Travelin' Taiwan: A VERY BIG LUNCH!

So...today we were invited to a "barbecue" lunch with our boss, his family and the secretaries of our school. Why did I put the word "barbecue in quotes? Well you will soon fine out. This wasn't like any barbecue that I had ever been to. First of all, we got to the location and we were just wearing jeans and a Tshirt. But then we see all of these people and they are all in suits and ties...we felt drastically under-dressed. Oh well...there was really nothing we could do about it now. Then we got to our eating room. There were nice table cloths on the tables and covers over the chairs. Definitely fancier than I had anticipated. Then...the "barbecue" started....I will I had kept a record of everything I ate...but I didn't. I'm pretty sure there were about 10 different courses throughout this meal. it started with some edamame and raw fish....and the very last dish were five little heart-shaped ice cream bars for dessert.

What exactly did I eat? Well....I tried raw fish, edamame, dumpling soup (I think that's what it was anyways), lobster, fried crab (shell and all), fish, pineapple, scallops, pork chops, more soup, fried rice, a spring roll, and pound cake and ice cream bars for dessert. It was so much food! Luckily I wasn't being too adventurous....I didn't try too much so I wasn't as full as I probably could have been. I really enjoyed the lobster and the fish. The pork chop was good too. And of course...the ice cream bars were yummy too! :)

As we were sitting at the table we would get random groups of people from other tables that would come to us and wish us a Happy New Year or Xin Nian Kuai Le. Yes....I did learn how to say that in Chinese and we did go around to the tables and wish them a happy new year as well. The really unfortunately thing about having to do this is that every time a group came around we would have to do a toast which meant that we would have to hold up our glasses and drink our orange juice. Normally this wouldn't be a problem. However, this "Minute Maid" orange juice was NOT "Minute Maid" orange juice. It was basically orange pulp with a little bit of orange flavored water in it. Oh well...Although it was different than what I am used to I really did enjoy myself.

all of the teachers before lunch started! We had no idea what we were about to experience! But it was great! :)

Our first course----I'm not exactly sure what is on this platter...I know there is raw fish on there...I tried that (too squishy for me) and there are squid eggs (or something like that) on there...other than that...I'm not sure.

Yes...that is me eating with chopsticks. BE PROUD OF ME! :)

Those are bowls of fried crab. They are fried in their shells and you are supposed to eat everything...including their shells...I didn't get very far on this dish...I did get some of the meat out of it but I couldn't make myself eat the shell.

This is a picture of the grab close up.

Then....we got a plate of scallions and some vegetables that we had to cook in the middle of our table. Luckily we had someone at our table that knew what she was doing. :)

Yes...I am eating a scallion. Actually this was probably one of my favorite things to eat.

My lobster claw. It was very difficult to get the meat out using my chopsticks so I had to resort to using my hands instead.

LOBSTER! Definitely wasn't expecting this to be one of the dishes that they had for us.

I got a perfect piece of meat out of my lobster...you can't really see it there but that is what I am holding.

This was one of the last dishes...soup. I didn't eat any of this because by this time I was so full that I needed to hold back.

Dessert---round 1. Pound cake (or something like it). It was really good. Those little containers on the sides of the pound cake are passion fruit flavored jellies.

Lastly, we got our ice cream. Probably my favorite of all of them. YUM! As we were walking back to our room from wishing others a happy new year Angelica, our boss' daughter put one of these in each of our mouths. Literally fed them to us. :) Little did we know...there would be 5 ice creams waiting for us at our table. Oh well...I at them all anyways.