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Some of the newcomers are, or at least seemed to be, very fond of another Taiwanese habit, which is to collect the little stickers that you get when you buy more than a certain amount of stuff in some of the convenience stores. If you manage to get the little booklet where to attach them and you fill it inside the predetermined time, you may win any stupid thing they might offer, or some other product if they run out of it. I think the prize is not worth the effort required to get it done.

But, if you feel like it, there is another way, collecting the stickers you get if you buy some coffe in a 7-Eleven shop. If you get six, you get a free coffe (it reminds me of my time in Columbus).

Of course, I suspect that if you want something more elaborated than just plain coffee, maybe you need to collect twice that number. It does not matter, we must spend money.

Cups

I guess I have said it more than once: eating out in Taiwan is awfully cheap for people used to the prices in Europe. One must take into account the difference in wages, but in any case for about 2 euros you can have a nice dinner, and if it costs 5 or 6 it will be considered expensive by some. If we get to 10 euros, you can imagine. Of course, food in western style places, like pubs, is more expensive.

What is a little bit shocking, in comparison, is that some things are proportionately much more expensive, like imported beer or coffee, which I guess it has not been a product widely consumed in a place where people love tea. More or less, for the price of coffee, you can have dinner. Prices in places like Starbucks are more or less the same as in Europe or the US, but you can also find more affordable prices in some convenience stores.

I am not complaining, though, because there are many small cafès, european style, more or less expensive, but with a very nice ambience, particularly since smoking is not allowed anymore, relaxed and quiet —if the crowds of people with laptops are not too large— where I can stop and rest and see the flow of life, far from the usual rush of life in Taipei.


And during these days, when I am thinking how to revive this blog, and I cannot stop listening to Chris Isaak songs, where could I find a better place to pass the time?.

Herbal tea

Lately, Tuesdays are becoming a difficult, and not very productive, day, maybe because I spend most ot the time at the ASIAA and I go from meeting to meeting. When I am back in my Shida office, in the evening, I have a hard time trying to go back to where I was. Fortunately, yesterday, a little of a herbal tea I was very kindly offered helped me a little bit

Chrysanthemum's tea (jú huā, in mandarin). Curious taste, but it was good.

Dou hua

I talked about dessert yesterday, but I did not go into details. This is what we had for dessert in the Danshui night market last Saturday, dou hua (豆花).

It is the kind of dessert that I discovered shortly after arriving to Taiwan and I certainly like them. This one is made from a specially soft kind of tofu; its texture and looks remind me of fresh cheese, but softer. In Taiwan, they use to serve it with peanuts, or beans, tapioca, etc, all mixed into a syrup of different possible tastes (ginger or almond?). It can be served warm or with ice (lots of ice). It is, obviously, sweet, but not too much for my taste. And it is more filling than it seems.

The ones in the picture were delicious.

More farewell parties

March. New post-docs are surely about to arrive, but at least one, Youhei, is going back to Japan. A funny guy that arrived here a month ahead of me. We had a farewall dinner for him last Thursday. At Shao Shao Ke, a northern Chinese food restaurant in Taipei, also remembered by lots of graffiti on the walls and ceiling.


The food is very good. The typical dessert, made from deep fried cheese ans sugar, is excellent; but it has to be ordered in advance.

A night of eating and drinking.

Noodles

Almost at the end of our visit to the Taiwan Folk Village, when we were going back to our hotel, I could see this

recently made noodles left to dry to the air and the Sun of that morning. From what I have been told, this is, more or less, the traditional way to do it and, depending on the different ambient conditions and how strong the wind is, the noodles may have different characteristics. For instance, Hsinchu noodles are famous, very thin noodles on account of the wind of the place.

When I took a closer look at these, it was impressive

and the smell of pasta filled the air. I was almost suddenly hungry.

Pomegranates

I came back from Hsinchu last night. It is also called the windy city and it lives up to that name. The wind and the lower temperatures we had reminded me of distant lands. I missed that combination, typical of my mother's hometown. As usual, people complained about the cold, but I feel fine to be in December and to feel some cold. Of course, my apartment is becomeing colder too.

Anyway, I could cook something at home today for the first time in many days. With a workshop, several meetings, two days doing observations, the last time I had dinner, or lunch, at home was a week ago. To celebrate it, some pomegranates!.

I saw them in the supermarket a few days ago and it took me no time at all to put two of them in the bag. As far as I know, they are not typical from these parts —these are from California&mdash, but I don't mind. As delicious as usual. I still have one left.

Water and Tea

A rainy day; it has not stopped at all. In the evening, I met some friends in a tea house, japanese style, near Taida campus. A very quiet and relaxing place, a perfect refuge from the noise and rush of the outside world. In an evening like the one today, there was the added quality to the air that rainy days give to peaceful moments.

It is not my first experience in drinking tea in the traditional way, but that does not mean that it loses its charm. You can spend hours there that, with a little bit of luck, will lead to interesting conversations. We also had dinner there, much more than we planned, but it is so easy here to end up feeling so full.

There was a victim, though. My old umbrella was trashed by, I guess, a commando of pale people (from the looks, american or british); crushed under the tips of their own. What harm did it do to them?.

Introductions

As I probably commented already , the first or second day of my arrival, Chien Chou, the student that shared the office with me, wrote me a list of chinese characters, and their approximate pronunciation, related to food.

It was not a long list, nor with much variety, but it was very useful at the beginning to allow me to look to a menu and be able to distinguish some of the ingredients of the dishes, if they were based on rice or noodles, what kind of meat or if it was fish, which made my choices much easier. Of course, that only gives you an approximate idea of what you are ordering, but fortunately it is not very usual to have those long descriptions so common now in the West.

I have enlarged my vocabulary a little bit since then, but this was my first real chinese lesson in Taiwan.

Up

One of the researchers here, from hungarian origins, made me realize a couple of weeks ago. He was talking to some taiwanese about food and said that it was odd, but in Europe, the US, the West, it is not in good manners to hold your plate in your hands and get it close to the mouth. It is the spoon or the fork the one that has to move. It is not so here; it is very common to see people eating with their soup bowl on their hands or, particularly, the rice bowl from which you pick up small lumps of rice to mix them with something else. And I am included in that group.

True, very different ways, but I was not surprised at all.

For lunch

I went today to what they call here a Lunch Talk, which is precisely that: a talk during lunch. These talks have two differences with the Colloqiums: they are supposed to be more informal and shorter; and if you register on time, the deadline is usually two hours before, you get a lunchbox for free to eat right there. It is a way of promoting the talks. Not everybody does it, because it can be difficult to eat and pay attention to what is said, even if I don't think it is so if you have some place where to put the box. Sometimes, the lunchboxes are pretty good too. We are on a good streak, lately.

Today it was fun, because one of the faculty, who uses to bring his own food, came into the room when the talk had already started, carrying one of those electric grills where you can toast some bread or maybe cook some sausages. He put the grill on the table next to him, plugged it in and just waited until the small pastry he put inside was done.

I can't wait for the day that somebody brings a barbecue.

Simple things

I have seen some students make. Well, it might be something as old as the world, but if I had ever seen that before, it was a long long time ago.

I am talking about the solution they find to take away the drink from some place where there might be small cardboard boxes to put the food in, but not any cups. They put the liquid inside a plastic bag —as the ones we used to roll our sandwiches in when going to school—, a straw too, tie a noose around the straw and you are ready to go. The handles are very convenient to carry the bag too. Of course, I am afraid it is not good for the environment, which is always the problem with these things.

Guo tie

We had another group meeting today. One of those that finish so late. For once, I remembered and went back to the tradition that Chen Chou and I started of buying what they call here guo tie for dinner.

They are a kind of fried dumplings, that with a sauce, spicy or not according to your tastes, are very good. We also used to have some soy milk too. I was introduced to them a few days after I arrived, but it had been a couple of months since the last time I had them. There is a restaurant not far from here, in the Gongguan night market, that makes them and it has not been difficult to be understood. It was something very simple to say, of course, but I am amazed every time that I try to say something and people understand me.