A Sunny Day in Yingge

I've been to Yingge 4 or 5 times in the past year. The first 3 or 4 times it was raining and cold. But on our last trip the sun was shining which made everything about the day seem wonderful.

I've probably posted a picture of this street before, but I needed another picture with BLUE SKIES!


This visit was the first time we were able to get into a restaurant we had been wanting to try. This interesting pond is at the entrance.


Everything inside was lovely, although I'm afraid I didn't capture the beauty very well. I took this photo of a curtain partition.

And I tried to photograph the table because it was so unique. It had ceramic inset at various places across the top. Fitting, since Yingge is where you go to purchase ceramics. In the middle of the table there was a large inset ceramic piece which looked rather like it should hold a tissue box.

But inside there was a a bit of water and a "frog" to display flowers.

I photographed nearly all of our food because the presentation was beautiful. As is typical in Taiwan, you get a "set" meal which includes a few courses and a drink. Our appetizers were mozzarella and tomato. Since I usually detest tomatoes I didn't expect to like it. However I decided to try it because I am usually unable to eat meat here due to the difference in preparation from what I am used to in America. To my surprise I thought it tasted quite good. I was so pleased with myself for actually eating tomatoes!

Each beverage was served on an individual little tray. Coke came in these very rustic glasses:

We let the kids order banana splits because we knew they wouldn't like any of the regular meals. They were very fancy!

We also ordered a fruit platter for the kids so that they would have something besides ice cream. Doesn't it look amazing? I thought of my Mom, who loved fruit salad for lunch. She would have loved this.

As it turned out it was a good thing I enjoyed the mozzarella and tomato because, as usual, I was unable to eat the main course. The presentation was, again, lovely, but the shrimp was cooked whole. Trying to be brave, I thought I would just cut off the head, peel and eat the body and everything would be fine. But somehow when I cut the head of I saw inside of it and... ugh. I forced myself to eat the body of one shrimp but that was all I could do. I was done.

I honestly did not mind that I was unable to eat. Everything was so beautiful that I was happy just to soak in the beauty. I would go again, although I would stick to fruit and ice cream next time!