Food for Belly

Taiwan is famous for its fruit, some varieties impossible to find in the US, and others that just taste better here. Everyone has a favorite, and my friend Margo's is the Buddha Head Fruit, a lumpy soft-ball-sized fruit with smooth, bright green skin that eats like a canteloupe (and kind of tastes like one). My personal favorite is the ever-popular Dragon Fire Fruit, with skin that fades from bright magenta to pale green, and fruit scattered with small seeds and comes in white or a darker shade of magenta. But all the fruit is good, and cheap, and even things like starfruit, which we enjoy in Michigan, has a fragrance and sweetness here that I never knew it should.

Last night I went out to dinner with some friends, and we all got some variation of seafood noodles (fried, in soup, etc.) and the surprise on top was sea cucumber! I recognize that this is supposed to be a very special delicacy, and is my grandmother's favorite dish, but I can't quite get over the texture of it. Have to add it to that slowly-growing list of Taiwanese foods I simply cannot enjoy, next to Stinky Tofu (obstacle to enjoyment: it smells like a truck-stop toilet), and pig tendon (o.t.e.: a texture issue).

But I did enjoy a Bubble Tea last night that was blissful, over a great conversation with my Japanese friend who is, incidentally, an International Relations major in Japan studying America, while I concurrently studied International Relations with an East Asian Studies Specialization. The bubble tea avoided all the nasty Michigan pitfalls - the tea was not too sweet, the bubbles were not to soggy, and it was only $1. The more I get used to Taipei, the better I eat, and isn't that really what I'm here for after all?