Archives

Rice dumplings

If you’ve lived in Taiwan long enough, you’ve probably eaten or, at the very least, seen some rice dumplings. They usually look like this before unwrapping:

rice dumplings

Inside is a delicious little rice “hot pocket” stuffed with a variety of goods, usually meat and some vegetables.

They really are quite good. Mrs. Expatriate’s mother usually gets them from friends who make them by hand. My favorites have fatty pork inside them.

Anyway, I was going through Gukeng one day (a small town in Yunlin county) and happened to notice an old man and woman hard at work making string. Naturally curious, I asked them what they were doing. They told me that they were making string for rice dumplings. It was pretty amazing that it’s still made by hand. Here’s a few pictures and a video of them working.

old man old woman
old woman

Taiwanese sign

I really like Wulai (烏來) in Taipei county and try to get up there whenever I can. On one trip I snapped a picture of a very odd sign. It’s in Taiwanese and some form of pinyinized aboriginal language. I would guess it’s Atayalnese (The Atayal being the natives in Wulai), but can’t quite be certain. It certainly made me stop and look twice, though.

Taiwanese sign

Updates

Been going through a bunch of old pictures lately and decided to update some albums and add a photos page (see the tabs at the top). To celebrate, here’s a picture of a cat running away with someone’s sausage. I snapped this pic in front of a breakfast store in Kaohsiung.

cat with sausage

The Expat is now on Twitter!

Hi everyone,

Been a while since I’ve updated, I know. However, I have some news: I’m no on Twitter. You can see my feed on the right side over there. —->

Follow me, because I’ll probably be updating that more often. If I’m out on the scooter or biking and see something interesting, it’s easier and quicker for me to snap a picture and upload it to twitter to share with you.

Vibram FiveFingers spotted in Taiwan!

Went to Costco in Taichung on Saturday. I was very surprised to see that they were selling Vibram FiveFingers!

VFF in Costco

Unfortunately, they only had the Women’s Bikila model. However, they were very cheap. I’ve never been more happy (that VFF were available in Taiwan) and disappointed (that they had no men’s sizes or other models) at the same time.

Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come. Here’s hoping that we’ll soon see more VFF in Taiwan.

Update: I have heard there are more VFFs at the Neihu (Taipei) Costco and the Kaohsiung Costco. I headed down to Kaohsiung and saw more female sizes, but there were 2 pairs of Men’s KSOs in the middle (no boxes), both size 42, which was OK for me. I bought one pair (NT$1999). I have yet to see any other models besides Women’s Bikila and Men’s KSO.

Baby in Car

Spotted this on the back of a scooter the other day.

drb_110406_0001

I think the fact that they make these plaques for scooters says something (not good) about Taiwanese society. The sad fact is, many people do take their children and infants on scooters, often without helmets (Why buy them helmets? They’ll grow out of them too soon!). The government should really crack down and do something about this.

Japan has awesome candy

Just saw this on Youtube. Anyone know where I can get some of this in Taiwan?

新年快樂! Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year Rabbit

A look at Taiwanese citrus fruits

I’m a big fan of Vitamin C and citrus fruits in general. It’s now that time of year that oranges are being harvested. You can hardly drive down the road without seeing one field or another being depleted of its nutritious stock, piled high on the side of the road, and left naked and alone to bear out the remaining cold of the winter with nought but a few leaves to accompany it until the Summer shall once again bear down upon it and bring forth new fruit next winter.

Continue reading A look at Taiwanese citrus fruits

Bathroom cartoons

Here are 3 small cartoons that I’ve taken pictures of in various bathrooms.

bathroom cartoon bathroom cartoon
drb_100216_0083

Page 1 of 1012345...10...Last »