What Dinner Looks Like

What dinner looks like if you don't make it yourself, pictures taken at my aunt's friend's house in Taipei. They live in one of the high-rises on the side of the mountain overlooking Taipei City, where the celebrities live. I wish my computer wasn't Linux, so I can mount my old external hard drive and get the nightscape pictures of Taipei 101 that I took from the giant window of their apartment. It's about the most amazing image in the world. Sorry kids.

Considering this picture was taken indoors, I am quite proud of the photo quality of these two wine glasses and the grain of the table surface.For starters, Dong Gua Tang (winter melon soup) with oysters. For hot summers, this is a light but tasty soup that won't weigh down the rest of your meal.
Foreground: calamari pasta with shrimp. Background: anchovy and bamboo shoots with spicy red peppers
Beef with bell peppers, something we make at our house as well. The picture isn't so good because I forgot to take a picture of it until it was plated on my plate.
Tofu in red sauce. I can't remember what the red sauce was made from, but it wasn't spicy at all.
For dessert, the trend of the moment, mille-crepe with mango stuffing.
Almond nai lao (milk pudding gelatin thingy) with blueberry.

A Teaser

Remember when we went to the market to get food for dinner? Yeah. This is only a teaser for the huge meal yet to come. In the meantime, more local fruit from Taitung.
A random neighbor came by on his scooter and dropped off some bananas from his yard. In Taitung, you hardly ever need to buy food, because it's understood that if you have more than you can eat, you pass it on to your neighbors. If everybody grows different things, what you get is a "free" cornucopia of fresh produce.
This, also from a neighbor. Tung Gua's English is either wax gourd or winter melon.
Betel nuts, in their natural form. More to come on the subculture of betel nuts in a separate entry. from the way they are arranged on the tree, I am led to believe that betel is related to coconuts, but smaller.
Lychee, and the tree that bore it. Found in the side yard of a consultant for running B&Bs.