Hear in Taiwan

Do they look familiar to you? They are President Ma Ying-jeou (left) and Vice President Vincent Siew (right).

It’s President Ma again with late president Chiang Ching-kuo (left).

Late president Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Soong May-ling.

China’s late leader Mao Zedong.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Republic of China on Taiwan.

The late pop diva Teresa Teng.

These are all gifts from Taiwan and you can get them at the airport or bookstores around the island.

Ha, my fellow colleague Gino Wang missed a piece of “cow” art at the airport. Or should I say “buffalo” art, because it’s named Mr. Water Buffalo. Several weeks ago, Gino took tons of pictures of colorfully painted cow sculptures at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and posted on the same blog. Just like Gino, I did see a plaque explaining the art, but sorry, it didn’t make sense either. So there you go, an artsy piece of work, Mr. Water Buffalo. Enjoy it for what it’s worth. Colorful, isn’t it? And don’t you just love that humungous nose ring? The bovine is pushing a luggage cart with a miniature size model of the second tallest building in the world, Taipei 101.

Fountains are fun and refreshing (and kids love ‘em). You can find quite a few at the BellaVita (above).

The outdoor ones next to the BellaVita dance along to music every top of the hour.

And there’s also a nice one at the side of the Taipei 101!

To stand or not to stand?

Unless, of course, we’re talking about standing up during a meeting in order to make it go by more quickly. At least that’s what we thought.

Recently, Taiwan’s Chinese-language media began reporting on the concept of a stand-up meeting. It had run in the Wall Street Journal, and seemed like a good idea. So we decided to try it.

The English Service gathered in the office where we hold our meetings, and at first we were all seated waiting for everyone to arrive. Once everyone was there, with a bit of laughter, we all stood up.

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“The Restaurant” (yes that’s the name) in Villa 32 has to be one of my favorite restaurants in Taipei. Recently my husband and I again paid a visit to the restaurant, where menus are regularly updated, and we had a really wonderful lunch.

Lunch menus, starting at NT$780 (10% service charge and mineral water not included), are especially good value. You get an amuse-bouche, an appetizer (which is always great), a main course, a dessert, and a choice of coffee or tea.

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Come try your luck with this giant instant lotto ticket.

But be warned- this ticket is going to set you back by NT$2000, whereas its average sized peers, which are typically no bigger than the size of an adult hand, only cost you NT$100 or NT$200.

But the rewards can be handsome.

Top prize, well, you probably have already figured from the picture above, is NT$26 million, or more than US$ 880’000.

And if you’re lucky but not top-prize lucky- worry not, because there still 25 NT$ 1 million prizes waiting to be claimed.

Have I mentioned that there are eight games you can play on this behemoth ticket, and that your chances of winning are 80%? (Not all of them guarantee top prizes of course.)

(It’s even got separate instructions on the back that tells you how to play each game. Very considerate of them indeed.)

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Ximen’s Red House has been around a long, long time.

In fact, the Red House is one of few buildings in Taiwan that can count its age in centuries. Well, 1.06 centuries, that is. The building was constructed in 1908 and still stands today, partly because of the tenacity of its steel roof. On display inside are many trinkets and artifacts from over the years. These are advertisements from the Japanese colonial era (before 1945):

But the inside is all modern. There’s even a cafe that specializes in tea.

The coolest thing about this building is it’s creative boutique. Sixteen homegrown brands of creative hand-made goods are allowed to set up shop every year, and they have all sorts of things. One store sells mock train tickets that can be used as necklaces or keepsakes.

“Taiwan Poetry Rail Administration
Traveler’s Ticket
From: Starting Point
To: Ending Point
Valid for: Forever”

One last look at the Red House:

The post office in my neighborhood has an unassuming appearance, but it has excellent services.

The green one is for domestic mail and the red one is for international and express mail.

Watch your steps? More attention should be paid to the correct way of writing the sign in English.

The wheelchair ramp for the physically-challenged people.

Yes, you can ring for help but is the space for the physically-challenged people or is the space itself disabled?

Chef Hou Chou-sheng won the 2011 Taipei International Beef Noodle Festival. I talked to Chef Hou recently and he tells me his winning recipe is a fusion of western and traditional Chinese elements.  The western element is tomatoes while the Chinese element is the use of a special combination of traditional Chinese herbs.

Hou went on a trip to the US recently and served his beef noodles to thousands at Google, the California Legislature, the Asia Society, the Freer Gallery of Art (with 3,200 coming to taste his noodles!) in Washington D.D. and other notable places. But, if you’re dying to find out what’s in that recipe, and even try it at home, Chef Hou has been generous enough to share his recipe. Just click here!