Seafood in Taipei Taiwan

During the end of our stay in Taipei we got really into eating the fresh seafood. We discovered this place and ate there almost daily. You just point to what you want on ice or in the aquarium and they’ll serve it up in one of a variety of ways. Our hot repeats were a beautiful Kung Pao Chicken (or so we called it), sautéed sweet potato leaves (pronounced something like Tea-Gua-Yeah), whole fish in a sweet ginger sauce, and stir-fried clams.

Teaching, Taipei

My job began in mid February at a small bushiban for students who are 7 - 10 years old. There is only one other foreign teacher who works there. She is also from the United States.

I work Monday through Friday and usually begin work at 1:30 pm. It's nice to actually have a relaxing and proper meal before work. In the states, having breakfast meant sacrificing 15 minutes of extra sleep in the morning.

My workload is light. I teach 18 hours a week and try not to bring any extra planning home. I mainly do reading instruction, which is right up my alley. I've given up a lot of my autonomy when it comes to teaching, which is hard for me. But, the stakes aren't quite as high as in the states. It's definitely a nice break from Special Ed law, reports, and standardized testing.

Solar Ovens for Earth Day

New Experiences: Gooey marshmallows

The Weather Forecast

BiTan River, Taipei, Taiwan

Craving some different scenery and a mini outing, Eric and I jumped on the MRT and headed south of Taipei to the Bitan River. In just 15 minutes, we made it to a boardwalk, the same boardwalk Eric went to on his visit to Taipei two years ago. Then, it was under construction. Today, it looks like this:

Teaching in Taipei

I've been teaching here in Taipei since January and thought it was about time to give the low-down.

I work for an after school program called a bushiban, which virtually all Taiwanese children attend. All bushibans are privately run and differ in that they offer some kind of extra curricular teaching (English, Art, Music, etc.) alongside their collective primary function -- to ensure that all children finish their regular school homework.

I currently have 4 different groups of kids that I work with, which totals 24 teaching hours per week. I have a class of 13 8 year olds, a class of 13 10 year olds, a class of 6 12 year olds, and a class of 4 13 year olds. I see most of my classes
for 2 hours each time with a 10 minute break in the middle. The exact schedule is a little complicated and unimportant, so I won't bother with it. My first class starts at 2:30pm and then I finish up around 7:30pm or 8:30pm depending on the day. So I have lots of time before work.

The school is relatively modern with nice rooms (I have my own classroom, so each class comes to me when it's their turn). I started off riding my bicycle to work, and that was taking 30 minutes, but I really started feeling the pollution in my lungs so I quit that and now take the bus, which takes the same amount of time. I've put up a few photos I took of my 8 year olds.






























The view of the neighborhood around the school from my classroom window (7th floor).

Ximending, Taipei, Taiwan

Ximending is a shopping/dining/entertainment district in Taipei. It’s a popular hangout for Taipei’s young and fashionable teenagers. The district is directly off the subway line, and I really enjoy emerging from the subway and being in the middle of all the busyness – the lights, the teenagers with their funky punk rock hair, the shoe shops with the multi colored Doc Martens…

Recently, we watched some live music here. The venue was on the basement level of a mall. We had rock star status and got in for free (the bass player’s a friend).

The Taiwanese version of the corn dog is a hot dog dipped in a sweet flour batter and deep fried.

Project Eggroll Wrappers, Taiwan

For Chinese New Years in Taipei, the entire city pretty much shuts down for the week, which was the third week of February this year. It was really cold and rained the entire time, so Eric and I were housebound the whole week. It was great – we worked on personal projects and caught up on movies.

Of course, for me, all my energies were directed towards food. So, I spent a good three days trying to make lumpia (Filipino eggrolls). For some reason, the eggroll wrappers have been hard to find. You would think that living in the land of dumplings and spring rolls this wouldn’t be the case, but it is.

I went to the computer and tried some recipes, but each recipe yielded a slightly different wrapper that was good for other things, but not for lumpia. I learned how to make wonton wrappers and crepes though.

Wonton Wrappers

After more internet research and consulting with my mom over skype, I finally arrived at the desired outcome- thin eggroll wrappers.

Here’s the recipe that I found works:
1 cup flour
1 cup water
- Mix the flour and water together
- Pour about ¼ cup of the batter into the pan
- QUICKLY use a paint brush to distribute a thin layer of batter of the pan
- When the sides of the wrapper curl up, it’s done


They were fragile and not uniformly shaped, but definitely less dry than store-bought ones.

Finding Comfort in the Familiar, Taiwan

The longer we’ve been away from California, the more I realize how great food is there. Where else can you get strawberries year round (for cheap too)? For us, deciding on dinner always started with, “What do you feel like - Japanese, Italian, Mexican, Vietnamese, Thai?” There’s Mediterranean, Eritrean, Burmese, Indian, Carribbean. .. I really miss the fusion options too: Kung Pao spaghetti, BBQ chicken pizza, fish and chips with Wasabi mayo…

The Chinese food is excellent here. It is a lot of fun to explore because it is very different than the Chinese food in the states. But after being accustomed to such a varied and exciting diet, our taste buds crave variety.

I’m learning how to use what’s on hand to make food we crave. We're starting off with some basic American comfort food.

We started out without an oven, so I researched recipes online and learned how to make stove top biscuits and stove top apple cobbler. The biscuits were actually pretty easy to make. It was just flour, baking soda, milk, and butter.

To satisfy our sweet tooth, we made French toast topped with homemade whipped cream and golden kiwi.

Lacking the proper tools, we had to refrigerate the bowl of whipping cream between 10 minute sessions of vigorous whipping sessions. To get the cream going faster, Eric forged a whisk using four chopsticks, a rubber band, and a folded up piece of paper. It probably took a good 40 minutes to make and my wrist injury was reactivated, but the results were worth it.


Did we mention there's a Costco here? The Costco here sells American goods for roughly the same price. We stock up on cereal, tuna, salmon, and cheese there. It comes complete with a food court too. They sell all the normal Costco food court items with a Taiwanese twist. Pizza options are peking duck, seafood, or Hawaiian. There's a chicken bake or bulgogi bake. I got the hot dog with sweet bread and soda combo.

Homemade cheeseburgers with burger patties, cheddar, and a giant tub of mayo from Costco.

We've Stopped In Taipei

First off, I have to apologize about the blog being left without an update for so long. After stopping in Taipei, Taiwan and having a great time at Mac and Danielle's wedding, we decided to give Taipei serious consideration. It didn't take long to make up our minds, and I was able to secure a job within a week. As you can imagine, Pam and I have been busy finding, and now furnishing, our new apartment. It's a 2 bedroom, and that means "guestroom" for anyone interested in a visit. We'll post more soon, but I at least wanted to get the basics up.