Shades of Grey: Taiwan Day 2, National Palace Museum and Night 2 of the Night Market

August 1st was the day, the day of the National Palace Museum. It is one of my favourite museums of the world (not that i have been to all museums of the world, but, of those that i have been to, the National Palace Museum stands in the top). It is not situated exactly in Taipei city itself. One would need to take the MRT (Subway) and transfer to a bus to get there by public transit. A cab ride from our hotel, however, was just 290 TWD (Taiwanese Dollars). Considering that the most direct route is a 10.7 km route (6.6 miles), i am not complaining over a 290 TWD fare (9.2 USD, the fare in San Francisco, at 3.5 USD for the first fifth of a mile, 0.55 USD of a fifth of a mile thereafter and 0.55 USD per minute of stoppage, would translate to a fare of at least 21.1 USD). The museum is built into the hills of Shilin in 1965 and has been continuously expanded and renovated over the years to Yiheyuan and the Hanlin Yuan Imperial Academy were moved in five groups to Shanghai.[8] In 1936, the collection was moved to Nanjing after the construction of the storage in the Taoist monastery Chaotian Palace was complete.[9] As the Imperial Japanese Army advanced farther inland during the Second Sino-Japanese War, which merged into the greater conflict of World War II, the collection was moved westward via three routes to several places including Anshun and Leshan until the surrender of Japan in 1945. In 1947, it was shipped back to the Nanjing warehouse."

looking up at the main exhibition hall
of the National Palace Museum

The Palace Museum, Forbidden City

accommodate more visitors and display more of its collection. Collected in the National Palace Museum are the artifacts originally found in the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City. The Palace Museum was established to currat and house the collected artifacts from the last Imperial Family after the fall of the last Chinese Dynasty and abdication of Emperor Puyi (The Last Emperor) in 1925. In 1931, during the Sino-Japanese War, the governing body of the region ordered the Palace Museum to pack up all of its contents for transfer to Shanghai for safekeeping and protection against the Japanese Imperial Army. There begin the journey of a much traveled collection of Imperial Artifacts from the last Dynasty of China. To quote Wikipedia: " As a result, from 6 February to 15 May 1933, the Palace Museum's 13,491 crates and 6,066 crates of objects from the Exhibition Office of Ancient Artifacts, the

Chiang, Fu-tsung (1979), "The Transfer of the National Palace Museum Collection to Taiwan and Its Subsequent Installation", The National Palace Museum Quarterly (in English and Chinese), 14 (1): 1–16, 37–43
Jump up^ "The National Palace Museum: Timeline of the NPM". National Palace Museum. Retrieved 20 December 2010.

After the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War began as the Communist Chinese under

during a lull at the entry check point. The visitor count
stands at 2303, it was 2PM, the museum opened between
8:30 AM and 6:30 PM, consists of 3 floors, and only exhibits
its calligraphy and painting exhibition on 4 year rotations
to protect the artifacts from light and environmental damage.
It is the 7th most visited Mueuam in the World in 2015.

Mao fought the KMT controlled by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (who's last wife, and the First Lady of the Republic of China - Taiwan - Soong Mei-Ling was an epic character of history herself, it would take more than this pidly blot to do her story justice, but here is a wikipedia link if you would like to read more, i hightly encourage it! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soong_Mei-ling). When the KMT faltered and retreated to the island of Taiwan to set up the Republic of China, the KMT attempted to move all the artifacts from the Palace Museum, the Central Library, the Central Museum, and the Academia Sinica from Nanjing to Taiwan. However, only about 22% or 2,972 out of 13,491 crates from the Palace Museum was successfully transported along with partial collections from the Central Library, the Central Museum, and the Academia Sinica. The National Palace Museum is now charged with the housing and preservation of those artifacts that has survived three arm conflicts and World War II in general. Those that were transported to Taiwan are generally agreed to be the best examples of the artifacts from the original Palace Museum, making the National Palace Museum a destination museum with few equals.

The only allowable photo with a
"Terracotta Warrior"

Much has changed in the 13 years since i had visited. For one, no photography is allowed. Looking at the throngs of tourists in front of me, this is not a surprising change. While we were there, the tally of "guests in the hall" was escalating fro 2693 at a speed of about 1 per second. Far from the sleepy little museum that i remembered as a child and even 13 years ago (we were one of 12 people in any of the galleries at any one time). Despite the demure to the point of uselessness museum staff standing around with shyly held signs asking people to keep their voice down and not take photos, plenty of both were to be found. Sadly, most of the offenders were from across the strait and seemed to disregard any instructions to volume or camera use with extreme arrogance. And what is it with psycho kids off the leash? God damn it parents, if you are going to have those foul things, tame them. Ah well. However, we were also able to see a traveling exhibition of the Terracotta Warriors of the Qing Dynasty (along with a rather under-explained collection detailing the rise of the Qing people -- i think) at the Secondary Exhibition Hall (again, no photos were allowed). The exhibit was quite beautiful. i was quite surprised by the degree of similarity between many of the early artifacts (pre-Qing) and Assyrian art and motifs.

From the National Palace Museum, we cab'd it back towards the hotel and to Roppongi Massage

our first stall of the night

making food to go

which was hotel proximal. The plan was thus, the Liaolian night market, which we went to last night and loved loved loved the fried chicken was between the massage place and the hotel. So, we get our feet massaged (an hour... it hurts so good... wow... does it hurt... but so

doing up an order of pork ragu noodles
to go. Noodles will go into the red
bowl in her hand, a ladle of pork ragu
will be poured over the noodles from the
handled container next to the steamer
of noodles. Minced garlic will be
spooned over it, and the entire thing
will be poured into a plastic bag and
tied up for the customer to take away

good... ), eat at the night market and bring a second dinner back to the hotel for the night. And thus the plan was executed. From the bits of the sole of my feet that dully ach, i am sure that multitudes of my internal organs are in poor working condition. However, it did put me in a mood to eat me some street food! The first stall that we stopped at we stopped at because of Jenn. She saw that they had mi-fun, a thing rice vermicelli that she absolutely loves (i am agnostic, noodles are noodles, it is the broth and the sauce for me). So, she had me read out the posted menu (i married the whitest Chinese girl i could find yes i did) and chose to have the Rou Gen Mi Fun (meat paste formed into a rough tootsie roll shape and cooked with noodles, cabbage (or whatever vegetable is on hand) and seasonings in a thickened soup). i went with the pork large intestine soup. We sat down in front of the cart and watched the action before use. A typical night market stand, the purveyor must have a good memory for who had what so that correct payment could be exacted and

three baskets of noodles
cooking. The top basket
is used to keep the noodles
from floating away

transacted. He or she must also be able to multi task as Chinese folks don't

the intestine cutting

wait to be asked what they want to order, they just walk up and speak at you in a loud voice. The lady of the stall has a cart with three heating areas. All three are designed to heat an embedded cylindrical container. On one end, she has a steamer steaming and keeping her pre-cooked pan fried noodles and mi-fun warm and ready to go for the non-soup noodle dishes. In the center she has a cylinder containing other foods she is selling that needs to be kept hot and in a broth, in this case, pork blood cakes and the soup base for the Ruo Gen kept separate by a built in divider. In the last cylinder, also divided, she has water to cook raw noodles for soup noodle dishes and a clear broth that is both a soup base for her soups and also a vehicle for the cooking of soup

The final product, yum!

contents (such as my order of pig large intestine). The process goes like this. She retrieves the intestine (about 4 inches long -- i am a man so that is probably 0.1 inches in reality... har har har) from her fridge in the back, tosses it into the left (my left, her right) half of the cylinder containing soup and noodle water. She take a bowl that she will serve me and puts in the dry ingredients, pickled vegetables, slivers of young ginger (so good), and some chopped green onions. About this time, the intestines are deemed "heat through" and retrieved with a tong. The intestine is then cut up over the bowl using a pair of shears that is

Jenn's Ruo gen mi fun

used also to cut up pretty much everything else and a ladle full of the clear soup base (the same one that heated the intestine up) is then ladled over the bowl and viola, pork large intestine soup is served. 60 TWD or 1.9 USD). The soup is hot and flavored by hours of cooking, each ingredient that is put in flavors it just a bit more. The prominent flavor that comes through is the young ginger, like a clarion call in the night, cutting through everything. The pickled vegetables adds a little bit of salty sourness in spoonful of soup that contains them, a nice change and fun surprise. The intestine is chewy and fatty. The texture is that of a childhood in Taiwan. This was a great bowl to start the night. As to Jenn's dish? There was no intent on her part to share 8). It was that good!

The next stand we wandered to was the Victory Brand Oyster Omelette stand. The sign proudly

Victory brand Oyster Omelette stand

proclaim it as a 40 year old stand. It certainly has a large square footage! Having enjoyed Oyster Omelettes last night, i must do a taste test (and i also love this dish to death). So i ordered on and sat down. This stand is definitely busier than the stand i went to last night. A line formed quickly and the Oyster Omelettes were being cooked three or four at a time. The woman on the flat top working at a rhythm and schedule that she has worked out over the years. Compared to last night's omelette, this one is fluffier, with less corn starch (just enough to give it that chew, but not so heavy that it becomes gummy), and the

juggling omelettes

oysters were cooked just perfectly, a bit more and it would be over, a bit less, near raw. The water spinach peeking out under the omelette was green and vibrant and a taste and textural counter point. Their sauce was also different, and, in my mind, better. It was less sweet, more flavorful, and a bit more of a kick to it. i can certainly see why they have been around for 40 years. It is a very good and superior oyster omelette. Next door the the oyster omelette stand was where the fried chicken stand was last night. It was still there, but dark and empty. The lady is not here on the Monday night. Jenn and i were crushed! i had been looking

the omelette... good and better!

forward to the fried chicken wings nearly the whole day!! However, back where we came from, i thought i had seen a fried chicken restaurant, so we made a U turn and went back. We found the place, and we found the place open for business, but we found the place devoid of customers. Which is a bad sign and so we opted out. Happily, the restaurant next door a busy one, sells sesame oil chicken and other sesame oil cooked foods. So we ordered a sesame oil chicken to go along with a dry sesame oil pork blood rice cake. The arrangement of this stand not a food stall, but built into the first floor of a residence, where one would typically find a garage or shop front. They have the kitchen out front, to tempt the foot traffic, and an

ladeling in the sesame oil soup base
to finish cooking the chicken bits

enclosed, air conditioned sitting area in the back for the patrons of the food. The kitchen consisted of three small burners, each just big enough for the pots they cook everything in. There is an inset cylinder of bubbling sesame oil based soup. The soup classically contains sesame oil, rice wine, and a variety of Chinese herbs. After all, sesame oil dishes are supposed to be great for your health, cure many ills, and fortify one's body. We our take out in hand, we made a final stop at the shaved ice stall and split a red bean and ai-yu (a lemony jello) shaved ice doused in condense milk. It was over 30*C out, at 8PM, and the humidity is like a wall. It has started sprinkling very lightly, so light that one feels

The owner of the stall making shaved
ice. It is a shaved ice and juice stall,
the toppings are all arrayed in the cart
before him and an open can of
condensed milk stands ready for
service

like water was simply materializing from pockets of humid air. The shaved ice... what a treat!! Sweet, condense milk-y, cold... did i mention cold? From there we started back to the hotel. i was sweating through my shirt. Yet we made a final stop at a stand selling soy sauce braised things. It is essentially a buffet stand of things braised in soy sauce, star anise, and other seasonings. You make a bowl of your pickings, hand it to the lady, and she will warm it up in her inset cylinder of soup base. Of the tings that you can pick up on the buffet line are also packs of instant noodles and prepared pouches of fresh vegetables. She would take your packet of noodles, put it away and take out an already unwrapped packet of noodles (the optic is that of cleanliness, the reality, not so much... heh), and put the noodles in to the soup base with your other ingredients to cook up your dinner for you. The fresh veg

The best cure for the summer heat

would be untied and dumped in at the last minute so that it is not over cooked. Jenn and i picked up some braised tofu, two braised eggs, and a length of braised intestine to go. And let me tell you. That stand's brais is damn good in flavor. Deep and dark and rich, with just a hint of sweetness to it.

Back at the hotel, we opened the sesame chicken and blood rice cakes to finish off dinner. The chicken is a mix of dark and white meat. As usual, white meat cooked in broth tends to be dry. This was no exception. However, the sesame oil/rice wine and herbs soup helped it along tremendously. Specifically, the fragrant sesame oil just lubricated all things. The rice wine's sharp flavor comes up as a second note of taste after the sesame flavor subsides. Subtle notes of Chinese herbs serves as a supporting background. The pork blood rice cake is dressed in a sweet soy sauce but first cooked in sesame oil, so it also had that fragrance profile. Peanut powder is then poured over the entire thing and some chopped cilantro sprinkled over. It was quite delicious, though not exceptional. However, it was a nice way to finish up the evening's meal!