Lioness in Japan

Gosh another food post — I should really get my head out of my stomach, shouldn’t I?!

I’ve mentioned before that I get a lot of news about trends in Tokyo from my students and it really helps me keep my finger on the pulse because I’m going through a long phase of not turning on my TV.

What also surprises me till this day is that when I bring out really simple articles from the lifestyle news section, my students have the most to say about them. So thanks to this piece on macarons in NYC, I found out that ” fancy” desserts sold at convenient stores are taking Tokyo by storm.

Apparently, there were a few TV shows about conbini sweets (I picked up this habit of calling desserts, “sweets” or スウィツ in Japan, which confused me as it refers to hard candy in Singapore) that lauded conbini tiramisu and cheese cake as being high quality but are very affordable at 200-300JPY compared to department store prices that are 600-700JPY for something similar. I think they brought in a famous patisserie chef to taste these conbini sweets without being told they were so cheap and he gave his stamp of approval but was in shock when it was revealed they were sold at conbinis.

And one of my students said a conbini chain tied up with a famous patisserie chef to produce a range of desserts which were also wildly popular.

I’m not really a dessert person but I thought I would give it a go. Presentation-wise, it’s not bad at all though of course it comes in a plastic container and not a pretty cake box. But when I put it on a plate at home, it looked quite classy beyond its 200JPY price tag and decided to put this one up my sleeve as a lazy-day-dessert-option-but-still-want-to-impress-the-kangaroo idea.

Out of curiosity, I surveyed the dessert sections in all the conbini chains (Daily Yamazaki, Seven Eleven, Family Mart, Lawson) and I think Lawson does the best range with its brand of Uchi Cafe (that means home cafe) and you often find new cakes coming out every few weeks.

Aeons ago, I wrote this post on how to survive Tokyo as a Singaporean and one of the points I made was to “train” oneself not to crave chilli like a demon by way of appreciating other flavours.

But after five years slumming it without my spicy fix feels as cruel as cutting off a bird’s wings. I could live without chilli sauce but life is just so much better with it.

So once every two weeks, I’ll buy a big packet of red chilli (maybe 7-8 in one kana?) from Nissin, a foreign supermarket in Azabu Juban, which costs anywhere between 500-700JPY (USD6.40-8.90). Since this precious red chilli is imported from Holland, I can’t expect it to be mind-blowing hot but it’s got enough heat not to be wimpy and boring. It is very hard to find red chilli in a Japanese supermarket but sometimes there are small green ones that are kind of okay as well.

What I do is I wash the chilli, cut off the little stems, toss them into my Cuisinart food processor, with a squeeze of half a lemon, two soaked dates (you can replace this with sugar or honey or maple syrup), two garlic cloves, a pinch of salt, a splash of extra virgin olive oil, and a touch of water.

A word of caution: put on rubber gloves before you start as the food processor will leak a little and you don’t want your hands to touch the chilli especially if you wear contacts (it’s very painful when you remove them with tainted fingers even if you wash your hands with soap). Even if you didn’t, you don’t want your hands to get fiery hot in case you touch your eyes or face.

Just blend the lot until it breaks down all the bits and it turns a bright reddish orange pictured above. This is my little container of heaven. I eat it with rice and noodles — everything! — just like at home.

This recipe is not as tasty as a store-bought one but it doesn’t have any nasty ingredients like preservatives or MSG.

My Singaporean friends enjoyed it but my Japanese friends thought it was out-of-this-world flaming hot.

It’s the weekend and a fairly quiet one for me as the kangaroo is away on business in the US while I’m slowly digesting my huge lunch at the Singapore embassy’s bounenkai event that was held at the Tokyo Prince Hotel near Shiba-koen.

I was impressed by the selection of hawker favourites on display — satay, prawn mee, laksa, bobocharchar, fried bee hoon, briyani with papadoms and two kinds of curry. And there were also seafood spaghetti, dimsum, salad, fruit, cake, and other buffet-ish dishes. Kind of mish mash but apparently much better than last year’s spread.

I must say it felt oddly comforting to hear Singaporean accents in the air, and gosh, was it messy and gluttonous with piles of food, dirty plates, cups, and harried-looking staff — an island of Singaporeaness in the big mikan (I don’t know why some people call Tokyo a mandarin orange but I suppose it’s a tongue-in-cheek parody of the Big Apple).

So since I don’t have glorious pictures of Singaporean fare, I’ll grace your eyes with photos of another culinary experience at Joel Robuchon in Ebisu. Although it’s a three-star Michelin restaurant, it won’t break the bank if you have lunch there (prices range from 6,000JPY to 12,300JPY; USD77 to USD158) and it’s still Joel Robuchon nosh. I think it’s 100,000JPY (USD1282) for dinner — I don’t think it includes wine — if Joel Robuchon himself is cooking it so lunch is definitely more democratic.

It truly was an exceptional meal and I had a vegetarian set specially catered for me. I suspect that our host’s secretary used her wiles to persuade the restaurant manager and I heard that it was devilishly difficult to book a vegetarian meal at any of the nice restaurants in the area.

In fact, it took two secretaries to make calls through an entire day before they locked down Joel Robuchon. Why the fuss? And who the hell am I to deserve such courtesy? Well, one of the kangaroo’s major clients in Tokyo couldn’t make it to our wedding so he wanted to take us out to lunch instead. I have a strong feeling if I called the restaurant myself to ask for a veggie meal, they would say, “Talk to the hand, missy.” In a very polite Japanese way, of course.

And it was amaaaaaaazing. Even my salad was multi-layered and complex but fresh and delicious to the palette. There were slivers of dill tossed with olive oil and vinegar and other magical ingredients and raw zucchini never tasted better. The real star of my meal was the poached egg on top of an umami-filled grilled portobello mushroom (top right corner in the picture above) which was so perfect in its well done shell of white and viscous runny yolk.

The presentation was also such a delight, especially the desserts — there were TWO desserts; well, one was probably a palette cleanser, but it sure felt like a double hit since they came one after the other. I had some gorgeous FRESH lychee (if you find any in Tokyo they are most definitely canned) with guava sorbet and then a medley of seasonal fruit. I was full but not stuffed which was also a treat in itself. I kind of loathe meals that stuff you up to your eyeballs and eating the last few courses is actually more painful than pleasurable.

The last touch was a cute bowl of candy stamped with “merci” to pop into our mouths after we sipped on coffee and tea to round up our lunch. It was a two-and-a-half hour lunch that challenged our Japanese language skills to the max as our companions didn’t really speak English. That certainly kept me on my toes though I still shamelessly took photos, but hey, I just told them I blog about what I eat so they actually thought it was amusing.

And just because I was female, I was given a loaf of sweet bread to take home with me as part of their Lady’s Lunch Special. How lovely.

Highly recommended if you have a special occasion or just to treat yourself to a fancy lunch, though I suspect mere mortals do not have dinner at Joel Robuchon…

Once in a while, I like to touch base on this blog. I’ve had this space for so long that it’s gone through some morphing. In the beginning, it was a travelogue and food review blog, but then it became more of an advice portal on how to cope as an expat/trailing partner in Tokyo plus observations of the city as a foreigner…Then I kind of struggled. It’s not cool to say your blog sucks or lost its way or got put on the back-burner. I had three blogs and it’s very hard to be good at all three, so I stopped blogging at Raw Bento and focused all my creative energy on Beauty Box.

So what’s become of Lioness? Well, shall we just have fun here? I kind of like it to be more of a personal diary actually. I put a lot of thought into thinking about Beauty Box’s content so I just want to relax back here at LIJ with no obligation to blog a certain number of times a week or a month.

For this entire year, I kept getting mentally blocked by having to think of topical issues to write about and I’m just over giving tips or trying to get all sociological with understanding Japanese culture. I still like to think about such things but I just don’t want to write about them for now. Hope you’ll enjoy the ride as I go with the flow…

I’ve been obsessed with photo collage apps on my iPhone — partly because I don’t have Photoshop so I like it that these apps crop and arrange your photos for you. Here’s a collage of what my fave eats last month. On the top left corner is my all-time fave, vegan taco rice, from Eat More Greens in Azabu Juban. Their food is just so tasty that I think even meat-eaters would love it. And the cafe has a boho-chic vibe to it rather than the dreary utilitarian atmosphere typical of veggie joints, so I tend to stop by Eat More Greens for a serving of this before my Japanese lesson on Thursdays when I’m just too busy to make lunch for myself at home.

On the top right corner is a snap shot of my dessert at three-star Michelin restaurant, Joel Robuchon, in Ebisu. Before you think Beauty Box has boomed and I’ve transformed into a lady of leisure, I (or rather, the kangaroo and I) were given a lunch treat by his client for simply getting married – haha! We should do this more often!! This place deserves a post of its own with pictures of each course…

And the bottom picture is of a tall juicy veggie burger at a cute cafe near Toritsu-daigaku (in Meguro-ku) called Takiey Dining Cafe & Bar. If you are wondering what the heck a couple of gaijins were doing outside the JR Yamanote line, we were house-hunting.

The kangaroo was dying to indulge in some MOS Burger which is not my favourite so we met in the middle and chowed down on these made-from-scratch burgers instead of scary I-don’t-know-what’s-in-the-meat fast food ones. You can see we are practicing marital harmony from our first month of being married.

For just 1200JPY, you can choose from a slew of toppings when you opt for their “make-your-own-burger” set lunch. I had guacamole, fried egg, veggies, tomato, and jalapenos – amaaaaazing. We are obviously discarding our pre-wedding regime of no carbs — I guess now the chase is officially over and we are letting ourselves go (and our waistlines!)…

Was it a strange experience getting married twice? It was and it wasn’t. The kangaroo still insisted on sleeping in separate rooms the night before because he believed it was bad luck to look at my dress before I walked down the aisle, but technically he had already seen two dresses in Singapore…

I did think having two weddings was very indulgent seeing that most people have just one and one is already very splashy, but it was truly unique and I was glad to have celebrated with a whole spectrum friends and family. Most of our immediate family members and a few close friends came to both but both weddings saw two very distinct sets of people. The Hokkaido one was definitely more work-centered and most of our Tokyo friends flew up for the event.

Compared to the drama that went down in the morning of the Singapore wedding, the Niseko one was a stroll in the park.

Look at me…all relaxed…I slept before midnight before the wedding day, made myself a green smoothie in the morning, and took a leisurely shower before heading down to get prettied up…

My sisters and I got dressed and made up in a “Beauty Room” on the same floor as the banquet room so it was all very convenient and comfortable…There was a changing area and big mirrors and we could order room service because it takes hours to get through hair and makeup.

And we looked like this after….!! Three Chinese girls in cheongsams…

From noon, the kangaroo was messaging me about whether we should hold the wedding outside or inside. The weather was very cold at 8 degrees with big winds. He had his heart set on getting married with Mount Yotei in the background and it didn’t help that the hotel sent a gorgeous photo of the outdoor setting months in advance so we could visualize it…

After consulting various family members, it was concluded that it wouldn’t be enjoyable at all for 85 people to be shivering in the cold, so it was put indoors…

Our Western-style ceremony was really sweet and simple and it makes me chuckle over the circus we had at my parents’ place in Singapore with the games, gift exchange, and tea ceremony. We got a close family friend, Chris (who is the kangaroo’s mum’s good friend) to be our celebrant who interviewed us separately so she could talk about what we thought of each other…basically very lovey dovey stuff that I won’t write here *shy*…

Our Singapore ceremony was very short in comparison and our vows were literally three lines scribbled onto a piece of paper by the JP which we read out. So this was definitely more romantic that we composed our own vows and said them to each other in Hokkaido.

We had a cocktail reception after the ceremony and I managed to take a photo with my sole flower girl…

…and my younger sister snapped a really cute one of our flower boy in his kilt. He’s not even two years old so he still has very much a mind of his own. His mum carried him down the aisle although he can walk — it was just that we wouldn’t know which direction he would go…He was soooo adorable nonetheless…

Our entrance into the banquet room…I think the kangaroo looks very handsome in his kilt here…

It felt oddly medieval to have our “thrones” center-stage and we didn’t really know what to do until a Japanese friend came up to take photos with us and told us this was actually typical Japanese style where the couple sit on stage with a spotlight so everyone can look at them. I guess it makes some sense as the dinner is held in celebration of the couple but it was very strange. But soon, lots of people came over to take photos with us.

Check out our wedding cake….Awesomely decorated with pink and green macarons and plump strawberries…

The cake cutting was also a “huge” moment and again typically Japanese so I was really surprised when the spotlight was on us and we were given a sword to cut it…Okay I’m exaggerating but it was a big knife that was like a sword.

Our wedding dance was a success — I didn’t trip nor did my shoes slip off. We danced to Frank Sinatra’s The Way You Look Tonight and this would forever be “our song” now….I really like this photo because we both look like we were having so much fun…

And that, dear reader, was our wedding in Hokkaido…It feels good to have done this our way and to herald in the next chapter in our lives with much celebration and pomp and love and people who matter to us…

PS: And we had a very raucous time in the karaoke room at the after-party which went on till…..430am I think…

After the craziness of the Singapore wedding, I was glad to have some downtime in Hokkaido. We were busy getting stuff done but the hotel really took care of most things and we just had to get the pre-wedding activities happening…I slept well every night, compared to the week leading up to the one in Singapore….(and we were now “experienced” so there wasn’t much to fret over).

I totally enjoyed the road trip we took to Lakehill Farm, Showa Shinzan Mountain, and Lake Toya…We drove around in rented cars and it was truly a nice day out in the boonies…

I don’t really look identical to any of my family members but I think this photo shows similarities between my dad and me…Love the colours in this one! I would highly recommend this as a quick stop-over for ice-cream lovers because they have the best ice-cream in the area and a range of familiar flavours and really unusual ones like blue salt and pumpkin.

Family photo at the steaming Showa Shinzan volcano…I think my parents and sisters loved Japan…They were already talking about their next trip before they left!

Most folks who came a few days before the wedding just played golf or tennis, or took a dip or two in the onsen at the hotel. We headed out to dinner a couple of times to Hirafu, a small village in near the hotel but I think most people were happy to chill out and we didn’t have to worry about everyone having a good time. I think a lot of the folks who came had busy work schedules so the chance to nap, wake up late, head to the hotel spa was actually a luxury they were looking forward to do.

We also hiked halfway up Mount Yotei before most of the wedding guests descended on Niseko…Was a very lovely walk and the weather was warm but usually cooled by 4-5pm.

Then the weather turned very rainy and cold the day before the wedding…

We had a a bit of a recce in the rain and then we did a rehearsal indoors as a backup plan.

To be continued…

As promised, here is the video of our Singapore wedding — it’s just half of what happened in the day but probably one of the most special parts of the entire epic wedding trip.

One thing I didn’t add in my previous post was that I came away from the whole experience thinking we were surrounded by such an excellent bunch of family and friends. I’ve only begun to truly understand it when people remark that your wedding day is the happiest day of your life. Mush, cheese, feel-good…not often I get like this…

Anyway, I would highly recommend this videographer because not only is he talented but he was great at communicating with us and understanding what we wanted. He is also a really nice guy who has contacts for photographers so you don’t need to hunt around for one separately.

Enjoy!

PS: I put the video under the cut because it automatically plays when the page loads and apologies to those who have visited this blog and the video keeps playing…Not sure how to stop that from happening but it’s still here if you wanna watch it…

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Hello my dear readers, I’m finally back in the blogging world after a long hiatus. I think life will soon go back to normal after I float out of my post-wedding haze — I’m still adjusting to being married (actually life is the same at home but we are basking in happiness that we finally did it!). It was the most amazing three weeks of my life and I can’t wait to share slices of what went down.

There are so many photos to wade through and download from Facebook – many thanks to my friends who uploaded their albums online (I didn’t take a single photo of my own) and the photos featured here were nicked from there.

I’ll just take you through the highlights because there was just so much going on…

My hen’s night was a riot. I’ve gotta thank my gal pals for making it such a fun evening at House Barracks — we got a private room and while we noshed on excellent grub and wine, I answered a long and cheeky questionaire. They sent something like 60-70 questions to the kangaroo to answer and I had to guess what his answers were and if I got them wrong, I had to drink. Let me tell you I got a bit tipsy that night all because the kangaroo set booby traps, like “What is YM’s favourite movie?” and his answer was “The Transporter” (!!!), so you get the drift.

This sounds so cheesy but I was floored at the effort my girlfriends made for this night. They all got dressed up in gorgeous black outfits so I could stand out in my white top; I had a sash that said, “Bride-to-be”; I received some pre-wedding gifts; and their time and presence to “usher” me from being a single gal to a married missus.

I had very little sleep from that night onwards, and for those of you who are going to get hitched, it is possible to run on pure adrenalin for several days straight.

I also feel like I need to mention this but our family pet, Coffee, a mini pinscher, passed away the night of my hen’s party which was really sad for us. She was coughing for the past several months and the vet said she had a weak heart so she was given some medication to ease her discomfort.

But her condition deteriorated in the last two weeks before her death. We knew she was terribly ill because she would hardly eat her food but we didn’t expect her to go so quickly. I’m glad I was around when it happened because it would’ve been even more awful if I was in Japan (that’s one really hard part about being away). I was so busy on this day but I remember she licked my fingers as I was making a phone call in the living room….

I just wanted to make a small tribute to my darling Coffee because my family really pulled themselves together for the weekend’s festivities despite being in mourning.

But let’s get back to the festivities….

We had a slew of overseas guests whom we wined and dined for two days before the wedding day. I had a lot of fun but I’m not sure if I would recommend this as I was seriously exhausted and quite stressed with last minute details I had to take care of at the same time.

We decided to go for a traditional Chinese wedding which meant lots of gift-giving and antics in the early morning. The kangaroo arrived at my parents’ home at 830am sharp and the games began while I was still having my hair and makeup done. I heard my sisters drove quite a hard bargain but the mini-sisters (the kangaroo’s nieces from Sydney) were absolute slave drivers (“We want a THOUSAND dollars!”).

The boys had to scoff down “suan tian ku la” (sour sweet bitter spicy) to represent the four elements of marriage life…The wasabi sandwiches caused some sputtering and tearing but I heard the dried sour plums marinated in lemon juice were the worst. Poor things…but I wasn’t to be handed over easily!

There were non-torturous parts to the negotiation, like balloon volleyball, where the boys had to bounce heart-shaped balloons to each other while shouting something flattering about me. I heard that the kangaroo only managed one, “She makes good omelettes!” Pffttt… He told me later he was overwhelmed by the balloons and the crowd and was tongue-tied.

Another fun challenge they had to do was a dance with glitter hats and oversized sunglasses. We actually have a video of the whole morning and will post it once I figure out how to get it online (the file size is enormous).

After much ang pao (red packets filled with money) wrangling and great feats (the kangaroo also had to write “I Love Yu Ming” in traditional Chinese), he was finally allowed to unveil me…

Then we had to eat “tang yuan” (sweet dumplings) which symbolizes a sweet and whole marriage. My mum made them super tiny so we could swallow them whole — we couldn’t bite into them because it would mean the marriage would be broken! Chinese traditions are so hilarious!

The kangaroo had to give two sets of gifts to my parents and the second set was meant to be given three days after he fetched me. However, we didn’t have three days so we just drove around the block three times to simulate the passing of three days. In the second set was a ginormous roasted suckling pig (it weighed 20kgs!) which the kangaroo was very proud to present…In the old days, a woman was worth the price of a pig! He often teased me that if my sisters were too tough, he would turn around with his pig and get a cheaper bride down the road.

We also had a tea ceremony which we served tea to elders on both sides of the family, with my elder sister acting as a translator because the whole event was in Cantonese.

My mum, her sister, and our domestic helper whipped up a luscious Peranakan dessert spread to add to the festive mood. Everything looked so colourful and delicious!

We also made up a booklet that explained all the Chinese wedding traditions for our non-Chinese friends and family.

The kangaroo managed to buy this amazing-looking double happiness poster and we stuck it on the wall behind the buffet table.

We had a short break from the morning festivities before the solemnization and banquet started in the evening. I say short because we ended the morning stuff at 1pm and went back into hair and makeup at 3pm. I did nod off when I had my hair done but was awake in no time with nerves. I don’t know where they came from and I thought they would’ve been over because we went through half the day already…

The bridal suite was a corner of madness with bridesmaids, flowergirls, and one frazzled bride getting ready but before I knew it, I was kissing the kangaroo after our super quick vows…The JP we got was itching to go to the F1 finale so it was all over in a matter of minutes which was quite disappointing because we watched him in another wedding and he gave a speech and took his time…Oh well, we were going to say a proper set of vows in Hokkaido anyway.

Yay – we were legally married at this point!

Here’s a photo of us with our pretty flowergirls. My sister came up with the idea of cheongsam tops and poofy tulle skirts — they absolutely loved the outfits and were very proud to be my flowergirls. All evening, they kept coming up to me to say, “We love our dresses, and Yu Ming, you are the prettiest among all of us.” Awwwww….

The evening was back-to-back with speeches, a video of the morning ceremony and games, and singing by a dear friend, and lots of photo-taking. The day raced by but I had a couple of moments thinking, “Damn, all these people are here for us!!”

I was glad to have had done the whole traditional shebang because my parents were so pleased. It was truly a great day and it felt like it was all about celebrating us with friends and family supporting us in this new chapter of our lives. You don’t realize how important it is until other people in the room are shedding tears of joy and beaming at you for taking this crucial step together.

More to come on our second wedding…;)

I know I have been MIA but a girl can only do so much with two weddings to organize and a business to run — I blog consistently at my Beauty Box space so head on there if you want to find out more about Japanese beauty products…

I’m about to leave for Singapore to get married! I’m so excited but wanted to zip in here to say hello…

Summer is never complete without pretty yukatas on women here…I have yet to don one and hope to do so one day….

I went on a Tokyo Bay cruise some Sundays ago and it was gorgeous and peaceful with a big group of Japanese friends. The kangaroo and I were pretty chuffed to communicate with them and hope to have more of such experiences. It’s all too easy to remain in a gaijin bubble and love it when I get the chance to venture out of it.

Yummy peaches ad grapes were a staple for me this season…Did you know tree fruit is safer to consume from the Tohoku region? That’s because the tree roots grow deep in the ground and the radiation dust is on the top soil and doesn’t get down further than a few centimeters. I felt better after finding that out and have no qualms buying peaches and apples from the Tohoku region now.

The temperatures were so bloody hot so I took to working out in the comfort of my living room. If you need to get shippy shape — move your butt to Tracy Anderson’s Metamorphosis….I think I lost a teensy bit of weight because of this DVD set.

I went to a few house parties this summer and at one of them I won at bingo and nabbed this Puma bag as a prize! It was not out of luck but because lots of people dropped out due to excessive drunkeness — it pays to be the sober one in the room!

I lunched with gal pals occasionally which was a lot more than before — glad to have made the effort because I tend to just dwell in my apartment for days on end, only surfacing to teach English a few times a week or buy food. This meal was at a Swedish cafe in Roppongi, called Lilla Dalarna — I had a lovely baked cheese eggplant dish with rice…

A birthday dinner with dear friends at none other than Hainan-Chifan in Ebisu. The izakaya I wanted in Shibuya was full and it was a nightmare getting a reservation at a restaurant on a Saturday night last minute so I just picked my fave Singaporean restaurant.

Discovering veggie pho with my friend Zhing. I think the soup stock is also veggie based because I didn’t get bloated and the runs when I usually eat animal-based stock despite ordering a veggie meal out in restaurants here.

And a birthday waffle for dessert. Thanks, girl!

Plus a gorgeous “massage candle” from another dear friend in Tokyo. Apparently you can rub your fingers on the candle and use it as a moisturizer. It doesn’t feel waxy at all and it smells divine…

I also had an amazing time in Taipei and I’m ready for a new chapter in my life. See ya in a month!

Before I set foot on Taiwanese soil, I was told by many people that Taiwan is a paradise for vegetarians and vegans so I imagined a souped up version of the San Francisco veggie scene (there are all mannerof veggie restaurants, from Thai to Mexican), but alas, I understand that “paradise” is a relative word. The Lonely Planet said vegetarians would be able to go to food courts with their omni friends and there will be something for everyone – hmm, not so in my opinion. I wandered through several food courts in department stores and I couldn’t find anything to eat, besides fruit, desserts and juices.

This is an example of what you can find at a food court…A giant “Mount Fuji” curry omu-rice with sausages and a beef patty…

Looks terrifying…LOL!

However, I still think it is easier for veggie lovers to eat in this country (compared to Singapore and Japan) and people are truly respectful of your choice to eat vegetarian, mainly because of its dense population of Buddhists, who are 100% vegan or go through crucial or festive times as vegetarians. That was what I appreciated enormously because I’m usually the odd one out wherever I am and I almost feel like I have to over-compensate for my dietary choice, eg. from apologizing to whomever at a party or event that I would like to have a vegetarian option to tolerating bigoted opinions about how meat is absolutely necessary to keep on breathing as a human being (by “over-compensating” here, I mean by keeping quiet and gritting my teeth). Just utter this word, 素 (su), and any waitress or stall holder would understand what you need in Taiwan.

So the key is to move away from big commercial hubs and choose the more out-of-the-way veggie joints. I know there are many vegetarian buffet eateries but they didn’t appeal to me because the food sits there for hours and I’m not into greasy, cold food, which is also cooked in the vein of unhealthy Chinese vegetarian food that is widely available in Singapore as well — so not exotic to me but could be interesting to someone else. I’m such a food snob but it’s my honest opinion.

Onto the food now…

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