Cooking Craze

In an effort to acclimate with more ease, eat as the people eat, I decided I needed to learn how to cook with a bit more, shall we say, Taiwanese flair? This of course does not include Chilis. We don't need no stinkin' Chilis. (This is actually a lie. We do need Chilis. Weekly in fact). However in an attempt to embrace the culture, local markets and the food, I was incredibly excited to be the recipient of cooking lessons. Two in fact. One from my incredibly accommodating language teacher and the other from my friend who is from Japan. The first evening(last night) we made a savory 牛肉麵, niu rou mian, also known as beef noodle (soup). YUM. So good. Amanda, chef and Mandarin language teacher extraordinaire was incredibly patient, brought over key ingredients and "supped" with us as well. Fine dining indeed. I do however wish that I had brought my crock pot. It would make cooking meat a lot easier here. Why did I not bring anything here?!?!? Seriously though. How many times did I use that crock pot at home??? ah well. Funny side note? Apparently crock pots are called fast cookers here? hahah.Today at my friends house I (watched) her make dumplings. Most importantly, now I know where in the market place to buy the meat and the dumpling dough. Awesome. The dumplings came out quite good, though I think I may do some tweaking with flavors etc. All in all I am feeling mucho Taiwanese. 

Dumplings!!

How one may feel after a big meal.