Long Life Peach Buns!

January 8- It was my uncle's birthday! After we moved hotels that morning (we moved from one hotel into a homestay that consisted of 2 studio apartments), we headed out to go shop for a birthday cake before making it down to my uncle's house. We found a beautiful fancy cake (from one of the MANY bakeries in Taipei), and for some reason it took us FOREVER to get to my uncle's house. By the time we arrived, it was fairly late in the afternoon. Adam and I took a walk around the neighborhood before we headed out for my uncle's birthday banquet.

It was a wonderful banquet (again, with tons of food! Peking duck. hot pot, spareribs, soup, etc.). It was the first time that I had ever seen the Long Life Peach Bun too. They served it to us at the very end (see pic below) and it is typical for birthday celebrations- it was a bun that looks like a peach and has red bean inside. Apparently you can get them here in California from Asian bakeries. I think I'll have to check that out! Adam was just shocked at how much food there was. When we thought we were done, more food would be brought out. My cousing Elmer joked that it was because we had a "starving" gene in our body that allowed us to order and eat so much food but not gain hundreds of pounds. After dinner, we then drove to my other cousin's house. Her home was very beautiful, and again, they were such gracious hosts. Coffee, tea, and lots of fruit!

Afterwards, they drove us back to our homestay with the bajillion bags/suitcases that we had...which was very nice of them because it took two trips since we had so much stuff with us!!