Floyd and I and a friend to try out a new restaurant this evening (or what we thought was a new restaurant). Have you seen No. 9 Harbor? No, it’s not an address on Harbor Road; it’s the restaurant across the street from Starbucks where the one we called the Prawn Palace used to stand.
Well, as it turns out, No. 9 Harbor is the Prawn Palace, just with a new look. They’ve changed the interior quite a bit, including getting rid of the murals that used to show scenic spots in Taiwan and switching them out for giant pictures of beer (and one with a ship/travel theme).
The menu is the same, though – that was our only clue that it wasn’t really a new restaurant.
Here are the dishes we ordered. Some of them were our old standards back in the days when we used to eat at the Prawn Palace a lot, and a few were ones we tried for the first time this evening.
Above: their asparagus is always tasty. Good and garlicky!
This was my favorite dish: the kung pao chicken. It’s also the first one we ordered the first time we ever came to the Prawn Palace – which was the first restaurant Floyd and I ever ventured out to alone back when we were new in Taiwan. Click here to read my blog post about that memorable event!
The black pepper beef was good but very spicy! This picture doesn’t do it justice – there were a lot more chili peppers in it than you can see here!
This scrambled egg and shrimp dish wasn’t quite what we had expected. But it turned out to be delicious, though a little soupy. I think it was my second-favorite dish of the evening.
We didn’t think the duck would be quite like this either! It came breaded and deep-fried, with colorful shrimp chips adorning the platter. I liked the flavor, but Floyd described it as “deep-fried grease”. The frog, which I forgot to take a picture of but is also one of our old favorites, he called “deep-fried bones”. As you can imagine, neither had much meat on it!
Along with the ubiquitous white rice, this restaurant offers its customers free noodles. With bits of cabbage, carrots, and mushrooms, they’re pretty tasty.
Well, all in all we enjoyed our meal at No. 9 Harbor. Have you been there? If you live in Taichung and enjoy Taiwanese food, we recommend you try it out! (Of course, if you can’t read Chinese, make sure you bring along someone who can.) Feel free to reply to this post and let us know what your favorite dishes are – Floyd and I are always looking for new favorites!
Join us over the next 12 weeks (starting August 29th) as we share Bible study topics, discussion questions, suggested reading, and activities that you can do with your kiddos! The writers at CSAHM are so excited to share with you the wonderful “Deep Blue Kids Bible” and Bible Studies that will encourage you to include regular Bible Study time with your children that isn’t overwhelming and is a A LOT of FUN!
Today we are celebrating by hosting a giveaway launch!
Be sure to enter the giveaway below and share the news with your friends in order to gain extra entries for the prize – which is a $200 USD Amazon Gift Card!
Before you enter the giveaway…
Be sure to subscribe below to our update list where you will receive weekly updates about our 12 Week Kids Bible Study and you will also receive a FREE PDF version of each week’s Bible Study!
Giveaway {$200 Amazon Gift Card!}
Be sure to enter below for your chance to win a $200 amazon gift card sponsored by the “Deep Blue Kids Bible!” a Rafflecopter giveawayDisclosure: Some affiliate links have been used in this post.
The Day My Parents Got Lost
a guest post by Susette Williams
Has your child ever wandered off or gotten lost? When our oldest daughter was a toddler, she wandered off in a department store. Suddenly we were experiencing every parent’s worst fear. Then when we found her, her tone was accusing, “You left me.”
Muttering in my own disbelief, “I… didn’t… leave you.” Then having to spend many years trying to convince her that the way she ‘pictured’ things was not what she thought. I’m not sure who needed therapy more. Our daughter, for feeling abandoned, or us for her making us feel like we were horrible parents. She was too young to realize the whole situation. Now that she’s older, and a school teacher, she’s thrilled to find out I wrote a book inspired by those events. Her students are anxious to read it, especially knowing it was inspired by their teacher.
My newest picture book, The Day My Parents Got Lost, takes a look at getting lost through a child’s eyes. While in the story, his parents are having fun, that most likely wouldn’t be the case in real life. The story gives children the opportunity to see how parents feel. I wrote this as a humorous story because while getting lost is very real and scary, we don’t want to scare children. The book gives parents and teachers the opportunity to speak with children about what they should do if they get separated from parents or a group. If you haven’t developed a plan with your children, or even your grandchildren, discuss safety tips and who they should turn to if they have a problem.
As a tool to help you lead into this conversation with discussing the topic and how to respond, I am offering The Day My Parents Got Lost for free August 20-22. Please download a free copy during these dates and leave a review on Amazon so that other readers know how much you enjoyed the story.
Feel free to contact me through my website and share if you have ever had a child wander off or get lost. You can also download free coloring pages for Wacky Wishes. We will be having free coloring pages coming soon for The Day My Parents Got Lost.
Comments and coloring pages:
Found AdriftBy Pauline Creeden
About the Book
Welcome fellow drifter. I don’t know about you, but I’m easily distracted. If God set me in a rowboat on the water and told me to pay attention and not let myself drift too far from the shoreline, I’m sure I’d be in the middle of the lake before I realized I’d drifted from the shore. Then sitting in the middle of that lake, I’d realize I didn’t have a paddle. And sometimes I feel so far away that no one on the shore could possibly hear me. Have you ever been there? If you have ever been distracted by your daily life and suddenly looked up and found yourself far behind where you should be in your walk with God, then you are a drifter like me. This devotional is your paddle.
About Pauline Creeden
In simple language, Pauline Creeden breaks down Biblical stories and applies them to real life in new ways. Her methods of teaching have brought new light to old scriptures. In her fiction, she creates worlds that are both familiar and strange, often pulling the veil between dimensions. She becomes the main character in each of her stories, and because she has ADD, she will get bored if she pretends to be one person for too long.
Pauline is a horse trainer from Virginia, but writing is her therapy.
Follow Pauline Creeden
Enter to Win a $50 Amazon Gift Card!
Enter below to enter a $50 amazon gift card, sponsored by author Pauline Creeden! a Rafflecopter giveaway This book blast is hosted by Crossreads. We would like to send out a special THANK YOU to all of the CrossReads book blast bloggers!
From August 9th-19th, my blog and I are participating in a “Discovery” through DiscoverAuthors.wordpress.com. Each day, I’ll be featuring a different author and one of their books; the other authors will also be featuring me and each other on their blogs at the same time. Check in every day to find out about great new reads!
Remember, you can subscribe or follow my blog (at the sidebar on the right) to make sure you don’t miss any posts.
Disclaimer: I haven’t actually read any of the books beside my own. While they look good to me, I can’t guarantee their quality or content.
Day 8: Ocean City Lowdown by Kim Kash
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Ocean City Lowdown introduces Eastern Shore Maryland reporter Jamie August, who has a talent for unearthing more than her editor wants and a weakness for Ravens jerseys and sparkly underwear. Jamie’s tenacity, smarts, and sheer recklessness\u2014plus some smokin\u2019 striptease dance moves\u2014can get her out of some tight spots, but are they enough to save her from a psychopathic arsonist and two generations of corrupt real estate tycoons?
At the end of this Discover Authors tour, one lucky guy or girl will walk away with a free copy of Ocean City Lowdown! For real. How? It’s so easy. Just email me at [email protected] to let me know you’re interested, and keep your fingers crossed!
Meanwhile, here’s a teeny free sample to whet your appetite:
Donald leaned forward earnestly. \u201CBayview\nPreserve is the biggest and most high-end of all the Ivory projects. It will\nhave its own main street, with a Reynauld\u2019s Steakhouse, a sushi bar, a\nStarbucks and some retail gallery space with artists\u2019 lofts above them. This\nestablishes Ocean City as an upscale place for people from Washington, Baltimore,\nPhiladelphia, and even New York, to own a beach home,\u201D he said. \u201CIt\u2019s going to\nchange the way the world looks at Ocean City! Coastal Life magazine is going to be featuring Bayview Preserve in\nan upcoming issue, and of course, the opening is going to be front-page news in\nthe Weekly Breeze.\u201D
I envisioned a pod of plywood houses sprouting\nout of the reeds of Assawoman Bay, within earshot of a dinosaur-themed\nmini-golf course and a teen nightclub in a metal agricultural warehouse. I\nexamined Donald\u2019s face, and didn\u2019t see any hint of sarcasm. Hmm.
\u201COkay, so what kind of coverage do you want?\nShould I look at the history of the company? Market trends for bayside\ndevelopment? I could talk to the engineers who figured out how to fill in the\nmarshland\u2026\u201D
\u201CWe\u2019re going to devote most of Lifestyles to Bayview Preserve, and\nyou\u2019ll actually need to do a couple of stories,\u201D Donald said. \u201CSo, sure, talk\nabout the real estate trends and maybe a little about the engineering if\nthere\u2019s a story there, but we are not doing an expose on the big, bad\ndevelopers, okay? Forget it. This is a Beach\u2019n\u2019Bay\nLifestyles feature.\u201D
\u201CGot it.\u201D
\u201CI\u2019m serious, Jamie. There is nothing to\ninvestigate here.\u201D
\u201COkay. No investigating. I promise.\u201D I held up my\nhand, Girl Scout style.
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Ocean City Lowdown introduces Eastern Shore Maryland reporter Jamie August, who has a talent for unearthing more than her editor wants and a weakness for Ravens jerseys and sparkly underwear. Jamie’s tenacity, smarts, and sheer recklessness—plus some smokin’ dance moves—can get her out of some tight spots, but are they enough to save her from a psychopathic arsonist and two generations of corrupt real estate tycoons?
At the end of this Discover Authors tour, one lucky guy or girl will walk away with a free copy of
Ocean City Lowdown! For real. How? It’s so easy. Just email me at
[email protected] to let me know you’re interested, and keep your fingers crossed!
Meanwhile, here’s a teeny free sample to whet your appetite:
Donald leaned forward earnestly. “Bayview Preserve is the biggest and most high-end of all the Ivory projects. It will have its own main street, with a Reynauld’s Steakhouse, a sushi bar, a Starbucks and some retail gallery space with artists’ lofts above them. This establishes Ocean City as an upscale place for people from Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and even New York, to own a beach home,” he said. “It’s going to change the way the world looks at Ocean City! Coastal Life magazine is going to be featuring Bayview Preserve in an upcoming issue, and of course, the opening is going to be front-page news in the Weekly Breeze.”
I envisioned a pod of plywood houses sprouting out of the reeds of Assawoman Bay, within earshot of a dinosaur-themed mini-golf course and a teen nightclub in a metal agricultural warehouse. I examined Donald’s face, and didn’t see any hint of sarcasm. Hmm.
“Okay, so what kind of coverage do you want? Should I look at the history of the company? Market trends for bayside development? I could talk to the engineers who figured out how to fill in the marshland…”
“We’re going to devote most of Lifestyles to Bayview Preserve, and you’ll actually need to do a couple of stories,” Donald said. “So, sure, talk about the real estate trends and maybe a little about the engineering if there’s a story there, but we are not doing an expose on the big, bad developers, okay? Forget it. This is a Beach’n’Bay Lifestyles feature.”
“Got it.”
“I’m serious, Jamie. There is nothing to investigate here.”
“Okay. No investigating. I promise.” I held up my hand, Girl Scout style.
Did you miss any of my previous book discoveries? Check them out in the list below!
The Trouble With Rane is an adventure-packed, humorous, science fiction enovella from Robert Beacham. At 18,000 words it’s long enough to get your teeth into but short enough not to demand too much of your time.
Although there’s an earlier short story (available for free here) this is our first proper introduction to Ranger extraordinaire, Ceras Rane – a highly-trained individual whose skills and deductive abilities are only surpassed by his remarkable luck.
Going “Outside” on Earth provides more dangers than just the toxic atmosphere – but that’s just the start of Ceras’ problems. There’s intrigue, deceit, secretive departments within law enforcement, androids, corruption, gun battles, aliens, a huge space station, a moon colony, drug smuggling… even a cat or two.
Oh, and it’s only 99¢ – how can you lose?
Download now for Kindle
Download now for Nook, iPad, Kobo, Sony Reader, etc.
Did you miss any of my previous book discoveries? Check them out in the list below!
Did you miss any of my previous book discoveries? Check them out in the list below!
An urban fantasy story that will grip you and leave you wanting more.
Fed up with the dirty city and a disenchanting life as a fashion model, Beauty’s world is at least safe. But the illusion of safety shatters the night that she frees herself from her self-imposed fears only to be thrust into the magical underbelly of the city, where forces that want to save humanity and evil beings that want to feed off humanity’s despair fight for balance and power.
Driven from both the comforts and the trappings of her old life, now hunted by a cadre of sinister, rat-faced business men, Beauty’s only hope is to join with a strange magical ally. Together, with the help of fae creatures in unlikely guises, they must seek out an enchanted, improbable artifact that can heal the city before evil tips the balance, once and for all.
This powerful coming-of-age fairy tale follows the path of a young heroine who chooses to take fate into her own hands for the first time in her life, and of the consequences that her choice has on the magical beings of the city.
Why This Story?
Penumbra started as a short story years ago, but the main character got into my head. Beauty is my response against the many young heroines popular today that rely solely on other’s for their strength and happiness. In this story, on this journey, Beauty is finding herself. It’s as much an inner journey for her as it is a traditional fairy tale.
I also had lots of fun creating my own creatures of magic and fantasy and playing with traditional fairy tale tropes in a modern setting. Part of the joy of being an independent author, for me, is being able to write a story the way it wants to be written, serving the characters and the plot rather than a preconceived market put on me by an outside person. The result, in this case, is positive, and I have high hopes for my future work as well.
The Giveaway
In celebration of Discovery 4 at
Discover Authors being my first round robin blog tour, and as it is my birthday month, I will be giving away three (3) ebooks. You can enter in many ways, up to three times. First – comment on this blog. Second – link to either the Amazon or Smashwords page via social media, and either comment here or email or tweet at me that you have done so with the link to your site so I can follow you. I’ll count two social media links as separate entries. On August 20th (the day after this blog tour ends), I will do a drawing and announce the winners!
Check out my newly released international motivational book, Win No Matter What. It is made up of powerful inspirational stories, impactful quotes, and meaningful commentary that convince readers of all ages to make the most out of every single day. Even better, ten percent of all book sale profits are being donated to Acumen, a charity investing in solutions to global poverty.
“I read a lot of motivational books and most of them are all alike, but not this one. I feel like I’m giving a movie review here, but…. I laughed, Icried, I was genuinely touched.”
-Lisa G.
Excerpt:
An Indian saint named Yogiji Mahraj was once at the village of Maliya Hatina in Gujarat, India over 50 years ago. He decided to visit a nursery of 300 mango trees while he was there. So, Yogiji Maharaj and two other companions got into a horse-drawn carriage in order to get to the nursery. While they were riding along, one of the wheels of the carriage suddenly broke. The carriage careened and reeled over. Everyone inside bumped into each other and fell out. Even though all three people were severely bruised and hurt, they were luckily able to still walk.
As Yogiji Maharaj brushed the dirt off of his clothes, he happily exclaimed to the other two people, “A miracle has happened, right?”
The other two in the carriage thought that Yogiji Maharaj was crazy. They retorted, “Oh? And what kind of miracle would that be?”
Yogiji Maharaj excitedly replied, “We were saved!”
The other two realized what Yogiji Maharaj meant. Their injuries could have been much worse. They all started laughing. Even when it seemed like there was nothing to be positive about, Yogiji Maharaj picked out a positive thing about their carriage falling apart. This positive thought comforted everyone and made them laugh even though they were hurt. Thus, make it a mission to find one or two positive things out of the next “negative” event that you go through because positive thinking creates happiness.
Support the amazing cause and inspire your life by buying the book HERE.
