How long we’ve been here: 9 months 21 days or 281 days in total
Favourite thing to eat:
Dave: This is always tough to answer each month because I work in
a Taiwanese kitchen 3 nights a week and also am the Chef at BUS7 Café I sample
many different foods every day. I guess the month of July would be a toss up
between roasted duck(Bejing Peeking Style) or Taiwanese Sausage. The Taiwan
sausages are very different than what we make back at the Burt Farm
Butchershop. Maybe I will get a chance to get back into the cutting room and
experiment with Max when I get back. This special sausage is made with traditional
salted hog casing, pork and fat and is
packed full of flavour with a mixture of Asian 5 spice, ginger, garlic,
rice wine vinegar, and cane sugar for sweetness. I think this maybe a special
dish I make in the future for my French/Taiwanese fusion Menu im here working
on right now.
Steph: Fruit!! Right now Passion Fruit is just coming into season, but our fridge usually has a selection of mango, guava, pinapple, dragon fruit (my new fav!!), watermelon, etc etc etc.
Greatest accomplishment/ Coolest thing this month:
Dave: The Café has been doing great and this month we exceeded our
expectations with over 1300 customers enjoying the new breakfast and lunch
menu. I got to experience Shark Fin Soup and make the soup with my Chef at
Rongyuan. This dish is very expensive around 300 Cdn for 600G and also very controversial
as it used to be that fisherman would catch sharks and cut the fins off of them
and then throw the sharks still alive back into the water where they couldn’t
survive and then would die. This used to be common practice here in Taiwan
until it was outlawed and banned in 2011 due to animal rights activists and a
lot of bad publicity for Taiwan as we were one of the biggest consumers of
shark fin in the world. Now only whole commercial caught Sharks are harvested
for their entire meat and are allowed for sale here in Taiwan. Many Tourists
come to Taipei to experience this very rare soup. Its really isn’t anything
spectacular and the cost is really crazy just like Kopiluwak Coffee which I
also tried when I was in my final year of Culinary school.
Disclaimer: Gordon Ramsey did a segment on shark fin soup and how it's made. You can see it here. His
first stop is Taiwan. Viewer Discretion is advised.
Steph: I was asked to co-host our Kindy graduation ceremony this year.
Each class (we have one yoyo, one little, two middle and two big classes every
semester) has a presentation (songs for the two younger classes, skits with
singing, dancing and speaking parts for the older classes), and the older
classes have extra dances and music to perform. It’s a HUGE deal, as parents
and grandparents and aunties and uncles all show up, as well as top HESS people
from the area. Needless to say there was a little bit of pressure on everyone
to make things perfect, so a great many hours in the months, weeks and days
before the ceremony were spent practicing and in rehearsals.
Even with two classes and hosting duties, the most difficult part
actually seemed to be finding something to wear! One of my coworkers took me to
the department store, and three hours later we finally found a dress that fit
and was appropriate for the ceremony. It wasn’t easy though!
Favourite place you’ve visited/ Favourite thing you’ve done:
Dave: Typhoon DAY! The best part about this day was watching the entire Oceans Trilogy in one afternoon. This sounds like a terrible thing being lazy and all but when you work as many hours as we do in one month it was super nice to be lazy for one entire day and I got to make home made pizza for my beautiful bride.
Steph: July was a bit of a blur, with extra classes to teach and practices, but I did get to go on two outside/ field trips with my classes- the Confucious Temple with my middle class and the train station with my yoyos. My babies LOVE trains and the song ‘Down By The Station’ so we gave an impromptu performance for the people waiting for the train!
Also, we had our very first Typhoon Day!! Dave and I stayed in our pjs
and watched the entire Ocean’s trilogy, made pizza and all sorts of delish
foods, and in general just got to spend the day together. It was FANTASTIC!!
Thing you’re looking forward to most:
Dave: River Tracing in Pingtung up in the Mountains – I hope to jump off
a waterfall!
Our Holidays to Australia is only 90 days away and Steph and I cant wait
to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary trip in the land down under
Steph: Pretty much the same as Dave. I’m a little apprehensive about the
river tracing, but Australia is coming up!!
Favourite thing to listen to: We’re in love
with Rend Collective right now. The song ‘Joy’ is our fav!!
Easiest thing to get used to:
Dave: driving the scooter through 6 inches of rain. Almost flooded
it two times this week we got around 530mm of rain in 3 days (convert that
number J )
Steph: Good question. Maybe the rain? I loooove listening to it when it
pours, but it can be tricky staying dry sometimes!
Something you’ve learned:
Dave: Talk Slow, Be Patient, I sometimes can be very direct when working
on the Line and when busy in the kitchen as this is part of being a Chef and
managing the flow of food when where busy. One thing I have learned and am
learning is that the Taiwanese culture doesn’t always understand The English
Tone and I guess sometimes I can come across mean even when I don’t want to be.
I continue to ask the Lord for Grace and his amazing Patience when learning and
working this all out.
Steph: Dave mentions patience but it’s true! So many things get lost in
translation. And right now I’m in the process of saying goodbye to my middle
class as I’ll be teaching a new yoyo class and moving with my now yoyos up to
little class. Another teacher will be taking over my middle class, and while I
won’t be their teacher anymore I know I’ll still get to see them every day, it’s
not the same as having them as my kids. I’m going to miss them!!
Maple leaf earrings (a pre-Taiwan gift from Dave's mom!!) for Canada Day!!
When construction happens, it's ugly. The solution? Cover it up with a photo!
Like every time Steph tries to take a picture of her kids. Maybe they're trying to see inside?
Checking out the train.
Fried squid at the market. (Side note: You can really tell which ones were taken by our phones and which by our DSLRs!!)
Night Market dinner date. On the menu: our absolute fav, Taiwanese steak and noodles with egg. It's smothered in this delicious pepper sauce that we both absolutely love.
Mmmm....
Mango smoothie for dessert.
Night market!!
Steph bought a bike!!
Foreshadowing I never noticed before. Fishing for lake trout indeed!!
One of my (Steph) coworkers had her student's mom ask to make an origami frog. I helped. Then played with my creation by making it hop back and forth across my desk.
At the park just down the street from Steph's school. If you look up, you're actually sitting under a durian tree. Pe-eww!!
We know we look cool. Waiting to see How to Train your Dragon in 3D. Do yourself a favour and see it.
Steph's girls, waiting for their turn to practice during the dress rehearsal.
Pre-grad hosting selfie.
Steph's afghan!! It's still in the works, but it's coming along!!
Kraft Dinner. We hadn't eaten this since we left. Thanks Jenny, Candice, Tyler and Momma O and Poppa B!!
Dave's amazing mushroom soup. (Airplane crackers added by Steph)
Dave's AMAZING home-made pizza. No cheese, but it was SO good he made it twice in two days!!
Typhoon day activities.
Typhoon day, safe inside. Looks pretty calm here!
Rain at work.
We found our twin scooter!!
This handsome guy was strutting his stuff on our Sunday walk.
Coolest car around.
Dragon fruit. Mmmmm....
Steph's usual view. And yes, Amanda's scooter is so comfortable I can text from the back of it.
Roots in Taiwan!!! (I had to touch every maple leaf I think)
Outside trip!
David with some dried shark fin
This piece of shark fin costs around 1000 Cdn
