The Goose Who Laid The Sour Egg

Goose eggs. What do you think of when I say “goose egg?” For me, it’s usually Veruca Salt and her golden goose egg, but not in Taiwan. Nope, here they love their goose eggs sour!

Finished product.

I took a visit to Bing Dong and some of the locals had a sour goose egg production line going where you could select your regular goose egg and turn it into the delicious (opinions may vary) sour good egg. Here is how you make a sour goose egg:

1. Acquire a goose to lay a goose egg.
2. Take the goose egg and throw it in a mixture or sour spices and who knows what.
3. Once it is fully covered in mud seal it.
4. Let I t sit for 25 days.
5. Ta-da, you have a sour goose egg.
6. Eat that egg.

Step 2.

Magic assembly line.

Description of  a sour goose egg – Black with a slight tint of green, gelatin-looking albumen with a yellow yolk. Taste like a regular egg plus a pickle with mustard. Yum! 

Love Is In The Air & It Smells Like Fish.

What. A. Day.

Ever been to an Ocean Expo/Boat Exhibition (OEBE)? Yes, really? In a foreign country? No you haven’t! Well, I have and it was pleasant! There was Ocean and Boat and clown and food and the Love River!

What made this day awesome was:

1. The Return of jumping photos:

Jimmy is working on his jumping photo pose! Good thing his big bro is an expert.

2. Touring a Taiwan Coast Guard Boat:

 3. Eating seaside on the harbor while listening to Taylor Swift:

 4. A clown that wasn’t scary and funny eventhough I couldn’t understand him:

I see more than one thing wrong with this.

The OEBE was the first to happen in Kaohsiung and it was actually pretty interesting. We say some GIANT boats, ate some wonderful food, walked around to some booth, watched some clown do magic and ended the night with a wonderful stroll and dinner at the harbor. Andy, Olivia, Hank and Mommy (another wonderful Taiwanese family) joined us for dinner and we got two FREE Juice pitchers! Apparently it was to honor the foreign guest and cause we ordered heaps of food! It was great to watch the sun set behind the mountains while a board a Taiwanese Coast Guard boat. 

Kaohsiung love!

Pig's Blood, On the rocks please.

You know how every year you look forward to the state fair because even though it is super crowded and smelly you love the fried food and excitement?

You are in luck because in Kaohsiung you can have the experience every night! Today I visited the Ruyifeng Night Market where there are snacks galore and shopping that would tire Tyra Banks herself. Edric, Lucy (Kiwi friend from the Gansu Fellowship program) and I hoped in a taxi and off to the night market we went. My host mother Tina met us there to share her knowledge about local snacks (I thought she wanted for me to eat “snakes” – not happening!). 

Getting some noodles and local snacks because heading to the night market.

Let me just say that everything that was available to eat usually isn’t a part of the animal I would ever consider eating. I started that night off really risky and pushing it to the limit with this seasoned pig’s blood! PIGBLOOD! They mold into what looks like a fudge bar to fool you – Edric said he prefers it natural or ‘on the rocks,’ as Lucy and I put it. It was the taste of thick pasta jello with slight taste flour. Not a fan, but hey, I ate pig’s blood – soon I’ll be biting bat’s heads off too! Just remember the name and remember it well – Zhu Xue Gao, which kind of rhymes of ‘bu hao.’

We look happy because at this point we still don't know what we are about to eat.

The rest of snacks were delicious. We had shrimp filled flat cakes (Don’t’ remember the Chinese), some gluttonous flavored balls, tomatoes filled with dates, quail eggs and a salty sprite made drink. All wonderful, and the night ended with a wonderful ride through the city on the back of my host mother’s motorbike. Awesome.    

Quail eggs.

Flavored balls.

Magical - No Really, they know magic!

Turns our my host brothers are extremely talented! Jimmy (age 8) and Alex (age 12) greeting me at the train station with a beautiful sign that read "Welcome Carlos" - beautiful rainbow bird included!

Immediately my horrible Chinese listening and comprehension is evident as Tina, my host mom, starts shooting me with Chinese sentences to which I nod and pretend to understand. As the day goes, by I start to train her that she should talk to me like I am a five-year old - speak slower I tell her, cause I have no idea what you are saying. By the end of the day though we are managing to have actual conversations where I am still nodding, but this time I actually know what she is saying.

Magic! Remember when they asked me if I knew magic? Who cares - they do! Yes, both of my host brothers appear to have a 'magic teacher!' Yesterday evening before our BBQ they got they magic box out and showed me there magic! Amazing! I hope to learn some of these tricks, but it looks like you need more than just a set of cards to do some of the tricks.

Attended a BBQ last night where I met some of the other participants! Had lots of meat! All there was to eat was meat and it was wonderful. Duck meat, chicken, beef, pork, lamb, clams (meat?), meat, meat, meat! Overall the first day was wonderful and I actually slept through the night!

Happy Birthday Gangsta Man.

Waiting at the airport can be a wonderful place to people watch. I present the Birthday Gansta:

White male, about 27, shaved head, sporting some black denim shorts that could possible by considered capris and a white T. He is rather excited as he takes breaks to puff his electric cigarettes in between his obnoxious comments and chatty activities with the other hopeful passengers. "It's my birthday," he says to invoke a sense of sympathy from his counterparts in the cold, blue & brown stripe carpeted terminal. No one even raises a brown in an attempt to avoid conversation, but he continues to leave his bag unattended and walks around making remarks to appear interesting to the others. "I've had two beers..." crickets chirp because once again no one cares, but some how his faded black, full arm tattoo of a man with horns and what appear to be bad dreadlocks seems more threatening. He sits.

Say Hello To Your Sister!

Well y'all, I'm all packed and ready to go. In celebration of my departure we had a cookies and milk party.

I shared photos of my host family and I am super excited because they are awesome. Although, I really don't know much about them except that they want me to do magic tricks - what's not to like! Just look at how happy they look and they aren't even smiling!

And in celebration of my younger brother (pictured above) we took a group picture at the party! Look at how Asian we look! Amazing.

Tulsa, I will miss you for two weeks, but excited to meet your sister KAOHSIUNG!

Taiwanese Mind Readers!

Having contact with my host family has turned out to be quite entertaining! My little Taiwanese brother has been the family representative and has emailed me quite a few times. So far I know that my mom's name is Tina (English names that is), little brother named Johnny (Age 8), emailing master little brother Alex (Age 12) and my farther (intentionally - Yes, he called him my farther) who doesn't have an English name (I will be sure to give him one, I'm thinking Dumbledore).

Alex's English is rather impressive for a young kid of only 12 years, but sometimes weird things happen thanks to the wonderful process of translating. Prime example:

Alex is casually asking me about what I would like to do in Taiwan and where I would like to go, when all of the sudden I read the following sentence - "By the way, my mother wants me to ask you, are you good at performing arts and magic? (WHAT!) May we see your show when we're on the bus."

MAGIC? PERFORMING ARTS? This family must be a family of mind readers because I happen to be great at magic and performing arts. My juggling show will surely impress them, guess I should start practicing. If only I could get my wand to work!