Saturday 7 November 2009

Mindset on food

After 6 weeks in Witbank, in less than 24 hours after returning to Malaysia, I flew again. This time, to Taiwan, for vacation.

How is Taiwan? Great. How is the trip? Great. But still there are ups and downs. Strange, I may not be the keenest member to go to Taiwan, but I think I enjoyed the most. My friends, however, also enjoyed it, but when it comes to the food...hmmm, I kind of miss my Witbank gang.

When my seniors complained about Witbank's food, the first idea I have, after trying to food there is, do not expect it to be same as Malaysia. Same goes to Taiwanese food, or any other countries. Reason being...should I say it? It is totally logical to expect things to be different when it is from different country!!!

My colleague is a Muslim, she has limited choice in Witbank, but as long as the meat she eat is halal, she does not particular if the cooking utensil has been used to make non-halal food. I'm impress with her flexibility.

The irony is, my Taiwan gang does not eat beef. I don't think they are Buddhism, for it is never a Buddhist thing, and Buddhism does not encourage stubbornness on choice of food, it does not have any commandments like those religions that has God as the central figure. They are more like typical Chinese religion that worships the deities which is more like a blend of Taoism with the appearance of a few Buddhism figure in their rooster. So what happen is, when I was happily indulging myself in any food I am interested in in Taiwan. They were restricted to things that they can eat. They can't even accept it if the soup in steamboat has been used to cooked beef. But luckily one of their Taiwanese friend unknowingly dip a piece of beef in it. After this, I am free to use the soup to cook my beef. Everything is different, of so many food we tried, they only like one. How sad for them.

Funny thing is, despite being 10 years of friend. There are still a lot of behaviour I totally do not know, and need time and patience to cope with. Like my Witbank hater senior, I mentally comment the Taiwan gang that they shouldn't bring along Malaysian mindset on food to Taiwan. But when think about it, didn't I did the same mistake. My friends are good people, but in terms of food and culture, they are not as open or adventurous as the two ladies I went to Witbank with. Maybe I myself are too accustomed with them that I brought my openness and adventurous mindset to Taiwan and forgot that I actually going there with totally different group of people?

Still perhaps the group is too small. Hopefully next year we have a bigger group. The bigger the merrier ma. But then again, it was a great trip. More on that in future entry.

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