I hinted at a spring break trip post, but here's a post about my summer break trip! I'm SO TRICKY. :P
And almost a year later, the 2012 Summer Trip to Taiwan post series FINALLY concludes.
Haha, that took quite a while, eh? ;)
Anyways, the few days before we left weren't too crazy-- just a nice, relaxing days to enjoy in the neighborhood. My dad and I went to the nearest 7-11 for some nomnoms, and we had the lunch boxes heated up at the store. The workers placed the trays onto a blue sheet of cloth that was incised with a bunch of tiny cuts. Then he pulled up on the edges and handed us our food, so it looked like this:
Isn't this SO COOL?! :)
It's a stretchy cloth bag!! @_@ *mind explodes* It was soooo cool that my dad stopped outside of the store when we walked out and asked me if I wanted to take a picture while he played around and jiggled our food around in the bag. :P Young at heart! Hope I will forever be too :D
We also ate the bread we bought from the mall too. I wuv Taiwanese bread! They're so imaginative when it comes to the shapes, designs, and flavours~
For example, a savory cream and corn bread pizza thing!
There's a creamy corn soup that's pretty prevalent in Taiwan; even McDonald's sells it as one of the menu items, so this bread was called "corn soup bread." Pretty! I like my breads sweet though, so this was mine:
Green tea mango bread :3
Looks like a lump after it's been thrown around in the bag while I was walking, but it *was* a star or crown shape. You can kind of see the edges pointing outwards on the left, right? :) The green tea was subtle and sweet, and the inside was a light mango puree. It's kind of funny that I really liked this one, because my sister and I were once both allergic to mango so I kind of run away from mango products. But this one was SO CUTE, so I had to eat it. Even at the risk of getting a red ring around my mouth XD which didn't happen, so a double thumbs up for Taiwanese bread ^^b
And finally, probably one of my FAVORITE pastries EVAH. Flaky taro pastries! They have a buttery and flaky exterior that crumbles easily, and then on the inside is sweetened taro paste. They're a bit more labor intensive (the layers are made by constant rolling out of the dough, and then you have to hand wrap them), so they're about $1USD a piece, and they're not that big either. I love these so much that I described a well known building in Taipei as a taro pastry when trying to figure out what it was. "Michael, what's the building that looks like a taro pastry?" :o Haha, omgah, he thought I was so weird!
Anyhow, they make other flavors too, although taro is probably the classic. I also spotted and nabbed a green tea flavoured one.
*drools* hehehe~
AHH! What is this?
Noooo, I bought the wrong type. So bakers have mixed things up and started to add random stuff inside. I like the original filling: pure taro paste, but this one has egg yolk in the middle, so the taste is savory wrapped in sweet. It's yummy, but not like this-is-so-good-I'm-gonna-cry good! For the green tea one, there was mochi in the middle! I bet Anna would absolutely fall for this pastry~ :D I've always wanted to bring these taro pastries back in bulk to the United States, but they're so delicate that a good shaking (such as being tumbled around in the luggage) would instantly obliterate them. :(
Haha, the plate's just getting messier and messier :P
The next day was pretty eventful (but boring for me, haha), as we ended up walking to the hospital to check on Connie's eyes. Her left eye was hurting so much that it kept watering and she couldn't open it, so she was laying in bed all morning, only to be disturbed by my occasional prodding to help her put in eye drops. She looked real cool in the hospital ;)
Hurr hurr hurrrr :)
The doctor said that she had a small eye tumor growing based on bad hygiene. So some medicated eye drops were prescribed, and we went home. But when we got back to the US, she got them checked again, and there was no such tumor. Her eye felt better after a few days back in the US, and we still don't know what exactly was wrong @_@''
But on a happier note, let's look at breakfast on the day of departure!! Hahaha :P
Danish pineapple bread with mung bean slush
Remember, pineapple bread is not actually made of pineapple! It's the bumpy shape of the crust that gives it its name. The Danish version is pretty much just a taller form, and the interior has a lot more butter. So I guess... more "bready" and croissant-like? Yes! It was like eating a really delicious hugemongous croissant. :D And my favorite mung bean slushie was a nice touch as my last meal in Taiwan :')
Oh, Eva Air (the airline we were using, and Taiwan's biggest airline) had a promotion and had Hello Kitty everywhere. They had a plane that was totally decked out with pink seats and Hello Kitty utensils for the meals, but we didn't get lucky enough to sit on that plane... wahhhh, haha~ But in the airport, there was a super pink section too:
So shiny!
I think these are automated check-in kiosks.. THEY'RE KITTY SHAPED ^o^
If you were lucky enough, you could use Hello Kitty toilet paper and toiletries :P
So that is the end of my summer trip for last year! ^_^ I hope you enjoyed travelling through a small part of Taiwan with me. I really enjoy visiting the island where my family lives, and it's hard to believe that I only begun to like this place after attending the OCAC summer camp in Taiwan 4 years ago. @_@ I can't wait to go back, although preferably during the winter XD It's a little to hot for me in the summer, and I get a major crazy shorts tan that never goes away! :)
... which reminds me-- I now have a new shorts tan from the few days we spent in Los Angeles for spring break. AHHHH =_=''
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