Category: foooood

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books foooood weeknotes

weeknotes, 7/25

this week, i finished the 2 long reads i had started at the end of january, the seven husbands of evelyn hugo and midnight in chernobyl. the former was just so-so but the latter was amazing — an astonishingly thorough, in-depth breakdown of the disaster and its many ramifications. i feel like going back and watching hbo’s chernobyl series again, to put a face to these characters i’ve become so familiar with.

and speaking of books, i signed up for portugal’s own new digital lending program biblioled and got my first audiobook! for now, the selection is not extensive (and the books can’t be sent to kindles) but the regional library has quite a few audiobooks from the fundação francisco manuel dos santos, which are usually good. i’ve picked one about palliative care to give it a try.

this week included art class, the return of chinese classes, swimming, running… it’s like everyday had a bit of something different in it. spring is in the air all around us, with the countryside exploding in bermuda buttercups and the almond trees hanging on to their last blooms…

we went to noélia on valentine’s day, and also enjoyed a nice lunch out on this week’s mini winter festival, in town.

it’s 10 weeks until the “maratona da europa” in aveiro. the boy and my brother registered for the half-marathon, and me and my sister-in-law signed up for the 10k. right now, i can run around 3.5kms… will i be able to make it to 10? 😅 i’m not too confident, but i think so. i’m currently running while following along to the abel town saga on the zombies, run! app, which is a kind of audio story in which you’re a runner, running errands in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. the story unfolds as you go, with different characters, audio effects and things that you pick up along the way. it’s kind of cute, and the zombies are not that scary!

and last but not least, good news!

the level at our local dam is at the highest it’s been in a long time — higher than i remember ever seeing it! it’s kind of magic seeing the local stream with water again, after so long. let’s see if the kingfishers will return too!

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foooood in spain

weeknotes, 41/24

madriiiiid! we’re visiting the spanish capital for a few days, and i love that we managed to get here without taking a flight… although it did take the whole day between buses and trains. but we made it!

we’re doing a home swap and staying in a small apartment in the vallecas neighborhood, which feels very “multikulti” and reminds us a lot of our old neighborhood in berlin. it’s missing tempelhof, but it has a hill from which you can see the whole city!

so far, we’ve wandered the city’s avenues to try to get a feeling for it, and also visited the retiro park, which feels huge.

and of course, we’ve been using any opportunity we get to fill our bellies with churros and chocolate! :D

next week: museums and culture!

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foooood in taiwan

night markets

night markets are one thing taiwan is really famous for, and i was sooo looking forward to exploring them! they open around 6pm and offer an eclectic mix of street food and entertainment. sometimes they’re in a normal street that has traffic during the day and is closed at night, and other times they take place in purpose-made indoor markets. there’s a few in each city and they were always fun to walk: buzzing with people, arcade games lining the street and lots of food to try!

and the food is really good too — the variety is endless and some of the stalls even have michelin stars!






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foooood in taiwan

a cooking class with ivy

one of the gifts the boy gave me last christmas was a cooking class in taiwan, and i loved the experience! beforehand, i picked a few dishes and discussed them with the teacher, and we agreed on the plan. we met at the market to grab some ingredients, including eggs, which were in shortage on the island for some reason. ours were salted eggs — the yolks are firm and delicious!

the market tour was definitely a highlight of the experience — they had so many types of rice, and things like spice mixes and dried leaves for all sorts of things, fruits i’d never seen, and the cuttlefish was so fresh it changed color if you touched it!

back in her studio, we had tea, and then started cooking! we made wontons in chili oil (which was not as spicy as expected) and sweet steamed red bean and sesame buns…

… and shanghai zongzi! zongzi is a laborious affair of rice, pork and salted yolk wrapped in a huge bamboo leaf that is then pressure cooked. ivy was super patient with me though, showing me the right wrapping technique while i made a mess in her kitchen.

it was amazing experience, with delicious results — and i even got to bring the leftovers home for the boy! :D

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foooood in taiwan

betel nuts

betel nuts are something completely new to us, and i was kind of fascinated by them. they grow on a type of skinny palm tree, and are sold fresh wrapped in betel leaf, with a bit of slaked lime mixed in.  the stalls and shops that sell them are everywhere on the side of the roads — once you notice their flashy fluorescent neons at night, you cannot unsee them. 

in taiwan, they’re sold fresh in little bags of a dozen or so nuts. the nuts and leaves are chewed together, to give people a buzz and a warm feeling (or so we’ve heard). like tobacco, they’re also carcinogenic, so it’s not something i was eager to try. there’s a curious magic to them though: when chewed, the whole saliva and mouth of the person turns blood red… it’s more than a little disconcerting to see someone smiling while chewing them. the leftovers are spit out after the chewing is done, often on the floor.  in taipei, it’s forbidden to spit them out on the pavement, which i guess hinders its consumption… but around the country there is no such problem, and everywhere  you go outside the capital, you see the red spats on the floor.  


apparently, they’re more of a southern asia thing, which helps explain why we never saw them in shanghai. anyway, maybe not the nicest aspect of taiwan, but yeah… it made me look and discover something new.