Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

I miss being in a relationship. I miss all the good things a relationship offers. Is there any replacement on Earth that can take away the desire for a relationship? It's all good and well to have male (or female if that's your inclination) attention, or company, or "friends", but at the end of the day isn't a deeper, intellectual and emotional connection with another person the goal of all flirtations?

Don't get me wrong, I think flirting is a great sport. Keeps the mind active, the wits sharp. But there comes a time, when you want to bring home the bacon, and not just have it for breakfast either, but all the time. Bacon is great. I miss toasted bacon sandwiches on white with brown sauce. Get one for breakkie from a greasy spoon if you feel a bit wobbly after a night of drinking and you'd instantly feel like a million dollars. Ha, good times in London.

But the point I believe I have powerfully demonstrated above. Who doesn't love a bacon analogy?

Food Fest

Today is Middle Autumn Festival day proper and the last day of the long weekend. A late start, I woke to a small lunch at 12:30pm consisting of seaweed and onion soup with chopped minced fish cakes. Then my brother announced we were to take the MRT to Xi Men Ding, a popular area in the city for the hip and happening kids of Taipei. It's a shopping district, full of cinemas, restaurants, food stands, knick knacks, tattoo shops, hair salons and such.

We arrive around 2:30pm to sample the first attraction of the day - intestine rice noodles. It's a bowl of thick-souped rice noodles, with bits of chopped pork intestines, topped with coriander. Add some chilli sauce and it makes for a warming and delicious meal. A small bowl costs NT$40. We washed it down with a cold kumquat lemon juice drink with dried plum.




Next my brother spots a little cart selling a kind of sweets literally translated as chilled rounds. They are clear glutinous bite-size balls with flavoured centres. They come filled with red bean, mellon and peach. You get nine for NT$30.


As we ate we wondered for a bit and did a little shopping. Time for a food break, so we had deep fried minced fish cakes. It's topped with a special sauce and is a delicious snack. One portion costs NT$40. My brother Mike and his girlfriend Jeri also shared a thick soup with floured pork. This is the best I can describe it! We walked round the corner and had strawberry and condensed milk shaved ice.



After walking around some more browsing at this and that, we rested our feet at a tea house and I had iced apple red tea, which is just apple flavoured black tea. I also ordered a double flavoured toast which is a thickly sliced piece of toast cut in half, with peanut butter on one half and chocolate on the other. Jeri had an iced passionfruit green tea and my bro had a coffee (just a regular coffee not worth bolding).

Xi Men Ding kept us occupied for hours but someone mentioned smelly tofu and I wanted to have some as it is one of my favourite snacks. My brother knew the best place for it but we needed to take the MRT to another location.

15 mins later we arrive at the smelly tofu shop only to find it was closed for Middle Autumn Festival! So onwards we went to nearby Tong Hwa Street Night Market.

Taiwan is famous for night markets. You'll find streets lined on both sides with a myriad of stores selling the latest and greatest stuff, as well as food stands, stalls and carts. A whole mix of licenced and legal, and unlicenced and illegal vendors are crammed into the street, all for your shopping and eating pleasure. But I suggest you buy whatever you like at that moment, for if your vendor happens to be of the illegal kind, the vendor and cart will in a blink of an eye disappear at the approach or even smell of a police officer so you'll have no chance to go back should you eventually decide two steps later it was a bargin afterall. They are that fast and instinctive. Like rare short-haired bandicoots.

At Tong Hwa we found a stall selling bite-size smelly tofu for NT$55 for a large portion.



My brother also had sweet tofu dessert from another stall, but it was weirdly flavoured with chocolate and other unknowns which is such a sacrilege. The only way to have it in my books is traditional with peanuts.

Next my brother and I spy a food cart selling blood rice cakes and we get a stick, a childhood favourite of his and mine. Pork blood is mixed with rice then steamed. It's then cut up into rectangular portions and skewered, so you get a stick per portion. It is kept in boiled water until you order one. The vendor will then dip it in a special sauce, paint on chilli sauce if you ask for it, then coat it in crushed peanuts on both sides and finish it off with coriander. Only NT$25 per stick.

Jeri on the other hand spies a cart selling chicken bums. It's the very tip of the chicken's rear end which is quite fatty. You get five per skewer. Grilled to perfection they are crisy and moist and beautifully edible and nicely bite-sized!

I get thirsty and murder a freshly squeezed sugar cane juice. It is very sweet and incredily thirst quenching in my opinion.

Almost immediately we find ourselves next sitting at a food stall sharing a bowl of bitter melon and rib soup as well as a medicinal soup with pork knuckle.

Most items are quite cheap at these night markets so it was hard to resist a little more browsing and shopping. It wasn't the end of the night however as we came to the end of the night markets. Around the corner were a number of pet stores where small crowds gathered at the windows to look at the impossibly cute puppies and kittens. Mike and Jeri took the opportunity to buy Du a "birthday" present, seeing today was the fourth anniversary of Du's adoption from the animal shelter to their home. A new collar was added to two items that were already purchased earlier at Xi Men Ding: a New York Yankees top and a demin skirt!

It was 9:30pm as we started towards the MRT but something was missing. I felt I had room for more. So near the station we stepped into a small restaurant that had three tables and a take-out window, and had sticky rice and pork ball soup. A filling end to seven-hour outing!

We come home tired but content. Then we start to torment poor Du by subjecting her to her birthday presents (she does NOT like wearing clothese). But such is the life of a pet. It was such a laugh.

As I started to compose this entry my brother serves up sliced white peaches and passionfruit halves. Always nice to finish a meal with some refreshing fruit.

Did I also mention that Middle Autumn Festival is always around the time of the full moon? I promise you the photo on the left is the moon and not a spot light!

Big Day Out

I'm spending a week with my brother and his girlfriend in Taipei. It's the long weekend, cause it's 中秋節, or Middle Autumn Festival coming up on Tuesday. The cool, or rather, kind of odd thing they do here in Taiwan is that Monday is turned into a public holiday so you get four days off in a row, but then you have to make it up on Saturday. You make your own mind up.

Clockwise from top left: Pepper Cake; different kinds of deep fried mushrooms; Fort San Domingo; my bro with icecream tower.

We went to 淡水 (Tamshui) for lunch, which consisted of some famous wontons, traditional pepper cakes filled with pork and green onions, fried 'shrooms and finished with a double-flavour soft-serve icecream cone that was 30cm tall. We shared that last item.

The reason we went to Tamshui was because they were taking me horse riding at a stables near by! It was a proper lesson, not lame like being lead on the horse by a person on foot. The lesson lasted for 40 mins. At the end of the lesson I had to swing off the horse to disembark, or whatever the word is. Problem was, I had used my arms too much during the ride, and my biceps were so strained that they almost failed to support my weight as I pushed off the horse. Almost, but not entirely. It was when I attempted to undo my helmet and found I couldn't bend my arms up to reach the buckle under my chin that I realised how bad my arms were. Think of that classroom science experiment where you had to push your arms as hard as you can against the sides of a doorway for a few minutes, then step away to see your arms rise voluntarily to the sky. It was that effect on my arms then, 'cept it was going the opposite direction. I wondered how I was going to eat dinner tonight if I couldn't bend my arms to put food in my mouth.

On our way home we stopped off at 紅毛城 (Fort San Domingo). Here's a little history. In 1629 the Spaniads built the Fort. In 1642 the Dutch kicked the Spaniads out. The Fort is now known in Chinese as the Fort of the Red Hair, describing of the appearance of the Dutch occupiers. In 1867 the English leases it for 99 years from China and builds a British Consulate next to the Fort. But she hands it back in 1972 when England broke diplomatic ties with the Republic of China (different from the People's Republic of China. It's fascinating history, I suggest you look into this dear readers).

L: My bro and his GF devouring pepper cakes; R: The three amigos.

L: British Consulate at Fort San Domingo; R: View of shore opposite.

L: My new man in Taiwan; R: Dusk on way home.

By the time we reached home it was dinner time, and we made a grocery stop for BBQ supplies. It has become somewhat of a tradition now to BBQ around Middle Autumn Day and admire the beauty of the moon, as it's usually full moon the day of the Middle Autumn Festival.

In Taiwan you don't need no fancy schmancy BBQ grill powering on 6 gas cylinders, no big backyards size of football fields or city parks. In Taiwan all you need is your front door step, sometimes shop front, or in our case, the balcony for space is a premium here. If it's raining like it was for us, just put up two or three umbrellas and hook 'em to the railing. But perhaps consider having an extra umbrella on hand, for one of our umbrellas did decide to emancipate itself from BBQing duties and took flight from our 15th floor balcony to go dancing in the night. Foodwise we ate pork, chicken wings, fish, capsicum, mushrooms, clams, mince fish cakes, bamboo shoot and duck heart skewers. Taiwanese BBQs rock.


L: Check out our ultra small balcony BBQ action; R: Precautions against the rain.

L and R: Food.

L: More food; R: Taiwanese/ROC flag. It's not allowed to be flown in international arenas such as the Olympics. Go read up on this people!

Body sore but belly full. A good night's sleep beckons.

My Taiwan (So Far)

Taiwan was once known as "Formosa Island", after the Portuguese who in 1544 named it "Ilha Formosa", which means "Beautiful Island."

To see the beauty of Taiwan you really must escape the towns and head for the hills. As Taiwan is a tropical climed country the hills are quite green and lush. Not to mention extremely humid at this time of year.

L and R: Streets in Taichung day and night. There are worse examples of neons which I will capture for you.

L: Mountain ranges 30 mins drive from my parent's place; R: Lounges facing mountain views at a restaurant 55 mins from my parent's place.

L: Views towards Taichung at dusk; R: On motorway - see the pale mountain ranges at bottom and layered clouds above.

There are Buddhist temples aplenty in Taiwan, ranging from minature single-god temples to multi-layered mansions honouring numerous. The one I visited (see below) had a giant Buddha statue in its forecourt.

L: Temple; R: Second floor interior honoring five gods. The third floor is dedicated to Buddha.

L: "Milefuo" - statue of the very happy monk who brings good luck and happiness; R; Giant Buddha sitting on a giant lotus flower.

And you thought I'd forget? No, here are some ever important food shots for you.

L: Coffee and cake at mountain restaurant; R: A cheap and cheerful chicken lunchbox for $70 NTD = $2.50 AUS = $2.00 CDN = 1.10 pound sterling. Talk about affordability.

L: A VERY popular snack in Taiwan - Smelly Tofu, so named because it smells like BO, or feet. But let me assure you it is VERY VERY good; R: Thai fare at Taichung's premier hotel, Hotel One on the 28th floor.

Random pics chosen for their verticality:

L: Lunch July 18th 2007; R: Pegoda.

L: My Dad in the trees; R: Lunch July 1st 2007.

Weekend 9 - Pub Fare

Very quiet weekend to report. From studying Frommer's Guide to Toronto discovered Riverdale Farm, a real working farm not far from the downtown core. Had plans of visiting this weekend but thought perhaps a visit later in Spring will guarentee sightings of baby lambs and goats and such...

Was recommended to dine at House on Parliment by a colleague, after hearing me lament the absense of a pub that served a good sunday roast. So the venture was struck.

First impression was good pub atmosphere, down a couple of steps from street level, tartan carpeting, cozy, old tube map on wall, plenty of customers at time of arrival at 2:30pm.

No roast was on the menu which was disappointing, but found good replacements in pies. Mine was a Quebequois interpretation of a shepards pie, his was a traditional steak and (wild) mushroom. The pastry was sound, the filling not dry or runny, served on a good dollop of mash and couple sprigs of asparagus and capsicum (peppers to our English and Canadian friends) for colour.


Parliment Street is perpendicular to Gerrard Street, which extended east to become area known as Little India. Hopes of discovering that part of town were dashed. Without my Frommer's Guide to Toronto at hand, we did not find our way there.

Frommer's Guide to Toronto - damn you!