Each year, I try to make it back to Taiwan at least once, if not twice. This time I chose to spend my Christmas in Taipei, with the highlight being me getting to take a long cooking class on Christmas Day. The class was for Taiwanese food, of course. I also hoped to spend some time at one of the many hot springs around, as well as indulging in some other Taiwanese food and, of course, hopefully hanging out with some friends.

This time, the weather was better than it was in February. It ended up being warmer than expected at some points. This led me to discuss the topic of weather with the chef of my cooking class, Ivy Chen. I mentioned to her that I thought it was funny how a meteorologist can be wrong all of the time and still have a job. She laughed and said that she hadn’t really thought about that but that she agreed. Anyway, onto the food!

The final products…

I had been looking forward to making the pineapple cakes the whole time. Of course they came out great, and she happened to have little individual boxes to put them in that were specially made for pineapple cakes. She told me that for a long time, pineapple cakes weren’t actually made with pineapple but rather with winter melon. Apparently this was because winter melon was cheaper and more plentiful than pineapples back in the day. It was only recently, within the last 20 years or so, that people decided that since Taiwan was now a mass producer of pineapples, pineapple cakes should use real pineapple (I don’t think I’ve ever used the word “pineapple” that many times in one sentence before). In this recipe, she used both cooked-down pineapples and apples.

I also learned some other things, such as how different Asian countries tend to make soy sauce a bit differently, which creates slightly lighter or heavier versions, and Taiwan’s own style of soy sauce. She also commented on how surprised and delighted she was that I, a foreigner (and an American one), had decided to make the Osysters Thin Noodles dish. She said that it’s not typical for western clients to request this. I told her that I am delightfully different and not afraid of interesting dishes like that. She also mentioned that the pork rolls in soy sauce were a recipe that used to be common when she was young but that it’s not seen much anymore. I told her that it ended up being my favorite dish of them all.

While in Taipei, I had a chance to venture out at night for food and to see the local sights. In a popular pedestrian area known as Ximen, there were plenty of political statements being made by pro-independence citizens. There were flags promoting a free and independent Taiwan, as well as banners saying that the meditative practice of “Falun Dafa” (or Falun Gong) was good. In mainland China, this practice was considered a threat to the leadership of the communist party when Jiang Zemin was in office because it promoted freer thought, focus, and attention to one’s own mind and well-being. Naturally, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) cannot promote anything that it deems a threat to its power, and the practice is still considered illegal to this day. I have also seen pamphlets and displays about how the Chinese government continues to kidnap, incarcerate, and harvest the organs of dissidents and sell them on the black market. Of course, if you go to Mainland China, you’ll never hear or see anything about this.

On my last day there, I saw people of the opposite view who were clearly from the mainland (they were older and putting up Chinese flags). It’s interesting how in China there is no freedom of speech and news outlets are heavily censored and slanted in favor of the CCP, yet outside of China, people who are mouthpieces for the CCP take complete advantage of other countries’ freedom of speech to promote the CCP’s agenda. This is why it’s important to step out of China when possible to get an outside perspective.

On a lighter note, I finally met up with my friend, who took me to the same night market that he took me to last time. There I was able to get my favorite street dish: three scoops of fruit-flavored ice cream, sweetened peanut shavings, and corriander wrapped in a thin crepe. We also visited the same temple that is next door to the night market in Raohe.

Here is some other that I had during my trip.

Yes, that is how I spent my Christmas, and it was the best I’ve had in a while. Here’s to more satisfying trips to Taiwan in the future.