Itinerary: Goat Farm 宜農牧羊場, Making Tofu Pudding and Tofu at 羅東農會
The weather has turned rainy and cold (60s!) again and after a weekend of activities, I took it easy Monday and Tuesday. On Monday I took a friend, Rain, who is visiting from the US to a bookstore. By now, I think it’s a bad idea to go book shopping with me. People always leave with tons of books. Though thank goodness Rain already knew the books she wanted so it wasn’t all me suggesting books.
We stayed home all day Tuesday. I had some trouble buying the Puyuma train tickets and learned that you can’t buy more than 5 tickets at a time via the train app. And also that even if it says it’s out of tickets, they actually release more the day of.
Wednesday morning, we rushed out the door at 8:15am to make it to the train station on time because we had to buy 7 tickets in person. Thankfully there were seats that were mostly together.
Rain took us to visit her friend in 羅東 Luodon, which is 1 train stop south of 宜蘭 Yilan. We had such a fantastic time today. The best part is that all the locations are super close to the train station. I love to travel with locals. They never take me to the super touristy places and it’s always way interesting.
Goat Farm
Our first stop was a goat farm, which is a $170 taxi ride away. I gave the kids each $50 and had them choose from $60 worth of feed. They cheated by pulling out their own money from their purse. They fed some pigs and goats goat milk, super long grass to some goats, carrots to rabbits, and fish feed to the fish, turkey, ducks, and chickens on the little “tourist” farm.
They played in the play area while the adults chatted about schools in Taiwan. I learned that even at the alternative schools there are the good and bad. Rain‘s friend brought these 牛舌餅 (Cow’s Tongue). They’re basically a sweet cookie. But apparently one snack now has two names: 宜蘭餅 and 牛尾巴 (Yilan Cookie and Cow’s Tail), because one cookie has a thicker 麥芽糖 filling than the other.
Making Tofu
After lunch, we took another $170 taxi to 羅東農會 Luodong Agriculture Association. It’s basically a place that is there to promote agriculture goods produced in Luodong. Today we were there to make 豆花 and 豆腐 (Tofu pudding and tofu).
First the guide showed us a little movie about farm goods in the area. I watched the kids struggling to understand what he was saying. There is always so much local terminology related to geography or local food that confuses the children. Then the guide told the kids some puzzle/word joke and questions about the video, such as
Q: 甲，乙，丙，丁，那一個字最酷。
A: 丁字褲
Afterward, we tried out the 6 different kids of drinks they produce, ranging from soy milk to 5 grains.
Next was learning how to make tofu pudding 布丁. You basically mix 石膏粉 (gypsum) and toss in a bottle of soy milk. But there was a trick to pouring. You have to pour, circle, and pull up. Basically you have to 衝 (mix) the gypsum as you pour or else it won’t congeal.
While the pudding congeals, we went over to make tofu. It’s kind of like making cheese. We mixed some nigari with water, and once it boiled, added in 6 bottles of soy milk. The soy milk curdles as it boils with the nigari. Once it curdled enough we carefully ladled it into a tofu mold and pressed it down. It was SO NEAT!
We washed the tofu down with some 皮蛋 made locally that’s made with iron instead of the traditional lead. Super delicious. Yes, those thousand year old eggs used to be poisonous.
Sadly, we had to rush home right after eating our tofu to pick up the other children from school. It’s about 1 to 1.5 hours to Yilan from Taipei main station.
This is definitely something I would recommend you do! The cost was only $150 per person. And you get all these coupons to use at their store. I saved $100 out of $500 when I bought their tofu press. I’m hoping to be making some tofu with the children when I get back!
Oh, Astroboy picked up a small model of the Puyuma train as souvenir on the train. I love the Puyuma train because it’s red, my favorite color. Plus it’s got such a lovely name.
