Last night we went out to dinner with our friend Pearl to a restaurant that specializes in northern Chinese cuisine. Pearl has lived in Kaohsiung for 20 years and speaks Chinese so she is a wonderful dinner companion. She knows all the best places to eat and all the best food to order. Last night's menu included a hotpot of pickled cabbage, thin-sliced pork, tofu and fish balls. The broth was absolutely divine.

At dinner Pearl said she likes to eat out with us and our friend Nancy because we'll eat anything. It's surprising to me how many of the KAS teachers prefer western style food over the local restaurants. One of the huge benefits of living here for me is having the opportunity to try all the great food - Chinese, of course, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indian.

If you only ate at the western restaurants you'd have to travel farther around the city and pay a lot more for lower quality food. And the food is always a little bit off. It's like eating Chinese food in Connecticut. It's just not quite like back in the home country. The ingredients aren't as fresh, the taste is a little different. The one thing I like about going out to eat at an expat place is that I know what I'm ordering. A burger and fries, fish and chips, grilled salmon - I know what those things are, even if the taste isn't the same as what I'm used to. Most of the time the menus I see look like this:

Ordering can be pretty hit-or-miss when you can't read anything except for the price (and the restaurant's tagline: Liu's Traditional Juancun Food) . I'll be starting Chinese lessons soon.