Night Market Food: The Oyster Omelet

In the Idol Drama, “Corner with Love,” Alan “Show” Luo is a starving
artist.  He has moved to Shang Hai to
pursue a career as an artist. Apparently, he was tricked by a unscrupulous agent, into moving to Shang Hai and giving him all his money.  He now has to work for a restaurant called “Happiness 131,” just to make ends meet. 

But while he’s there he makes the restaurant a huge success by cooking a
popular night food market snack, the Oyster Omelets.  He is trying to raise the money for a ticket back to Taiwan, where he has left his grandmother, the best Oyster Omelet cook in all of Taipei.  Along the way he meets the beautiful heiress, played by Barbie Xu (Da S), whose parents suddenly find themselves bankrupt and disappear into hiding, leaving poor Barbie to fend for herself.  She decides to move to Taiwan and well… do I really need to go into any more detail?  It’s a typical idol Drama story.  The rich one falls for the kid from the other side of the tracks and it’s all flowers and rainbows and love and betrayal and the usual nonsense.

But when I was starting to learn Chinese I watched this show.  I know…I’m not their target market, but it was simple Chinese and I could almost follow it.  It was cute, okay?  There, I said it and I’m not ashamed…well maybe a little; it does kind of destroy my macho, man about town image, but that’s only in my mind anyway so…enough rambling.

As I watched I got more and more interested.  Not in the drama itself, but in Oyster Omelets.  You know I talk to people and they call themselves, “foodies,” and I can only assume that they consider themselves
culinary connoisseurs, I have no such pretensions, I just like to eat; some things more than others, and I love oysters.

My favorite way to eat an oyster is to suck it off the half shell, with lime juice and hot sauce.  But I like them smoked, steamed, and even fried, as well.  The local teppanyaki place makes a great Oyster Teppanyaki.  It’s fried with onion and garlic and served with bean sprouts and cabbage and a nice caffeine free wheat tea. 

The most "famous" Taoyuan Oyster Omelet

After three years in Taiwan, I finally made it to the Taoyuan Night Market and tried the most “famous” Oyster Omelets in all of Taoyuan City.  In Taiwan, the words famous and popular are used almost interchangeably.  If a place is well known it’s said to be famous. If the place is popular with customers it’s also said to be famous.  The place we went to is well known and popular…it’s famous!  The name of it is,
“Something in Chinese that I can’t read…yet!”
(The word yet is spoken with the greatest of optimism.) 

The Oyster Omelets is made with a number of ingredients:  Eggs, of course and oysters, and rice flour and some kind of green, leafy vegetable. 
The vegetable is interesting.  I’ve asked the name of it a number of times. That conversation usually goes something like this:

Me:  “This vegetable is delicious, what is it?”

Waitress:  “Vegetable.”

Me:  “Yes, I see that, but what is the name of the vegetable?”

Waitress:  (with some hesitation.) “Vegetable.”

Me:  “That’s the name of it?”

Waitress:  (smiling happily and nodding)  “Vegetable.”

Okay, so I finally figured out that whatever it’s called doesn’t translate well into English.  I would be perfectly happy with the Chinese name, but it probably wouldn’t be enlightening as to it’s nature or composition, anyway, but no matter, there is a type of vegetation in there that’s tasty and apparently safe to eat. 

Vegetable!

On top of the omelets they put two types of sauce, one is a red sauce made of catsup and sweet chili sauce and the other is a brown sauce that I
couldn’t discern.  I’m guessing it’s oyster sauce and something else but if someone knows please let me know.  I should write to the people at Taiwan Duck
I will bet that they’ve cooked it and know it well.

I also tried it without the sauce, at the suggestion of a friend who happens to be an American.  I found it to be  too eggy, and dry.   In my opinion, the
sauce makes it.  If you make it to a
night market, this is one treat you need to try.









Other posts you may like:


Eating My Way Through Taiwan:  My Locust Impersonation
Eating My Way Through Taiwan:  The Stink of Adventure

Photos:  Elizabeth Banducci
Vegetable:  Wen's Delight

On the Move: Finding a Home in Taiwan

Listings on the office window, Taiwan Realty, Bade

We have been in Taiwan about three years.  September 14 will be the three-year mark.  It also means that our lease in our current domicile will soon be expiring.  There have been a number of changes that have taken place, since we got here and we have decided it’s time to move.

When we were looking for this home, people told us that Taiwanese landlords were difficult to work with.  For one, they didn’t want to fix anything; they didn’t clean or paint before you moved in:  They were just plain difficult to work with.  But thatwasn’t our experience the first time, we have a wonderful landlord, who has been nothing but helpful.  Part of the reason for that is that we’re foreigners.  We were talking with the landlord recently about why we won’t be renewing our lease and he said, “Because you’re foreigners you will have favor in Taiwan.”  That has certainly been our experience. 

So we have begun the process to find another place.  This time we’re looking for a flat that is up around the twelfth or thirteenth floor, or higher if we can find it.  It will take a good deal of downsizing but I think it will be good for us.

John (2nd from left) and his co-workers

There is a process for finding an apartment in Taiwan.  The simplest method is to find a real estate agent and he/she will look up flats that meet your criteria and show them to you.  There are several advantages to this.  Often the real estate agents know the owner and can negotiate with him/her.  They do all the footwork and make the arrangements for you.  You just show up and look.

There is one thing that’s difficult, and that is that if you find one on your own, it may be difficult to find out which real estate office lists it.  They don’t seem to have a multiple listing service like real estate agents in the US.  You have to find the office with the listing.

Most apartments in Taiwan are for sale, so when you want to rent one, you have to find an owner that’s renting.  You can’t just show up at the office and ask for vacancies, this is the main reason you need an agent.  There may be more than one apartment for rent in a building or community but each one has a different agent, so it’s hard to find out who lists the apartments.

For us, because our Chinese is so poor, we have to find an agent that speaks English. We got very lucky to meet an agent; his English name is John, on his first day of work at Taiwan Realty in downtown Bade.  His English is excellent and he’s a lot of fun.  I think his boss realized he’d made a good choice, when foreigners showed up and he was the only one who could communicate with us. 

John showed us a number of places that met our criteria.  I, for one, want to live in a new modern place, and we all want a view.  Often, apartments are close together and the view out your window might be of a wall, or into the window of the next apartment over.  We haven’t found the perfect one yet.  They seem to be pretty small.  We’re not opposed to downsizing but we still want to keep our washer and dryer, and our good old American refrigerator.  The refrigerator we have wouldn’t fit into our kitchen so we left it in the garage.  I’ve seen people stop and stare at it when the garage door is opened.   They think all Americans are fatties, anyway.  You should see them look at out cart at Costco. I always try to tell them we live an hour from Costco and only come once a month.  They always smile, roll their eyes and say, “Suuuure.” I know they don’t believe me, they think I’m just fat.  They’ll know what fat’s all about, when I roll my wheelchair over their toe!

This looks interesting, look at the close-up below

Other posts you may be interested in: 

Living in Taiwan:  Coping with Disability

Random Asianess:  Driving in Taiwan

Random Asianess :  The Written Driver's License Test

Photos by Chris and Emily Banducci

Promotions and Gratitude: Friends of the Blog

An interesting thing has happened.  This blog is running between 3,00 and 4,000 hits a month.  Since it has become somewhat popular, (It's still a small blog compared to others), I have received numerous requests to advertise things for people.  A lot of people want me to write posts on their particular website, product or link to their page.  While I’m flattered to be asked I have to say, I’m probably not going to write or post posts that are unrelated to Taiwan, especially if you are trying to make a profit.  

I don’t want to be harsh, but this blog isn’t written to make a profit.  It isn’t written to advertise products.  It certainly doesn’t exist to benefit anyone.  It is written to promote the culture, beauty and people of Taiwan.  There have been times when I have written a post that promotes a local restaurant or something, but those are written in the spirit of helping someone with making a successful living for their family.  Generally, these are people that I care about for one reason or another.  I have never asked for or received any compensation for any posts promoting some place.

So the policy of this blog is that we will not promote other websites or organizations, except the following:

Christian Fellowship Ministries – This is the organization under which I am here in Taiwan.  I feel a great sense of gratitude to The Door Christian Fellowship in Tucson, Pastor Harold Warner, and The Door Christian Fellowship in Colton, Pastor Eric Strutz, because of the investment they have made in the people of Taiwan, through this ministry.

We Blog the World – This blog has carried and promoted the Taiwan Adventure for a couple of years.  Renee Blodgett has kindly allowed us to be a part of We Blog the World, even though, my posts are probably not up to the quality of the others who are professional writers, or at least have a basic understanding of English Grammar. 

The Expat Blog – This blog is designed to help expats to find services, jobs, housing and other needs while living in a foreign country.  There is no charge for their service.  They carry The Taiwan Adventure as a blog about life in Taiwan. Use the link to find out all you need to know to live in Taiwan or other places.

Go Overseas.com – Similar to the expat blog, but is aligned toward teaching and educational opportunities in many different nations.  They carry the Taiwan Adventure in their Top Taiwan Blogs section.

Radio Taiwan International – International radio “The Voice of Asia.”  The Taiwan Adventure was promoted by them on their radio show, “Taiwan Today.”

Taiwan Gongfu Tea – Is a website that I own and use to sell Taiwanese Tea on the internet.

The Bard and the Bears – This is one of the groups that has written to me to write a guest post.  I agreed because they will be competing in the Mongol Rally to benefit Children’s Hospital in Orange County California.  As an infant, Children’s Hospital helped me through a surgery that saved my life.  I’m happy to provide this small bit of support back to benefit them.

There are others bloggers whom I support.  They are small blogs or blogs that promote Taiwan from perhaps a different perspective.  I’ve never personally met any of them but they’re the blogs that I enjoy reading.  They are:

Taiwanderful.net – They provide lots of useful information on life in Taiwan for expats, as well as carrying a number of English language blogs. 

Shuflies – An excellent blog written by Catherine Shu.  She is an American Born Taiwanese woman, who writes for the Taipei Times. 

Vagabond in Taiwan – This blog is a photo/written blog by another American Born Taiwanese woman who blogs from her perspective; 16 year old teenager.

Taiwanna Eat A Lot – Kind of cool photoblog about food. 

Taiwan Duck.com – How to cook Taiwanese food.  I love Taiwanese food.  A couple in the UK does this recipes and videos.  She is the star of the videos, her personality is delightful and food is delicious and authentic.

So there it is.  These are the things I promote on this blog.  Please feel free to write me with things you might want to promote, but bear in mind the criteria that I mentioned.  If it doesn’t promote the culture, beauty and people of Taiwan it probably won’t be selected for a post. 

I want to take a moment to express my gratitude and appreciation to the following individuals. These are  people that have helped and supported me either personally or through promoting the blog or being a faithful reader and sometimes critic.

Ps. Harold Warner            Ps. Wayne Pelren

Ps. Eric Strutz                   Henry Wang

Renee Blodgett                 Natalie Tso

Jennifer Kalmbach            Mordeth 13

David Reid                        Yvette Pelren

Valerie Gomez                  Julien (expatblog.com)

Taiwan Travelogue: Lala Shan 拉拉山

Lala Shan is located in Taoyuan County about halfway out the #7 Cross-Island Highway toward Yilan.  One word of warning this is not a drive to take if you’re in a hurry.  The drive is difficult with a lot of one lane sections, a speed of about 30 km/hr (20 mph), the good part is that it is through some of Northern Taiwan’s most beautiful scenery.  There are steep cliffs, many waterfalls, bamboo forests and beautiful river overlooks. 

At one point the highway crosses over the river on a red bridge.  Next to that bridge is a walking bridge, which is home to a three-legged monkey, who spends his time bumming food from tourists.  He’s pretty aggressive and will climb onto and try to get into your car. 

Turn off Highway 7 onto the Shang Baling road, follow it up to Baling and then follow the signs to Lala Shan Nature Protection Zone, or do what we did and head up the little road to You German Garden 侑德國 Bed and Breakfast.

The Big Cabin sleeps up to 10 people

This is a beautiful bed and breakfast that's made up of cabins that sleep four people.  They rent for about  $3,000NTD ($100USD) a night.  There is also a large cabin that will accommodate up to ten people that rents for $6,000NTD ($200USD) for eight people or less and $8,000NTD ($267USD) for nine or more.  Please note that these are off-season rates and who knows, they may change. 

If you are a disabled person the place is a bit difficult.  Doorways are narrow and if you’re in a wheelchair you will definitely need to remove the bathroom door to get in.  The beds are mattresses on the floor, so they are difficult to get up into your wheelchair.  Finally, the walkways from the path to the cabin door are made of loose stepping-stones and there are large steps into the building. 

The view here is magnificent, many times you’re over looking clouds in the valley, or watching clouds rim the higher peaks.  The cabins are rustic but modern.  The big cabin even has karaoke, if you like that sort of thing.  My family can sing, I can manage to croak out a verse or two and start the dogs howling and the bullfrogs singing along.

The four person cabin 

In the morning you can have a breakfast of Congee.  Congee is a type of rice gruel.  The rice is cooked in a lot of water until it’s very soft.  Congee is served plain as a side dish to real food or with flavorings, to stand on its own.  Personally, I don’t really like to eat Congee.  I think it bland and tasteless.  But that’s just me.  I’m one who uses liberal amounts of hot sauce when I eat.  I’m partial to Mexican hot sauces, like Chipotle and Habanero, but Chinese "Rooster" sauce is good, too. In the morning we just grilled up some pancakes on the gas grill provided on our picnic table. 

The B&B also provided a charcoal grill for cooking but they are shallow and wholly inadequate for barbecuing.  I would recommend that you bring your own grill.  It took so long to cook shish kabob that we finally carried it over to the gas grill to put some fire to it.  I’m just glad we didn’t try to do steaks.

This beautiful area is also the home of the Lala Shan Nature Protection Zone.  There are beautiful, towering Red Cypress trees there.  Some of them are between 500 and 2,800 years old.  In addition, you'll see yellow Cypress and color changing (deciduous) trees like green maple and Beech.  It must be really spectacular in the fall when the reds and yellows are mixed in with the greens of the conifers. I may have to make a return trip.

The trails here are well developed and easy to walk.  They have stairs that go up most of the steepest inclines.  (Once again difficult for disabled people.)  The trails pass by many ancient trees and the scenery is gorgeous.

 The Lala Shan Nature Protection Zone

Well developed trails

Signs are in Chinese and English

This tree is 1,400 years old

Stairs help you do the steep parts

Caterpillar Trains

The #7 Cross Island Highway

A tea shop along the road

Other posts you may be interested in:

Taiwan Travelogue:  The Cross-Island Highway

Photo Credits:

You German Garden photos: http://blog.yam.com/nicochan0412/article/24325445

All other photos:  Chris, Brenda, Elizabeth, and Emily Banducci

Eating My Way Through Taiwan: Yakiniku

Stone Yakiniku's distinctive building

Why is there so much Japanese food in Taiwan, you may well ask.  To find an answer to that question one only needs to understand a bit of Taiwanese history.  In 1895, the Qing dynasty surrendered to the Japanese ending the first Sino-Japanese war.  The Qing dynasty had failed at its attempt to modernize army of China.  For the last half-century the power and influence of the Qing emperor and his army had been in decline.  This defeat was the harbinger of doom for the dynasty, and the very early beginnings of the rise to power of the Republic of China. In just sixteen years, the Wuchang uprising would usher in the Xinhai Revolution and after a few months of war the dynasty would fall.

Barbecuing right at the table

China had changed as a result of this important defeat and one of the spoils of victory for the Japanese was the island of Taiwan.  Taiwan, until the end of the Second World War, would be operated as a Japanese colony, so it is no surprise that Japanese food is so popular here.  There are many restaurants that serve Japanese food, but one of the most interesting in my mind is the Japanese barbecue, or Yakiniku. 

Bade City has a number of Yakiniku restaurants, but my favorite is a brand new one called Stone Yakiniku.  It’s located on the corner of Jie Shou Lu and Jinhe Lu, across from the tennis courts.

The start of the Hot Pot

The way it works is that you choose a level of the menu that you want.  There are three price structures.  The highest price is $639 NTD.  The food served is all you can eat.  The waitresses will bring you a starter of Beef, Pork and Chicken and you barbecue it yourself in a charcoal pit built right into the table.   Shrimp and seafood are also available for those who ask, and the menu also includes Hot Pot at no extra charge, which is also heated right there at the table. Most places have a hood over the pit to pull the smoke, but they're noisy, in your face and real hindrance to conversation.  This restaurant has fans built right into the table, they're silent and extremely effective.

Throughout your meal, whenever you need more meat, or seafood to barbecue, you press the buzzer and the waitress comes to see what else you would like.  Soft drinks are, "All You Can Drink," and included with your meal.  Haagen Daz ice cream is also included with your meal.  That’s pretty special, but what really makes Stone Yakiniku the premiere yakiniku restaurant in the Bade-Taoyuan area s that you can also get sashimi and sushi, made to order and it is also included in the price. 

The atmosphere is noisy and fun.  I like those restaurants where you hear all the commotion and people enjoying themselves.  The wait staff are young and lively and make an enjoyable experience.  The service they provide is excellent. If you don’t speak Chinese you can make it work because there are a few who will enjoy practicing their English on you. 

Other posts you may be interested in:

Eating My Way Through Taiwan: A Traditional Restaurant

Taiwanese History:  Double Tenth Day

Local Color: The Color is Green

Recently we drove up the 7乙, above Sanxia in the mountains of Taoyuan County.  We drove along the river to the very end of the road.  Hidden up there among the trees is a fish hatchery.  Welcome to the Taiwanese countryside.

The sign says, "Ecological Secret Hideout - Return Journey for the Fish."

This is to what the sign referred.

This temple was all alone out there.

A Western-style Farmhouse and Tea Field.

Other posts you may be interested in:


Traveling with M13:  Finding Toad Valley
Traveling with M13:  The Sequel:  Return to Toad Valley
Local Color:  The Colors of Yingge
Local Color:  The Temples of Taoyuan City

All Photos by Brenda and Emily Banducci