Several of you have asked what the food is like here, so I thought I would do a short post on food.
Above
is a picture of a typical school lunch. Us teachers usually use our own
dishes, but the school plates are available. Silverware consists of a
soup spoon and a set of chopsticks. A regular spoon like the one I have
is rare and rather American.
On the
left side, you see what they call a tangerine. It is much like our
oranges and it is sweet and juicy, but the peel is green. There are a
lot of seeds.
Moving clockwise to the top is a type
of salad. However, this "salad" took a bit of getting used to. It has
greens, carrots, and purple cabbage like our salads, but it is boiled.
Usually, Taiwanese do not eat much raw food unless their family is
concerned with eating healthy.
Next is
a piece of chicken. Every school meal has a piece of meat, usually
chicken or pork and occasionally fish. We have noted that "boneless
chicken breasts" is not in their vocabulary. They just chop up the meat
and throw it in whatever, so you have to chew well to avoid bones. If
the meat does not have bones, it has been overly processed and resembles
McDonald's chicken nuggets.
Of course,
you are familiar with the rice. That is a main staple with any meal
here. It is served by itself, without toppings, but eaten in course with
other food.
Next is a type of stir-fry with carrot,
salt melon, tofu, fish something?, and quail egg. The Taiwanese
teachers find it so funny because I will ask what it is, but I only
promise to try it once. After I try it, I may or may not eat seconds.
They laugh at my attitude. Tofu is interesting stuff which I generally
avoid eating, (which is hard because it is a staple,) but some varieties
are okay I think.
They also serve a
watery soup. The soups here are so different. Our school soups are made
with ginger, mushrooms, and some sort of meat. I can't stomach the
stuff, but it doesn't look bad.
Well, that concludes the tour of the
food at our school. Of course, I do eat more than just lunch, but that
will do for now. Later I can tell you about breakfast foods or dinners.
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