This weekend was the Ching Ming Festival, also known as tomb-sweeping day. Taiwanese (and many people in Hong Kong and China) visit the graves of their relatives to clean and decorate the tombs. In Taiwan, they also eat a meal of spring rolls, which is not what we think of in America. It is fresh vegetables, meats and flour tortillas that you make into wraps.
My host family invited me to share this traditional meal with them. They told me the story of the Ching Ming festival in Chinese and this was what I got out of it: two people, a mother and son I believe, were living on a mountain. They were told (by who, I don't know) to leave their home immediately or else their village would be burned down. They refused to leave and were burned to death. So, in memory of their spirits, Taiwanese people do not cook with fire on this holiday. If you can fill in the holes of the story, I'd be happy to have your comments!
After lunch, I went with my parents and their neighbor Kathleen to a fish market in Kaohsiung County. We looked through a map of Kaohsiung and they picked a random, cool place to take me. The drive was about 40 minutes into the countryside. They introduced me to various types of fish and parts of fish that I would've never thought to eat. I also had the pleasure of eating deep-fried octopus eyeballs.
Once they felt content that I'd seen enough, we headed back to a Kaohsiung City night market for me to attempt the one thing I've been avoiding for the past eight months: stinky tofu. My whole family insisted that they love this food and it is delicious. How can I describe the smell that emanates from stinky tofu stands? Words cannot do it justice. It is a mixture of very, very old cheese, mildew and sewage, in my opinion. And I ate it! Three healthy chunks of tofu dipped in the steaming sauce from which the smell originates.
The first bite was easy enough, but by the third one, everything I'd eaten that day was on its way back up. My family finished the plate for me and I headed home, keeping my food down with the knowledge that I never have to try stinky tofu again.
