This weekend was one of firsts: my first Peking duck, my first visit to Di Hua Street to experience the Chinese New Year craziness, AND the first time I've done two blog posts in one weekend! :) Saturday night my friend, Linda, organized a group dinner to eat the traditional meal of Peking duck - originally from Beijing, but apparently Taiwan does a pretty good job of it (as they do with most food). It was fantastic and I thought my tummy was going to explode from the deliciousness. Then today Jordan and I went to Di Hua Street and threaded our way through the throngs of people to taste traditional treats and observe all of the people. It was even more crowded than the night markets! You could pretty much buy any sort of dried fish, shrimp, vegetable, fruit, and any type of candy in the world. We of course ate too much, but how can one resist?
Side note: I was too short to take pictures over the crowds (plus too lazy) so all photo credit of Di Hua Street goes to Jordan.
Peking Duck Deliciousness:
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| They came out and showed us our ducks before carving them up...slightly disturbing, but still yummy. |
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| The first step is the to make a pancake with the duck skin, some hoisin sauce, and spring onions. The lady gave us a demonstration, and she was crazy good with her chopsticks. |
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| All ready for me to eat! |
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| Pauline and Georgina ready to enjoy their first bite! |
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| Mmmmmm! |
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| Apparently it is also traditional to eat little ham sandwiches - reminded me of Honey Baked Ham! Good, but didn't compare to Betsy's ham biscuits. |
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| My CNY present was a camel! He's about to enjoy some duck soup. |
Di Hua Street Craziness:
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| Ready to brave the crowds! |
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| First food stop happened as soon as we walked in: scallion pancake!!! Frickin' love these. |
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| Chinese New Year's decorations! Lots of red and gold. |
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| Trying to resist the candy temptation...very difficult since they kept telling me I could try it all for free! |
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| WHAT IS THIS?!? Grossed out. |
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| Chestnut! The lady even peeled it for me. |
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| They love their dried fishies here - not a huge fan. |
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| Every type of dried fruit and vegetable imaginable! |
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| Mmm sausages. We resisted these...for today. |
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| Delicious noodles - they definitely know how to do noodles right in this country. |
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| My first experience with quail eggs. Verdict: fantastic! |
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| Randomly neat architecture...not very common in Taipei. |
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| I continue to be disturbed by this. |
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| More sausages than you can imagine! |
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| Love the Instagram app! It makes everything look old and therefore cool. Please note the intense crowds. |
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| Thing of interest in this particular photo: the man dressed up in a dragon costume in the background. Loving it. |
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| Lion dog! |
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| I could eat this everyday. Grilled squid with sweet/spicy sauce? Heaven. |
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| Mountain pork with onions and green peppers. Totally to die for! |
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| Getting ready to make my CNY decoration purchase! I went with the sparkly dragons (duh). |
