Yesterday ended up being a mixture of exploring the city we're staying in, jetlag naps that left me more confused that refreshed, and trying new foods.
I explored Sinjhuang with another visiting student. We mainly walked around, gawked at the insane number of mopeds on the roads, looked for characters that were similar on store signs, and made our first try at a wet/dry market near the hotel. I ended up paying far too much for asians pears to eat for breakfast for the next three mornings. I payed about 100 NT (~3$) and got three huge monsters of things. But at that point I was just worried about getting something.
After than I adventure, I went back to my room, unpacked some, and tried to avoid my oh-so-comfortable bed. I eventually gave in and took a short nap around 4:30. I woke up more confused and delirious than I have ever been. Luckily (or not?) I had made dinner plans so I pulled myself out of bed to find something to eat.
The two of us (both in delirious, I'm-only-awake-for-the-sake-of-getting-over-jetlag states) walked a block before deciding that really, any restaurant that had meals under 100 NT would suffice. We found a beef soup restaurant right next to the entrance to the hotel and ordered two things that included the characters forwhat our guide had given us for "Beef Soup" on the menu. She pointed out that eating for much of our trip will probably consist of either wishing we knew what we were eating so we could (a) order it again or (b) avoid it later. I completely agree, and last night was no exception. We watched as one lady cut up assorted beef parts and vegetables put them in a broth base on the stove. We got two big bowls of soup: one (hers) had beef chunks and beef and ginger dumplings and the other (mine) had something that looked like maleable honeycomb, had the consistency of rubber, and didn't really have much taste. We ended up sharing the contents of both of our soups. And by that I mean she took pity on me and gave me some of her ingredients to eat.
We promptly went back to our rooms and retired for the night. I made it to eight o'clock simply because Bethoveen was on TV, dubbed in Mandarin.
Up at some kind of normal time, blogging...
B(ee)
10 September 2009
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That maleable honeycomb that had the consistency of rubber sounds an awful lot like tripe to me - tripe is the intestine of a cow. The grandfather you never knew said it was his favorite food (served boiled with salt and malt vinegar). The grandmother you never knew however considered it offal (which it is) and something to be served only when finances were dire and nothing else could be afforded.
ReplyDeleteI was told yesterday that it was some kind of vegetable: lotus or something like that.
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