How come I'm hungry all the time?

I know it's weird. But this is my favorite pizza in the world. It's now extinct. The restaurant closed it's doors - Fingas, here in Taichung (though the Deli is alive and kicking.) Sausage, Jalapeno Peppers, and Dark Mushrooms. Sigh. Anyway, I had this shot from my last Pizza meal there and I was also looking to test out a print shop down the road and Voila! For 540 NT$ or about 18 Can Dollars I had this made up. I was comparing it to the onscreen version (on the monitor) and very happy with the results. 120cm by 90cm of full-on Pizzarific glory. Mind you now I'm pining for two things... a pizza (of course) and a 10M pixel camera... 

Four Lovely Ladies.

The title says it all. Hard to get a good shot of Ming, she's so bubbly! 

Further Fun on Saturday.

Here is the rest of Saturday night's fun! From the left that's Lucy and then Rebecca or Jessica as she's now known, and two sisters. Ming and Mavis.
I loved the ring that Rebecca was wearing and luckily the girls won something, or were celebrating VJ day so I could get a shot of it. 

Vinnie's Birthday Fish

My buddy Vinnie took me out and bought me a special birthday fish. Here's the happy proprietor and the fish.
A closer view.
The fish was fried and had a light chilli - tomato sauce with fresh Chinese parsely on top. Of course that was just the highlight. There was plenty of other Taiwanese dishes there. Mostly just fried clams with Basil... I love it when they deep fry basil here.
Ya, the fish didn't last long at all. That and fried noodles in the Traditional sense made for a great Saturday night, thanks Vinnie! Hmmm, Maybe I should have gotten a picture of Vinnie! Ahh, more reason to go back to Chung Hwa. 

Made in China, sigh...

Here is the result of my wonderful sister Quinne's gift to me. It was a hot pad and I put a hot pot on it for a minute and the smell of burning plastic started so when I examined it, the top red part had melted a bit. No problemo, I'll just wash it, I thought. Seeing as how I didn't want to waste and entire load on one little potholder, I threw it in. When Jau-Ruey decided to wash her undies, she threw them in on top and the poor little thing disintegrated...
But not without leaving a coded message behind...If you look carefully.... the only pieces of text that survived were...
Ahhh! The truth comes out! ahahahaha. So that's what the world's been trying to tell me this week! Quinne!!! I'm sure Jordo has the perfect quip here. hahaha. Send him the link, eh? 

Drunken Chicken, not Drunken Jason.

My Taiwanese Brother Vinnie is getting into cooking in a fantastic way. Here, he's starting to go the traditional Chinese way with 'Drunken Chicken' whereby you cook the meat by marinating it in wine for a couple of days. It turns the fat all funky too, kind of a rubbery texture. This is what it looked like straight out of the marinade.
Here you get a shot of the underside. The Chinese medicine he put in wasn't too strong. I think those are called "Wolf Berries" the small read ones, I mean. They are good for the memory. Also there are some roots and other herbs. Funny in Taiwan, Chinese Herbs are almost never green...
I've cut it here. The pink color isn't raw at all, it's just fresh meat. Usually, when this is served in a restaurant, it's a cheap cut of meat with a bone in and they just cut through it bone and all so eating it is a bit of an adventure. Vinnie's however, was awesome! It was all meat, a solid slab, WOW. The texture was great and the only thing I would say is tha the flavor hadn't penetrated all the way in yet, so I let it sit for another day.
Yum. It's a completely different texture. It's a unique experience that has to be tried to be understood. The Taiwanese often use textures in their food, mostly a strange fascination with gelatinous - from what I've seen. Similar to the trays of food you see pushed around a Dim Sum restaurant that all the HonKonGese are clamboring after.
Thanks Vinnie! It was great! 

Jau-Ruey's pick of Jau-Ruey

Jau-Ruey insists she's a hottie here. So she broke into my blog and posted this. That's her other boyfriend, btw. 

Jau-Ruey

Wow, This is Jau-Ruey sporting her new top. She came back from Canada bearing many gifts for me. Apparently while shopping with my Mom and Brea she got this gift for me! Yummy.
Here's a better shot of the overall package. Yay for digital cameras! Yay for Brown! 

Gifts from the homeland.

Well Well, what have we here? Seems some of us ARE appreciated. Ahhhh Thanks to the special one that sent this in with the bag of goodies that came back from the homeland. How did you know, Quinne, that I've been burning my hand on that *)&)(* Ikea pan forever! Ha! Hope you are using my hand blender! And have a box of chinese take out for me, while you are at it.
Pause for a moment, as I Diva for you. Jau-Ruey came back yesterday! Hoo Ray! Lots of fun stories and great photos and of course she came with some Season's Greetings in the form of loot. Got Underwear from the parents(I know it was Mom!) but it's the best in the Joe Boxer line, and makes me laugh. Got some other cool stuff too. A Misto mister, for cooking, etc. Not bad considering I live in Tinkland. Oh yeah!