A Day in Tainan

The weekend after my adventure in Kenting, Gabe and I decided to take a trip to Tainan. Tainan is the former capital of Taiwan and is considered the cultural capital. Tainan, I was told by two of my adult students, is too far away to drive. According to the locals here, everywhere in Taiwan is too far away. In actuality, Tainan is 40 kms away from where I live in Kaohsiung.

On board our 50 cc scooters, Gabe and I made the journey in about an hour. We stopped first at a Buddhist temple. It was massive, old and really cool. We then went to about 3 more temples – all were very well manicured. Some had really interesting statues and some really incredible gardens, but after a while, they all started looking the same. So, we went to the Museum of Taiwanese Literature. It would have been really interesting, I am sure, had we been able to understand any of the exhibits. However, we got to look at some old books and that was pretty cool! I did, however, find that Taiwan, like Canada, is a relatively young culture. It is trying to invent itself after a colonial power. So there is a very conscious effort from the Taiwanese to create a sort of new national identity that fuses their Chinese heritage, Japanese colonization, a post colonial quasi dictatorial rule, and the more recent bout with democracy and creates a distinct Taiwanese identity.

After discovering all this, I became hungry. Gabe and I decided to find a bite to eat. Unfortunately, we could not find anything. So we wondered up to a street vendor. This is the type of restaurant where they have a “kitchen” on the side walk and set up two tables and a few plastic chairs and call themselves a legitimate restaurant! I went and asked for chicken, they said no. I then asked for a couple more things and they continued to say no. Then, they told me what I was going to eat – fish and rice. I sat down, and out comes a small bowl of rice with little chunks of what I thought were fish. I started to eat, but they felt really, really tender. Something did not seem right about this fish, but I decided to take a few more bites to see if it was one of those acquired tastes you hear so much about. Just as I had decided that this taste was most likely one that I was unlikely to acquire anytime soon, my fish came out in another bowl. So what was this strange substance in my rice if wasn’t my fish? I discovered that it was little chunks of fat. Yes, strait fat – yummy. They actually love fat here in Taiwan, I still don’t love it!

My fish, was an actual fish that had been gutted and boiled then served to me. What I received was a fish with fins, gills and bones in a bowl of hot water...another acquired taste I presume, but one that I have yet to personally acquire.

After our meal, Gabe and I went to the 7-11 and bought ourselves a snickers bar. The snickers bar has been my saving grace. Whenever I am starving and in serious need of food but cannot find anything to eat due to the language barrier, I can always grab a snickers bar at any of the many 7-11s to sustain me.

We drove home that night. Tainan was a great place with some great temples and some not so great food (according to me)!