Friday, September 05, 2008

 

Here it is, folks! After a long, long, long absence, I've finally meandered back to this little corner of cyberspace to fulfill my promise of sharing some of my favorite Taiwanese stuff!

If you recall, in my last post, I was going on and on about yucky Taiwanese food.

Now I want to share some of my favorite fare with you. This lovely monstrosity --which locals staunchly label "sweet, sticky junk for little kids"-- is actually a phenomenal work of culinary art. In Chinese, it's called "Cua-Bing" or shaved ice.

Here's how it works. First, you grab a bowl, then you take a stroll along this wonderful Rowe of Teeth-Rotting Sweets, stopping every so often to glump gobs of your favorite flavors into your bowl.

Next, you take a giant ice cube, grind it to snow, and then smother it with lots of sweet evaporated milk, and if you so desire, some strawberry topping (See Below).

And there you have it! Guaranteed to give your dentist (not to mention your pancreas) conniptions. Yum!

Labels: Tainan Dirty Ice Treat

posted by Dr. Wei 7:16 PM

Thursday, August 03, 2006

 

Today's discussion is a lesson in Taiwanese culinary practices. As you might already know, Taiwan is world famous for its delicious foods. While this is a reputation well-earned, I will now make a confession that will probably get me tarred and feathered by my local friends: most of the "everyday" stuff (i.e., the concoctions which the locals eat every day) is yucky, yucky, yucky.


Ladies and gentlemen, the lovely photo that you have before you (above, Shilin Night Market at 9:00pm on Saturday, July 15, 2006) is an example of precisely what I mean. For those of you who can't read Chinese, please allow me to translate the sign on the street vender's stall: Stinky Tofu - NT$35 Per Serving; Pig's Blood Soup - NT$30. Why in the world anybody want to eat stinky tofu, not to mention pig's blood? But this is only the tip of the iceberg. As stated on the "National Geographic Channel," the Taiwanese have a reputation for being brave enough to eat anything. In Taiwan, it seems that nothing is taboo: rats, bull penises, duck bills, toad fat, centipedes, fish heads --if you cook it, they will come.


As a foreigner living here, I used to get people shoving plates full of suspicious looking fare at me all the time and then warned, "In Taiwan it's rude to ask what is it before trying it; now open wide," and then after biting down on something rubbery or gooey or greasy or slimy or squishy, being told something like, "Haochi ma? Stir-fry pig intestines." I thought I could escape the horrors by declaring myself a vegetarian and for the most part, I have. However, as the old saying goes if you want something done right, do it yourself.



What do I mean here? Well, your average street vendor or housewife has absolutely no idea how to cook vegetables. Just stick it in the pan with about a litre of oil and fry the crap out of it 'til it's nice and limp and tasteless. The same goes for the various kinds of soups (above right), which to me taste exactly like stagnant dishwater. But I don't want to come across as a crybaby. In my next post, I'll tell you about what Taiwan does right.

posted by Dr. Wei 11:23 PM

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

 

Ah yes! The famous Black Eyed Peas came to Taiwan on July 25th and all I got was this dumb photograph of their Hummer. It would have been nice to attend their concert but I just didn't have the dough. But let's not dwell on unpleasantries now, shall we?

What's so cool about this pic is the bouncer standing in the foreground. I took this shot while sitting in a Starbucks on Zhongxiao East Road, right next to the California Fitness Center. Anyhow, right above Starbucks are several huge disco/dance clubs. "Luxy" is the name of the club where this giant works. It's hard to tell by this photo, but the guy is HUGE. My buddy Ron Stewart (below) likes to speculate on how many people this guy has already killed, but I don't want to know.

But back to the subject at hand: one of the nice things about sipping coffee on Zhongxiao East Road right beneath Luxy is that you can watch the scantily-clad bar hostesses saunter by. And when I say "scantily-clad," I mean scantily-clad. Ron says these hostesses make about NT20,000 bucks a night (about US$600), catering mostly to overseas businessmen having fun on their companies' respective dimes. Conveniently, there is a Condom World store down the hall and a bunch of fancy Love Motels upstairs.

Needless to say, these hostesses are the main reason for the bouncers. There are about 12 humungous bouncers, each built like semi trucks, protecting a harem of about 30 Taiwanese hotties, each built like mini supermodels. Whatever the case, both Ron & I call our little Starbucks chat sessions "Appreciation of God's Art 101."

posted by Dr. Wei 8:16 AM

Friday, July 28, 2006

 

Let me see if I can do this right...

Here is a pic of a typical temple scene down in Tainan City. It's one of my favorites because in the foreground, you can see the giant urn thingee where they burn incense sticks. I tried to get all CNN-Time magaziney by taking the shot right through the urn with the sticks burning and the people kneeling inside the temple with the gods looking on benevolently.

Note the Swastikas on the urn (bottom of photo). Unlike the Ch'mokmanuk (Anglos), people in Asia still regard the Swastika as sacred. Long, long ago, it was universally revered among my people (the American Indians) as well. Of course, Druids and Celts and Trojans and Hindus and Nordic tribes also used it as a symbol of good luck and a reminder that we should behave with benevolence. Later when the Nazis stole it, they turned it backwards and gave it the evil connotation that lasts to this day --at least in the so-called "West."

Now there is an even deeper downside to all this. Here in Asia, Nazi bumper stickers, T-shirts and posters sell like, ummmmmm, egg tarts. Hence, you can often find people riding around with Hitler's flag stuck on their scooters, helmets, and whatnot. Some folks say the locals don't know any better because they weren't directly exposed to the horrors of European fascism. Others say they are simply reclaiming "stolen property." Whatevet the case, it really gives my Jewish friends the heebie-jeebies.

But let's get back to the subject at hand. Isn't this a marvellous photo of everyday Taiwanese life? This picture was taken on the night of Saturday, July 8, 2006 with one of those cool 6.6 megapixel Besta cameras. I believe this temple is on Cheng-Gong or Minzu Road. I will do my best to stick more photos and discussions in this blog as the summer days go by.

posted by Dr. Wei 5:56 AM

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

 

So you wanna see what the ugly Injun looks like? Are you ready for this? Okay, here it comes! Don't laugh. Now you can see why I call Frosty the Beauty and myself the Beast.

Yep, that's an AIM T-shirt I'm wearing and yep, I climbed all 84 floors of the World's Tallest Building in Taipei, Taiwan on Sunday, May 21, 2006 in exactly 48 minutes. Sure, I could have gone faster but I was too busy fiddling with my cell phone and taking pictures.

In the end, we climbers raised more than NT$1,600,000 for charity. Most of the dough went to the Garden of Hope Foundation, a charity to help "empower" women and girls --which makes me wonder: howcum there ain't any organizations to help empower men and boys? And don't gimme that crap about this being a male-dominated planet. Maybe in some countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan, but not in Europe and America.

What, you don't believe me? Then I've got 2 books for you, required reading for Dr. Wei's class: (1) The Myth of Male Power: Why Men are the Disposable Sex by Warren Farrell and (2) The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger.

Both of these books are quite polarizing, especially Dr. Laura's, but I don't want to get into all that right now. I gotta get ready for class.

posted by Dr. Wei 10:38 PM

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

 

Here she is!
Miss R.O.C...

Umm, I forgot the rest. But isn't she lovely? Yep, boys and girls, this is the one and only Frosty Lu and she's all mine! Muahahahahahahahaaaaaaa!

Hmm, yeah, so, the wedding... I haven't a clue when she's finally going to stop beating around the bush and gimme a REAL DATE. In the meantime, I guess I'll just have to keep staring and staring at her until I start to choke on my drool or my eyeballs pop out or whatever. The strange thing is I have no idea what a beautiful young lady like this could ever see in an ugly, grouchy old goat such as myself!

Things that make you go "Hmmmm." But that's enough for now. I realize this writing makes absolutely no sense, so I'll get back to my dissertation now. I'll type something more creative (or at least coherent) later.

posted by Dr. Wei 11:13 PM

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

 

This is just a check to see if the Blogger is still even working. These days, I am living a strange life here in Taiwan. The weather here is finally cooling down, Thank God! I thought summer was going to go on forever! All that damned HEAT and HUMIDITY and SMOG! I would have given my left ventricle for one of our ferocious South Dakota storms! I kept raising my eyes to the heavens and asking God to PLEASE HURRY UP WITH WINTER. But like I said, now things are a bit better.

But things are still very sad here in the Wang household. Interesting how these folks and their traditions remind me so much of us Injuns. I didn't know they hire "professional mourners" just like a lot of the Plains and Woodlands tribes did!

It was very depressing to see and hear the old lady-"pro" cry, cry, cry and wail and crawl on her hands and knees --and there were real tears in her eyes. I wondered what she could possibly be thinking about to make REAL tears. She didn't know Grandmother Wang, or at least I don't think she did.

But her crying made all the rest of us cry, which is a good thing. We have all been too stony faced and numb --and then it hit me. Along with everyone else, I've been so numb or emotionally and mentally blinded that I couldn't even think about it. I remember that professional mourners in Indian societies were supposed to (1) cry for everyone who found it difficult to show their emotions and (2) eventually break through our stony old hearts and make us all cry. Does any of this make sense? I know I'm rambling now...

People often ask me how could I be so "close" to an old Chinese lady who didn't speak a word of English. Well, I knew her for several months, starting in July. Just about every day, I would see her and chat with her and help her water her garden. Then I sat with her during the Mid-Autumn Festival. And I was there when she was lying in that awful hospital bed, bringing her flowers and holding her hand. I will never forget the smile on her face or the sound of her voice when she brightened up and said, "Xie-xie!"

What's more, I'll never forget how she kept saying, "I wanna go home! I wanna go home! I do not want to die here in this hospital." It was so pitiful, especially because all her children were lying to her husband, Grandfather Wang, about Grandmother Li's condition. It got so bad that all of us "grandchildren" were plotting to sneak Grandfather Wang into the hospital so he could visit his wife one last time. But finally, thank God, the "parents" relented and allowed Grandmother Li to go home.

She died three days later. It was so sad to see her go, but I think she was holding on for this moment. Just enough time to say goodbye to her husband and to the rest of us. What was touching for all of us was seeing her embrace her husband for one last time. And for me, I will never forget how she carressed my face as if to say her final farewell to me. I have never been in a room with someone who died before, and I shall never forget it.

Well, this is enough for today. I have a lot of work to do still. Now that I have learned how to resurrect this blog site, I will make frequent use of it until blogger.com kicks me off.

posted by Dr. Wei 6:44 AM