Taichung, Taiwan

This has been the best seafood weekend, ever. I railed into Taichung to hang out with the couple of UK kids I met at my regular bar in Hsinchu, Tispy. Caught 'Tokyo Drift' and then had appetizers with one set of their parents and then went off for sushi. The UK lads claimed this was a spot that the gangsters liked to go to and if so there is good reason. It was $NT 1000 for slightly seared fish that melted in my mouth. Nine pieces, a small filet of fish and a stuffed shrimp head. Oh yum. We went out to this ritzy bar which had a full wine wall and a swimming pool and then hit up Xaga, which was a pretty OK club. Black Eyed Peas were dropped.

During the moving around I went back to talk to the other set of parents. Was I comfortable that I was buzzing of 12 year scotch and meeting folks for the first time. No, but my worry was kinda silly since all I did was drink 18 year scotch with the dad. He's a chemical engineer who made his living off faucets. Faucets? How many faucets are in your house? Multiply that by the number of houses in the world and those numbers add up quickly into billions and billions of dollars. Through the sons as translators, we talked shop and put me thinking about manufacturing problems. If any of you can figure out how to remove lead from bronze work and still have the moldings be easily machinable, I have direct contact into the South East Asian market.

We then took a quick stopover in Lugang to see the Longshan temple. Taiwan is like Houston in that it is very young, so standing in a room that has hundreds of years of history as evidenced buy the thick soot of incence is a novel and worthwhile experience. My theory that every place in this country that is sacred and beautiful has a oyster pancake stand still remains valid.

And then there was the meal. Sharkfin soup? Yes, please. Duck? Thank you. Abalone? Seafood casarole baked in shells? Lamb? Shrimp pancakes? Boiled shrimp? Sashimi? Oysters? Mushroom soup? Clams? Cod? I'll take a little and some more of the things I can't even remember. I seem to be having one of the laborious 10 to 15 course Shanghai style Chinese meals at least once a week and this was the most amazing of the bunch. Now that I am hooked on the uncut product, where am I going to find food this good in the states?

Chatted with an English teacher and napped on the ride back to Hsinchu where I then showered and then went out with the bartenders from Tipsy. The took us out to this huge packed open air shrimp place where we dined on huge roe-filled prawns cooked in lemon butter, garlic butter and rice wine, eaten with spicy cabbage and rice. My ABC friend and I have been going to Tipsy a few times a week and I will really miss it. It is frustrating when I just want to share a few ideas and talk, but can't due to language barriers. Before I learned to speak English I used to play with kids who just moved to the US as well. While not being able to talk works in the playground when I was 4, it is much harder to create bonds as adults. In the future I must make it a point to work in language before I travel. There are just too many things I miss.