Return to the Motherland

Left LA around 1130pm, arrived Taipei at 630am. Malaysia Air, about 13 hr flight. I haven't taken a flight that long in quite a while, but it wasn't too bad. I came prepared with earplugs and an eye mask, got about 8 hrs of sleep. And had some decent airplane food. There's always two options: Western style or local (of the airline) style. Go with the local option. Guaranteed to be better.

M dad ordered a shuttle bus for my mom and I so we quickly zipped out of the city and into the boonies. My gramma lives closer to the middle of the island, so it took us about two hours. It's nice to be back. I haven't been here for about 3 yrs. I grew up coming here once a year and my gramma has lived here for 60 yrs now. My grandpa used to have a pig farm and the surrounding land was all rice fields. Now the pig pens are empty and there are more factories and houses than I remember. My gramma keeps quite an impressive vegetable and fruit garden, while my dad maintains the rest of the garden and builds ponds and fountains. Oh and the weather is really nice now.

Got welcomed in with fresh corn, then tangerines and then lunch. For being 86, my gramma can still cook up a storm. There was fried fish, greens, tofu, thousand-year eggs, homemade pork meatballs, oyster soup... Unpacked and took a nap in the afternoon, then ate some more. Gramma made two of my favorites: ginger-clam soup and kong ba, slow cooked fatty pork with Chinese five spice. Oh, did I mention that this may turn into a food blog? I considered naming the blog, Travel to Eat.

Tomorrow, more relatives come to visit and I guess we're crashing a wedding across the field? Sounds like fun!