About eggs: Iron, Century, Tea, and Salted!

Pidan with silken tofu and scallion

I recall being really surprised when the TV show Fear Factor had Century eggs as one of their "scary" foods that contestants were dared to eat, because I had been eating these delicious creamy eggs my whole life! I was even more surprised when Andrew Zimmerman (the man who ate afterbirth on TV) refused a salad made with these preserved eggs and chodofu! Like no other cuisine I have tried, Taiwanese food is really imaginative with eggs.
Here are some of my favorites:
Century eggs (皮蛋, pidan; aka hundred year old, thousand year old, millenium, and preserved egg) are made by preserving chicken, duck, or quail eggs in a mixture consisting of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and rice hulls for a period of several weeks to several months.  During this curing process, an alkaline material breaks down in the egg producing a sulfur-like smell and turning the yolk into a dark green-gray color. The surrounding white part of the eggs becomes a jelly-like substance with a brown color. I like eating these with silken tofu, cilantro, soy sauce, and scallions or chopped up in congee with pickled mustard (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_egg).

Iron eggs

Salted duck egg

Iron eggs (鐵蛋) originate from the Tamsui district of Taiwan. They are made by cooking, and recooking red cooked eggs until they are dark, hard, and chewy. They are too hard for me to chew!  
Salted eggs (鹹蛋) are made by soaking duck or chicken eggs in brine for a long time, then covering them with a salted charcoal paste. The eggs becomes orange and gelatinous and the flavor is, well, very salty. I love making salted duck egg with bitter melon. We also have had them mixed into batter and fried with squid. Unfortunately, one salted egg yolk has 359 mg of cholesterol (the daily limit is 350 mg).  
Tea egg (茶葉蛋, or marble egg) is a common Chinese snack food, found easily at convenience stores, restaurants, night markets, and in kitchens across Taiwan. The eggs are boiled until hard, then the eggs are cracked and the recooked for several hours in a mixture of five-spice, soy sauce, and tea (with or without the leaves). 
Iron egg recipe Salted egg recipe Tea egg recipe Recipes using Century egg 

Tea eggs

Homeade salted egg and bitter melon

Some thoughts about string and yarn

My attempt at making an Atayal inspired string art

Atayal students' string art about the "Shooting of the Sun" legend

photo by Mikael Owunna
my first weaving lesson

Only recently have I begun to think about the incredible things you can do with string or yarn. It is practical, aesthetic, and used by many cultures to reenact meaningful stories and traditions. Atayal (泰雅) weaving is made from ramie fabric and string. This special yarn is used to create intricate weavings that are transformed into clothes, bags, and numerous goods. For countless generations, weaving is a skill girls learn in order to formally enter adulthood, to prepare them for marriage, and to provide income for the family. The intricacy of weaving traditionally has been used to determine the level of detail of one's facial tattoos.
In many ways, ramie yarn is the heart and soul of so many Atayal women. Two weeks ago, I received my first weaving lesson from an Atayal elder in Nan'ao (南澳) village and could appreciate the intense patience, diligence, artistry, and concentration required to do even the simplest of weavings.

Huichol string painting

During the last two sessions of our class, Mikael Owunna, Jennifer Huang and I introduced the Atayal students to Mexican Huichol string paintings, which use colorful strings to express cultural symbols and its shamanistic traditions. The students created yarn paintings depicting the Atayal story of the Shooting of the Sun. After we reviewed Atayal words, we shared the story, and the students drew their own interpretation of the story on cardboard. Then they glued pieces of colorful yarn to the design. A quote from the Spirit of Atayal: "Atayals don’t have their own character system to record their language, and, therefore, have to pass on their culture and traditions by oral teaching. They did create, however, a pattern system woven into the fabric with which they make their clothes. It’s like a history record worn by every Atayal that silently sends their messages to tribal folks...the spirit of ancestors, ghosts and gods..."

Surgical mask culture and fashion in Taiwan

photos from Designer Base and Wired.com

 In Taiwan, as well as many Asian countries, it is common to see people wearing surgical masks on public transportation, at work, in stores, and walking around the city. These face masks come in different colors, shapes, and have unique designs (pandas, stripes, animal print, etc), and the ever ubiquitous Hello Kitty! There are even designer lines featured. People wear masks if they have even the slightest cold or to protect them from other people's germs. Also, with a shocking 83:100 ratio of motor scooters to people, scooter drivers also wear these masks to guard against the dust and heavy pollution in traffic. I'd like to think that this surgical mask culture is embedded in a relational and collectivistic

Nicki Minaj

way of thinking and a deep concern for others' well-being and health. There is also the social stigma and shame of being caught with a sneeze without a mask on! Who knows? Maybe this practice will catch on in the U.S. now that Nicki Minaj wore a trendy and colorful surgical mask at the MTV Video Music Awards. In the meantime, I am still trying to figure out my own surgical mask alter-ego.

trendhunter.com

I also wanted to share this insightful perspective I received from Abraham (Nick) Morse, MD, MBA (Twitter handle "urogynMD")
 "I admire the community spirit and societal commitment that characterizes many Asian cultures.  Sometimes, I wish we had more of that here in the old USA.  However, it is important not to overestimate the actual infection control benefit of wearing surgical masks.  
If these masks tend to be single-layer textile (as opposed to the hospital standard which is three-layers with a moisture barrier in the middle) then they probably do relatively little to reduce "outbound" risk of infection and probably do nothing to reduce "inbound" risk.   The problem is that once the mask gets saturated with moisture, the evidence suggests that it does little to reduce the production of microdroplets from sneezing or coughing.  Even with the mask on, you should probably sneeze and cough into the crook of your elbow.  Also, once saturated, it can capture airborn microdroplets produced by others.  From the pics you posted Christine, it looks like some folks may be wearing more effective masks underneath the more fashionable cover - that does probably help considerably.
Interestingly, a recent Cochrane Review (a very respected unbiased eveidence-based medicine organization) about the effectiveness of surgical masks in reducing patient infections in the operating room concluded "Face masks are thought to reduce the number of postoperative wound infections. Incorrectly worn masks may increase the contamination of the wound. This review of trials found no clear evidence that wearing disposable face masks increases or reduces the number of surgical wound infections in clean surgery".  So, even in the operating room, there is a big component of ritual involved."

Atayal murals

Atayal students in Nan'ao --photo by Mikael Owunna

Last week, Mikael and I walked around the village with our 1st and 2nd grade students in Nan'ao (南澳). We took them to a series of beautiful murals behind the school that depict traditional Atayal culture and way of life (above and left). There are images of Atayal women and men with facial tattoos, weaving, hunting, and farming. Mikael has been teaching them to take photos that depict their cultural background and strengths and we wanted them to use the murals as a background to portray their life as an Atayal. We are also teaching them Atayal words and specific artistic techniques (clay, painting, drawing) so they can learn about Atayal design, patterns, and meaningful stories. We will combine these efforts in a culminating project called "I am Atayal."
     The Atayal murals are everywhere. They are made of paint, tile, cement, and paper. We also see signs of specific patterns (such as diamonds--the ancestors' protective eyes) hidden in little corners, on staircases, on borders. These symbols are not only artistically beautiful, but they are an important reminder to the Atayal children and youth that their culture is valued here. The people in the murals reflect the Atayal words they are learning such as raban skutaw (person of character and undying spirit), klokah (strong), and s'galu lungan (caring).

photo by Mikael Owunna

I gave a talk in Mandarin!

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NTNU library

Thursday, I achieved one of my long-term goals: To give a professional speech in Mandarin! I gave a talk to 30 faculty colleagues and a few students and staff at National Taiwan Normal University. It was a simple 10-minute speech about my my current Fulbright project on discrimination and educational challenges of Atayal aboriginal students, my family and cultural background, my professional history, and my research interests. My students and friends helped me with the new vocabulary and pronunciation. I showed various slides on powerpoint to match my speech. The faculty generously laughed at my jokes, were very forgiving with my mistakes, and seemed to appreciate my effort. I was really nervous but I am so proud I did it.

Why are there so many 7-Elevens in Taiwan?

Variety of pork buns at 7-11

winter meals at 7-11

7-11 quick meals

Taiwan has 4,800 7-Eleven (7-11) convenience stores, making it the third highest in the world regardless of geographic size (Taiwan is about the size of Connecticut!), and the densest internationally. There is a 7-Eleven at almost every single gate of Taipei Main Station (TSR) and many neighborhoods in Taipei have them on every block. Why are there so many? Coming from the US, I was accustomed to thinking of 7-Eleven as a desperation road stop for directions, a dirty bathroom, lottery tickets, or for a giant slurpy. But in Taipei, 7-Elevens offer services and quality goods that are impossible to imagine: order a 10-course Thanksgiving dinner, you can pay all your bills,  buy tickets to a remote village, purchase tasteful winter clothes, find rare California wines, obtain a rental agreement, send a fax,  develop pictures, mail packages, or surf the web. Apparently, 80% of people in Taipei visit 7-Eleven at least once a week. I buy my tickets to Nan’ao using the Chinese-only ticket machine (took me 3 times to memorize the characters), for  prepared salad (hard to find), and freshly-cut papaya and guava. My cell phone plan is with 7-Eleven. One time I was looking everywhere for shoe polish, I searched at least 20 stores. Where did I find it? 7-Eleven. A Fulbright colleague once told a group of us that 7-Eleven shipped a large live fish to a remote mountain so his friends could make sashimi! I am definitely partial to using the independent shops and food stalls in Taipei for my meals and goods and I don't think anyone wants 7-Eleven to take over the quaint and unique aspects of Taipei markets. But for paying bills, buying tickets, and the occasional salad it’s wonderful.

Atayal patterns and design

photo by Mikael Owunna

Atayal (泰雅) art can be seen in everything: their clothes, buildings, murals, hats, jewelry, weavings, and vases. It is simultaneously bold and intricate. It is not only beautiful and unique, but Atayal patterns, design, and colors have deep cultural significance. For example, there is an old story in Atayal culture called Rainbow Bridge. It is said that ancestors live in a beautiful mountain. In order to get there you must complete the tasks that are important in your life. For an Atayal man, it means to be a good hunter and be able to protect your home. For a woman, it means to be a good weaver and take care of her family. If you fulfill your mission while on earth, the ancestors will take you to Rainbow Bridge, which leads to this mountain. If you look at Atayal weavings, they often include horizontal lines and bright colors which represent Rainbow Bridge. Diamonds are important because they represent the ancestors eyes. The eyes are watching you and protecting you. The color red represents blood, life, and strength. In our most recent session with the Atayal children, we taught them how to replicate meaningful Atayal symbols using clay. Their designs were beautiful and culturally relevant.

mural behind Nan'ao Elementary School