Yilan

What an awesome morning! Liching's sister made fresh green onion pancakes and mulberry soy milk for breakfast. Then, we headed out to Yilan, on the Eastern coast. Lots of rice paddies, small farms (mostly squash) and I've seen one corn field. Weather has been great, as long as the umbrella comes along. They have umbrella racks here, since it rains 200 days out of the year, where you can place your umbrella, lock it in and take the key. No payment needed. Lunch was absolutely delicious! We had fupijen, sweet fried taro cake, grilled mackarel, cold marinated squid, shrimp with mayo and pinapple, sashimi, and seafood soup. One of the best meals I've had in a while. Yum! (www.sianjing.com)

fried shrimp 

fupijen

mackerel 

We also went to a canned/dried fruit factory. We were able to taste everything and it was all extremely good. They even have dried starfruit, which I feel is better than fresh! And pinapple that has actually been dried properly, not that sugary candied stuff they sell in the US. they also had a small jar with a single preserved orange, which was translucent. Upon looking at it more closely, I discovered that there were gold flakes floating around in there too. Everything was so pretty to look at. Real good preserved duck as well. Kind of like very soft beef jerky. YUM. We met an awesome guy who worked there. He kept us company on our adventure and was very happy to hear that we loved Taiwanese culture- hopes that everyone back home can learn to appreciate it too! They are very serious about what they do. Very humble too. He even let us pick up their fancy display jars, and happily took a photo with us. He spoke English very well, as I wish everyone here did, or that I could speak fluent Chinese. Everyone is so friendly and willing to have a nice conversation, I could sit down and visit all day! They are so eager to help us learn Chinese, anywhere we go. We were able to make our own preserved plums in a jar- the whole process. 

procedure for the preserved fruit

 procedure continued

A happy day in the field

perfectly preserved fruits and flowers

super awesome man!

Our plums! 

Last stop in Yilan was the Lanyang. Really cool museum all about Yilan and its history. Just my type of place- somewhat small but very interesting. Cool lighting and displays, as well as plants, stuffed animals, boats, etc. The gift shop was pretty cool too. Lots of cute little plants and tiny shrimp in bottles, cool art, books, etc. After, we stopped at an ice cream place to get some taro, longyen, and red bean sorbet. Yum, again. Not very sweet at all- just right.

(www.lym.gov.tw)

 Fish ceiling display, the lights go up and down the row. Mahi mahi at the end

Floor screen with cubes that display colors and photos

Got back after after seven, then went out for a little bit to explore. They use lots of written English here that makes either no sense or is really amusing. I love it. Shirts, stickers, notebooks. Ended the night with some tasty street food- basil chicken, Taiwanese sausage, and bean curd.