Glazed Red Tomatoes

The weekend definitely caught up with me today. While the Friday to Sunday slot is full of enrichment, excitement, and exploration, it has also tended to beat the snot out of me. Mentally and physically exhausted, I could barely keep my eyes open at my desk since my arrival this morning, and it was especially hard because Zhuo wasn’t ready for me until 5 pm, so I spent my day counting the proverbial sheep and looking for something—anything—on which to focus. Perhaps I’m coming down with a bug, or perhaps three consecutive nights of staying up late and wondering how and if you are getting home and will ever see your bed again have some effect as well.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I did come upon a rather unpleasant Taiwanese culinary creation. Remember those glazed fruit skewers I photographed on Friday during Shilin trip number one? Last night I bought one with strawberries, and while the hard, candied glaze was a little too sweet for my taste, the warm strawberries inside were delicious. Then I got to the bottom to a small, oval-shaped piece of fruit I had never seen before. Curious, I took a bite. Turns out it was a sugar-glazed cherry tomato. Ewww. Not the best of surprises. So my new advice when eating skewers with questionable contents: eat everything minus one, and most likely that will be just the right amount.

I can't take credit for the photo, but I can claim ownsership on the professionally-done graphic text additions. I took a break from counting invisible farm animals to work on this masterpiece.