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Recent Posts by MJ Klein

Taipei Taiwan: From Food & Culture to Nature & Temples

A few shots which start at Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport and then to the Hukou Old Street area

Hui-chen took some time to explain some of the rituals that people perform at temples in Taiwan.

This is the temple at the end (or beginning of, depending upon your viewpoint) of the Old Street.

After the Old Street, it was time for lunch, and here’s a taste of Xiao-hui’s!

All of our favorite dishes were in attendance.

This overview shot tells the story: we covered the table with dishes.

 

John sang many of the few English songs in the karaoke machine.

Then there’s downtown Hukou.  Most foreigners go to Taipei on their first trip and most of them stay in Taipei (where they can speak English).  I was determined to give my brother a more genuine Taiwan experience by spending very little time in Taipei and going around the island, showing him how everyday people live.

Here we see John checking out the Hukou day market.

This was our lunch, from a little corner restaurant in downtown Hukou.

Not far from the city hall building is Hsinchu’s oldest temple, Cheng Huang 城隍廟.

Outside, someone was selling these odd snacks.

They have a layer of taffy inside, some peanut powder and cilantro.

More local offerings.

We stopped for lunch at this duck restaurant.  Enjoy the photos of what we had.

In the evening, we got an invitation from Shawn, owner of Titty Tea, to join him at the Ikki Grill in Zhubei.

Everything at the Ikki Grill is great.

This woman grilled the stuff for us, right on the bar in front of us.  It was a nice dining experience.

On the way back to our car, we stopped by the local pet store, where we found a tank containing a pair of Nautilus.  This was my first time seeing one in the flesh.  They are very interesting creatures!

Near our home is a coffee shop on the side of a mountain.  We took John there to enjoy the view.  Since John’s visit, this place has been torn down and a new viewing platform is being built.

In Sanyi, there is an old broken bridge from the Japanese era, called the Longteng Bridge.  It’s really something to see in person – photos don’t do it justice.  We were in Sanyi, checking out the wood carving places and decided to drive out to this bridge.

Notice the lights in the foreground.  We didn’t see it all lit up but I bet it looks cool.

We took a little footpath to this pedestrian bridge for some photos.

There are 2 more abutments nearby.  These can’t be seen from the main part of the bridge because they are on the other side of the river.

You can walk up a path to the top of the ridge, and we did so.  I wanted to see if there were remains of rails, and sure enough, there were.

This is the view of the top of the abutment remains.

As you can see, something is being built beside the broken bridge.  Some kind of park, presumably.

That evening, we went to Chubby for dinner.

Delicious!

Old Traffic Island Meets New Traffic Island in Taiwan

 

Recently more work went on behind our house and on the main roads in the area.  This time, the traffic island was jack-hammered to pieces, removed and replaced.  I have no idea what was wrong with the old traffic island and why it needed to be replaced, but I was fascinated to see how fast the new island was created.

Here we see debris from the old traffic island being removed….

The backhoe changed tools and is now digging the trench, clearing it of concrete debris from the old island.

The entire main road got this treatment.

A couple of days later, concrete forms were assembled and concrete was poured into the molds.  Yes, we are actually seeing a traffic cone being used as a funnel!

More mold forms.

This is the end, or nose of the island.  These get formed last.

Notice the new, smooth concrete, recently poured.

The new island sure does look good.

On the sidewalk are pieces of wood that (I assume) were used as shims in the form assembly procedure.

One side of the road was shut down during certain operations.

The junctions where light poles occurred were also left for later.

Notice the reinforcing bars (buried in the concrete, foreground) and the wire conduits in the center.  At first, I thought that the city was running new cabling in the islands, but I didn’t see anything new being laid.

This section was recently poured and the forms are being removed.

Concrete forms on the sidewalk.

If you look at the ends of the concrete forms you can see the general shape of the island.

These men are removing the forms from a recently poured section..

I turned the corner and observed the actions on a side street.  These men are surfacing a nose.

This is the section behind the nose in the above photo.  This section is almost finished.

The nose at the opposite end.

I went further down the road to see the operations on a new section.

These men are assembling a rebar “cage.”  We’ll get back to this in a minute.

Meanwhile, this man is assembling the concrete form for the nose of the island.

A small bulldozer is used to pick up and carry the forms while being positioned into place.

This shows a section that has the rebar cage ready, with forms being installed left-to-right.

Forms waiting placement.

This is a pile of rebar used to make the cage.

While it looks like there is a lot more to be done, this work went along very quickly.

The trench was covered up while waiting further work.

Now for the details about this wire rebar cage being built.  Notice the angle-iron frame that is being used as a form to shape the cage.

This is how the cage is assembled: by using small wires that are twisted around the rebar pieces to hold them in position.  Once finished, the cage is lifted off the angle-iron form and placed in the trench.  The cage will be embedded in the poured concrete and will give it the necessary strength and flexibility.

Our last shot is a finished nose.

Bushman In The Philippines: Roasting a Pig in the Village

On the land behind Sonny’s home, he has a piggery.  We selected one of his pigs to roast, Filipino style, over an open pit.

A mother sow and her piglets.  Dont’ worry, we didn’t hard a hair on any of their heads.

In the village that morning, there was a dense fog.

Before we get into the actual pig roast itself, I wanted to show you a couple of other things first.  This is the inside of Sonny’s store.  There is a small kitchen where food can be prepared.  That way the person running the store doesn’t have to close up to get lunch.

The orange liquid in the bottles up front is gasoline.

This is where I slept in Sonny’s home.  The mosquito net is a requirement in this part of the world.

Some men in the village (Sonny’s relatives) had gathered some wood, dug a pit and started a fire.

They are boiling some water to be used to clean the pig before roasting it (after it’s been killed of course!).

Here we see the men leading the chosen pig out of the pig pen and over to the area where they will dispatch it, and prepare it for cooking.  If you are squeamish, I recommend that you stop looking at the photographs now.

One thing that surprised me is that while the pig screamed, it did not try to bite anyone.

If you look at the pig’s mouth you can see that it is screaming for dear life.  Pigs seem to know that they are food animals and when you take them out of the pig pen they scream wildly.

The men dig a hole in preparation for bleeding the pig (to catch the blood).  Notice that they have the pig’s feet bound; otherwise it would run away obviously.

The gentleman who took charge of the barbecue is now going to bleed the pig.  This is your last warning about the content of these photos!

Bleeding the pig is fast.  The whole thing was over in about a minute.

Once the pig expired, the men began the cleaning process, which started with a hot water bath.

Next, the men shaved the pig.

I had never seen this done before.  The men removed the pig’s toenails, which are like a cap that fits over the foot.

The men did a very thorough job of cleaning the pig.  Notice one man cleaning the pig’s ears.

In the meantime, some of the village women began to arrive and start other cooking projects.  These brightly colored hot dogs were an addition to our barbecue party this afternoon.

Also present was fish.

Finally, the outside of the pig was pristine.  Now, for cleaning the inside:

Some men had cut down (what I think are) banana leaves and placed them on the platform.

Now it was time to open up the pig and clean it out.

The barbecue master cut around the genitals, and then made a small slit in the stomach.

The idea is to loosen where the intestines attach to the body and be able to pull everything out without cutting into the bowel itself.

Here, he’s pulling the intestines out through the slit in the belly.

The bowels should come out all together.  The inside of an animal is clean and once the blood has been removed (as in this case) gutting it is not such an unpleasant experience.

Now, he’s reaching up inside to pull out the heart, lungs and other upper internal organs.

And they come out all together, quite easily.

All the organs go into a pan for cleaning.  Nothing is wasted.

Now and incision is made in the front of the pig, to facilitate the next operation.

In the meantime, a crew has started working on the organs and entrails and is cleaning them.

Filipino style pig roasts turn a pig on a spit (but without the cross members), over a fire.  The pig is attached to a bamboo pole running through it’s core.

Now we see the men fitting the pole through the pig’s body.

Eventually the pole exits the pig’s mouth.

Once the pole is through the pig, it gets another washing.

Now back to the clean leaves on the platform.

When you roast a pig on a spit, it moves.  So you have to secure it to the pole.  Here we see the barbecue master nailing the pig to the bamboo pole.

After nails are put in the front, middle and rear, a nail is hammered into the pole for an anchor point so the feet can be wired in place.

More guests arrive.  It was hot that day!

More wire treatment on the front of the pig.

Once the pig has been secured to the pole, it can be stuffed.  Sonny made a stuffing using a local cactus plant and spices.  This stuffing was fantastic!

After stuffing, the pig was wired closed.

Now it’s time to get roasting!

The men haul the pig over to the pit and set it down on the “Y” shaped stakes that were prepared earlier.

The height of the stakes had to be adjusted to get them just right.

Sonny himself checks out the arrangement with a few turns of the spit.

In this photo you can see the cross member installed at the end of the spit, used for turning the pig.  People took turns handling the spit over the 4 hour period the pig was roasting.

Very tiring, the spit must be continually turned over and over, thousands of times in order to evenly roast the pig.

Now the fun begins.  One man brushes on a sauce while another man turns the spit.

This operation went on for hours….

Other things were being cooked at the same time.

Looking good!

Several people took turns turning the spit.

Sonny whips something up here.

Most of the men were interested in the pig roasting operation.

Here we see the pig nearing the time to take it off the fire.

During the cooking operation, the height of the spit had to be adjusted as the fire burned down.

By now, smells of different things cooking filled the air.

I like the cooking stands made of rebar.  Very practical.

Once it was determined that the time had arrived to take the pig off the fire, these men set up a table.

More clean leaves….

Then the entire spit was placed on the leaves for carving.

Here is the finished product!

And this is what we had to drink for the afternoon!

Sonny undoes the wire stitches holding the belly closed.

Somehow, I missed Sonny having placed to large soda bottles in the body cavity with the stuffing!  When he pulled them out I was very surprised!  The bottles were a filler and kept the body cavity open, otherwise the skin would have shrunk during the cooking process.

Now the carving begins!  The barbecue master used 2 knives, often hitting one on the other to cut through sections.

As you can see, the deeper parts inside the pig were undercooked.  The outer layers were just right.  The inner layers were further cooked before being served.

The Filipinos use a type of sauce for this style of BBQ, and here you can see plates of meat with the sauce applied.

More sauce going on….

And what self-respecting Filipino would eat spit roasted pig without some hot sauce?

As you can see, we had quite a nice crowd gathered for the party.

Filipino people eat a lot of rice, so naturally rice was a part of this BBQ party.

This is a show of my plate.  Clockwise from the top left, we see boiled cabbage, fried chicken, and a hunk of that roasted pork with sauce on it.  You already know the pork was fantastic, but that chicken was also killer, and the cabbage as well.

Everyone formed a circle and it was nice being able to face everyone while we ate. (Photo by Salvador Rivera)

This area is know for corn, and I was served this wonderful puffed corn.  I loved it!

Even descended and we put more wood on the fire.

I enjoyed a relaxing evening talking with the men.  Of course, we were drinking.  It was a perfect night.

We hope you have enjoyed our Filipino style barbecue party!

Five Dime, Bob Blumer and a Little TLC: World’s Weirdest Restaurants

Recently Hui-chen and I were invited by a television production company to participate in a new show they were shooting in Taiwan.  The show stars Bob Blumer and will air on TLC.  It’s called “World’s Weirdest Restaurants” and it sounds like a fun show!

Hui-chen with host Bob Blumer

The shoot took place at the famous Five Dime restaurant in Taipei.  HC and I had gone there before with our camera to take some photos for the blog, so we’ll show you what it looks like and then tell you about meeting Bob and doing the TV show.  It was a blast!

This overview shot of the outside of Five Dime tells the story.  Diners are in for a new experience here.  This article is geotagged with the location of the Five Dime so you can find it on our Geotagged Articles Map.

Detail of the upper portion of the building (with the Chinese name of the restaurant: 伍角船板).

The first time Hui-chen and I went there, we had no idea what to expect.

The entrance is in the front on the right side.

One has to go up a ramp….

…. and through a short tunnel.

This is the entrance to the restaurant.

Once inside, it’s a bit dark, but after your eyes get accustomed to the ambient light you will find yourself in an amazing space.  Five Dime has 3 floors, with a very interesting staircase.

We were seated at one of their large tables.  Five Dime is a great place for group dining.  The menu features a fusion cuisine (more on that later) that has elements from other Asian influences.

Although somewhat difficult to photograph due to the low light, you should bring your camera anyway, as the place certainly is interesting.  The decor is somewhat of an input overload!

This dish is a soft shell crab roll.  This dish reminded me of Vietnamese fresh spring rolls (as opposed to the deep fried kind).  The flavor wasn’t specifically Vietnamese however.  I would call this a fusion dish because this type of roll wouldn’t ordinarily use deep fried soft shell crab.

I ordered a banana shake, and I never expected it to arrive in a chilled stone mug!  The small bowl on the right contains a locally made Taiwanese dessert using sticky rice powder.  The English name is “mochi” (麻糬).

The view behind our table

One of my all-time favorite dishes in Asia, sweet potato greens (炒地瓜葉).  I’ve had this dish many times in Taiwan and this was one of the nicest versions I’d experienced.  The burnt garlic added a sweet flavor.

Hui-chen’s drink, kiwi juice, with the local dessert in the small bowl (麻糬).

The Five Dime menu lists dishes in Chinese, with English underneath.  I found a few of the dishes said they were Thai style in Chinese (泰式) but not mentioned in English.  It seems that Thai is a big influence in Five Dime and Hui-chen and I have a great deal of experience in Thailand and with Thai food.  This is sliced Thai style chicken (泰式椒麻雞).  The dish was great, but it wasn’t totally Thai style.  We’ve had grilled sliced chicken in Thailand, but not deep fried as is this dish.  The treatment of the chicken was more like a Japanese pork tonkatsu don.  So again we see the fusion theme in this dish.

Korean style pickled vegetable with “New Year cake” (韓式泡菜炒年糕).  This dish was hard to place, as it was totally unlike anything I’ve had before.  Even the picked vegetables were unique.  It was good!

After dinner Hui-chen and I walked around to take some photographs for the blog.

This is the main section of the restaurant, right next to the staircase.

I went up to the top of the staircase and took this photo looking down.  It’s much more impressive in person.

The detail is mind-boggling.  There isn’t any comment I can make that adequately describes the decor.

One final shot of the lobby.

Outside at night, the Five Dime takes on an entirely different look with the yellow sodium vapor lamps illuminating it.

 

The TV Show Shoot

The big question that everyone wants to know is: “What’s it like to meet Bob Blumer?”  The answer is just what one would expect from watching Bob on TV.  Bob is very polite and personable, and super-professional.  Bob was busy of course, so we didn’t have time to chit-chat.  Hui-chen and I sat at our table and watched him work.

Here we see the crew scoping things out.  That’s Bob in the red shirt, with producer Vera in the blue shirt.

If you’ve ever wondered how they get those overhead shots, now you know.

This is the cameraman (unfortunately I did not get his name).  He explained what was going to happen and how he would be shooting the scene.  Bob would be sitting in the seat on the left, next to where I was sitting (I took this shot).  Hui-chen was a bit nervous because she’s never been on television before, and she told me she would rather not do any speaking, which is understandable.  Frequent readers of this blog know that television isn’t my usual performance gig, but I’ve been interviewed for news stories before, and I wasn’t apprehensive about being on camera.

After the cameraman explained what was going to happen, Bob sat down next to me and we went to work.  I did not take any photos during this time because we were too busy.  Bob was very easy to work with, and quite patient with me.  We talked about the restaurant, the decor, the ambiance, and also the food.  Later on I’ll show you some food photos and tell you what we talked about.  It seemed like we were shooting for about 15 minutes.  It will be interesting to see the edited final version.

After we were finished, Hui-chen and I continued eating and watching the crew work.

Now, for the dishes.  This is sliced roast pork (香烤豬里肌肉) and as I told Bob, it tasted like dishes we’ve had in Hong Kong.  We liked this dish very much.

This is water lotus (清炒水蓮).  Normally in local restaurants, it’s cut a bit shorter and it normally does not contain mushrooms or carrots.  So they added their own flair to the dish.  A good dish.

Chopped garlic greens (蒼蠅頭), also known as “Fly Heads” because of the fermented soy beans that look like fly heads.  Notice the concentration of hot red peppers.  This felt like a Thai dish to me.  It was very good but almost too spicy.

This dish looks like some kind of fried tofu, but it is mushrooms, made with a salty egg yoke on the outside.  A very Taiwanese treatment, this dish was quite good.

Before we left, we got a few more daylight shots of the exterior of Five Dime:

This is the view just outside the main entrance door.

Another shot of the tunnel.

Thanks for reading!  We hope you enjoyed this article about our experience with Bob Blumer’s new TV show.  We’d like to thank Bob, Vera, Leanne, Stephanie and the crew for making it possible for us to be on the show!

Bushman In The Philippines: Santo Nino

 

We traveled from Tuguegarao City to the village of Santo Nino.  My guide, Sonny is from that village and I wanted to visit his family and friends there.  Please note that many of these photos were taken from a moving jeep without looking through the viewfinder, due to circumstances.

This is our Jeepney driver, who spoke excellent English and was very polite, calling me “sir” throughout the entire trip, lol.

We made our way out of the city and headed to the village.

We stopped at this grain warehouse to pick up some bags for the village.  I snapped this guy spreading out some kind of grain for it to dry in the sun.  We’ll see more of this later, so follow along with me while I figure out what this stuff is.

This is the local chicken store.

They bind the feet of the chickens and you simply grab them and throw them up onto the Jeepney.  It doesn’t get any fresher than still alive.

Some of the road sections are in bad shape because of the big truck traffic.

I saw these bags alongside the road.  At this time I didn’t know what they were for.

Notice that the road has this golden hue to it.

It was only after we got really close that I realized this was corn placed on the road surface to dry!

Then I saw these farmers sweeping up the dried corn and bagging it up, leaving the bags at the roadside to be picked up later.

No one drives on the corn.  Most of the local people are farmers themselves and they respect the crop of the other farmers, too.

This might seem like an unsanitary method of drying corn, but honestly, what else can the farmer use?  The road is the only flat surface that’s relatively free of debris and has the vast area required to dry a large crop.

No corn can be dried on this gravel part of the road, however.

Soon we approached a body of water.

It turned out to be a large river.

What is this thing out on the water?  Believe it or not, it’s a locally fabricated ferry boat made from 3 boat hulls!

This ferry was carrying a fully-loaded Jeepney and it’s passengers across the river!

I walked around to the other side to get a better look at the loading procedure.  The shack-like structure is for passengers to get out of the hot sun while they cross the river.

The Jeepney is going to board the ferry.  I’m glad that I took the driver’s suggestion and got out of the Jeepney for this procedure!

I walked aboard following Sonny, in the black shirt and ball cap.  Notice the wide gaps in the deck planking!

This is the car engine that drives the beast.

This small gasoline powered pump keeps the bilge water at a manageable level.

This is the “captain” steering the boat with a home-brew tiller arrangement.

Yikes!

I shot a short video of the ferry ride with my Samsung Galaxy S phone:

Even in this remote area, there is cellular telephone service.

Sonny told me that the river’s peak depth is about 25 meters!  Considerable in volume, this river often floods its banks inland to a distance of more than 1 KM and that it washed out the bridge (which is why there is a ferry).  The government isn’t going to rebuild the bridge because the river will wash it out again.

This is our destination dock up ahead.

Notice the cut log sections.  These are used to manage the height of the planks to match the ferry as it docks.

This guy man-handled the ferry into position with a rope and his back.

As soon as the ferry was tied up, we disembarked.

The people came across first and then the Jeepney.

I asked one of the men if there had ever been any accidents, and he told me that recently (a “few months ago”) a Jeepney had fallen off the ferry.  He didn’t go into detail, but it sounded bad.  I didn’t ask any more questions.

Once back on dry land we headed to the village.

This area has some of the finest corn I’ve ever seen, or eaten!

Soon, we turned down the main road of the village.

I got off the Jeepney and went around the back to say goodbye to my fellow passengers.

Alas, our destination – Sonny’s store.  His home is behind the store.

Traveling to the Philippines: Tuguegarao City

My trip to the Philippines, and my visit to Tuguegarao City.  I was fortunate to be able to visit this city 2 times.  Once when passing though on my way to the Cayagan Valley, and then on my way back, so this article will be a composite of both visits.    Here is what it’s like to visit Tuguegarao City:

This hastily framed photograph is of the terminal building at Tuguegarao Airport.  This is one of the smallest airports I’ve been to, but perhaps not the smallest.

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This was our plane.  Notice the figures surrounding it. There were Philippine military guards placed around the plane because apparently our passenger plane was also carrying a lot of Philippine currency that was being transferred.

 

Here is the armored truck that was being loaded.  The boxes are currency.

Apparently Filipino people are so used to security guards that having soldiers around, carrying fully automatic weapons didn’t bother anyone.

More currency coming down the conveyor.

 

Finally, after about 45 minutes (where nothing was explained, at least in English) I see my bag coming down the conveyor (the blue one).

Now it’s time to leave!  But how will we be getting to our destination?

By the standard mode of transportation in the Philippines – Jeepney!

This is Sonny (my guide in the Philippines) and his wife making their way to the Jeepney that will take us to their village (another article).

Each Jeepney runs on a fixed route (but not necessarily on a fixed time).  Written on the side and front of each Jeepney is the route it will take.

Horse drawn carriage is a common way to get around Tuguegarao City.

Unlike some places we’ve been before, water buffalo in the Philippines are tame and friendly.

We’re heading into the main city (on our way back from the village).

We visited a newly-built mall area.  Gotta love the green color!

Sonny took me on a walking tour around to check the place out and do some shopping.

This is a fairly typical Southeast Asian street scene.  Tuguegarao City reminded me of places in Thailand and Laos, but the signs were in English!

Photo by Salvador Rivera

The people that I met on the street were exceedingly nice.  These girls came over to Sonny and asked if they could have a photo with me.  Sonny said “sure” and he took this photo.

The number of tricycles is amazing.

 

We went to this store to buy something for my wife.

Back on the street, we continued walking around, checking out the place until it was time for my flight back to Manila.

I didn’t try the horse-drawn carriage, but perhaps next time.

Some overhead shots taken from the second floor of that green mall building.

Overall, I had a great time in Tuguegarao City, and I want to go back there.  The people there are fantastic, so warm and friendly.  The shopping is a lot cheaper there than in Manila and if you want to buy a watch or have one repaired, or buy some good shoes, I can recommend going to the City. Thanks for reading!  You may leave us your comments below, and please use the icons below for social media sharing.

Photos by MJ Klein, except where noted

Titty Tea Has Cookout for Regular Customers

 

A few weeks ago, Titty Tea hosted a cookout for their regular customers.  Here’s a taste of what we cooked.

Now you know that anything that begins with charcoal and a torch is going to be good! Notice the round aluminum grill.  I’ve been wanting to get one of these to use with the Dutch oven, and finally I did.  This one fits my 12″ Dutch oven like it was made for it.  Using this grill meant that I didn’t have to build the fire on the ground and I didn’t lose much heat.

Most good meals begin with garlic….

To which I added the meat – in this case Australian shin muscle.

Next to me, Marcus had a grill set up and was doing various kinds of meat, these bratwurst being some of what he was grilling.

Once the meat was browned nicely, it was time to add more ingredients to the pot.

Sliced white onions went in next.

Followed by potatoes and carrots.

Regular readers of this blog know that I like to cook with oyster sauce.  It adds a great flavor element and also negates the need to add additional salt to the dish.

Our friend Marcus brought some rosemary that he had grown in his herb garden, and it made a very nice contribution to our pot.

This is the scene beside where Hui-chen and I were set up.  The closest 2 grills are for cooking vegetarian food items.

Once the 12″ Dutch oven was going, I started another dish in the 8″.  Here we see bacon and sliced onions being sauteed.

A quick check on the contents of the 12″ and we’re back to the 8″.

In a local baking goods store, I found several varieties of beans, which I added to the bacon and onions.

This slightly-out-of-focus shot shows the 2 kinds of beans in the pot, stacked on the 12″.

This is the second type of bean I used.

And this is the brown sugar that went into the dish also.

In the meantime, Hui-chen had our other grill going, with these ribs (and something else in foil that was cooking for someone else).

That’s Bootsy BBQ Sauce that Hui-chen is brushing on the ribs.  They were very popular with everyone.

Now it’s time for grilled corn!

This type of grilled corn is virtually unknown to local people in Taiwan.  But once our Taiwanese friends tried it, they agreed that it is much better than the dried-out-to-death grilled corn that is served in night markets all around Taiwan.

Marcus surprised everyone with some of his home-baked sourdough bread.

Here is a closeup.  I can’t tell you how good this bread was, but it was some of, if not the best bread I’ve ever eaten.  Honestly!

We settled into evening as I got the last dish ready – a Dutch oven cake that I baked in the 10″.

 

Now, Marcus really outdid himself on this one – a tiramisu that was outstanding!

Hard to see, but this is a close up of the inside of the tiramisu.  I have no idea how he did it, but Marcus managed to balance the flavor elements perfectly, creating the best tiramisu that I have ever tasted! Marcus is some kind of culinary genius!

 

Most of the Dutch oven fare was gone….

Here we see the 10″ with the cake baking.  It came out OK.  The fire was a tad too hot I think but overall it was pretty good.

 

 

 

 

Taiwan’s Pinyin Road Progress: Signs Are a Changin’

 

Driving around in Pinyin recently, we noticed that some names on highway and road signs have changed:

Take a close look and you’ll see the entire name on the left has an overlay, and “Zhu” on the right is overlaid on the sign.

But not just in that one spot – it seems that every sign we saw within a certain radius has been changed too.

“Zhudong” got a makeover too.

But on certain highways, the changes haven’t caught up yet.  In case you’re wondering, “Cyonglin” is the former spelling of the new “Qionglin” seen at the beginning of this article.

Several words on these signs will eventually be changed.  The reason they are changing is because the government of Taiwan has adopted the standard Hanyu Pinyin for all place names in the country (back in 2002).  Now I’m all for standards, but personally I dislike Hanyu Pinyin because it’s hard to tell the actual pronunciation from the looks of the spelling – it’s not instinctive.  Hanyu Pinyin uses the English letter “Q” without the following (and necessary) “u” which violates the rules of English.  Another hair-brainer is the use of “X” for the “sh” sound.  So, instead of using the easy-reading “shiao” (for 小) they use “xiao” which also makes no sense in English.  One may as well learn BoPoMoFo.  I did 3 semesters of Chinese at NCTU in Hsinchu and I’m still not sure how to pronounce certain Hanyu Pinyin spellings.

I do understand the need to adopt a standard, and I also understand the reason behind choosing Hanyu Pinyin.  I just think it gives a “PRC” feel to the island’s names.

Now this just looks weird.  Take a look at the Chinese words in these 2 green signs.  You don’t have to read Chinese to be able to see that the second word in “Hsinchu” is the same as the first word in “Zhubei”  (竹 which means “bamboo”).  Eventually “Hsinchu” will become “Hsinzhu” if the standard is to be held.  Also, the second word “bei” in “Zhubei” (北 “north”) is the exact same word used in “Taipei” (台北) which means that someday Taipei will become “Taibei!”

This is the worst example of Pinyin I have ever seen!  I have no idea what system this is, and it almost looks like Cantonese.

This sign was shot across the street from the previous one and shows the correct Hanyu Pinyin rendering of 中山.

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