There was an earthquake near Kaohsiung this morning. Well, not really near. It was 200 miles off the coast and pretty deep. How did I know there was an earthquake, you ask? Because I was in the IT office at the time and one of the people in there noticed that the image on her computer screen wobbled and she said, "Hey, we're having an earthquake." The non-Taiwanese in the room were quite skeptical, yet the government issued their earthquake report moments later, proving that you should never question a local when it comes to earthquakes, or at least you should never question Lena.

So that's my first earthquake.

Last night's dinner was much more interesting. Our friend Pearl is giving us the grand tour of local cuisines and this restaurant did not disappoint. It served traditional Hakka food, not unlike the aboriginal food we ate outside the city a month or two ago.

This particular restaurant is popular among the Chinese tour bus crowd and often has a line out the door. The server likes to tell you about a particular green they cook with that is unique to their cuisine.

It was quite tasty and pretty much the only thing that was served that wasn't brown. We also had bitter melon, cabbage, squash...

and really delicious fish...

One of the tastiest bits with the fish were these little peppercorn/olive-like things that were divine. We ate pork, noodles and tofu too but we ate them too quickly for me to take their pictures. For dessert we had glutinous rice with peanuts, delicately flavored jello you suck through a straw and tomatoes steeped in flower nectar.

The food here is always intriguing and nearly always delicious, although I'll skip the tomatoes next time. Eating with Pearl is especially delightful.