Passed Around the Table

Friends,

There are rungs on the ladder of belonging in Taiwanese society. Last month, we continued our slow ascent by climbing another: we ate hotpot in someone’s house. While hotpot is one of the preferred social gathering activities in Taiwan, we’ve actually eaten it only a handful of times — mostly due to it typically not being vegetarian friendly and a little because of Covid restrictions — and always in restaurants. For those of you unfamiliar, it’s a similar idea to fondue, except instead of chocolate or oil or cheese it’s a very rich, boiling soup broth. Like the picture above, hotpots are often divided in half, with one half being a spicy broth and the other being a more plain one. Ingredients can include basically everything, from instant noodles to big leaves of cabbage to shrimp to beef to duck blood cakes. Here, vegetarian me got to indulge in baby corn, daikon, enoki mushrooms, adult corn, cabbage leaves, tofu skin, instant noodles, and a sweet dumpling for dessert. Many places also give you sauces to go along with the bites, but I’ve found the broth to be good enough that the sauce usually feels unneeded.

(Previous rungs of the Taiwanese assimilation ladder include eschewing ice in our daily water intake, buying matching LINE Bear t-shirts, praising a dessert by calling it “not too sweet,” drinking a beer at 7-Eleven, and booking a KTV room way after my usual bedtime. I could list more examples here but I am struggling to think of things not related to food and I don’t want to give the *completely true* impression that food rules everything in my life and/or Taiwan.)

While we were eating, our co-hotpotters (I feel like there’s a lot of group theme Halloween costume potential around hotpotter wordplay) asked about how the gathering compared with the typical American friendly dinner gathering. I had to think about it a bit, but my answer was ultimately that while people did gather round for meals together, in the US it was much rarer for people our age to share a full meal together at someone’s house as opposed to snack-style foods, your chips and salsa or crockpot queso or hummus or chicken wings or veggie trays or cheese tray or sliced meat trays. And if you did do the full meal at someone’s house, it was more often potluck or outdoor grilling occasion (burger+potato salad+deviled egg to maximize mayonnaise delivery) or both.

But, dear reader, maybe this is not your experience. Certainly there were exceptions in our social life, but I can’t say that hotpot-equivalent meals were ever the norm for our American lives. Of course, in both countries, going out as a group of friends is much more common that eating at the house. And if you want vegetarian hotpot in Taipei, by far the best restaurant I’ve found is 小心上癮素食麻辣火鍋 which approximately translates as “be careful getting addicted to vegetarian spicy hotpot.” It’s a bit far from our house though, so if you want to recommend another or, preferably, open a new one near us, please get in touch.

This is where I would joke about needing the unwind that gathering with friends over food and drink brings. After all, in the last three weeks I’ve started working a “new” job: the high school I previously worked for had a staff change that resulted in my returning to finish out the semester. I’m teaching two classes I’ve never taught and walked into a situation that had the potential to be very tense, since a new face took over the class right before the end. I say “would joke,” though, because honestly it’s been a very wonderful experience. I’ve been able to catch up with people I spent two years with without the stress of working full-time. I’ve pushed myself to try to quickly catch up and come up with ways to help the students with their needs over these last couple of months. And, best of all, I’ve been given a chance to send off students who I taught in 10th grade and are now about to graduate and head off to the wide world (meaning, mostly, American universities). It’s been a gift, and so far they’ve been patient with me as I’m trying to meet them where they are in the class.

Taiwan’s Covid cases have exploded in the last month. Fortunately the high vaccination rate, new treatments, and seemingly less dangerous variant has meant very few cases with serious symptoms. Unfortunately, there’s been some annoying back and forth about closing down schools. The city of Taipei, against the national government’s recommendations, closed school for a week as a nominal “drill” to test school’s online preparation. That week ended, then our private school announced parents could have their kids learn either online or in person, but that the bulk of school would be back in person. That lasted for a single day, when only ~20% of the high school showed up and so we’re going back online because it’s not worth fully opening for that few. I’m not a fan of teaching online , and I’m especially not a fan of policy decisions that will hit lower income parents the hardest, but selfishly the main thing I’m worried about is that we won’t get a chance to gather around one last time before they all disappear from Taipei, and most of them disappear from my life almost entirely.

But we’re not thinking about that. Not quite yet.

Further reading:

• I don’t know if there’s anything better than two of one’s favorite wordsmiths talking to each other. This month, Helen Rosner interviewed John Darnielle and it gave me so much joy and life. I mean, god, even just Rosner’s opening description of The Mountain Goats: “a knack for avoiding the maudlin in favor of the uncannily precise” or Darnielle describing his music’s primary research question: “Can you sit with something that doesn’t resolve, and be happy there?” I’ve read this conversation three times now and yeah.
• Also I’d really like someone to write something about the idea “they’re bromides/maxims/cliches for a reason” reappearing through a lot of nonfiction that I read. I’m not smart enough to do it.
• Little late on this, but Phoebe Bridgers covering “That Funny Feeling” while Bo Burnham is in the audience can go directly into my veins.
• Two Tressie links this month. The first is this wonderful podcast conversation between her and Andy Richter (of Conan O’Brien show fame) that covers Tressie’s life and career in such a fun, warm, conversational way. The second is her brilliant essay on the importance of shame , an essay that is very, very resonant today.
• In high school or college I had a friend who was obsessed with Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion and I cannot for the life of me remember who it was. If it was you, this link is for you .
• A Strange Loop ’s cast’s Tiny Desk Concert made me very jealous of my students headed to NYC. Hope I get to see a version of it eventually.
• The University of Nottingham’s Taiwan Studies Programme runs a website called Taiwan Insight . This month, En-Chi Chang published a breakdown of the ubiquitous Taiwanese convenience store , a cornerstone of life in Taiwan. (I personally find it funny that the two intersections 7-Eleven has with my own life was as a source of disgustingly cheap calories for a brief period in my late teens and then as an all-purpose facilitator of my current late-30s Taipei life.)
• I know Anne Helen Petersen’s current beat might seem more “important” than her celebrity analysis, but I’m going to be honest and just think her writing about celebrities is much sharper and interesting. This Bustle piece about post-conservatorship Britney Spears’ Instagram is the best thing I’ve read from AHP in quite a while.
• Also, a shout out to lion’s mane mushrooms, my latest culinary obsession. I love their texture so much! Also known as hericium erinaceus, tree hedgehogs, or by their Chinese name, 猴頭菇 (monkey head mushroom), they’re delicious fried, in Japanese curry, in soups, or just about any other way you can imagine. Go forth and find these fun guys.
• Most of my “television” viewing has been reduced to YouTube cooking-related videos, but lately I’ve been really into Old Enough , a Japanese TV show that was recently added to Netflix, where toddlers are sent on their own to run errands for their parents. It’s ridiculously wholesome and the episodes are only ten minutes long. Highly recommend.
• I don’t know how to change anyone’s mind about abortion, nor do I know what the next step should be politically, but I do the forthcoming decision will hurt those among us most vulnerable, and so I will provide this link and hope you consider donating.

As I write this, we’ve been recently celebrating Carolina’s birthday, and as with any milestone I’ve been thinking a lot about the people we used to be and the people we are now. My assessment is that past me would be upset that I care a little more about how I dress than I used to, neutral about my mushroom habits, and proud of my time management. Which is to say, be generous with your past and future selves, and with everyone else too.

Until next time, future, past, and present readers.

-g