AND I'M OFF AGAIN...

And so, with an unexpected, last minute trip, I'll be returning to my culinary and cultural homeland in about 10 days. (uhm, that would be Taiwan). And though the occasion is quite somber (funeral), it means that my immediate family will all be in Taiwan at the same time- a rare occasional that occurs less and less as we get older.

But having my entire immediate family and 90% of my extended family (oh, in addition to all my family's friends) in one city means that I will be eating non stop for a week. We get together over food and if my last trip back can be taken as an example, it'll mean eating enormous meals at least twice a day. Sigh. Something to look foward to and yet fear. Because if you don't eat, people feel insulted, and if you do eat (which you always do cause the food is so damn yummy) you just walk around feeling fat, overstuffed and miserable in 90F and 100% humidity. Oh yeah, did I mention the heat, mosquitoes, weird bugs. I hate going to Taiwan in the summer- haven't done it in at least 15 years, but at least there's AC everywhere.

So I'm gonna take a ton of pics... Of my favorite street foods and the little stall a few doors down from my grandma's house where we've been picking up breakfast foods since forever, of the bakeries that makes stuff fresh every morning, of the banquets that I will undoubtedly be partaking in. If you haven't figured it out yet, my family is a family full of foodies, always looking for the place with the best noodles, dumplings, whatever. It seems funny that even though I was born and raised in the states, this is really the food that I identify with and still love the most.