food
That just had to be the mouthwatering scent of a freshly cooked lamb chop I thought as I whirled and spun and dodged and weaved among the hundreds of people at the food fair. I’d already succumbed to a Latin American green curry chicken and bought some English fudge. This was certainly a sight and sound and smell extravaganza in that typical Taipei American School style of bigger is always better. In this case it was just too big and I couldn’t decide what to buy next so I got some Yakisoba and fried chicken from the Japanese stall and some luscious vegetarian pasta made by one of the top hotels from the Italian stall. Just to top it all off I carried away a steaming tub of home made chicken curry and a vegetable one from the Indian section.
The school was hosting its International Food Fair on Saturday and although I’ve previously avoided it, the lure of such fine food made by all these expats was far too tempting.
Little ponies were taking kiddies for rides through the car park and baseball throws and water drops and all the fun of a usual fete or Spring Fair were in evidence. The food, however, was the real star and it was just amazing how much there was. I didn’t get to the Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Nepalese, American, Irish, Greek, New Zealand or Scandanavian stalls although I do admit I had a few Swedish meatballs and got a slice of Pavlova for Cass from the Aussie section. It really was something to behold and the whole thing was just as neatly packed away and cleaned up by 6 that night when I returned from a surf. The custodian army at school were obviously all on duty and had scrubbed the school clean again in preparation for some devoted worshippers on Sunday and, of course, the resumption of school again on Monday.
We had a great surf on Wednesday afternoon after school at the Pillbox, some monstrous powerful bruisers pounding the northwest tip of the island. The aftermath of Typhoon Nockten was some seriously powerful and big swell and we enjoyed one of our best days here in Taiwan yet. I was sorry not to get some photos as I forgot to take the camera, as it would rival anything we get back home (discounting the fact that the water was so dirty you couldn’t see your board beneath you when we were sitting waiting: seriously!!). I went out again on Friday and surfed with Ross at Jinshan till it was so dark we couldn’t see the waves coming, again on Saturday afternoon with Carl and once more this morning with Carl and Ross. It was pretty good, but a lot smaller than Big Wednesday and poor Cass was really a bit of a surf widow this week!
We watched the Aussies just beat the Poms in the footy this afternoon before doing a super sized shop up at the top Tienmu Wellcome supermarket. The main reason we got so much is because Cass is hosting the Book Club this Tuesday evening. She’ll be cooking them some curries and a pavlova in her little desktop oven and she’s been scouring the little shops round here for ingredients this week. It’s quite amazing what we take for granted back home: one quick trip to Coles over there is the equivalent of visiting at least 4 different places here and then having to compromise on ingredients or just having an educated guess as the labels are in Chinese! As you can imagine, the house has been scrubbed to within an inch of its life and even the cats have been brushed and manicured. I’m going to do an exit stage left straight up to Carl’s for the evening as I’m afraid the intellectual fervour that will be raging here might be infectious: can’t have that!
Mum has supplied us with great wads of clippings from the Herald recently so we’ve been able to continue our weekend breakfast tradition of coffee, orange juice, raison toast and the paper, just like home. It’s a great start to the two days of the weekend and we often linger over a few articles in the afternoons as well. We’ve been spoiled by a couple of emails from friends back home as well (thanks!) and I was gratified that my histrionics in regard to the election hadn’t alienated too many people: just as well!….it’s my blog and I’ll write what I want!!!
The photos here are all from the food fair and include shots of the inside section only with some dancers on a stage outside. Both car parks were full of food as well!