedding, clothes, electric equipment uses the same voltage as in the States and you can find anything and everything here. I do recommend bringing  vitamins, supplements, essential oils as what you can find here is sparse and not good quality--there are no Whole Foods here and the small mom and pop health food stores dont have big supplies or much variety. Also if you are very tall, have big feet or in my case a big butt you will find alot of the clothes wont fit, but in bigger cities like Taichung and Taipei there are neighborhoods w/alot of foreigners and stores that carry bigger sizes. Taiwanese women have flat asses and I definitely dont so that can make for probs buying pants. All the bras here are super padded w/lots of under-wire, I just cut the under-wire out as for me I think its unhealthy. I-phones are cheaper in the States, if you brought some back you could make some $ in Taichung w/ the foreigners for sure!

I think if you join a gym, chinese class, tai chi or an english speaking church, etc you will meet more foreigners. Take your girls to the park and you will meet the same kids and their folks everyday, thats how I met my Chinese "parents". Taiwanese are super-friendly and they absolutely adore kids, you will actually be annoyed at how much attention you all get. Its very bothersome to always be bombared w/ attention, strangers touching your kids faces, taking their photo w/ their cellphone w/o asking etc. You will get so much attention and invitation to tea, dont worry about meeting people and making friends, it will definately not be a problem for you or your daughters. Taiwanese parents actually force their kids to talk to me or my daughter to practice their English so I dont think finding playmates for them will be a problem.

Xiao Liuqiu Yu

A view of the beach from the road. We later went back to this beach near the end of our trip.
Bihn and Erica picked us up bright and early as we drove 2 hours outside of Pindong to catch the 30 minute ferry from Dongang to Baishe Harbor in Xiao Liuo Xiou. I have been wanting to go there for some time, especially since my former coworkers always went and raved about it. Both Bihn and Erica were worried about getting seasick and forgot about buying some motion sickness meds at the pharmacy. I knew Z and I would be fine, especially after our island hopping around Penghu. The ferry ride was packed and undramatic. After we docked we were bombarded with agressive middle aged women trying to rent us their scooters and followed one them back and rented scooters for 200NT for the day. I brought Z's helmet and we were off.



Lingshan Temple on the cliff
 Our first stop right around the corner and on the cliff was the Lingshan Temple overlooking the sea. It was about 9 am and I was already sweating, the sun was strong and I was glad to have the sun on my skin. I lathered up Z w/ sunscreeen and checked out the temple. In some strangeway it reminded me of Haife, Israel and the Ba'hai temple/shrine overlooking the sea there. There was this huge coral rock above a water well and Z enjoyed plopping rocks into it as we snapped photos. We went back to 7-11 for batteries, water and snacks and hopped on our scooters following the road around the coast.
Lingshan Temple




The island was bigger than I imagined. I guess I imagined something like on of the smaller islands of the Pengu archipelago, but Xiao Liuqiu had a few roads that somehow intersected each other and we stopped sometimes to check out our maps. The next stop was some observation center that was void of people. We went down some spooky steps that looked dangerous and a bit flooded that opened out to a nice pavilion (and clean toilets) to admire the radiantly clean turquoise water.



We kept going and stopped at another temple, followed the road behind it and looked for a beach. What we found were people wading in calf length water, kids playing, some aunties catching something edible. There were sea urchins, different varieties of seaweed and starfish (which Z was loving). With the tropical sun shining down, it had this dazzling effect, of making everything sparkle and shimmer. The colors of  the rock were amethyst and coruscating with the different colors of fish, sea weeds, looking like jewels. It had this otherworldly feel. We kept exploring and found water filled caverns to wade through and squeeze through and were rewarded with hidden coves and beaches. It was magical, I felt like some kind of water faerie.

In fact, Erica took a picture of me and she said "you're glowing" and I said "no I'm sweating" and she replied " No I mean you're glowing white like a ghost!" And I was! Me so olive and tanned, I was turning into phosphorescence. I used photo editing software in the picture and adjusted the light to tone it down so I could have some skin color, these rocks and whatever jewels were in the water had some kind of ethereal effect on me.





When we were starting to get hungry we got back on our scooters and looked for a place to eat. We stopped at an overlook to admire some beautiful beaches (which we returned to later) and stopped for an ice coffee and ice-cream across from a hiking trail crowded with tourist buses (which we decided to forgo) and kept on going looking for a place to eat. I secretly prayed for a nice place and Erica stopped at the water rescue center and we went to  a place they recommended in the middle of the island. It looked very nice inside, very clean, table cloths, clean bathroom and empty. We ordered and were almost finished when the crowds came. They served a seaweed salad only found on this island which was good. We had orange fish, pork, a nice  fried rice. The meat sauce was just too sweet, it really wasn't for me but I ate it, of course Z didn't like it, but with Bihn's influence (who is her teacher) she managed to eat something.



After lunch Z was getting very tired and falling asleep on the bike. I knew that a melt down would be inevitable considering I had to get her up at the crack of dawn and she wasn't going to get a nap. Bihn wanted to check out the Lobster Cave which ended up being a waste, we followed the coast road, went to the nice white sand beach by the harbor, but I didnt like the vibe there. The sand was nice, white and soft, but it was small, crowded with tour buses, a parking lot full of more tourists and no shade. We went back to find those beaches we admired in the morning.

On the way we stopped at some shops near 7-11 to buy me something to swim in as I was dying to really get wet and I forgot our suits. Of course most of them looked like grandma swimming suits and I ended up with surfer shorts which was fine. Z had a whopper of a meltdown providing comic relief (and fear?) to the locals.  Z wanted me to buy her this beach dress. I didn't have the money and I knew I could get it cheaper in Tainan so I said ,"no." But when she has her mind set on something she is as stubborn as they come and I had to pick her up kicking and screaming acting like a wild banshee, she was not letting go of that dress she even was holding onto it with her teeth and I thought, "well I'm gonna have to but it anyways now." I was kind of too tired to care and Bihn wanted to give it a go with her and talk it out w/ her. Bihn was saying if she calmed down and whatnot Bihn would buy her the dress and I was like, "Bihn forget it, she lost it back there, don't reward her". Its kind of like bribing her to calm down. I understand she is beyond tired, but biting dresses is nuts. I sat her on the curb and told her of she didn't calm down I was going to ask these aunties to watch her for a couple of hours so I can enjoy the rest of my day. That was enough to calm her down and get her on the bike. After we were mobile she started talking morbid thoughts beyond the level of a 4 year old about death and dying (I cant remember exactly what she said, only that I was disturbed by it), stopped the scooter and said, "that's enough!" and after that she was fine.



Z, Erica and Bihn exploring the otherworldly coral coves. 

We found one of those beaches, which up close didnt have nice sand, lots of coral but in our tired states we still managed to chill and enjoy the end of the day. The sun was now not so strong. Erica crashed like a beach bum in the shade of some rocks, I plopped myself on some driftwood and Bihn and Z farmed seaweed. Z loves the water so she was in a prefect mood after that. When the sun was getting cooler we headed back to the harbor. On our way we made an accidental detour near Beauty Cave. Outside the Coco Resort was the most beautiful, quaint guesthouses (like cabins) overlooking a green field beside the turquoise sea. Not to be confused with the place next to it that was sandwiched w/ cabins and looked like a nice option for next years staff trip.



When I saw this place, I imagined it as a nice place to have a casual, no frills style beach wedding (not exactly beach) where the view is more important than the dress. They only had a handful of cabins, maybe 5 or six, including breakfast and a dinner BBQ. We made plans to come back and stay there. It looked very romantic. I can picture me sipping something, book in one hand overlooking Z running in the green grass, us having breakfast in front of our little cabin overlooking the sea. Sunsets must be stunning there. The air was clean and we could sea Kaohsiung out in the distance. Hard to believe that a place so close to Kaohsiung could be that clean.

Erica found an English school near the harbor and wow I considered for a moment what it might be like making a life here.We headed back to Dongang and took a detour outside of Pingdong to have some famous pork knuckles. I didnt like the pork meat, it wasn't like meat, it had this jelly consistency (" hen Q!"). In my defense I am a recent meat eater and didn't grow up in a home eating pork and after that was a vegetarian for 17 years. I was diagnosed with an under active thyroid after giving birth and had to start eating meat, so eating meat especially pork has all happened here in Taiwan (but thats another story). This restaurant did have a lovely wonton soup and mt greens stir fried with little dried anchovies and salted black beans which was heavenly.









Monday, October 18, 2010

Nantou Day Trip



My Taiwanese parents Amy and David Wu invited me for a day trip organized by their apartment building to Nantou Co. Have I not mentioned David and Amy before? I always am in conversation. I met them  after our first six months here in Tainan. They have a "grandson" Chinchin who is 2 years older than Z and those two are playmates. Amy and I used to go regularly to the Flying Club Gym before they tore it down and now we both go to E Powerhouse. They often invite me to their home for breakfasts and dinner or we eat out, go to some farmers markets, orchid markets, etc.  They are both 3 years older than my parents and David has  a daughter from a previous marriage who is an accountant to the stars in Hollywood. They both are KMT supporters, David being involved in KMT intelligence, I dont like to talk politics with them, but other than that they are my great friends. "Chin-chin" lives in their building a few floors below and he is Amy's grand-nephew, her sister died and she practically raised her nephew Chin-chin's dad.

This would be my 3rd trip to Nantou Co. The first was with Joy and Yanni a few Dragon Boat Festivals ago where we stayed in alpine like dwellings with picturesque views. The second being a school staff trip were Z and I shared a lonely and incredible cabin under brilliant stars, and did a nice morning hike. And now with David and Amy.

Anyway, I already knew what I was getting myself into going on this trip, but I wanted to spend some time with them. We left bright and early at 630 am and even tho everyone refused many times the bus company's offer of KTV, the stewardess managed to get 2 brave souls, plus herself, to belt out sad Chinese love songs  as the sun started to come up full force. Too early for overly loud KMT, Z had me stuff tissue into her ears.

We took a pee break at some temple to a god of fortune as did many other tour buses. I had to carry Z thru thick black clouds of toxic incense fumes, as every devotee did their ritual prayer with 3 incense sticks. We found the squat toilet and I pushed our way outta there as we were choking from the smoke. I bought Z a bag of chopped guava for a healthy snack and boarded the bus.

We arrived in Chunghua at the entrance of some park, walked out and started on a path along a rushing mountain stream. It was beautiful. The air was radiantly crisp. the weather not cool nor hot, cloudy and perfect for a hike. Unlike CO trails, the trails here are paved, or staired, so its pretty easy, maybe a bit slippery, but we just hiked straight  up pretty much, taking breathers for old David and Z. Z and I were sweating pretty early into it and I had to try and restrain her from running up as I didnt want her to pass out, and learn to pace herself. We walked in and along the stream and a cypress forest. Our trails met with the crowds at a giant cypress tree were we along with everyone took our picture. We kept walking to a forest canopy observation trail where we walked along the cypress heights, seeing what plants live off the cypress limbs and to sounds of unseen birds. A few teenagers would scream to hear their own voice which was the only bother. On the walk down I had to carry Z on my back and at the bottom was a restaurant where we lunched a modest 5 course meal. After lunch I bought some wild mountain vegetables (the curly insides of ferns which are edible) and noted fruit I had not seen anywhere else. We boarded the bus and continued to a lake, where Z and walked around, took some pics back on the bus to a tea shop, than a coffee shop, bought a yellow orchid that is now in my kitchen. Lots of bus, too much bus.

We ended the day in the most boring tour. I had no idea it could get so boring. After the bus company laid into us as we were tired and helpless, laying into us with product after product of magical creams for whitening the skin or for tired muscles and mosquito bites, etc, endless in your face buy this try this, they dropped us off at a factory. I guess its the most famous food factory in Taiwan and they had us look at boxes in their storage room before shepherding us into a room with a movie screen, and I knew I couldnt sit through that. I stood outside the door as they tried to get me to go inside. David tried to explain to the staff I wouldnt understand, but I countered that I could, I just thought that this whole concept would bore me to tears. So Z and I played hide and seek in the vicinity, Chin-chin and his mom also walked out a while later. Turned out it was more advertising to  buy more of their foods at cheaper than store prices.



More bus than dinner, a not very exciting dinner somewhere outside of Tainan and we were dropped off around 845 pm and I was exhausted. I very much enjoyed the fresh mt air, the lunch, seeing the cypress and bamboo forests, walking around the lake. I could of done w/o all the in my face advertising, the stop at the food factory. But it was a different experience I got to share with Z and David and Amy and I am grateful.