Sharah, World Famous American Chef

Well, overall nothing too worthy of writing home about has happened. But that was before I got an invitation to go to Gaoxiong and Tainan. My only words of advice are these: careful about accepting any invitations for a trip where you have little details.

Last week I got an invitation from someone I know to a degree to go with her to Gaoxiong and learn how to cook vegetarian food. I figured maybe I was invited because she knows I'm a vegetarian, and of course I figured getting out of the Taipei area would be good fun. Now I'm not saying it wasn't fun, but goodness I should've gotten a little more details at the very least. Well, I blindly accept the invitation and keep it on the downlow since I figured it wasn't for everyone in the CIEE group to know about. There were only so many spots available, and so only a few other people were invited.

Well, I get the itinerary Thursday, but if you know me well, I'm rather careless and figure I'll blindly trust whatever plans are ahead. (I've also noticed Taiwanese people fairly frequently like to work out very detailed itineraries. To the point it lays out every ten minutes' activity.)

Anyways, I get all my stuff ready to go for Friday and go with some of the other Americans from CIEE to meet up with the person who'd invited us. She takes us to a huge travel bus filled with other people--none of whom we know of course. They were all rather nervous because we were all very foreign looking and I kept hearing people whisper their English sucked and they were too shy to talk to us. However, there were a few brave souls that attempted and were thrilled when they found out we could communicate in Chinese. We later found out they were all mostly university students in the area that wanted to get out and have some fun. They also all practiced vegetarianism. (I was of course in heaven.) The bus was also equipped with a karaoke system and so for a good deal of it, students sung in Taiwanese and Mandarin. Then we made a stop to meet up with another bus and take a break. During that stop we all got onto the other bus and sang happy birthday to someone that we Americans didn't know. Eventually I fell asleep; however, it was rather uncomfortable since there was too big a gap between me and the window so I had nothing to lean against. I drifted in and out of sleep, to find that the bus was watching 海角七號, a movie currently very popular here in Taiwan.

When we finally arrived in Tainan at about two o'clock in the morning, we got out to find ourselves staring at a Buddhist temple. Everyone had to line up and pay their respects before tottering off to bed. Our host allowed us to sleep until nine o'clock, although everyone else had gotten up to eat a seven o'clock breakfast. We slept well, and found getting out of bed rather difficult. Our host then brought us to eat a traditional style Taiwanese breakfast. Of course, since it was a Buddhist temple, it was vegetarian. Then we had about thirty minutes to stroll around the area and take pictures. A few people were entertained and tried talking to us about this and that.

Then some people came and our host introduced us to them. However, only then did I realize our host was not accompanying us to Gaoxiong. Instead she had a performance there at the Tainan temple and she'd come get us the following day. So we get in a van and a woman drove us all the way to another temple. A temple that was also in the middle of nowhere. My guess is I was at Foguangshan temple since it was really large and Buddhist. Here's a picture anyways:




When we show up, they set us down at a table and an old man comes up to entertain us. He chats with us for a while and takes a liking to the American that had the best Chinese. We then are showed to our rooms and after putting our stuff down immediately taken down to eat. Of course, I got confused when we were led into a rather formal room with several old men and a few women all sitting around a giant table. The table setting included the intimidating multi-array of knives and forks, since we were to enjoy a fancy Western-style vegetarian dinner. They brought out all sorts of yummy things. However, I was the only American to enjoy it. It was also not that Western, since I have a hard time imagining Westerners enjoying some of the ingredients and the vinegar beverage given to wet our palate. The plates just kept coming and coming until we'd downed ten different courses, and I had never felt more full in my life. Of course, I should've known something was wrong when I was given a free fancy dinner with ten courses, but I didn't. However, there were plenty of moments I should've realized but didn't.

After lunch was over, a man came into the room and we were asked about the competition for tomorrow. We were all rather puzzled, especially when they were sizing us up for cooking outfits and saying we would win the competition the next day. A man gave us his card, introducing himself as the chef who'd teach us how to cook.

Then we get led out and taken all over the temple grounds. Since the next day we'd be busy with the competition, we wouldn't have a chance to see it all, as they said. We were also treated to some fancy mountain tea, supposedly from Ali Mountain. I was so exhausted though that I ended up falling asleep on the shoulder of the girl setting next to me. Then next thing I knew, they were handing out cups of tea.

After they'd finished showing us around the grounds, they took us back to the place in the temple we were staying and explained to us we needed our passports so we would get reimboursed by the government for coming to the competition. No one had their passport. Although I had my ARC card, which was still not perfectly appropriate since they wanted it to look like we'd come especially to Taiwan for the competition and had just gotten there. Of course, I was a little confused since I had proof of identity, but I didn't fully understand what was going on at that time. The adults leading us around were mostly speaking Taiwanese to keep us from understanding much. And understanding older Taiwanese people is hard for me.

Then they take us for dinner. I ask if it'd be really large that time too. However, to my dismay they led us back to the same dining hall and fed eight of the ten same courses we'd had at lunch and added a few other pieces. I never imagined I could feel fuller, but I didn't want to be impolite. Then they take us downstairs where we are to wait in order to learn how to cook. Except the chef decided it was too late, and we just needed to come back at ten so he could explain our dishes to us. It was only at this time did I understand I was to pretend to be a chef and compete in the following day's competition. Not only that, but we just might be on television, especially since we were foreign.

We went back to our room after this discovery and realized we were all of CIEE's white kids. Not only that, we didn't realize that the person who'd invited us had no idea of the situation either. We had no cell phone service. We began to freak out, which is normal when you're in a temple in the middle of nowhere and have no idea what is going on, but you do know that you're being used because they wanted to make their festival look more internation, but didn't have the money to bring in real famous Western chefs.

We then go back to learn about our dishes. I had a menu as follows:




We also met another American who had been living in Taiwan for twenty years and a Turkish man. They too had been roped into doing this. In order to make it look like we'd made the food, we'd have to carry it all in to the competition place the next morning along with register at six thirty in the morning.

Well, the one American guy with us ended up staying in our room with us because he was freaked out by the situation and didn't know if he could trust one of our hosts from the day. We didn't get into bed until well after two and had to be up by five thirty the next morning.

The next morning, we eat breakfast and don our chef attire, making the transformation. We created a story and carried through with all the plans before sitting around and waiting in the competition area. Reporters came and interviewed one of the people, who came up with a bunch of BS about animals crying more than vegetables so vegetarianism was good. However, he was totally for killing cows because of the methane problem. Then we took some pictures and pretended we didn't understand any Chinese since we were supposedly famous American chefs fresh off the plane. Despite the fact that five of us looked like college students and definitely couldn't pull off a very convincing chef look.

Sharah!

Italian-style Vegetable Cold Platter

King Oyster Stuffed Tofu

Italian Panna Cotta

Then when we brought our plates in for judging, we discovered the chef was actually a judge and so the whole thing had been set up. It wasn't just about looking good for a chef; it was about looking good for a festival. I'd never been part of such a dirty competition. Plus I was forced to lie to Taiwanese people and unbalance what ought to be a fair competition.

When our host showed up, she became very apologetic, but she eventually helped us out of the situation since a couple of the Americans were super uncomfortable with the situation. I, however, being too carefree for my own good, just found the whole situation rather amusing.

We managed to get out of the situation by about ten thirty or so. We went off to take a nap and enjoy some of the little fair's free food. We also supposedly won something, but none of us were too interested in collecting on an unfair competition. We were happy enough with the free things we did get.

Overall, I saved lots of money that weekend, and got a free ticket back on the HSR. Although nothing in the trip happened as I'd imagined it, it was a good time, and I figured you'd like to know that I'm now apparently a world-famous chef. I also figured you'd like to know I'm still alive and kicking. However, this will definitely be on the top of my study abroad experiences. Going off on a random trip Taiwanese-style and becoming a chef.