Taiwan

Taiwan has favorable tropical climate,there are many orchards scatter out southern part of the island.My neighbor's family owns agricultural land outskirt of Kaoshiung city,where they grow " star fruits " or " ba ler " in Mandarin pronunciation.

Taiwan has good selection of tropical fruits,too numerous to list.

Do you like fruits,try some while you're there ?
 
As I scanned through your photo blog,one picture has a note list of " electric " based Kanji characters.Do you know most of these Chinese characters are Japanese loanwords,telephone ( Den Wa ) and telegram ( Den Bao ) are 2 examples with identical pronunciation in both Mandarin and Japanese.

Beside PinYin and conversation Mandarin,are you learning Chinese in handwriting ?

I think Japan still keeps 2000-2500 Kanji in regular use,common in formal contexts.To my surprise as I've discovered from Japanese TV doramas,many public signs in Japan are entirely in Kanji as how they would've been written by Chinese.
 
Yes, I have tried the ear... Not my favorite, I must say...
And, of coures I'm loving the fruits here!
 
Oh! I have tried pig's ear for the first time the other day. It's one of the Okinawan unique food and I liked it! They sometimes eat stuff mainlanders used not to eat, such as goya (nigauri) and pig's ear and I will try all of them because they are available in normal stores in mainland recently.
Originally Posted by ricecake
Taiwan has good selection of tropical fruits,too numerous to list.
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Mmmm I love fruits too. :-) What is your favorite fruits of all they have in Taiwan, ricecake-san and Gaijinian-kun?
 
Kyoko_desu said:
Oh! I have tried pig's ear for the first time the other day.It's one of the Okinawan unique food and I liked it !They sometimes eat stuff mainlanders used not to eat,such as goya (nigauri) and pig's ear and I will try all of them because they are available in normal stores in mainland recently.

Mmmm I love fruits too. :-) What is your favorite fruits of all they have in Taiwan, ricecake-san and Gaijinian-kun ?
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Kyoko-san :haihai:


I like thinly sliced pig's ear simply toss with hot-oil-sauce.My mother's best recipe for nigauri ( bitter melon ) is cut in 4 halves and stuff with ground pork,chopped Chinese vermicilli and edible black fungus,then steam for 30 minutes.That's interesting,Okinawans share some cultural similiarities with the Chinese.Those Koreans have exact mentality as Chinese,I wonder if it's the same with Okinawans.

My favorite Taiwan grown fruits are guava,loquats,pomelos,lychees,and logans.They are seasonally available at local Oriental supermarkets in northern California.There is one particular native SE Asian sub-tropical fruit I really like is the " darian ",yellow flesh with thumb-size seed and has strong smell like cat pee.There are people can't handle the odor,everyone in my family is immune to it though.
 
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I'm loving the Dragon Fruit, a treat that I had never tired before coming here, the Guava Juice, and the Papaya... Lychee is fun, and I have had some great pomelo tea from Korea that saved my life when I had a sore thoat. Some of the fruit is suprisingly expensive--peaches from Japan, for example...

As for the pig ear, the cartalage was what got to me... The don't fear bones in Taiwan--all the foods still have them...
 
Oh yes, I have heard of the smell of a darian, but unfortunately I have never tried one simply because I have never found one in local stores yet. Lychees are good and I usually get whole bunch of them at a buffet style restaurant.
A dragon fruit, I must try that some day too!:haihai:
 
Kyoko_desu said:
Oh yes,I have heard of the smell of a darian,but unfortunately I have never tried one simply because I have never found one in local stores yet.
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Durian fruit on sale here in northern Califnornia exclusively imports from Thailand shipped in frozen ocean containers,there is one Chinese supermarket chain regularly stocks it.We typically pay $.69 to $ .99 per pound,it weights 6-8 pound on average.Hand handling it is a small task for it has thorn cover husk,moreover one has to use a butcher knife to hack it open in half.I know Malaysia and Vietnam also commercially grow Durian for domestic consumption and export markets overseas.Unless Japan permits fruit imports from these 3 nations,otherwise chance is slim for you'll ever tried one.If you ever visit Taiwan on vacation as some of your fellow Japanese do,you can purchase it there for I know Taiwan imports it from Malaysia if not Thailand.
 
Gaijinian Man said:
Some of the fruit is suprisingly expensive--peaches from Japan, for example...

As for the pig ear, the cartalage was what got to me...
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Taiwan imposes tariff on specific goods from Japan and other nations as well,it adds to the retail price consumers pay.We have sweet tasty miniature flat donut-shaped Japanese peaches in California,and they're expensive at US $1.99 a pound.It's a native seasonal fruit,possibly the seeds originally came from Japan.No wonder,my neighbor's relatives indulge on California grown white-peaches whenever they're here visiting and always take a few pounds home when they leave.

Cartilage is " soft " bone,unlike small fish bones can glue to middle of your throat irritate you for days.I never liked fish ( except for McDonald's deep fried fish-filet sandwich ) for that reason,besides I often vomit on fish smell since childhood.

Taiwan has a developed aqua-culture industry,one family friend of my neighbor brought some artificial-bred giant tiger prawns ( about the size of small-medium lobster ) on one visit here.I was a bit freaked out at first sight,reminded me of those old 1960's-early 1970's Hollywood B-horror films I've seen on cable TV sci-fi channel with scientifically-mutated GIANT rats or ants or spiders or rabbits terrorizing small town USA with scenes how those creatures attacked and ate alive humans.This type of low-budget horror films sweat me and entertained me with a few good laughs for it's unrealistic nature.Me and older siblings were one-time fans of English-dubbed Japanese Godzilla movies from the 1960's,we could catch reruns on Saturday afternoons back when we were teenagers.

:giggle: Don't mind me,I am a chatterbox as I continue to fill this thread with fun entertaining semi-informative posts.
 
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One question,do you see local elderly folk chew " betel nuts " to blacken their teeth ?

That's one Taiwan " cultural shock " for you if you've seen it :D
 
Yeah--the guy at my fruit stand always has red slivia and only has two teeth from the stuff... Some others chew it, too... it's sick, man...
Been here a month, by the way.... Shi jian guo de hao kuai o!
 
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Gaijinian Man said:
Yeah--the guy at my fruit stand always has red slivia and only has two teeth from the stuff... Some others chew it, too... it's sick, man...
Been here a month, by the way.... Shi jian guo de hoa kuai o!
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Hi, Gaijinian, having fun in Taiwan?

Young people don't know, but elderly Japanese know about betel nuts from the time the Japanese occupied Taiwan and islands in Micronesia.

We saw betel nuts widely used when we visited Guam, Saipan and other remote islands of Micronesia. A taxi driver in Pohnpei got us scared, driving at high speed and at the same time opening the door every so often to spit out saliva while chewing a betel nut. :giggle:

I've tried most tropical fruits when I stayed in the Philippines for one year. I love all tropical fruits! Here in Japan, quite a few of them, including durian, can be bought in specialty fruit stores and shops that cater to non-Japanese Asian clientele. I go to such stores to hunt for exotic foods I haven't tried. 👍
 
epigene said:
We saw betel nuts widely used when we visited Guam,Saipan and other remote islands of Micronesia.
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epigene-san :-)


This broadens my horizon,I've always thought betel nut chewing was strictly a tradition of Chinese aborignal minority Zhuang on the mainland somehow the practice landed on Taiwan with migrations to island in the last 2-3 centuries.
 
Gaijinian Man said:
The city that I am in, Hualien,is very nice.From the house, I can see both mountains, and the Pacific ocean.I went to the night market last night.
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Me and surfing buddies vacationed in Taiwan several years back,nice warm Isla Formosa with people friendly waves.Night market is one local highlight of Taiwan,we dabbled some local delicacies 😄 I rather not tell it here.
 
I experienced my first earthquake today. The house rocked for maybe ten seconds, pictures shook--and it was over.
 
Expect more to come in days ahead,the island gets quick come and go tiny shakes of earthquake through out the year.Last big earthquake occured in central Taiwan region back in 1999,it was quite a devastation.

Where I am is near 2 major active fault-lines in northern California,we experience several minor earthquakes every year measure at 3-5 Richter Scale.

Taiwan is earthquake island,schools should have drill exercise.
 

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