Mooncakes on a Roof and More Malls

Last weekend was the Mid-Autumn Festival (or Moon Festival) in Taiwan. Or as a local new friend joked, the BBQ Festival. We had a 4-day weekend between the holiday and a teacher work day, which was quite a lot for what my in-laws tell me is usually a pretty low-key holiday that most people don't do too much for. 

We did not have any BBQ, unfortunately. But Teacup and I did have mooncakes and pomelo! 

Mooncake with lotus seed paste
Wikimedia commons, bc we ate all ours, and in the dark

Also Wikimedia commons, because it was very messy to eat,

and I didn't want to splatter my phone with pomelo juice

These days most people apparently barbeque instead of eating mooncakes and pomelo fruit (which is like an oval grapefruit in flavor and shape, but with very little of the bitterness). But we didn't have a BBQ to attend, so we went up the rooftop to stare at the full moon, and eat our small bounty of mooncakes. Teacup LOVED it. She also loved that I let her scooter around the park after dark until it was time to go to the roof. 

Otherwise we visited a couple of malls. Big City Mall is a huge mall in Hsinchu, which I got us to by the cab service 55688, which is basically the Taiwan version of Uber (without being Uber). The idea was to find a kids play area and wander around some, but after losing a few dollars in Tom's World (an arcade chain that is reminiscent of Chuck E Cheese mixed with a token-operated casino), we couldn't find a real play area in the mall. I know there used to be one, but it appears to have since left. Ah well. So instead I let Teacup steal my camera and take some flower pictures outside, and of course we had bubble tea and a truffle donut. She got some pretty good pictures!

Astrophotography on the mall overhang

The other days we went back to Far Eastern Department Store, one day making a 'lantern' with Teacup's grandmother. Traditional lanterns are made of paper; this was more like a nightlight with a moon theme. But it was cute and fun. Bonus note, I finally figured out one of the uses for that Hakka educational area in the food court: it serves as an activity center for events.

Not a traditional Mid-Autumn lantern

Teacup, of course, modeled her clay cat after Clover.

So our Mid-Autumn festival celebration was a bit nontraditional, a bit traditional, and lot of low-key relaxing. 

Food Bonus:

Stir fry of lotus root, celery, water spinach, bok choy, and leftovers with kumquats, with soy sauce, sugar, and ginger.
Not terrible, definitely edible, not fantastic. I want to do more trials of cooking with kumquats.

Oolong tea, guava, banana, grapes. I'm not sure I love guava. Tastes kind of like a bergamot-infused apple to me. I like both flavors individually, not in love with the combo.

Zhubei Far East Department Store

The last couple of weeks have been a lot of uninteresting days, settling in and finding local stuff and trying to find the best mosquito sprays and basic bathroom cleaning products, and house sale logistics. I won't detail all that, because you're not really hear to read about the boring stuff!

However I went to the local mall a few times, Zhubei Far East Department store. Slightly over a mile walk, which is good for my exercise and Pokemon Go egg hatching (Yes, that's still a thing; Teacup likes catching Pokemon so we've revived the old accounts). In addition to some spectacular food courts, it's got the usual stuff like clothes and kids toys and trinkets. It's also got a setup for slime-making classes, which you know Teacup enjoyed.

Bunnicula looking fancy in Teacup's hairclips

Slime class

Zhubei Far East Department store has a ton restaurants. It also has a really pretty layout in the restaurant-dedicated sections. Like many of the Taiwan malls I've been to, the sit-down restaurants are on their own floor, while there's a food court with mall-style meals on another floor that also has regular shops, and in the basement level more of both fast-casual and fancier restaurants in addition to non-food stores and food stalls. 

I tried a place called Chun Shui Tang in the casual food court on the 6th floor, and had a delicious meal. I now know what sweet potato leaves are supposed to taste like, when prepared in local stylings. 

Sweet potato leaves, prepared in traditional style.
I have no hope of replicating this myself any time soon,
but it was very delicious. Also comes in vegetarian versions (not pictured).

Handcut noodles in a milky, peanut-tasting sauce, listed under

'traditional foods' section of the menu

Plus a pomelo jasmine oolong milk tea that sounded interesting

The food courts, fancy and casual, include a round-house-style section that on the outside of the mall look like a traditional round house, and on the inside look like a bunch of well-decorated restaurants.

In this casual food court section is a model of a traditional Hakka-style house. I am not a cultural expert, and there's not actually very much explanation in this section about the various things shown, so I can't really tell you much about them. Is there special meaning to the items shown? Historical context? Renowned stories? No idea! It just is a no-shop area with a Hakka-style house and some antiques, up on the 6th floor in the middle of Zhubei city, no explanation. But hey, it's cool.

Why is there a historical exhibit at the local mall? No idea, but why not?

It has an assortment of antique-style objects. Wagon, sedan (wedding sedan maybe?)

Antique Hakka-style bassinet, crib, rocking horse

Not antique night market machines on the left, antique bike on the right

The lanterns are repeated throughout the mall, in different shapes. This is at an escalator.

Upstairs with the fancier restaurants, it's decorated like a traditional Hakka street. Hakka is the name of one of the native Taiwanese peoples, as opposed to mainlander Chinese who moved to Taiwan. 

Behind the arched entry ways are various restaurants of many degrees of fancy, unrelated to the façade, all looking delicious

Among the traditional Hakka themed decorations are night-market-style games.

We tried the dim sum restaurant on the fancy-food floor, going for a set menu style meal, and it was quite good.

Stewed cabbage, dumplings, shumai, egg-custard steamed buns

mango pudding for dessert

Sweet egg custard dumplings. Not considered the main dessert for some reason.
They're delicious.

Ginger chicken rice. I could legitimately eat this stuff all day.

Chicken congee

Turnip cakes

Most of the mall is normal modern shops, not a historical exhibit. The main floors range from luxury-good stores to high-end department stores to Uniqlo-level casual styles, athletic stores and foreign imports, and your standard assortment of mall stuff. Nothing's super cheap (look for a day or night market for the real deals) but you can get everyday-priced items and not go broke.

The basement has its own small grocery store, various rotation stalls selling things from baked goods to teas to character-themed school supplies, plus more food, plus a bookstore and various shops--it's the affordable section for general purpose shopping. 

Hanlin Tea House in the basement claims to be the originator of bubble tea (not this specific shop; it's a chain)

Nice pu-erh at a tea stall in the basement, sold as part of a sampler set or large bricks

We also tried the conveyor-belt sushi shop in the basement, but I didn't get pictures. Oops. Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying more of the food in the various sections, but post-move budgeting means it'll be a bit spread out.

Unrelated, Clover is settling in well, and has decided she accepts this smaller territory as her own. She does not thank us for the work we put in getting her here.

Bonus: cat tries to become art

Even Cats Get Jet Lag

Warning: this post is quite the saga.

 We have a cat. 

"You're planning WHAT?"

Her name is Clover. Unlike Teacup, this is not an alias; it is her real name, because cats don't read and she will never care about what she finds about herself online. And if she did, she would be probably only be disappointed for not being renowned for copious amounts of bug murder or something. She's pretty good at murdering bugs.

However, as you know, we have moved to Taiwan. Taiwan has completely eliminated rabies, and as such, maintains extremely strict controls on animals entering the country. Like layers-and-layers-of-tests-and-paperwork strict.

We started considering the possibility of moving abroad back when Teacup was born, probably to Taiwan but anywhere to give her exposure to other languages and cultures. Discussions on when and where to do it floated around for a while. We started seriously looking at doing it now about a year ago, and we knew keeping the family together would be tricky. Some research led to the discovery that for us to even have a chance at keeping Clover with us, we needed to start early--really early. Before we actually made a decision early. 

To be exact, for it to be at all possible, we needed to get her a one-year rabies shot within 1 year of the move (we had her on a 3-year rabies vaccine at that time), and a titer test to prove she had sufficient antibodies within 1 year before the move. Research showed sometimes these tests take up to 6 months to process, and would have to be done through a USDA-certified veterinarian, and documented appropriately. Our regular vet was not USDA-certified, but referred us to one. So we made an appointment in December 2025 to get the vaccination updated and the process started, just in case.

After getting the test results, we would need to get an import permit from Taiwan, which takes about 20 days to process. We also would need to get her a USDA health certificate, which for Taiwan is valid about 30 days (most countries it is only 10). However, the airline we usually use, EVA Air, seemed to indicate we had to have it within 10 days. Also, they only accept animals as checked cargo. Oof.

Turns out most airlines do not, in fact, allow animals in cabin on transpacific flights. Even the ones who allow it domestically. So after some research, we accepted she would have to go as climate-controlled cargo. That meant finding a cargo-appropriate carrier; we went with a dog-sized one to give her some extra room.

Most cat food contains poultry or beef, which is banned from import to Taiwan, and any provided on the flight has to be trashed at the airport. This includes the food our cat was on. The food was discontinued last year, so we had to find a new food to switch her to anyway; this began a search for food available in both countries so we could make the digestive transition easy (we switched to Hills Science Diet cat food), and order food before we arrived so we wouldn't have to worry about feeding her the first few days. 

Another aspect Taiwan is known for is that pets have to undergo quarantine on arrival, usually 7 days if you have all the paperwork right and start the testing on time, or 30 days if something gets delayed. There are only a few places you can do this quarantine, and every day you get charged for boarding and care. But, great news! At least for us! Because this year Taiwan passed a new revision to the quarantine, wherein pets with the proper paperwork started at least 180 days ahead of time could be exempt from quarantine at the official quarantine facilities. We didn't even know about this, so when we discovered they had automatically changed the quarantine facility request to 'quarantine exempt' we were delighted. Phew! That was one major stress gone. Which we needed. Why?

Do you remember that cruise from the last post? Yeah, the really awesome eclipse cruise? It was amazing! Very glad we did it! Also, we returned to the USA the night 9 days before we had to leave again to move to Taiwan, with packers coming to move many of our things to storage and then another set coming to move everything else to ship internationally. But that USDA certificate (and ONLY the original is accepted, no digital versions) needed to be back to us and in our hands before leaving. I'd been worried 8 days wouldn't be enough time, but our veterinarian assured us it was likely the USDA would mail it out either the Friday before or the Monday of, getting there in time to leave Tuesday evening with overnight shipping. 

So we arranged the final vet visit the day after we returned to the USA to get that certificate started, shelling out $31 for USPS Express shipping so it would get back in time (and then I ran to get my own visa finalized--but that's a different story). The vet didn't even send a self-addressed, self-stamped envelope; he sent the PDF of the mailing label digitally to the USDA. Works great, right?

Except.

Glitches in the USDA system meant they weren't able to get it mailed until Monday. Arriving Tuesday would have been fine. But then, there were Mid-Atlantic storms. Bad ones. Bad enough that the USPS Priority Express mail got delayed. Until Thursday.

Cue panic.

That original health certificate was absolutely necessary. Cat could NOT get on plane without it. So on Tuesday afternoon we're calling everyone we can think of to try to arrange alternate care, because Teacup was due to start school the following Monday, and we didn't want to delay that.

Major shout out to Teacup's kindergarten friend Bear and his family: Bear's family volunteered to look after Clover for us! Hurrah! Also thanks to our contractor who was willing to use low VOC paints for the house repainting (yes, we're selling the old house), so Clover could safely stay in the basement and thus reduce stress from possibly being boarded away from home. With their help, Clover was safe at home until we were able to arrange a return trip. Bear's mom was also able to rescue the USDA certificate when it arrived, drying it out after it got wet (oh hello, those storms that delayed its arrival in the first place). Thankfully the raised seal was still dry, and the ink hadn't run too much, so it was still usable.

(Did I mention that during all the crazy calling around for emergency cat sitting, our dehumidifier hose came off the sink and sprayed water over the floor? Emergency mopping! With the few towels and other scraps of fabric we had left that hadn't been packed for the move, may that sacrificial bathroom rug rest in peace.) 

Once in Taiwan we rallied, called around some more (thankfully we had decided to splurge on international data during the move itself), and after checking with the Taiwan port authorities in charge of animal import multiple times and with several pictures, were able to determine that the USDA certificate would remain in effect until mid-September, and was still usable. So we booked a return flight to pick up the cat and bring her back with us, with Teacup staying with her grandparents for those few days.

Clover during the check-in process
"There's a cat in there? Where?"
"Just look for the big green eyes in the back."
(A conversation held twice)

We hopped off the plane, went to the check-in counter, showed them all our paperwork and asked if it would be fine. They told us to reprint a couple of things, but yes, it looked fine. So Labor day was spent reprinting those final things, visiting the cat (we stayed in a hotel because yes, we had no furniture left!), thanking our amazing hero cat sitters, and doing a couple last-minute chores, while trying not to adjust to NYC time zone. 

And now? 

Success! Clover is in her new home! Groggy, confused, surprisingly not hiding even after a flight with more than a little turbulence. But home with her people once more.

Fresh out of the airport, customs approved, alert, and somewhat alarmed

Relaxing safely after her journey

Timeline:

Rabies vaccine--Dec 2025

Titer test--started processing Jan 2026

Results received--March 2026 (pretty fast comparatively!)

Import permit application--May 2026

Cruise--August 2026, returned August 17

USDA final vet check--August 18

USDA permit digitally received--August 24

USDA permit mailed USPS priority express ('guaranteed' overnight shipping)--August 24

Family to airport--August 25

USDA permit received--August 27, in a rainstorm

Return to US--Sept 6

Return to Taiwan with cat--Sept 9, 2026

And that, folks, is probably why few people bring their cats when moving to Taiwan.

Also, yes, cats do apparently get jet lag.

To Taiwan as the Summer Ends

 Summer wasn't quite over yet once we returned from the eclipse cruise, but we only had a week to pack everything up, finish what paperwork we could, and say our goodbyes. This included a day where the packers came a day early to start packing, while we had 2 kid playdates, met with the realtor, and one adult friend come over... needless to say, packing mistakes were made. Oops.

Then, we set to the skies!

The paperwork shenanigans deserve their own post. So, I won't go into them too much yet, because there's two tales to tell: human and cat. To put not too fine a point on it, due to mail delays we do not yet have our cat, and will be returning for her soon (cross your fingers everything goes right). 

But we are in our new home, and Teacup has started her new school. 

It is a 16-hour flight, and we are 12 time zones away, so the jet lag is real and painful. Also, there is a whole new round of paperwork--but good news! I got married! To my (same) husband! Again!

Basically, adding me to the household registry is considered the equivalent of a courthouse marriage. (Achieved through showing them records of our US marriage)

We have also been eating delicious food already, lots of takeout as we don't yet have a microwave (coming soon) and some experimenting with local dishes.

Breakfast sandwich --ham and cheese croissant.
The ham is sweeter and almost sausage-like. Kind of like a sweet country ham.

Turnip cakes. These are everywhere in Taiwan and very good.

Common breakfast dish--eggs in a savory wrap, cooked

Pokemon Mezastar: Not currently available in the US! Teacup enjoyed playing and got to keep the handful of tokens she won from the videogame. Also strategy to keep her entertained and sane and enjoying the first few days.

I started the family tradition of Sunday morning pancakes, and I wasn't going to let moving countries stop it! I couldn't find baking powder or soda, but luckily I managed to find a local pancake mix--it was sweeter than US pancake mixes, almost cake-like.

Getting over jet lag and picking up living supplies included a day of going to a nearby mall. Teacup noticed the slime studio and wound up taking a slime-making class. We did not actually get the supplies we originally went for, but Teacup DID make it past 7pm that night, so we consider it a win.

One the morning we found a random popup street festival in our local park. In exchange for visiting 10 booths in the fair, we got some prizes--this included 2 bags of random local greens from nearby farms. I experimented and made some lemon-garlic-pepper amaranth greens for lunch. They're pretty good! Also, the bread is more cake-like than it is in the US. It was fluffy and very sweet whole wheat bread.

I have a recipe in the US for a delicious pasta sauce my husband loves. Unfortunately, spinach, oregano, canned kidney beans, and cloves were not at the local grocery store, nor was my usual pasta sauce; and beef is very expensive. So I decided to start experimenting with local ingredients. Instead of beef, ground pork; sweet potato greens in place of spinach; much more onion than previously; Prego as a base... I have more experimentation to do before it's ready to share, but it's not bad.

My husband and I also went out for dim sum one day, trying one of the sit down restaurants at the mall (and yes, we had a bit more luck with our shopping list time, too!). 

chicken congee

shrimp dumplings, shumei, steamed egg buns

turnip cakes and steamed cabbage

Sweet egg custard bao

Egg custard filling!

Mango porridge dessert

While at the mall, we came across a random tea tasting, and joined in. We got to enjoy a couple of delicious raw puerhs.

While a lot of our time has been the usual moving/ paperwork /settling-in stresses (and some less usual ones), the food is good, and we're having fun experimenting and making ourselves feel at home. 

Now just wish us luck on getting the cat.