Dynasty oh so sweet, Taiwan Day 13
June 4th, 2008Egad, the greater part of a year has passed since my last Taiwan post. ack. Something with wordpress is fudging with East Asian text, so this post will be purely English.
Started off the day over at The Sweet Dynasty, a restaurant known for its congee, for some breakfast/lunch. Congee, for the uninformed, is a sort of rice porridge, traditionally served to sick family members or to stretch the rice supply during food shortages. While Korean congee, aka jook, is more on the plain side*, Chinese congee has been expanded to encompass a wide variety of yummy flavors.
We had some chang fen, which is essentially a sticky rice wrap. Our chang fen had some crispy fried dough on the inside, with a sweet sauce.
And of course, the congee. Ours came with some miscellaneous pork parts. The congee was made in a yummy meat broth. The entire thing was delish. Wish I had some more.
Following the congee, Daphu and I also shared this hot desert item, a sweet white jelly fungus dish. I can’t explain it much better than that. Go find it and try it for yourself!
The restaurant atmosphere was pleasant and the food was good. I’d like to go back some day.
We hopped on the MRT, and rode over to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. Didn’t cost any money and it was open to the public. The hall has auditoriums and other performance hall-ish rooms inside its walls. It even had a gift shop!
Had rooms filled with Chinese wallscroll paintings and calligraphy I couldn’t read. They were pretty though. Besides being on display to visitors, the hall also serves as a place for students to come and study, or for others to learn.
The main lobby is very large, and boasts a large statue of Sun Yat-sen. There are two guards stationed on either side of the statue, where they stand for an hour, motionless. At the hour, there is a ceremonial changing of the guards that take place. Since they are not allowed to move, a person comes by occasionally to adjust any wedgies that may have occurred.
Couldn’t resist. Aren’t we cool?
Outside of the hall, there is an impressive “water garden” filled with turtles and koi. Unbeknownst to Daphu, my hands form a heart. Muhahaha.
And of course, the ever present Taipei 101 is in the sky as usual. Did I mention we’re cool?
After we left the hall, we met up with Kevu and Mr. Olsen for another hike up Yangmingshan. It was pretty much the same as any other time. The temperature gets significally cooler up top, which was a huge relief, hiking in near 100% humidity weather.
My goodness. We have coolness bursting out of its seams!
Met a crawfish on the path down. He looked crunchy but I chose not to find out.
Went home, and yadda yadda yadda. I leave you with a panorama of Kevu pondering the yangmingshan area.
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