Amsterdam 5/28-6/2

So, it's time to procrastinate again... I've been back from Europe for a week now, finally getting over the jetlag, but fighting a flu... Anyways, here is a recap of the vacation...

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

I really really liked Amsterdam. I guess I didn't have much expectation for it and was struck by how pretty, relaxed, and laid-back it was. The fact that everyone spoke perfect English (that includes the maids in the hotel, any random restaurant waiter, or people at the news stand) definitely helps. We also lived in a not-so-touristy area (although close to Leisdseplein so that it was very convenient, it is remote enough so there are actually 'locals' around us). We only went to Dam square (think, Time Square) once and I think that was enough.



Our (Nadeen and myself) hotel is near the 'Nine Streets (Negen Straatjes)' neighborhood, which is a hip, yet not pretentious, shopping district with charming boutiques and cafes. I can't express enough of the relaxed atmosphere... for example, I'd compare the Negen Straatjes to areas of
Williamsburg or Brooklyn Height, but without the hipper-than-thou attitude, or the under current of aggressiveness of New York streets. The food was great, thanks to our local guide, Kahing. We really didn't have much free time to do all the touristy things, but to hit the Rijks and the Van Gogh Museums. The Rijksmuseum was under renovation so only a small part of a side building was open to the public and it is mostly about the Dutch 'Golden Age'. Having been to Venezia over Christmas, and going to Rome and Firenze next, the mostly calm, cool, non-religious pictures are very welcoming, and perhaps more suited to my personality. The Van Gogh Museum reminds me distinctively of MOMA in New York, with the central atrium of staircase and views of other floors.



Unfortunately, I didn't get to try the 'premium goods' of Amsterdam, but I did try some absinthe... Kahing and friends took us to a neighborhood bar and we tried both versions of the hallucinogenic liquor... I even tried the stronger version... alas... I think these things really have very little effect on me, since Nadeen could feel her weaker version very soon, without finishing hers, and I didn't feel a thing at all... I guess this is a stronger indicator that one day, when I have to go under anesthesia, the doctor probably have to give me plenty of booster shots...



People have said that Amsterdam is one of the most expansive places to visit... While our hotel bill was pretty stiff, and tram/bus tickets are not cheap, brief investigation of real estate and food revealed similar prices to New York. A small 2 bedroom is around 500,000 USD in the Negen Straatjes, or on the Prinsengracht, which is probably even cheaper than the Upper West Side. But I guess while most buildings are 'pre-war', there ain't gonna be doormen or elevators...



During the conference, there were some ads for 'the Holland House of Regenerative Medicine' that is a bunch of rotating circular buildings built on the water. We couldn't find out much more about it. While I have great doubts and reservations to put my lab in some sort of a moving, floating base, I really wouldn't mind living there. So let me know if they are hiring!

Leaving on a jetplane

Tomorrow, I will leave for Amsterdam to start my first Tax-payer sponsored vacation, no I mean business trip... Well, I AM going to learn something and meet people at the World Biomateirals Congress, of course, which is of great importance to my country... blah blah...

Amsterdam, Brussels, Rome, Florence, Piedmont/Torina, Genoa, Milan are the destinations and, of course, Matteo's wedding is the main event. I will meet up with Nadeen in Amsterdam, pick up Victoria in Rome, coordinate with Clare and Joe to gather momentum for partying it up at the wedding. Stay tuned for the report!

Other Maps

Amsterdam
Roma
Torino/Wedding area
and let me try to embed it...

View Larger Map

Research for Florence

So I figured out how to customize Google Maps... (I know, I know... I should've known...)
Here is a first try for tour spots in Florence, or I should say Firenze...
Grace's Firenze map

I didn't get a guide book yet so these are just quick searches of points, including from the New York Times 36 hrs in Florence article. If anyone has any recommendations, please let us know!! And Nadeen and Victoria, please add the points that you are interested in!!

Flower Market

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!

Square Watermelon

There isn't much else I can say but to show their existence... and they cost almost 30 USD a pop.

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHXBL6bzAR4

This made my day. Thanks Nina!

In Memoriam

It’s been tough couple of weeks. There was no one to blame and only what ifs. My cousin Isabel asked us to take care of her 2 Malteses while she is visiting the US for work with her husband, Vincent. Mei-mei (little sis) and Dumpling have been to our place before and my brother KY loves taking them out for walks. Since Isabel and Vincent both work 12 hour days, the dogs rarely go out of their house (they use wee-wee pads). The dogs love to go out 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 Taipei city. While you see people walking their dogs often, a lot of times the dogs are off-leash on busy streets. I am not sure what is the best way to change this but there are periodical events and campaigns to raise awareness of these issues. I can only hope that it will change. In the mean time, I cannot be more sorry about the whole thing and hope that Isabel and Vincent would find it in their hearts to forgive us.

focaccia - first try

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...

Eating Out -- Ice Monster

So this is the first Eating Out post. 'Ice Monster' (冰館) is a very famous place with shaved ice. The most famous plate is the Mango Ice, with piles of mango, a scoop of mango sorbet, condensed milk and syrup on shaved ice. Shave ice in Taiwan are usually served on a plate with fruits and tapioca (tons of different kinds). Ice Monster apparently has been around for a long time but they got lots of press after I moved away so I've never even heard of them before. I finally had a chance yesterday to try it out. Excellent after a whole day of faculty meeting...

It is really a street stand, with some design.

The famous Mango Ice was sold out (probably also off season and my brother's experience was that it's not worth it if it were off season). So I had the strawberry milk shaved ice, also strongly recommended by my friend Taka. It is basically Mango Ice with everything mango substituted as strawberry. In Taiwan, it is at the tail end of strawberry season and strawberrys are never as good as the good ones in the US (although we also don't have the giant rubber tasteless ones either). 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.


Location: No.15, Yongkang St., Da-an District, Taipei City
Type: Street stand, clean
Taste: *** out of *****
Price: 160 NTD (~5 USD), expansive for street stand/snack food

On a side note, Yongkang St. is a famous street in Taipei full of famous restaurants, such as the original DinTaiFung (鼎泰豐). More reports from there to look forward to!

Spring

It's been in the high 70s up to mid 80s for the past week, with high humidity. For me, it's pretty much summer, although for people used to the weather, it's only mid Spring. 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'.

Another, more pleasant, sign of spring are the 'wood cotton' flowers (Bombax ceiba). All the leaves fall out in the winter and they bloom before the leaves come in, with huge orange flowers. They are often times plated along streets.

My nephew's 6th Birthday and the Strawberry Shortcake

So it's my nephew'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...

Mazu

Mazu is a traditional Daoist goddess that is popular in southeastern China and Taiwan. She is supposedly a girl, with the last name Lin, whose magical powers bless the seamen. She also died when she was young, around early 1000's. Mazu literally translate to 'ancestral mother'. When I was in college, my roommate often lent me her scooter and her portrait was on the keychain. I always liked to say that Lady Lin helped me (being that I never really had a motorcycle license)...

So the reason that I am talking about her is that her birthday is apparently coming up and one thing they do here is to carry her statue around to bless her territory, so to speak. I guess the Catholics do similar things. Today is the beginning of one such trip (apparantly Mazus from different temples have different schedules) and it is broadcasted live. Many polititions, such as the newly elected President, Ma Ying-ju, are there to 'ask for blessings'.

It is amazing to see how many people are there for the festivities and how technologically advanced they are. The website for this temple in Da-jia is very sophisticated, so are others. Her tour around the country is even tracked with GPS. Another interesting thing is how commercialized it is, with lots of 'dolls' of Mazu sold everywhere. I need to learn more about Taiwanese religious practices.

Hello Kitty

So Nina, this post is for you...
I was walking around my neighborhood, trying to find a shop that sells baking supplies (it's really difficult) and came across this:

I can't really find a website to the store, but I did came across this blog: hello kitty hell






And on the news, I also heard about the hello kitty hotel rooms:
http://www.grand-hilai.com.tw/english/kitty.htm

More over, by googling the phrase 'hello kitty hotel rooms', I found that there are S&M rooms with hello kitty themes... although I didn't further investigate for the fear of poisoning my computer... It's a weird world out there... ;)

coco is home!!

Yeah!! So far, she has been home for 24 hours and I have not been able to take a picture of her sitting still. So I guess this is just to show off my new furniture arrangements... with all the crap all over...

I am also trying to fashion a scratch box for coco with all the leftover packaging materials. Maybe I'll be able to post that soon. In the mean time, I am going to get materials for my nephew's 6th birthday cake. Hopefully it will be a Spongebob Squarepants strawberry shortcake! (or would that be crabby cake?!)

My new campus

Since I didn't go to NTU, I am really unfamiliar with everything. Now that I am here, the one upside of it is the beautiful vegetation here, having a major agricultural school. This first picture is of the main thoroughfare of the school, called the Royal Palm Avenue. We have lots of palm trees, as you can see.


It is also now near the end of the azalea season in Taiwan and it is sort of a flower of Taipei for there are azalea festivals in the municipal parks as well as on the campus.
Also a little lizard I saw...

coco's cellmates

The first cat is brand new today, even without a name tag. Seems like a young baby, kept meowing nervously. The second one is called meomi and she is mean! Every time I walk by or look at her, she hisses at me. The gray cat is really docile and his name is taco...

lab space

There is a Chinese phrase '百廢待舉' that can be roughly translated into 'hundred ruins waiting to be renewed'. I guess that is my lab now. The upside is, I have the view of the tallest building of the world, circled in red.

stuff arrived and gray wall

So my 18 boxes arrived Monday and I've been diligent in opening and clearing and organizing. Here is a look on Wednesday, along with my gray wall that I like more and more everyday.

Taiwanese election

For the lack of better focus, politics to Taiwanese is like religion to Americans. The presidential election is on March 23rd so this Sunday is called 'Super Sunday' here with lots of events and parades through out Taiwan. The parade route for the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) in Taipei is on our block. I even got a glimpse of the candidate. What it reminded me of, is the various parades in New York, like St. Patty's Day. People seem jovial and calm, even though their candidate is the underdog by a decent margin. Although I thought there would be a lot more people. What happened was that the people were spread out a lot so there is a really long stretch but not very concentrated.