November Expenses

Life in Taipei has been a lot of fun but it can get expensive very fast if we're not careful...

Review of Christmasland in New Taipei City 2018

If you're a foreigner living in Asia, then Christmas can be a bit different. But there are festivities here...

The Cost of Moving to Taiwan: The First Month

How much does it cost to move a family overseas? One important question to consider when moving abroad is: How much will this international move cost?

How to compare cost of living between countries

Will I spend more money in Taiwan compared to my home country? Less money?

Toy bank - aka the Taipei City Parenting Resource Center

Those of you who are parents probably know that kids tire of toys very quickly. So the Taipei city government has this great resource for parents with kids ages 0-6 years old, the toy rental bank!

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Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐) in the Instant Pot

It has been a while since we've posted so here is another recipe for the instant pot:

This is one of our favorites for the summer as in the instant pot it means no turning on the stove or oven!

This recipe is adapted from the Chinese site here: https://icook.tw/recipes/273411

For 4 people:
Minced pork (or ground beef) - 150 gram or around a quarter or half pound
Tofu - two boxes (I like to cube them)
Onions and green onions (minced also) - about 1/4 cup
Oil (olive or sesame works) - 1 TBS
Rice wine - 1 TBS
Soy sauce - 1 TBS
Brown sugar - 1/2 TSP
Soybean paste - 2 or 3 TBS

To thicken:
1 TBS tapioca starch (or corn or other kinds of starch)
1/2 cup of water

To make:
Have the setting on "saute" for your instant pot, on ours, it is the waterless setting for chicken
Put the oil into the bottom of the pot
Put in the minced meat and the onions
Put the soybean paste, mix
Then put in the tofu cubes
Then pour the rice wine, brown sugar, soy sauce mixture over the tofu

Reset the setting to beans on pressure cooking - close the lid to not let the water run out.

Then it beeps and it is ready!