Lunch Party

Aside from the errant firecracker pop, I am sad to say the fourth of July passed here with no big fireworks to light the sky, no charcoal, and no BBQ. (Mmmm Bono's sounds amazing right now!) But speaking of food, the main agenda for today was our "lunch party."

It was held at one of the best restaurants in Kaohsiung. Julia, a part time teacher at San Shin, (who has amazing English and is our go to for taxis and how to) said her mother wishes that all the wedding banquets would be held at this restaurant so she can go there.

This is what the down stairs looked like. Crystal dangling from golden chains with orchids and a golden carriage. Very fancy. I am glad they had us wear business casual. This restaurant looked nice enough to wear fancy fancy clothes but the locals were in business casual so we followed suit.


When we arrived, we met with the teachers in a separate room, while the host families had a separate meeting in the main dining room.

[Around the table: Folayan, Morgan, (standing) John Gelabert, Helen, (seated) Julia, Ray, Abe, (my seat), Amy, Ryan, and Dr. O'Kon.

After our meeting Becky addressed the crowd in English and in Chinese, one right after the other, with ease(she is so smart!). A few times she would look at a Chinese speaker and try English, and once even looked at me once and tried to start a sentence in full Chinese. Below are Becky, John, and Jeanne addressing the crowd. (Whenever John or Jeanne would speak Becky would translate for the non-English speakers in the room.)



From there lunch was served. And when they say lunch party they mean party. No expense was spared and the lunch was delicious! First we had cuts of raw fish on a beautiful mound of ice with huge wasabi pillars and ornamented with orchids and vegetable shapes.

Then there was the mollusks and yes I ate one.

There were many dishes that were added to the large glass lazy susan in the middle of the table. All were very fresh. Very few were fried and if they were it was tempura style - light and airy.



Amy, Folayan, and Me with our Mollusks.

A dried shrimp! Linda said it started out normal sized and was shrunk during the drying process. This was from one of the main dishes. It was a goulash of crab, rice, dried shrimps like this one, spices, and bamboo sprout noodles.

Oysters and squash.

And last but not least the dessert of fruit.

I am very proud of myself. My rule of thumb was "tasty bites" of everything regardless of appearance or texture. This has really made me more accepted by the Taiwanese I have met so far. For example, at lunch when the raw fish came out I helped myself to the two oddest looking pieces there and one mom said, "I do not eat, Wow! you like?" Actually I did like it! This is just expanding my horizons beyond my wildest imaginations!