Leaving Taipei - Kaohsiung

Busiest New Year's Day I've had ever.  We had plans to meet up with all the cousins for hot pot as we seem to do every year.  I slept in a bit and met up with V after her bang cut.  Lately, I feel like I've been sleeping a whole lot.  Not sure if I'm just in a hibernation stage due to the cold or something. 

Hot pot was at this restaurant tucked away on the second floor.  Why are Chinese restaurants always in these hiding places?  The Peking duck place we went to was like this, too.  They always like to be to the upper floors with views of the street. 

This time around it wasn't just your average hot pot.  It was my first experience with the traditional copper coal-burning pots.  Apparently, you can stick your meat onto the sides of the chimney to try to pseudo-grill it.  I had some success doing it, but I don't really understand the appeal.  It didn't really taste any better than just sticking it in the broth.

We later saw this pro table next to us doing it properly by holding the meat up with soup spoons.  Clever.  Lunch was really good.  I'm partial to spicy broths, but this place also had a special dipping sauce that was really good. 

 

Probably most special was its Mongolian BBQ.  In addition to the hot pot, they have a design your own stir-fry.  You go down this line and pick out all the ingredients you want, then the chefs stick it onto a giant rotating grill and cook it up for you. Once you get your stir-fry, you can pack it into their flaky sesame bread for stir-fry sandwiches.  Delicious.

Lunch was over and we headed to the train station to get on the high speed rail.  The wedding was set to start at 6 PM and our express train got there at 4:30, taking just over an hour and a half.  We figured they would start late and that gave us about two hours to take in some random sights. 

Two of the metro stations are attractively designed and so we headed to the first at the Formosa Boulevard stop.  The Dome of Light there had quite the tranquil atmosphere.  Street performers filled the space with some dreamy music.  It was pretty nice; I totally could have taken a nap there.

Too bad we were on a time crunch.  Next up, Central Park. Central Park Station opened up to this impressive courtyard.  The South had clearly gone all out in its station design.

I was a bit surprised to find that the metro had only begun running in 2008.  It kind of makes sense since everything feels so new.  Actually, the area of the city we were in just felt really new overall.  I feel like everything we saw was the result of quite a bit of metropolitan development and a huge overhaul.  I did feel like there were a lot less people in general, and we had a strangely difficult time finding a convenience store.

We made our way back to the wedding and didn't realize we were in for a show.  We were among the last to be seated and waited in the huge hall with 70 or so tables; biggest wedding I've ever been to by far. It started in a fairly normal fashion with the wedding procession entering with the worst videographer in the world failing to track them on the projection screens.  After that it was anything but normal.

The first course entered with gold winged dancers and some trippy Arabic beats.  They made it to the stage as we started to dig in.  Our entertainment for the first few courses were a trio of a violinist, flutist, and keyboardist.  They played a couple of songs and then several people went on stage and started to give speeches.

The bride, groom and family members were all up on the stage, but none of them were actually the speakers.  Instead a pair of politicians got on stage and started to preach the praises of the wedded and spread misinformation about a couple they didn't even know.  The parents of the bride and groom barely said a word and I don't think the groom gave a speech at all.  Apparently this is somewhat of a tradition of the South, but the whole thing was pretty alien to me.

The meal continued with courses coming left and right.  It was going to be another one of those ten course Chinese meals.  We got a little break in the middle when the brother of the groom got up on stage to sing a song.  I'm not sure if he knew all the words and halfway through they skipped through some of the music and he continued into the chorus.  At that moment the lights dimmed and the bride and groom came back into the room in a lit up buggy.

They had changed clothes, and I had never known they even left.  Then the emcee/wedding singer led them through the cutting of the fake cake and the pouring of a champagne waterfall.

That wedding singer in green was a true pro.  She basically facilitated the whole event and didn't stop talking or singing for a solid two to three hours.  We had to leave earlier than most, since Mama needed to catch a train and thankfully didn't stay for the last two courses.  All you can eat for lunch and ten courses for dinner is overwhelming.  I had tried to limit myself at lunch, but it was so damn hard, I tell you...

With a little time to spare before our train (about an hour after Mama's), we headed to our final sightseeing spot, the Heart of Love River.  愛河 - Love River is the name of the river that runs through Kaohsiung.  They performed a multi-million dollar renewal of turning it from a polluted eyesore into the clear waterway deserving of the namesake.  The Heart of Love River is a series of bridges that look like a heart from an aerial view.  

Of course, we don't have an aerial view, but we walked the whole thing and took a billion pictures.  It's quite a romantic place with mostly couples, a number of rowdy kids, and some puke on the side of the bridge.  I was asked by a couple if they were at the Heart of Love River a few times, "This is it?  This is it?"  In Chinese of course.  I neglected to answer and V told them they were indeed at the right place.

I'm really not too sure what else Kaohsiung has to offer.  I think it's difficult to get around without a car and I would totally rent one the next time we want to come.  V is frightened by the idea of me driving anywhere in Taiwan and refuses to let me.  I'm undaunted and up to the challenge of weaving through mopeds of course.  We ended our exhausting days by eating our wedding cookies (a traditional wedding gift in Taiwan, North and South) and then passing out on the train.

Well, I slept.  V created a little photo booth out of her jacket and took artsy pictures of light out the window.  For like an hour.

Happy Taipei New Year

新年快樂!  This will actually be my third consecutive New Years in Taipei.  The holiday season is the best time for me to add on some vacation days and take a decent trip to visit the in-laws.  It's become somewhat of a tradition to be here although the circumstances this year are a bit different of course. 

Two days left and we had some business to take care of.  We were set to attend a wedding on the 1st, so we had to find V a dress as well as an appropriate wedding present.  Everyday we go out, we walk the same path to our nearest Metro station.  And everyday we walk by the same broken down jalopy.

This car has been parked in the exact same spot for over a year.  The green spray-painted wreck looks worse and worse every time we see it and worst of all it's a Jag!  Who spray-paints a Jaguar green, then abandons it?  Why doesn't the city just tow it already?  It scares the hell out of V every time we walk by it.  We failed at shopping, but came home to a consolation prize, some Taiwanese fried chicken. 

Chicken, fishcakes, green beans, and basil.  I seriously love this combination.  It doesn't sound that special, but the cart we always get it from has some super secret spice mix that makes it taste stupid good.  We didn't really eat any more dinner either with plans to hit up the night market.  There's nothing worse for you than eating snack food in the middle of the night.  Have I mentioned how we aren't eating ever again when we get back to Japan?

I feel like I've been eating a lot of stuff wrapped in mochi.  These red bean filled rice-cakes are on ice and a bit cold for winter.  Doesn't stop us though; we're consumption troopers.  Got some crispy dough balls, a taro milk tea, and some fried sweet potato balls.  We both thought we were done for the night until we saw the grilled squid stall. 

Hard to ignore something that looks so amazing.  Tasted amazing, too.  The grandpa running the stall had three different kinds of squid.  Gotta catch em all!  Someday.

The next day was the 31st and we decided to head to the Xinyi Shopping District to finally take care of business at the last second.  We were trying to find an appropriate location for a coffee date, and we decided to go for Paul, the Parisian boulangerie chain.  Ordered a strawberry mille feuille that we know is good and some tea.  The waitress forgot my coffee so it turned into a tea date. 

"Mille feuille" is one of those words I'm never confident I'm pronouncing correctly.  I don't think this Paul understood the concept properly either with multiple layers in the top and bottom crusts but no layers in between.  Our service took forever and they didn't have an Jasmine tea or pistachio macaroons left.  Macaroons are somewhat understandable, but how do you run out of tea?  Seriously now.  Poor reviews from me.

We did get a gift and dress at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi and decided to hit up Taipei 101 with some time to spare.  We haven't been to Mitsukoshi in Japan yet; is it worth going out of our way?  After spending some time in Japan, I've come to realize that the Japanese things that are popular in Taiwan aren't necessarily the most popular overall.  Not at all sure what determines which imports will be successful.

Outside 101, V admired the annual Christmas Tree.

I admired the giant can of beer.

Inside, a couple of stores had set up their own Christmas trees.  You decide which is better.  Swarovski?

or Hermes?

Didn't really do anything at 101 and headed back home.  We were going against traffic as everyone was headed to the 101 area to get ready for fireworks.  This year is Year 100 by the Taiwanese calendar and was supposed to be a bigger celebration than normal.  There were a ton of people around, but we had other plans as Ba and Mama had already scoped out a viewing spot.

When we got back a New Years dinner was waiting for us.  Hot and Tasty New Years Special KFC:

Also, KFC's legendary egg tarts:

It's widely known that some of the best egg tarts in the country are made by KFC.  I've read plenty of reviews of people who were skeptical and proven wrong via a taste test.  Flaky and light, you can practically inhale these.  After dinner, Popo came in for his nightly visit and immediately sniffed out the chicken.

Typical.  He didn't take much for him to get his chicken and then he headed back outside.  I think Popo's the only one that enjoys the cold.  He's a cold-weather breed after all.

We burned a couple hours til an appropriate time and headed to the viewing point before 11 PM.  Our spot had a pretty sweet view of 101 and with the streets packed with fellow onlookers, things felt pretty promising.

We braved the cold for another hour until the fireworks were due to start.  This year was especially hyped since last year the other large city to the South had upstaged Taipei.  The two cities have a bit of a rivalry going (for fireworks at least), and the North wanted revenge.  So the length of the show was extended from the traditional 188 seconds to 288 seconds for Year 100.

It started as it always does with sparks streaming out the sides of the tower. Problem is that it turned out we were downwind, and all the smoke from the fireworks started to cloud our view.  Anytime a bunch of fireworks went off at once it obscured what we could see completely.  In general, I think the whole crowd just went home a little disappointed about the display overall.  Ah well, Year 101 is special too, right?  New Years fireworks in Taipei are always over before you know it.  Macy's July 4th display this year lasted 26 mins!  I think one of the contributing factors is that New Years is not nearly as big of a deal as Chinese New Years. We'll have to see I suppose.  Happy New Year all.

Leaving Taipei - Jiufen

After much ado about this place from Khai and Fuyuko, we had to go.  It turns out that this is a regular side-trip for V's sister and her husband, and they graciously offered to take me there.  It was really like they were taking me on a field trip even though V hasn't really been there either.  *rolls eyes* 

I didn't know that this was going to be a food trip and actually ate lunch.  Big mistake.  We left in the afternoon, and we made it there in what was apparently record time.  九份 - Jiufen has an interesting history that's worth describing.  During the first years of the Qing Dynasty, only nine families lived in the village; therefore, every time they needed supplies, they requested nine portions.  Hence the name.

In the late 1800's, gold was found in the area, and the village developed into a full-fledged town.  I was really surprised how much stuff was around even though it's way up in the mountains and fairly remote.  There's actually a gold museum with a giant chunk of gold you can touch.  We got there too late for the gold museum though; what else is new?

Instead we spent the afternoon wandering the vast catacombs of Jiufen's historic shopping streets.  It's kind of ridiculous how many people were there despite it being a working day.  Random trinkets, folk arts, and grub trade shop stalls for the length of the street.  We appropriately focused purely on the food.  First stop: cupcakes.

Different from the cupcakes we're used to of course.  Light and made with honey, they have an almost mochi like consistency.  Pretty good but I feel like I've eaten something very similar before.  Much more interesting were the peanut powder ice-cream wraps. 

Very thin wraps are powdered with peanut candy grating.  Put in two scoops of ice cream and close it up...tada!  Deliciousness.  The peanut gratings come from this giant block of peanut candy.  I thought it was pretty cool.

Oh, I could have eaten five of those.  Too bad, we had too many other items on our agenda and so we continued along, saving our stomachs.  In retrospect, I could have eaten a couple more anyway.  A lot of places were repeats of each other, and I saw a lot of foods I've seen before.  Disregarding the pedestrian items, before I knew it, we hit a bend in the road.  On that corner tough, we saw some grilled mushrooms we couldn't ignore.

Anyway we can make this at home?  We can try, but I have a feeling the secret's in the sauce.  Ate our mushrooms and turned the corner; I thought the street was ending and V's sister told us the food was ending soon.  But it didn't!  It just kept on going. 

Soon after, we found one of Jiufen's staples.  People described this as made of grass, but I didn't think it tasted that grassy.  I feel like I've had something like this before and it didn't taste like anything other than red bean filled mochi. 

People were buying this stuff by the box and they had a factory of people in the back making thousands of rice balls.  Not sure what all the fuss is about.  Someone explain it to me.  Next up, meatballs.

For anyone who doesn't know, these look really weird.  This type of meatball is covered in a transparent rice-cake film.  If you think about it, it's a really easy way to make sure your meatball filling stays in place.  I'm not sure if I can define it as a meatball though.  There's gotta be a better translation, transliteration, or whatever right?  I dunno, I just think there are too many different things in Chinese food that can be called meatballs.  We need more unique descriptors.  Oh yeah, the meatball was really good. 

Jiufen is kind of like Enoshima with its population of cats.  I'm not sure why there are so many cats around, but they are disparately skinnier than Japanese strays.  Probably cuz of the weather. 

Our final stop was probably the most famous.  賴阿婆芋圓 - Grandma Lai's Yuyuan is a little bit out of the way.  V's sister led us up this random mess of stairs to the storefront.  The stairs continued all the way up to an elementary school.  I climbed up to the gates to check it out and spy on minors like I like to do from time to time.  V meanwhile yelled up to me asking if I wanted mixed beans, whatever the hell those are.  She then left me alone to do whatever the hell I was doing.

*Ahem*  Grandma Lai is famous for her taro balls and you can get them hot as a soup or cold on top of ice.  They were pretty good, but splitting one with V proved to be too much after our feeding frenzy.

Grandma Lai also has a small factory of taro ball makers.  You actually pick up your food, pass through the factory and down a strange hallway.  You continue blindly wondering where exactly this tiny place has seating and then you end up on a veranda with pretty special views.

There's something distinct about the taro ball + veranda experience.  Highly recommended.  On our way back down the stairs we passed this place selling various dried meats when V's sister pointed out what was apparently duck tongues.

WHY DO THEY LOOK SO WEIRD?  Sooo anyway, Jiufen is a bit of a hotspot for movie and drama makers.  We passed by a cafe that was used in a Korean drama.  The meandering streets were an inspiration for the town in Spirited Away, and back in the day a famous movie was made about a movie theater.  Or a movie theater was made about a famous movie.  According to V, Tony Leung had something to do with it.  Regardless, the movie theater is now defunct and looks like it's on its last legs.  Pretty sure it won't be here the next time I come.

Trying to make our way back from the movie theater proved difficult.  We got a little lost and wandered some residential areas for a while.  People live in the weirdest looking houses and it's pretty amazing how this town was constructed.  I even found a lot that looked like it belonged in a war-zone.

I was pretty done eating for the day, but that didn't stop me from getting some gold-medal pineapple cakes and a sweet potato cream puff.  Call me cynical, but I don't put much trust in an award given ten years ago from an unknown source.  Can't I just make up an award and give it to someone on a whim?  What prevents me from creating the International Pineapple Cake Award and then giving it to some old man on a corner?  Well, I'm sure people know which pineapple cake awards are truly esteemed.  Also, the place is pretty famous and popular.  Also, the pineapple cakes taste good.  BUT, I like other ones better! 

I totally passed out on the drive home.  V couldn't find my camera apparently, so she took a picture of me, mouth agape, on her sister's iPhone.  Not very comfortable with that thought...  We were skipping dinner when the call came that we should hurry over before my niece went to sleep.  Off we went in a scurry to see Anne.

I know it sounds foolish, but it amazes me how fast babies grow.  Same thing with puppies, kitties, and I guess any animal.  Cuz babies are animals.  Point is: she got big!  This is the look that she gave us when we first got there.  Baby is clearly confused wondering, "Who are these people?"  We tried all night to get her to crack a smile, but every time she did I would point the camera and she would get entranced by it.

This is the closest I got to a real smile.  Anne is pretty active and I think she'll be crawling and walking in no time.  I have zero idea what the timetable for these kind of things is.  Someday, I'm sure I will learn, but for now I will relish in the irresponsibility of being a foreign uncle.  Will this girl grow up and only be able to communicate with me in the little Chinese I know?  I'm sure she'll get some English in her household, but maybe I can use her as an impetus to learn Chinese.  It's a race against time.

No doubt she'll have a better accent than me...

Taipei International Flora Expo

So Haneda can be a little bit of pain to get to from Shinjuku.  Riding the Yamanote with a crap load of luggage is not the ideal situation.  The Keisei line from Shinagawa can also be bad if you take the local train, but this time we got an express which was infinitely better.  The airport itself is very nice.  It's obviously quite new, and we had no problems getting checked in.  Duty-free and shop selection is not as extensive as Narita's, but Japanese duty-free is not that great anyway.

Taipei Songshan Airport is much older in comparison.  V described it as sort of rundown, but it's not at all.  Just a bit aged.  It's super convenient to get to and from, and since taxis are cheap we totally just grabbed one with all of our luggage.

Both of us were wiped out, but we made it out to dinner with some of the family.  Everyone spent a decent amount of time figuring out what to eat.  I think that since it's the holiday season, restaurants get super booked all the time.  V and her parents finally decided on Chinese food (figures), and then we met up with V's sister and brother in law.  The place we went was totally empty when we walked in, and I was a little bit worried about how good it might be.  By the end of the night though, the place was packed.

I have marginal knowledge on the differences in Chinese food, but I have no idea what we ate.  We actually went to this place for the stinky tofu.  Previously, I've had it fried with pickled cabbage on top.  Said preparation is quite good even though it smells.  The one below is steamed I think and tastes considerably smellier.  A little bit too much for me to handle.

The restaurant has a real name, but everyone just called it "Big Beard."  This is of course because the guy who runs the joint has this crazy big beard.  The real name?  It's more interesting if I just leave it at "Big Beard" I think.  I tried to take a candid picture of him, but he was too fast.  Everyone's favorite dish of the day was the goat stew.

Looks kind of like beef stew; doesn't taste like it at all.  The white things that look like potatoes are actually water chestnuts.  Really good.  My favorite dish of the night was the fried eggplant dish I specifically ordered.  I love fried eggplants.  Stuffed and wanting to die, we stopped by a street cart on the way back to get 豆花 - douhua.  Douhua is basically tofu pudding, and this specific preparation of it is hot and syrupy with peanuts.

Yeah, I ate one too...  We pretty much passed out from exhaustion and food coma when we got back.  When we finally woke up it was something like 2 PM.  I'm not sure why I forgot how cold Taiwan can be in the winter.  Even if it's relatively warm outside (50 F or so), the house is always cold.  There is no heating and we solely rely on a space heater.  Want to know what the worst thing about a cold house is?  Sitting on the frozen toilet.  How I dread going to the bathroom...

First order of business: cut my hair.  Before:

After:

I lost so much hair.  I thought my head would feel lighter, but it just felt colder instead.  We met up with Irene at the salon and V got the signature hair wash and blow-out with her cousin.  Hair gone and time running out, we decided to go shopping for a bit.  Nothing exciting happened there, but we stopped by Starbucks to fuel and tried this new "Christmas Bread Roll."

Chocolate with walnuts and raisins inside...yep, tastes like Christmas.  V asked if I wanted to stop by Flavorfield, but I didn't think I really needed to.  We did anyway and lo and behold, Flavorfield had evolved a bit.  These new breads are the Chocolate Brioche and Chocolate Castle.  Didn't love either of them, though.  Let the carbfest begin!

Our second full day was beautiful out.  We didn't need our coats at all, and I felt warm just wearing long sleeves.  Perfect conditions to check out the Taipei International Flora Expo.  This giant outdoor flower exhibit lasts from November to April and takes up an enormous amount of space in the city.  It's even separated into three different sections that are so large, I would just call them campuses.  Some of the indoor exhibits are ticketed, and we arrived too late to really have a chance at tickets.  Instead we decided to focus on most of the outdoor displays and come back another day to get tickets early.

Anyone who knows my wife knows how much she loves flowers.  This place was perfect for her.  Too bad there were a billion other people there to share her joy.  School children on field trips everywhere and old people in tour groups were blockading all paths. 

We waded through the rolling hills of poinsettias as we tried to figure out what was open and available.  I can't begin to imagine how much money they spent putting this thing together.  They built a bunch of buildings to house exhibits and maintaining all the outdoor fields must take a ridiculous amount of resources.

For how much effort the city put into all the tiny details, I can't imagine this is a one year thing.  The flowers outside even get rotated as seasons change supposedly.  The last part of the first campus had individual exhibits for forty or so countries and this is probably where we spent the most amount of time.

The first one we went into was Canada.  Apparently houses in Canada have living rooms full of orchids and even have extra side rooms for neon-purple narcotics production.

Stopped by Thailand which didn't have many flowers on display.  Actually Korea didn't have many flowers on display either.  Instead they grow pumpkins on the roof and hang persimmons from the ceiling.

Both of those things are true by the way, it's just almost stereotypical.  That's really how most of the exhibits were, though.  America looked more like the Southwest than anything I'm used to with cactus galore.  The Japan exhibit was fairly large and included a zen garden and a lady who can't read Chinese or English.

Bhutan was kind of cool with a buddha statue and these turning wheel things.  I don't think I know any Bhutanese people, but V says you turn the wheels to spin away your bad luck.  We spun away a whole lot of bad luck.

Of course the token Taiwan exhibit had to be grand.  They constructed this huge bamboo dome amidst a bamboo thicket.  V gazed through the top of the dome as she pondered something, something obscure and reflective I'm sure.

The other side of the dome exits you into a zen-like pond.  Peaceful but a little less peaceful than desired with a billion people around you.  The over-under on the number of pictures I walked through that day is probably like 34.  I'm gracing another hundred or so with my presence in the background.

We skipped past a lot of the different countries and finally headed to the second campus.  Notably, Hong Kong had an exhibit while China did not.  But of course.  A tunnel connects you to the second area and part of the space right outside the tunnel use to be a part of a children's amusement park.  V got all nostalgic about the amusement park and this tree.

Apparently this tree used to be part of the old attractions and was somehow preserved when they converted everything to the flora expo.  Near the crazy old tree, you finally meet the mascots of the expo:

With children hanging all over them, V couldn't get a chance to sneak in and snap a shot with Pinky.  Luckily she's an all-star and stands all by herself in a different section.

It's a good thing the freaky London Olympics mascots will be this cute and not creepy cyclops.  I was really hoping we would see people walking around in flower mascot suits, but alas, no live action.  So the second campus is mostly a bunch of pavilions with awesome names like the Pavilion of Regimen and the Pavilion of Angel Life.  Most of these require tickets as well, but we made our rounds trying to find one we could make it into. 

We headed to this crazy wooden structure to see what it was all about.  Turned out it's just an entrance to the expo...  They seriously have to have spent a crapload of money making this place.  Moving on is this giant deformed whale.  It's back must be totally bent out of shape for the tail to come out at that angle.

Just kidding, there's another whale behind it.  Clever photography, I know.  The second campus in general is more landscaped than the first.  The first area has these huge outdoor exhibits, but the second feels more like a park.  V took a break to look out at the glory of Taiwan.

Past these paths are the Pavilion of Dreams, the Pavilion of Future, and the Pavilion of Angel Life.  The Pavilion of Future had the shortest line we had seen all day, so we waited for less than half an hour to get inside.  This is where we found another glory of Taiwan.

How forced was that joke?  I pat myself on the back for that one.  Never knew there was a plant called Taiwania.  I'm not even sure which one it was.  I think that the Pavilion of Future was supposed to explain how the world is going to be green in the future and how plant life is part of that.  By the way, we call it "green" in the US.  In Japan they always say "eco" this, "eco" that.  Not sure what they call it in Taiwan yet.

I did learn that I've never eaten a female papaya, only hermaphroditic ones.

Which leads me to wonder if I have ever eaten a female fruit at all.  The Pavilion of Future mostly had nothing to do with the future I think.  There were a bunch of rareish flowers and a room full of cactus.  The exhibit ended with a giant wall full of all sorts of different orchids.

This is just a small sampling.  V loved that last bunch of flowers.  Once you get out of the Pavilion of Future, there's a relatively short line for the Pavilion of Angel Life.  We could not figure out what the Pavilion of Angel Life was.  I got the feeling it was some spiritual place that promotes tranquility and whatnot.  We went inside and it turned out to be a short film. 

I did not feel tranquil at all after being tripped out by dancing cats.

By the time we got out it was getting dark.  We decided to call it a day and check the rest of it out some other time.  The Taipei International Flora Expo definitely requires more than one day.  I'm positive our second day isn't even going to be enough to cover what we missed.  Overall, the expo lacks some focus, but the city obviously went all out putting it together and it shows with all its splendor.

We met up with Ba and Mama for dinner at everyone's favorite Peking Duck place.  Like I said, everyone seems to be eating out these days, as the place was completely booked and we only got a table since we were eating at 6 PM. 

It was awesome.  This jellyfish salad type thing we ordered was really good, and I monopolized the snow pea tips.  I love snow pea tips.  We ordered like six dishes for four people and packed most of it to go.  Whenever I eat with V's parents, we invariably order ridiculous amounts of food.  Somehow most of that food gets eaten, but it's difficult not to eat when there's so many good things just sitting there in front of you.  Additionally, everyone's talking in Mandarin and the best way to feed my blank boredom sometimes is with food of course.  So yeah, I ate too much.

We got home and wanted to die from having overeaten...again.  Meanwhile, Popo did his best guard-dog impression.  He looks healthier and more youthful than in the summer.

Yay, Popo.  Coming up: another food adventure.