Saturday, January 23, 2010

yum yum dim sum!

Nihao from Asia!

I'm here, after... 18 hours of flying, give or take? I am ensconsed in the beautiful home of my stepmother's unbelievably hospitable family.

You know how sometimes you're staying with people and it's kind of awkward cause you don't want to be "Uhh can we eat now?" but you're crazy hungry?
This does NOT happen in Taiwan!
Apologies for the horrible formatting, but I am Live Writer-less, and I have good pics I am itchin' to share! There's a description of everything... just not necessarily NEXT to it!

Lunch (dim sum!) yesterday was at I-Mei, which I think is kind of Taiwan's answer to local food. My stepmom's family would definitely give me a blank look if I used the word "locavore", but when you live on a small, agriculturally rich island, it makes a lotta sense!


This place was part bakery, part store, and part dim sum parlor. There were lots of places to look in and watch the cooks!
Bread:









The table was, according to Moony, a traditional Chinese table. The first thing was the pouring of tea, which is served with every meal here (yessss).






Steaming things:














THREE types of shrimp dumplings:





















I love you, Trader Joe's, but I can never eat your sorry dumplings again. They were all UNBELIEVABLE, but the ones with the little green bits (cucumber, maybe?) get a special shoutout.

Egg custard:

Radish cake (like a hashbrown patty but a gazillion times more delish):

Sesame buns with red bean filling (sweet and delicious)
A taste of Jewel (Moony's daughter's) udon noodle soup with bok choy.
Condiment bar! The Chinese mustard here is UNREAL. Not even comparable to stuff in America.


Another table shot:
Shrimp fried rice, a squajillion times better than in the US:
Almost burrito reminiscent; corn tortilla-like wrapper filled with beef and hoisin sauce, lettuce, and cucumber.




My faaaaaaaave and apparently quite traditional: taro cake with pork. Gelatinous and fab!











7 comments:

Lily @ Lily's Health Pad said...

Yum yum is right! Jealous of your eats!!!

Genesis said...

wow, all the food looks absolutely delish. so jealous.

Anonymous said...

18 hours of flying, I would freak out.
Your eats do look very YUM YUM :)

Taylor

MelindaRD said...

Looks awesome. You are making me miss China now. I am glad your trip is off to a great start. My fave thing while over there was like a steamed roll dipped in sweetened condensed milk. I'm so jealous of your good time right now. Oh, and I agree with the use of locavore. I do live on a tiny tiny island right now and I think that is an accurate description. Everything is going to be local.

Jess said...

Congrats on making it through 18 hours of flying!! But that food looks worth it ;)

<3 jess
xoxo

Michal said...

Yummy! I am sad to say that ive never tried dim sum :(

Penny said...

Oh My Goodeness, Y-U-M.
Asian food is one of my most favorite things ever. It all looks so great. I would love some of those dumplings. And the udon soup.
I may or may not be drooling right now.