Happy Birthday Katharine

Today is the birthday of my good friend Katharine, who was teaching at CCU until last semester. She is now in Brussels with her husband Ravi, where she will be doing her PhD in education. I wish her good luck in her new life and I sure miss our talkative dinners and coffees!

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Sun Moon Lake

We went to Taichung in late August to visit family. We took the opportunity to visit the famous tourist destination called “Sun Moon Lake”, a nice clear blue lake nested between beautiful mountains in the center of the island. It is the official honeymoon destination in Taiwan, a bit like Niagara falls in Canada, minus [...]

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Dragon Eyes

These brown balls are called “long yan” in Chinese, meaning dragon eye, and “longan” in English. They are a close relative to the litchi, but the flavor is slightly different. They are grown in the southern half of Taiwan, and August is the season.

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Picking up Longans

Here is the cousin’s husband, A Ji and his son. A Ji took us to his “laojia” (old house where he grew up) in the countryside near Nantou. The house itself has been torn down, but he still has family living nearby and the place is set among wild longan trees. He was brave enough [...]

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Avocado milk shake

A new discovery, the Avocado Milk Shake. Very very simple to make: throw into your blender a few slices of ripe avocado, top with milk, add about 1/4 cup of cold water, sugar/honey/fructose to taste, a few ice cubes and pulse. The result is wonderfully creamy and rich, almost a meal in itself.

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My new toy

I love cooking, specially Asian food (I’m in the right place). So far, I was using cheap woks that were not fun to use. This week, I decided it was about time I graduated to a “real” wok, a nice heavy, huge, stainless steel wok. So now I’m almost singing gospel as I use this [...]

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