Miaoli and Taichung

Miaoli

Miaoli is near Sophie's Mom's hometown and many of Sophie's aunts and uncles live in Miaoli or nearby areas. All the aunties and uncles enjoy getting together in a big boisterous group. I can't help but think of "My Big Fat Greek (Chinese) Wedding" whenever there is a big family gathering in Miaoli. It's always fun even though I can't understand most of what is going on. This is actually one of the few places where I'm not the only person out in the dark. Sophie's Mom's family often speaks the local Hakka dialect so Sophie and her Dad are as lost as I am. This time we all got together for a big lunch at the Santong Hotel. It's one of the bigger hotels in Miaoli and the food there is quite good. A big feast for 11 people including lobster, abalone, crab, fish, and other seafood was only NT$4500 (US$135). Quite the bargain considering the quantity and quality of food. There are a lot of persimmons grown in the Miaoli area and as luck would have it, they were in season. The freshly grown persimmons here are very tasty.


Sophie's Mom, Hsiaoayi, Daayi, & Siyi.



Sanyi, Sanyifu (Sanyi's husband), Dajou (oldest brother), Hsiaojou (youngest brother).



Sophie, Andrew, and Sophie's parents.



Hey, what's going on?



Cheers!!



[rear l-r] Sanyi (3rd sister), Siyi (4th sister) [front l-r] Eryi (2nd sister, Sophie's Mom), Hsiaoayi (youngest sister), Daayi (oldest sister)



All five sisters.



Tea and snacks afterwards at Daayi's old house. Daayi made some really strong tea, I was feeling buzzed after a couple of small cups.


Taichung

After leaving Miaoli we headed for Taichung to spend the night on our way to Alishan. In Taichung we stayed at the Howard Prince Hotel which was very comfortable. After we settled in, it was time to go hunting for sun cookies and dinner. Sun cookies are a famous local snack in Taichung and Sophie's Dad had been to the original shop many years ago. Now, of course, everybody claimed to be the original sun cookie shop and it took a while to find the right place. It turns out the one place not claiming to be the original is in fact the original place. Sun cookies are these big cookies filled with sugar. Quite tasty. After securing a supply of cookies it was time to find some dinner. We headed over to the Mitsukoshi department store near the hotel and headed for the food court. The food court here is quite impressive. For about US$4 each, we had Hakka and Taiwanese dinner combos. The food was tasty and the portions were surprisingly large.


While searching for the famous original Taichung sun cookies, we got distracted by these little deep fried snacks. These are pretty good, too.



Stranded in the middle of a busy street right in front of the Mitsukoshi department store. We're in the dark to the right.



Breakfast at the Howard Prince Hotel. We've always had good luck with the hotel breakfast buffets in Taiwan and this was no exception. There was a big selection of all sorts of Chinese, Japanese, and Western food.


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