An Expatriate in Taiwan

Rice dumplings

The Expatriate — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:54:08 +0000

If you’ve lived in Taiwan long enough, you’ve probably eaten or, at the very least, seen some rice dumplings. They usually look like this before unwrapping:

Inside is a delicious little rice “hot pocket” stuffed with a variety of goods, usually meat and some vegetables.

They really are quite good. Mrs. Expatriate’s mother usually gets them from friends who make them by hand. My favorites have fatty pork inside them.

Anyway, I was going through Gukeng one day (a small town in Yunlin county) and happened to notice an old man and woman hard at work making string. Naturally curious, I asked them what they were doing. They told me that they were making string for rice dumplings. It was pretty amazing that it’s still made by hand. Here’s a few pictures and a video of them working.

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Rice dumplings

Taiwanese sign

The Expatriate — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:21:02 +0000

I really like Wulai (烏來) in Taipei county and try to get up there whenever I can. On one trip I snapped a picture of a very odd sign. It’s in Taiwanese and some form of pinyinized aboriginal language. I would guess it’s Atayalnese (The Atayal being the natives in Wulai), but can’t quite be certain. It certainly made me stop and look twice, though.

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Updates

The Expatriate — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 07:15:29 +0000

Been going through a bunch of old pictures lately and decided to update some albums and add a photos page (see the tabs at the top). To celebrate, here’s a picture of a cat running away with someone’s sausage. I snapped this pic in front of a breakfast store in Kaohsiung.

The Expat is now on Twitter!

The Expatriate — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:49:21 +0000

Hi everyone,

Been a while since I’ve updated, I know. However, I have some news: I’m no on Twitter. You can see my feed on the right side over there. —->

Follow me, because I’ll probably be updating that more often. If I’m out on the scooter or biking and see something interesting, it’s easier and quicker for me to snap a picture and upload it to twitter to share with you.

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Vibram FiveFingers spotted in Taiwan!

The Expatriate — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 23:00:35 +0000

Went to Costco in Taichung on Saturday. I was very surprised to see that they were selling Vibram FiveFingers!

Unfortunately, they only had the Women’s Bikila model. However, they were very cheap. I’ve never been more happy (that VFF were available in Taiwan) and disappointed (that they had no men’s sizes or other models) at the same time.

Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come. Here’s hoping that we’ll soon see more VFF in Taiwan.

Update: I have heard there are more VFFs at the Neihu (Taipei) Costco and the Kaohsiung Costco. I headed down to Kaohsiung and saw more female sizes, but there were 2 pairs of Men’s KSOs in the middle (no boxes), both size 42, which was OK for me. I bought one pair (NT$1999). I have yet to see any other models besides Women’s Bikila and Men’s KSO.

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Baby in Car

The Expatriate — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 06:11:38 +0000

Spotted this on the back of a scooter the other day.

I think the fact that they make these plaques for scooters says something (not good) about Taiwanese society. The sad fact is, many people do take their children and infants on scooters, often without helmets (Why buy them helmets? They’ll grow out of them too soon!). The government should really crack down and do something about this.

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Japan has awesome candy

The Expatriate — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 09:04:57 +0000

Just saw this on Youtube. Anyone know where I can get some of this in Taiwan?

Related posts: Awesome student response of the day

Awesome student response of the day

新年快樂！ Happy New Year!

The Expatriate — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 00:45:03 +0000

Related posts: 新年快樂! Happy New Year! Happy Bird’s Day

A look at Taiwanese citrus fruits

The Expatriate — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:48:12 +0000

I’m a big fan of Vitamin C and citrus fruits in general. It’s now that time of year that oranges are being harvested. You can hardly drive down the road without seeing one field or another being depleted of its nutritious stock, piled high on the side of the road, and left naked and alone to bear out the remaining cold of the winter with nought but a few leaves to accompany it until the Summer shall once again bear down upon it and bring forth new fruit next winter.

Mrs. Expat and I, indeed, stopped by the side of the road where such harvesting was going on and, being the curious type, ended up buying approximately 40kg of 柳丁 (liǔdīng). These were small, hard to peel, but juicy and sweet. We ended up giving a lot away to friends since we had simply so much of them (We still have some!), but have relegated the rest to juicing as they are simply too hard to peel and not worth the effort. Much better to cut them up and squeeze them for an early morning jolt of fructose.

Most Taiwanese will tell you that 柳丁 (liǔdīng) are “tangerines.” However, this differed from what I knew about oranges and tangerines. This got me thinking about the differences and I simply had to investigate this further.

According to Wikipedia,

The tangerine (Citrus × tangerina) is an orange-coloured citrus fruit which is a variety of the Mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata). Tangerines are smaller than most oranges, and are usually much easier to peel and to split into segments. The taste is often less sour, or tart, than that of an orange.

Armed with this knowledge, I headed off to the fruit market to do some research. Here is what I came home with:

From left to right (and largest to smallest) I have: 美人柑 (měiréngān), 樋柑 (tōnggān), 海梨 (hǎilí), 茂谷 (màogǔ), 橘子 (júzì), and 柳丁 (liǔdīng).

I decided I would take each of these in turn and take some notes to talk about the experience of each, and write down some benefits and disadvantages.

First up was the 美人柑 (měiréngān).

It peeled very easily, the rind coming off in large chunks. There were no seeds and it was very sweet. It is characterized by the large “nipple” on top and is very juicy. It cost approximately NT$20 for one. I believe these are what Americans would refer to as “tangerines.”

Next up were the 樋柑 (tōnggān) and 海梨 (hǎilí). I somehow forgot to take pictures of the latter, but it’s alright because both were very similar.

You’ll notice that outwardly, they differ in that the 海梨 (hǎilí) is much oranger and also has a nipple, whereas the 樋柑 (tōnggān) is lighter and rounder. Both of these were a bit harder to peel, starting off with small chunks but becoming easier as it went along. The segments of both come apart quite easily, but have some seeds and were much dryer – not nearly as juicy as the 美人柑 (měiréngān). The 海梨 (hǎilí) was NT$17 while the other was NT$19. It would be hard to give an edge to either or to distinguish one from the other. MDBG is not much help as it recognizes neither, but apparently the 樋柑 (tōnggān) would be a type of tangerine (柑 apparently means “large tangerine”) whereas the other would be a type of orange.

Next was the 茂谷 (màogǔ).

This one was characterized by having a very thin rind – much thinner than any of the others. It cost NT$20 and peeled very easily, exposing hard to separate, but soft, juicy segments. There were more seeds in this one than the others – at least one seed in each segment, but it was very sweet. Overall, I rank this one rather highly.

Next came the 橘子 (júzì), which is my absolute favorite.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is what Americans would normally call a “mandarin orange.” It’s rather small, but peels extremely easily (the skin nearly falls off) and the segments practically fall apart in your hands. The thin rind gives way to extremely juicy, sweet segments that still carry many thin, white strands of rind. There are seeds in these, at least one per segment, but it’s worth the effort to get through them as these are simply utopia in your mouth. The local fruit stand was having a sale: 10 for NT$30 and the 11th one was free. I bought 10 the first round to try them out and went back to buy 20 more. This is what I’ll be buying from now on.

I hesitate to include the last one, 柳丁 (liǔdīng), because, as stated, it simply can’t compare to the others. However, I did make an attempt to peel and rate it.

As you can see, it can barely be described as “peeling” at all, as in the process I managed to damage the soft segments inside and not make much headway in exposing the fruit after tearing off several tiny chunks of rind. It is, however, very juicy, but also has a lot of seeds. This is why I do not recommend you buy these to eat. If you want to squeeze them for fresh orange juice, however, these are the ones you want.

As I said, most Taiwanese would call these “tangerines,” but they seem much more orange-like to me (given the Wikipedia definition of tangerines). Below I have ranked my favorites in order.

橘子 (júzì) – Mandarin Orange
美人柑 (měiréngān) – A large tangerine?
茂谷 (màogǔ) – Tangerine or orange?

Tied for 3rd and 4th place:

樋柑 (tōnggān) – A type of tangerine?
海梨 (hǎilí) – A type of orange?

As stated, the last one I don’t include with the others as it simply doesn’t stack up.

柳丁 (liǔdīng) – A small orange?

So there you have it. An unofficial guide to Taiwanese oranges and tangerines. I’m sure there are more varieties out there and I would love to hear about them and the differences between oranges and tangerines. MDBG dictionary isn’t being entirely helpful in sorting out which is which according to the Chinese names (which may have some Taiwanese influence), so if anyone could help sort out the differences, I’d appreciate it.

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Bathroom cartoons

The Expatriate — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 07:56:18 +0000

Here are 3 small cartoons that I’ve taken pictures of in various bathrooms.