rocketdog is back!

rocketdog is back from the commie land. it has been too long since we blogged here. i'm trying to get rocketdog to start blogging here again as i've started a new blog elsewhere.

Underemployment

As you know, I have been unemployed lately. Well, things are looking up, cause now I am gainfully underemployed. I am starting a gig tutoring oral English to business people. The clients are mostly Korean or Japanese living here and wanting to brush up on their English for work purposes. It should be interesting. At least it will give me something to do and some income.

Other than that, today I kept on living the dream of a lady of leisure. I slept in until 11, believe it or not it's been a LONG time since I've done that. I then had lunch with a group of friends at a Chinese restaurant where were ordered too much - I think we had over 12 dishes for 6 people. The weather today is extremely nice so, now I am sitting outside on the rooftop deck listening to music, job hunting and breathing in the dusty, polluted Shanghai air. Later, we'll be grilling out on the deck.

Ah, underemployment, its underrated. (Not really, I'm just trying to make myself feel better.)

good samaritan

i did my good deed today when i was coming out of the supermarket with baby moc. as we were crossing the parking lot, i saw a man's wallet lying on the ground. i looked around and saw two men walking away from the area where the wallet was located. one man's back pockets looked flat so i ran after him shouting "sir, sir, excuse me, sir...". it took a few tries before he heard me and when i asked him if he dropped his wallet, he said yes. yay! good deed done for the day.

So pathetic that no one else reads this blog, huh? We'll just write back 'n' forth to each other until we find a reader. Ha.

Your niece and I played with home-made playdough today. She doesn't like the texture of it so she doesn't touch it with her hands. She pokes it with a chopstick and then makes me play with it. Today I made a parade of yellow and green giraffes ("raffey") for her. I'll upload a picture of it later.

Okay, that's it for now.

Hello from Commie Land!

Hi MocMoc - Since you're probably the only one reading this. I'm not sure what to blog about. I guess I'll just tell you some interesting things I saw in the past couple of days that you'd only see in China. I need to get my camera back and start taking more pictures.....
1. I was walking down the street and saw an old man on a bike leaning over and picking up a small crushed pink and white box. After examining it for a while he put it back down on the floor. About less than a foot from the box was a pink and white stick -- yup a pregnancy stick, just hanging out on the sidewalk.
2. My ayi (my maid - its very common in China to have one) was dusting my beat up tissue box.
3. There is a vegetable stand down the street from my apartment that sells a lot of produce that is hard to get in China -- arugala, avocados (my favorite!), basil, they even have salmon. It's frequented by a lot of foreigners. I went there the other day and there was a Chinese woman with a "lao wai" (whitie). She was asking the vendor "zhe xie shi bu shi duo shi lao wai chai"? aka "are these all 'whitie' vegetables?". Didn't realize there were such things as "lao wai" vegetables.

new blog called title here.

trying out a new design for the blog however i can't figure out how to change the title. so for now, our blog is called "title here".

Update

Yup, we're back and now Mocmoc has a 21-month old daughter.

and we're back

....... 2 1/2 years later. we're back. RD can now access blogger in China..... i can't believe i'm still in China...

--RD

new site

We've moved over to Xanga! This is so our brother PigPen can read our site since he is in China and they ban blogger over there. Anyways, here's the new site. I hope you enjoy!

www.xanga.com/mocdog

italy

I apologize I have been away from Blogger for a while. I was sans computer due to a slight humid accident. Anyways, here are some more photos from my europe trip - 2 months later.

So the first night we got into italy, we stayed in Bologna where we got in kind of late. We asked our concierge at the hostel/hotel we were staying at where to eat. He recommended going to this pizzeria which was called "thnoopy pitheria two". ha ha. Anyways, inside joke. So we ended up going to this random place and we started with a salad that had mozarella, roasted red peppers and some other stuff.










For the second course we had proscuitto stuffed with cheese.



Followed by the third course - the pasta. It was spaghetti with meat sauce - or spaghetti bolognese, which is what Bologna is known for. It was okay...

The next day we went to Venice. Where we walked around the city and just snacked on little things in stands along the way. Here are some pictures of things we snacked on.
Canoli










Fried Shrimp, Fried Squid, Fried Anchovie (Which venice is known for)













and of course pizza (here with goat cheese and spinach)



The following day we went to Florence. We didn't get to see a lot because it was the Italian holiday and everything was closed. Anyways, we grazed throughout the day at the different stands. But after a lot of walking and sightseeing we got some coffee and dessert (tiramisu).













For dinner we decided to have a real meal. Here is a picture of the house ravioli. It was sooooo good!







In Cinque Terra (off the west coast of Italy) we had some seafood.
Here is a seafood appetizer plate with salmon, octopus, anchovies (which were so good).









Then we had seafood risotto. It was pretty good, kinda salty.



And this balsalmic vinegar was really good, proably the best I've ever had.




And of course no trip to Italy is complete without Gelatto!! This was the best one I had and it was in Cinque Terra. I got mint chip and watermelon. YUM!!! And eating it by the water only made it that much better.



That it for italy! It's off to Switzerland next!

7-11

Food stand at 7-11 convenience store! Looks good, huh? --MM

Dumplings

To go food from street side vendor in Taipei. --MM

Peppers

Cool idea! Chili pepper plant lined the sidewalks of the National Park in Taipei. --MM

Shilin Night Market

Spicy wontons and shaved ice.

It's been a while since either Rocketdog or I have blogged. Sorry, Jill. ;) I still have a ton of pictures from my trip to Asia to blog about. One of our favorite places to eat in Taipei is at the Shilin Night Market. There are many vendors who have a little food stand with some tables. You walk through the market until you find a vendor who's selling something you like. Have a seat and the vendor will bring the food to your table. Cheap, fast and delicious. --MM

Shish kabob - a la Taiwan

___In Taiwan, anything edible can be put on a stick for convenience (no more dish-washing) and "take-away-ability"...cuttlefish, squid, quail eggs, candied cherry tomatoes (picture on left) and even stinky tofu - aka "cho tofu" (picture on right). --MM

Cuttlefish in Danshui

I'm back!! After spending a wonderful but hot and humid two weeks in Asia, I'm home again...at least until tomorrow. For today, I'll post as much as I can while I prepare for my trip to SoCal.

Mr. Moc and I went exploring in a neighborhood just on the outskirts of Taipei called "Danshui". There's a boardwalk like area lined with many little shops and restaurants (see top picture). We wandered into this little restaurant - more like a small room with a few tables. I noticed that a lot of the small restaurants in Taipei are little rooms with a few tables and with the "kitchen" located at the front of the restaurant. The second picture shows what Mr. Moc had for lunch...a steaming bowl of cuttlefish balls and vermicelli with various seasoning. My lunch (see third picture) was essentially the same as Mr. Moc - minus the vermicelli. We also shared a bowl of dan dan noodles (see bottom picture). --MM

Germany

This is a picture of some German Beer. Notice the line, that is where they are supposed to fill it up to. It's so good, and so cheap.




There's poop in my soup! Jk. In Cologne we went to this German restaurant and had "german" food. This is some sort of liver meatball soup or something. It was pretty good, although I thought it was going to be more of a stew as opposed to poop in broth.



And here is my main dish which was a mitwurst with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. Delicious! Good heavy food.



When we were in Cologne we also went to the Chocolate Museum. The Museum itself was kind of dissapointing, we thought we'd get to eat more chocolate. But we had some chocolate shake type things in the cafe. They also had an amazing souvenior store with all sorts of chocolate.





On our way down to Munich we stopped at a Burger King for a snack. We got fried cheese with jalapeno. It's a lot like a jalepeno popper at Jack in the Box but better! MM you woulda liked these.

--RD

Amsterdam

I am going to do one giant blog for Europe. So, I spent 9 days in Europe travelling with PigPen. We went EVERYWHERE. Holland (Amsterdam), Germany (Cologne, Munich), Italy (Bologna, Venice, Florence, Cinque Terra), and Switzerland (Geneva, Zurich). I have to say my favorite was Switzerland, more specifically Zurich. And the food was great everywhere. We ate a lot of meat, bread and cheese! Here is my culinary adventure.



The first picture is of Pommes Frites (Amsterdam) - Fries, here we ate it with Mayonnaise. We also had it again that same day but this time with curry, not at good as the mayonnaise which is way better than that American crap.



Here is a picture of Heneiken beer, fresh from the brewery museum in Amsterdam. We downed 3 beers in about 1/2 an hour. Not so bad! =)

In Amsterdam we also ate at this cafe where I experienced a pancake with cheese. It's kind of like a crepe with cheese. We also had Indian food for dinner, it wasn't so great. Also at the hostels we stayed at they provided breakfast. It was cold cuts, cheese and bread mostly. The same goes for in Germany. It was like our lunch here was their breakfast!

More to come later...
--RD

my apologies

I would first and foremost like to apologize to our loyal reader, Jill, because I have done such a horrible job blogging. Also to MOCMOC, because she's been picking up the slack. I have been MIA because I have been doing a lot of travelling. Anyhow, no fear! I am here and I have no job. So... let the blogging begin!
--RD

MIA

Hi Jill - sorry for not blogging. I'm in Asia right now but I promise to blog when I'm back home. As for Rocketdog, I don't know what the heck happened to her! She's been home for a week now and should have plenty to blog about from her European trip but I have no idea why she isn't blogging.

For now, I'll just have to blog without pictures. Mr. Moc and I have been doing plenty of eating while vacationing this past week. We've been eating a lot of great Taiwanese food for cheap. Cheap food is so easily accessible here. All you have to do is walk out your door and within a few steps, there should be something you can pick up and eat while you walk. Of course, you can sit if you want - most places have little tables set up on sidewalks for a quick bite. Mr. Moc left this afternoon to fly home. I'm in Taipei for a few more days before I head to Singapore. After my meetings in Singapore, I will be meeting up with PigPen who is flying into town early Saturday morning. We have about 36 hours to eat our way through Singapore! :)
--MM