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I don't think I have this kind of stamina or energy to embark on a vacation that involves several hours of hiking everyday for 4 days to reach the destination. It does sound interesting though...
Ming-su's is gaining great popularity in Taiwan with their themed rooms and tax-breaks. In Ilan, I found several intriguing options:
Dong-Shan Villa 福泰冬山厝 is part of the Dong-Shan Traditional Art Center. While it has potentials, the fact that it is government run makes me feel that it might be more like a hostel...
Riverside Inn Our final choice, since Josephine thinks this one looks cool, and with the appropriate price of ~100 USD/night.
Actually, I don't know anyone from Australia... it is a phrase that my brother uses to describe a certain kind of people, a variation on a Taiwanese 'nickname'. 'Ou-ke' refers to people who are very picky, sort of spoiled, and who order others around. Most of my friends are 'ou-ke'... It all began 2 weeks ago....
I've known these people since at least Junior High, some of them even since first-grade... We went to this private school that is sort of on the Park Ave of Taipei and many of my classmates are children of government officials and CEOs. Actually, I went to 3rd grade with a kid whose father was the prime minister and ran for president once (and lost). I also went to 1st grade with a kid whose father is now wanted for embezzlement of hundreds of millions of his shareholders' money. It is the great environment to raise spoiled brats such as yours truly, even though my family is very middle class. Anyways, I digress. So the whole bunch of us were having dinner at Sam's house one night and we talked about going together on a vacation. Many attempts of a group vacation have been made before. The one trip they made was when I was still in NY and about half of them went. It was also when they were all single. Now that most of us are married, even with kids, it is getting more and more difficult to gather up the crowd. Even for Sam's wedding in LA, only half of them came.
We were talking about an island vacation... and Ko Samui was a first pick, since Patty knows someone who owns a resort there. There is also a long weekend in October, when we have a Friday off due to the Taiwanese 'Independence Day'. Since it is only 3 days, we thought Samui is too far since there is no direct flight from Taiwan. So we decided on Bali in Malaysia. Being 'from Australia', my friends' choices for resort were the new Bulgari or the Ritz Carlton. In all consideration, it is actually not that bad, probably around 1500 USD per person for 2 nights at the Ritz, with airfare, but it is still not cheap... A week later, while people are still interested in going somewhere, the issues of flying for 5 hours for a 3 day-trip was brought up and how much trouble it is to travel with young children (one 3-year-old, 2 under 6 months). So the only way for us to go somewhere is within Taiwan.
Somehow I've had this 'craving' to go relax somewhere the whole summer, so I am really motivated to go. A choice was the Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan. I've heard that there is a very nice hotel, the Lalu, in the middle of the lake but my friends said that the service there is not that good. It is also ~3.5 hour drive from Taipei, without traffic, so we've got to move closer. Ilan is our next choice... with the new tunnel, it is only one hour drive away from Taipei and is situated on the hills looking into the Pacific. The best resort in Ilan is the Hotel Royal in Chiao Hsi, where it is famous for hot springs.
Reading something about New York, it seems like some people are already saying the temperature has cooled down a bit there... It is atrocious... We are still in the 90's here!! The lazy summer is only good for day-dreaming... At our A Cut steak dinner (mediocre), my group of friends were talking about vacationing in Ko Samui, since a friend's friend's family owns a resort there... The thing is, with all the boring married couples (with children), not to mention busy schedules of everyone but me, it took us 3 hours to get plans settled for one dinner... I'd say it is impossible to book a vacation together, even just for a long weekend. Anyhow, it started me thinking about laying on a beach for a couple of days. My all time dream island has long been the Maldives on Indian Ocean. 
I also read in Apartment Therapy the 20 Hotels Around the World from Architecture Digest about the Cocoa Island Resort. The little fishing boat rooms just looks so cozy and cute! I even looked up flights from Taiwan and it seems like a transfer in Singapore is a must, so that I could go have all the great street food that I've heard about for soooo long but missed the chance when I was there with my parents. So who wants to join me for this dream vacation?
If you are a listener of This American Life on NPR, then you know what I am talking about. Recently, they had an episode called A Little Bit of Knowledge about the Modern Jackasses out there. Modern Jackassism, according to Urban Dictionary, 'usually occurs in a conversation when you know a little about a subject and when asked to expand upon it, you extrapolate completely unrelated nonsense.' A producer of the radio show came up with the term with her friends about this imaginary magazine about these people. Having a Ph.D. on nothing specific (trust me, BME is about nothing specific), this pretty much makes me a senior editor of such distinguished publication... I can pretty much bullshit crap out of my ear, and more importantly, with authority. Thank you, Columbia!
As with the previous post, I've been watching way too much TV online, several hours worth a day. Watching all the Mad Men has been making me thirsty for Bourbon and martinis. I finally found some dirty martinis the other day and I actually liked it, even though ones I had were pretty weak... I've been trying to find some gin and cocktail olives but they are quite expansive in Taipei... (the olives I found were in Dean and Deluca... yes, the New York Dean and Deluca, and they are like 25 dollars for a jar...) so my search continues... Last week, I finished all the available episodes of Weeds. The heroine of the show, Nancy Botwin, is always drinking an almost empty container of iced coffee and sucking on the last drop amongst the ice cubes. This also gives me cravings for iced coffee, even though I am not a coffee drinker... Good thing that there were only a couple of episodes of the Closer that I haven't watched since I left New York. Otherwise, I might start hording chocolate bars in my desk drawer. Although I am trying to catch up on House now, so I may start a vicodin habit....
Mad Men refers to the ad men in New York. Set in the 60's, the show is filled with sexism, racism, homophobia... you name it. The interiors are very mid-century modern, so are the women's bras. The thing that leaves me with the greatest impact though, is that they are always smoking and drinking scotch and martinis. I never really cared for those drinks that much but I've been having cravings recently. There was this episode where they had a whole lot of oysters, like 3,4 dozens each, and many martinis to go with it. I could almost taste the cool sting and the briny sea in my mouth when I was watching it... It reminds me of a drink that I never had... a dirty martini... I don't like gin and I don't like olives... but this is the best that I can conjure up to what I've got the cravings for... Have to try it soon...
There is a weekend flower market close to our house. There is also a jade/antique market next to it that is very popular with tourists. The flower market is always teaming with people, especially on a nice day like yesterday. Most of the merchandise there are potted plants, with some cut flowers and planters, seeds, soil, fertilizers etc. I bought some herbs there (which I am proud to report, has past the one month mark so they are going to live!
Thanks Dad!) like rosemary and thyme. It is just a fun place to browse, if you don't mind the crowd, and with my complete ignorance in gardening, is fascinating. There are lots of moss and orchids that is very popular here, with the humidity and all. The light purple orchids in the picture looks really amazing... but I don't think I can do it any justice with my black thumb. There are also some tchotchkes at the market, such as these 'pen hanging device'... 
The traditional Chinese calligraphy pens are pointy brushes so after you use them, you need to rinse and hang them to dry. But I think these are going to be cute with some jewelries or keys. For those of you who are planning on visit me in Taiwan, here is a preview of an interesting site!
and basically freak out when they are roaming about. Most of the time, they don’t really listen to your orders and in retrospect, I don’t believe they know about roads and traffic.Two weekends ago, when my brother was walking them after dinner, they rush into the street. Mei-mei passed away immediately and Dumpling was severely injured. Dumpling was admitted to the vet hospital of my school and was watched for 8 days before they operate on her split abdominal muscles. She will go back Friday to remove the stitches and have the blood works to make sure her liver and anemia are improving. The whole ordeal is extremely difficult for everyone, especially Isabel and Vincent. My brother is also stricken with guilt.
I feel that while it is an unfortunate accident, the bigger issue here is the lack of
understanding/respect for pets and poor, or really, non-existing, animal policy. My friend Annie sent me this website, Animals Taiwan, that has a lot of information about the stray animals. Taiwanese people mostly still have the mindset from the agricultural days. For example, my grandma and father thought that we just need to buy Isabel and Vincent another dog and that would be the end of that. While he agreed with us, my father thought that it was the ‘right decision’ to save Dumpling, as if there are options. Not that they don’t like animals, but they don’t think of animals as living human companions, but toys. Another issue is the lack of outdoor space. I think many people keep their dogs on a leash or in a cage at their home. There is only one municipal dog run in
My friend Josephine was having a get-together at her place so I volunteered to make focaccia. 
I also just bought some herbs (thyme, rosemary and sage) to grow on the balcony so I figured it was time to use some. I bought the Bread Bible before I moved back home but the comments on
the web seems mixed, so I also found a 'no-knead' recipe online. 
The BB recipe calls for A LOT of water and the dough would 'look like melted mozzarella'. I followed the recipe (but I don't have the same brand of flour and yeast) and added more flour at the end, according to her blog. The resulting bread looks okay but is a little bit tough and not as airy as I'd hoped. The interior was a bit 'wet', and further baking doesn't really improve it. The one thing that I am not sure of is that in the beating procedure in the begining, she said that it would form a ball, but my dough is not quite there yet. However, on her blog, several people said it is impossible for form shapes. I guess without pictures, it is hard to describe..
The other recipe doesn't require a mixer and is easier. While it requires minimal mixing, the dough forms readily and shapes well. The resulting product is also more airy and looks better (although I added less oil in the end and I am not sure if that is why). 
The one thing that I am not happy with for both batches was that I bought some coarse sea salt but when 
I opened the package, the 'coarse' sea salt was way coarse... with grain size around 3mm... I didn't have a grinder on hand, nor a mortar and pestle. So there were big chunks of salting pockets... Will have to buy a grinder for it...
The famous Stawberry Ice was to me, therefore, too sweetened. While the initial taste was wonderful with the condensed milk and strawberry and ice, the sweetened milk and syrup soon saturates your senses and make real strawberry bites really sour, and harsh tasting. I think if without the sorbet and with less condensed milk (drizzled, rather than drenched) and more ice, the plate would be more sophisticated and inspiring.
One sign of spring is the mosquitoes swarming. We bought this electrical zapper that looks like a racket. I picked up some tricks from my brother, KC, and killed more than 30 one night, in doors, with closed screens on all windows... here is a 'harvested specimen'.
's 6th birthday and he requested a strawberry cake. I made the golden buttercream cake from Rose Beranbaum with whipped cream and macerated strawberries. I had to make 2 batche since the first one came out not thick enough for the double layer. I used 2/3 of the original recipe for the second batch since I was running out of butter. I am not sure why but the cakes came out quite dense. It is not completely flat but could've been better. I am thinking that one possibility is that for both batches, I didn't work as fast as I usually do so they were sitting in the bowl/pan longer than usual. Secondly, Taiwan is way more humid that New York so maybe my baking powder is not as good as last week (when I made a pineapple upside down cake). Anyways, here are some pictures...
ps I think after the post about Hello Kitty, views of my blog suddenly jumped... That's quite scary...
