A grammarian's lexical choice; It's supposed to hint at the variety of topics I cover in my posts (plus my gender). A little convoluted & punny, but it amuses.
On the way to and from school, I walk past a bunch of interesting shops and street stalls.
Here are a few shots that I think capture the randomness.
The Indoor Goose who is a great sentry for intruders. Ever vigilant, this gander escorts you for the entire expanse of sliding door. Prolly gets pretty tired during rush hour.
Would you eat at a restaurant called Elastic? It serves teas and soups made of connective tissue plus special herbs and spices that are supposed to help your joints. Cheaper and tastes better than that Glucosamine chondroitin, MSM, Sam-E, CoE Q10 etc.
I do language exchange with Yi-Ling once a week. She helps me with my Chinese and I help her with English. It's a very productive couple of hours and we always eat something interesting. Altho sometimes I think it's almost a dare. Haha.
Chou Doufu (Deep fried Stinky Tofu)
This is a binary selection food. Ether you love it or you hate it. Yi-Ling suggested I try it. She offered to buy one and share it with me (with the idea that when I hated it, she would finish it off). Half way thru the plate, I offered to get another one so that we didn't have to share. Yum delicious and way better than my previous stinky tofu experience at Spices!
The Taiwanese Hotdog
Yi-Ling was also behind the purchase of this delite.
The larger white looking dog is a sausage casing stuffed with flavored rice, it's cooked on the grill and then sliced open. Condiments are layered in and then the spiced sausage is placed inside the way a hotdog goes in a bun.
It's served wrapped in a paper cone- you twist the bottom and the hotdog construct is pushed up.
I asked for extra spicy and boy was it ever HOT!
Outside every convenience store and supermarket you'll find a drop box filled with receipts.
At first I thought it was just a way of cutting down on litter. But no, it's part of a larger system at work. People are donating to worthy causes. "And why would said lost cause want your moldy old proof of purchase?" you ask. Each transaction is documented with a receipt so that the shop must declare their sales accurately for tax purposes. (Apparently tax dodging was pretty popular- and may still be!) In any case, each receipt has a number printed at the top which is entered in a national drawing once every 2 months. As soon as I heard there was a passive entry to this chance to win NT$2M dollars, I started saving receipts.
Rather than reiterate the possibilities of winning I'll let you read up on that. My roommates think it's a hoot and have started donating their stubs to my cause. I guess they just don't feel lucky. But I feel hopeful, in a way more than I every had with the California Lottery (maybe coz I actually have some bits of paper with numbers?) and will continue to collect for the duration of my stay. It would be too cool to win some cashola just for picking up litter.
Tomorrow's the big day, the numbers are published and then I have to write some conditional searches in excel to see if any of my numbers match. Wish me luck!
Ps yesterday at a souveneir shop in the Taipei Main Station, one of the girls leafed thru a stack of receipts to find one that matched my purchase amount rather than print me one from the till. So my feeling is, tht sometimes even with this new system, transactions aren't being logged. But hey what's this girls time worth, compared to what the owner saves in taxes?
Ps2 I won! 2 tickets matched the last 3 digits. which means I won a whopping $400 kuai (almost US$12). not enough to retire on, but certainly good fun
Ice Monster (冰館)- The magical shaved ice fruit dessert
15 Yong Kang Jie, Cross street XinYi Lu
Taipei (Taiwan)
02-2394-8279
If you have some time to kill (ie you're waiting for a table at Ding Tai Feng) you can wander down YongKang Jie and wait in line at Ice Monster (冰館) which is the trendy spot for the ubiquitous shaved ice dessert. There's a really interesting phenomenon here in Taiwan, where one place will have a huge line of people waiting patiently and next door sells the same thing but no one goes there. I haven't got to the stage of trying the less busy spots but it's safe to say that people seem willing to wait for what they perceive to be the "better" product.
As you can see by the suitcases, there are some tourists sampling the "must visit" shaved ice fruit dessert. However I think there was a decent mix of locals also. Most of the topping options are chopped seasonal fruit over a mound of ice covered in condensed milk, fruit juice and syrup topped with sorbet or ice cream. The real trick is trying to figure out what flavors you want to sample. Coz there are so many options.
We got the mounded strawberry madness with passion fruit sorbet to share between the 3 of us since we needed to save space for the DTF xlb sampling. While you're waiting in line, you have to scout out the seats, so that by the time your dessert is ready, you have a place to sit. The seating style is communal- small benches and long tables that you share with other people enjoying their "healthy" fruit and frozen treats.
The people sitting opposite were having taro &red bean, and the mixed seasonal fruit. They seemed very friendly and were happy (ok maybe unaware) for me to snap a picture of their choices.
Most people seemed to be going for the fruits but every now and then someone walked by with an interesting flavor, this one is called "Job's tears". I think it might be stewed barley grains... but I'm not sure. of course there are smoothies too but they don't seem to be as popular.
Ice Monster has a philosophy of contrasting tastes and textures, so that you should taste both sweet & tart and the ice is cool slippery (not too crunchy- they have a special machine that grinds it) and the toppings are chunky and chewable.
Once you get your treat, you have to eat it quickly before it melts (altho it's not quite that hot yet- so what I really mean is before the people you're sharing with forget to share!) Ice Monster seemed quite crowded, regardless we managed to get in and out in about 30 minutes, just in time to walk back to DTF. Practically the most efficient use of waiting time ever.
This landmark restaurant Ding Tai Feng (DTF) is considered (by some) the canonical xiao long bao (xlb) in Taiwan. While this statement provokes rolled eyes and heated controversial debates among the foodies, it's a question that I (ever in search of definitive food) consider my duty to investigate further.
It's controversial for multiple reasons: These dumplings originate from Shanghai (where it is clearly stated that the Taiwanese know nothing about making the real thing); Everyone (including street vendors) in Taiwan can make xlb just as good as DTF, so what's the big deal? The only reason DTF is famous is their effective overseas advertising campaign. Finally, who in their right mind would willingly pay 4-6x higher prices for the same thing?
The original branch is near my hood, about 10 minutes walk north east of Guting MRT. To sufficiently sample the xlb's, the team was three in size- Taiwanese expert in eating xlb, Shanghai xlb benchmarked expert, naive non-xlb sampler. We arrived after a decent tour of the back streets of XinYi Jie/Jinshan Lu (hardly lost but walked on streets without names?!) and finally wrapping around on LiShui Jie via JinHua Jie.
There was a hefty mass of people crammed into the small space (currently limited by scaffolding due to perennial Taipei construction) in front of the restaurant. With an electronic number board and loudspeakers mounted outside the entrance, they obviously experience this kind of crowding on a regular basis. We grabbed a number from the girl in the headset, and headed off to wait in a less intensely packed space.
After about 30 minutes of waiting at Ice Monster (more on that later), we headed back to find an even larger press of people in the same small space. Luckily the XLB Gods were with us and we basically strolled up to the front, filled out our pre-order form and were seated by the efficient gaggle of girls in headsets. You walk thru the corridor with the open kitchen gleaming clean behind glass, and view the expert team constructing the very xlb you'll be eating in just a few minutes.
While not a frenetic activity, the team produces a steady stream of dumplings to satisfy the demand.
One person rolls an exacting weight of 5 gm of dough into thin rounds, and then flips them off towards the person responsible for stuffing 16 gm of pork, pork & crab (with crab roe), or taro filling onto the skin; These are then grabbed by one of 3 folders whose job is to make the 18 (count them!) folds in a twisted top knot. These then nestle in the bamboo steamers to await the demands of the now ravenous hordes. Many xlb are steamed on cabbage leaaves, but DTF uses a sturdy cotton fabric to protect the dumplings from sticking. (Dumplings that fail for whatever reason are immediately trashed.)
We had to trek up several flights of narrow stairs (you've got to have legs of steel to work here!) At each landing the towering stacks of bamboo steamers lay monument to the popularity of Ding Tai Feng. We were seated in an out of the way corner on the 4th floor and immediately got tea, place settings (including small dishes of shredded preserved ginger) and pickled cabbage (yan bai cai 醃白菜), and cold noodle & tofu salad (didn't catch chinese name). Followed by hot and sour soup (酸辣湯 suān là tāng garnish with vinegar and chili sauce to taste), garlic stir fried pea shoots (豆苗 dòu miáo), xian rou zongzi (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves with pork 鮮肉粽子). Our server checked up on us periodically and filled our cups frequently so we did not feel neglected, even tho we were prolly the furthest lastest table in the whole building. Space is somewhat spartan and not immediately consistent with the high prices they charge.
Then the xlb arrived, wow the skins were shiny and translucent (a mark of distinction and quality) you could see the soup swimming inside. You prepare a nest of ginger, soy, vinegar & chili, and gently transfer a quivering delicate dumpling into your spoon, taking care not to (tragically) poke a hole. Pause to admire the precise 18 folds.
Then you bite a small hole in the side and suck out the steaming hot juices, till you can maneuver the whole construction into your mouth without it exploding catastrophically. Repeat till out of xlb. The skins were tender, somehow elastic but chewy, the soup rich and porky with a subtle crab flavor. If you were able to look inside you could see the filling was studded with orange crab roe. Then we had the sweet taro filled dumplings for dessert. Which were good, but not as good as the xlb.
The somewhat reluctant consensus was that Ding Tai Feng does have a superior product. The xiao long bao were better texture and flavored than those sampled in Shanghai's YiYuan Garden (thicker, chewy skins & gummy meat-altho broth was good-which perhaps not representative of the best but equally popular with the tourists). Additionally the skins @DTF were admittedly more tender & supple and the broth somehow juicier than other local options. But with the fiendish wait and the higher prices, it becomes more of a trade off between performance vs price i.e. if you're hungry and can't wait, or on a budget- there are many nearby options that serve very decent xlb and other tasty baked pastries for significantly less.
No reservations. English/Japanese menus available. Staff used to dealing with tourists, coz let's face it, that's who mostly frequent the place.
I wish I had... (aka Cooking in a Taiwanese Kitchen)
I wish I had all my knives, pots & pans, appliances (dish washer!), spices and kitchen counter tops.
But failing that, here's one of the kitchen appliances that I especially wish I had here in Taiwan. a hand held immersion blender
It's just so handy, and with all the various attachments, would be a good substitute for most of the larger appliances that are currently in storage.
But I don't want to bag on Taiwanese kitchens in general, I just feel a little under equipped to do the cooking I'd like to. The great thing about the Taiwanese kitchens, is the wok burners that throw out amazing amounts of heat. So I'm concentrating on stir frying and saute'ing.
There are no real ovens here, but we do have a steroid enhanced toaster oven that bakes pretty decent cookies. I made almond snicker doodles the other day and they turned out quite well. Angie has massive bags of almond flour which I guess is easy to come by. In Taiwan people use it to make an almond milk drink. I also substituted oats for some of the flour coz Angie had a massive bag that she wanted to get rid of. the recipe I used was proven to work in anemic toaster cooking conditions.
http://haochr.blogspot.com/2008/01/mmm-cookies.html
they turned out pretty well.
ack just lost the rest of my post. sorry more tomorrow
I was inspired the other day to cook curry from many sources:
My friends declared a desire for curry. Towards that end, we went searching for curry spices Taipei City Hall exit 4. You can find the adventure in my podcast episode: IndianSpice Speakeasy
AND
I stumbled across a Jamaican Curry goat cooking snippet from John Bull's Jamaican Kitchen.
which reminded me of my mom (she makes a mean curry- she grew up in India)...
The recipe is mostly adapted directly from my mom's, but the spice mix is from talking to Sangita (of Monterey-Sunnyvale Little India Adventure fame). This curry is for lamb (which in Taiwan means goat) and so the synergy of my worlds colliding finally has meaning and it is Curry Goat aka Manishwater.
Toast dry over flame or in toaster oven taking care not to burn
(releases the oils of the spices, necessary if you don't want the curry
to taste raw) Grind into fine powder. (Make sure to clean grinder with rice after
use- else the spices left in grinder will go rancid and affect the
flavor of future batches)
Combine with
1 tbs garam masala powder
2 tbs ground turmeric
other optional powdered spices:
cinnamon, allspice (mace), cloves, nutmeg
1 teaspoon cayenne to taste!
Lamb/Goat curry:
1lb cubed lamb/goat
salt & pepper (s&p)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 large onion
curry spices mix
Additionally
2 green cardamom
1 Tbs minced ginger
4 curry leaves
2 bay leaves
4 cups stock (beef or chicken) till meat is just covered
optional
1/2 cauliflower (florets)
2 large tomatoes cubed
2-4 medium potatoes
1 cup green peas
marinate 1 lb of cubed lamb in s&p and minced garlic for 4 hrs or overnight
chop one large onion and shallow fry in oil till soft and golden
add curry spice mix to oil and stir till aromatics release.
add cubed lamb to sear all over,
add two crushed cardamom, 2 cloves whole, one stick cinnamon, and
minced ginger,
handful of curry leaves & 2 bay leaves, add stock
to cover meat and simmer until tender (2+ hours).
add cauliflower, 2 quartered potatoes,
tomatoes or green peas if you wish.
Note: Don't buy expensive meat as it tends to be too lean and dry. Use stew
meat w/ lots of marbling. Serve w/ cucumber and yogurt salad and chutneys, pappadoms, etc.
Dahl:
1 Onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic
2 green cardamom
1 round slice of ginger (silver dollar sized)
2 curry leaves
2 bay leaves
whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 red chili pod
1-2 cups yellow split peas
4 cups stock
Optional coconut milk
Fry onion and garlic until soft, add crushed piece of ginger to oil.
Add Curry & bay leaves, 2 cloves, cardamom and stick
of cinnamon, one dry red chili.
Add split peas and cook in stock (and coconut milk) until soft.
Remove all whole seasoning before serving.
To finish, gently fry some whole cumin seeds, onion*, garlic and chili
in oil. Then pour this mixture into the dahl, season w/ S&P.
sprinkle with chopped coriander if available. Serve over rice etc.
*This is sometimes available in packets ready crisp fried depending on your neighborhood grocery options.
Cook a yellow saffron rice w/ turmeric, garlic, onion, ginger, cinnamon stick, whole crushed cardamom, whole cloves and black pepper corns in coconut cream, curry leaves [sub bay leaves]. When nearly cooked add ready made curry [any kind: beef, chicken, lamb etc] mix into rice, add fried onion flakes, raisins and even roasted cashew nuts [sprinkle on top of rice- no mixing as they would go soft] just before serving.
Hong2 Sao1 Niu2Rou4 Mian4- Beef Noodles in Spicy sauce
My former Chinese teacher Liu2 Lao3shi1 offered to take me out shopping for sports clothes that fit. Not everyone (and by that I mean no one) uses the type of athletic jog bra that I forgot to pack. So when I complained about this startling deficiency plus the fact that everyone here is a size negative zero, Liu Laoshi immediately knew where to steer me. It's a little to complicated to explain, and she ended up taking me herself.
On the way there we passed a restaurant famous for its Mala Hong2 Sao1 Niu2Rou4 Mian4- Beef Noodles in Spicy sauce. So that's where we stopped to have dinner. It was pretty tasty tasty. (shout out to Kat and Wayne for help with my tones)
I've got the standard beef with spicy sauce and Liu Laoshi went with the plain broth and braised pigs foot, which I will try next time.
There's a big bowl of pickled cabbage which you spoon into your noodles for extra crunch and salty goodness.
Another specialty is the steamed beef ribs over potato, it was so good but I was stuffed by the time it came out. More a question of how do I pack this home for breakfast?
It's actually on the way home from the Jin Ling Girls High school. I can definitely see myself jumping off the bus at the Ximen Station and grabbing a tasty bowl.
Lao Wang Ji Niu Ro Mien Da Wang (I'll have to ask Liu Laoshi for the tones)
Old Wang Beef Noodle King
Taoyuan St No. 15, Taipei (台北市桃源街15號)
accessible by MRT Ximen Station Exit 3 & 4
You can tell you're in the right place by the rows and rows of bowls lined up waiting to be filled.
Directions: If walking down Baoqing Rd., turn left onto Taoyuan St., and it will be on your right. Walking down Hengyang Rd., turn right onto Taoyuan St., and it will be on your left.
Closed every second Sunday of the month.
I had the "hong sao" (spicy beefy kind), but they also serve beef noodle soup with clear broth.
You can also order different meats.
I've found the local equivalent of my farmers' market at home. It's different from the regular wet markets, in that most of the produce is certified organic AND the people selling it are the farmers themselves.
It hasn't achieved the same type of popularity that the wet markets experience- perhaps slightly too expensive for typical Taiwanese shoppers who don't yet care about the organic label. Another reason is each stall is equipped with a sink and running water, so it feels sparkling clean in contrast. I like it enough to keep going back. I'd love to promote it so that the farmers can start making some money off this effort. It's just behind the Guanghua Computer Street (computer related shopping done, cell phones, mp3 player accessories etc) in a converted parking lot. where Songjiang Lu intersects with Ba De Lu and Xinsheng Jie MRT Blue line Zhongxiao Xinsheng station Exit #1.
The first thing I had was the fresh squeezed orange juice. Mmm sweet with a little hint of orange oil from the rind. Then I walked past the Bee Lady's table. As well as the live comb with little fuzzy bees working hard at building cells, she has a honey "vodka" (distilled white alcohol anyway), if you need more spice added to that she also has it flavored with bees.
In between the Tea guy and the Purple Corn Lady, sits the Medicine Man. He makes a traditional cough medicine of >19 ingredients that are ground into a paste and dried inside the hollowed out rind of a pomelo.
After it has cured, you cut it into small cubes and suck on it when you have a cold or cough. I'm not sure what else there is in the mix but menthol is definitely a major player.
Another must is the mushroom table. The Mushroom Man makes a mean mushroom stew. It's got 5 or 6 different kinds of mushrooms. Abalone mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, Enoki mushrooms, Woodear, Shitake, Giant white mushrooms. The texture is amazing some are chewy or succulent, others are flavorful, or slippery.
The Mushroom Man also makes the Chili sauce. Add vinegar and Hot chili pepper sauce and you've got a hearty snack to last you for the afternoon.
Then it's on to the pickle stand where you can buy anything pickled. I definitely want to learn how.
Walk past the fun flavored vinegars, honey and cabbages to the sugarcane stand. You can get the juice or a couple of blocks to gnaw on as you wander around.
A while ago when I was still in the good ole USA, I heard about the Taipei International Bakery Show listed on a favorite baking blog (perhaps you've used her recipes- The Cake Bible, Bread Bible etc).
I love trade shows, they really give one the chance to see whatever industry behind the scenes. The last San Francisco Fancy Food Show (FFS) was massive, literally 200k sq Ft, miles of aisles, interesting food and loads of fun (2 days worth). Luckily I was able to use my trusty press pass to register for the Taipei Bakery Show (It's listed as an Agricultural Trade Show here in Taiwan). It was held at the Taipei World Trade Center- which is a massive complex of buildings. It was quite a maze, and not made any easier by the fact that there was another trade show (Digital Electronics) running concurrently, and another show setting up (Taiwan Postal Service). The area was pretty packed, but quite small, I'd say about 1/3 -1/6 the size of the FFS. I managed to walk it in about 3 hours, with intermittent but ruthless sampling, and stops for in depth interviews.
First impressions, wow it's all about the machinery. Everything is made on a scale many orders of magnitude greater than I could ever comprehend. From massive mixers and ovens to silicone muffin/cake pans, it's all about volume baking and automation.
Everything looks gorgeous, any cake shop in Taipei turns out miniature works of art. It's a crime to eat it.
2nd Impressions, sheer disappointment with the empty promises. The pastries were dusty, dry and crumbly, the cakes leaden and fillings fake & gummy. After an in-depth interview with the manager of a major margarine company (whose second largest product was soap), I understand why everything tastes like margarine- coz everything is made with it! Taiwan has gone the cheap route with their baked goods and paid the price. Butter and lard have been substituted with margarine and oil. All the fillings are mass produced and many bakeries use frozen pre-made dough for their rolls, loaves and pastries. So essentially it all comes from just a few manufacturers, who dominate the market. Stuff that smelled divine was like ashes in my mouth.
Still it was an interesting experience, I got to see:
A commercial metal detector that pulls contaminated cookies out of the production line.
Hand made vegetable based pasta
Beans and more beans used for sweet fillings. Ok so these are the real thing, but somehow still miss the mark. I don't know if its just something is lost in the scale of things, my taste buds or if people really will continue to buy this stuff. (Please note I ate these sort of sweet bean filled pastries in Japan and enjoyed them tremendously)
The Chocoli Chicks- very earnest in their attempts to distribute chocolate buttons.
Traditional pineapple filled cookies.
Gelato (that's more like it!)
And the Taiwan National Junior Bakery Competition Finals- Preliminary competition to the Junior World Championships. Quite a long day for the contestants, who are required to start the previous nite. They have to temper enough chocolate for a sculpture (chocolate form) and also create several different kinds of truffles and decorative candies.
I didn't see any of the judges tasting anything, so I don't know if they care about that at all. There were mad, mad decorating skills- I was really impressed. So much so that I lingered for over an hour watching the competition. The final touches, judging and moving the pieces was all so interesting. Entry #3 almost lost his whole sculpture during the move, so it was quite dramatic.
And I agreed with the winner! Of course my Chinese being somewhat lacking I could be totally wrong about who actually won.
Afterwards I toured thru the Taipei 101 building- 2nd tallest in the world.
Appologies for my lack of blogs, I've been super busy. But to distract you from my lack of entries...
Here's a link to a really fun Jamaican cooking site. The chef is pretty hilarious, especially since he keeps dropping thins on the floor. Definitely the quintessential Jamaican line up of food from my childhood. I'll be sure to keep my eye on this site.
I found out about it from one of my favorite blogs ChezPim.
Here John Bull cooks Jamaican Johnny cakes, which I post specially for Gwynie since they're her favorites. Our cook Miss Salmon made the best ones, but these look close enough that I'd be willing to make a carb exception. Let me know how they turn out!
Karaoke (better known as KTV) is very popular here in Taiwan. It's so popular that you have to make a reservation or wait till 11pm for the first available room. You climb the stairs into the upper floors of the complex. The ceilings are very low, I feel positively tall since my head is only inches from brushing the paint. The space is sort of like in "Being John Malkovich" where they've "cut down on the overhead". Only you don't get to see the the world from JM's PoV or teleport out to the Jersey turnpike afterwards.
Things apparent after my initiation into the small soundproofed room that is KTV-
Don't let your Taiwanese friends at the console until after you've entered some English songs, else you'll spend the entire night waiting for your turn at the mike.
Most Chinese pop songs involve tragic death scenes that look a lot like a cross between tuberculosis and Ebola. The funniest one I've seen so far was a Lego version that's spot on. the entry has a link to the original version which is also pretty funny.
Be supportive of other efforts, you'll prolly suck more and you don't want to be voted off the island.
Keep drinking beer, it doesn't help with the singing but it makes the whole experience more tolerable.
Don't bother with the extra priced buffet, it's just fried food and inedible desserts.
I discovered several things about my musical depths-
I know very few of the popular songs.
I know all the lyrics and the tunes of a limited selection from the 80's. This means my inner muppet wears a mullet with wings, pegged pants, leg warmers, off the shoulder sweatshirt and electric blue eye shadow.
Most other songs I know one word per line and only the tune from the chorus (which doesn't generally help with singing the melody for the verses if it's different)
Beer doesn't actually help my singing in any way (funny when I played rugby it seemed to work)
I can't wait to start learning characters so that I can go back and rock the Chinese section.
of course this time I cheated and sang a song that I have been listening to for sometime, I should point out that even tho I know the tune and the words (sort of) I did miserably and will have to practice heaps before I try again.
Sung by Vienna Teng
Lüdao Xiaoyequ
words by Chen Chang-shou/music by Yao Di
Zhe Lü Dao xiang yi zhi chuan,
zai yue li yao ya yao,
Airen yo, ni ye zai wode xin li piao ya piao,
Xiang wode gesheng sui na weifeng,
chuikaile nide chuangjin,
Rang wode zhongqing sui na liu shui,
buduande xiang ni qingsu.
Yezishu de chang ying,
yanbuzhu wode qingyi,
Mingmeide yueguang,
geng zhaoliangle wode xin.
Zhe Lü Dao de ye yijing nayangde chenjing,
Airen yo, ni weishenma shi momowuyu:
Translation by Ed Peaslee
This Green Island is like a boat,
floating in the moonlight,
My darling, you too are floating in the sea of my heart,
Let the sound of my song follow the breeze,
blowing open the curtain of your window,
Let my love follow the flowing water,
endlessly pouring out its feelings for you.
The long shadows of the palm trees
cannot conceal my love,
The bright beauty of the moonlight
casts its brilliance into my heart.
This Green Island night is so calm and serene,
My darling, why are you silent, saying nothing?
I've mentioned the Fern garden before, but I hadn't toured around during the day. This week I visited Jenny's family's nature conservancy garden of indigenous Taiwanese ferns- representing close to 300 of the almost 700 native species endemic to Isla Formosa. It's inside Yangmingshan National Park, just north of Taipei city; a very tranquil and verdant mountain oasis, away from all the hustle bustle of concrete city life.
They've put a lot of effort into the details. Even the wrought iron gates look like ferns, curling and twining over the rocks. We started near the front gate and worked our way up the hillside, following the contours around the slope. The undergrowth is pretty dense, and a vivid palette of greens make up the verdure. Apparently it rains more in the summer, but the last 4 weeks of rain have made the foliage lush and full.
The garden features were installed with particular consideration for the native habitat, so many of the paths are elevated to allow forest floor critters and bugs passage underneath. All the wood used is native and endemic, or recycled lumber scraps and salvaged railroad ties. Each section has an individual style and feel since they were all constructed at different times, as materials became available.
The Hsu family built this garden progressively, their mission to conserve the local habitat that represents Yangmingshan with an emphasis on ferns which make up the majority of the plants. Another mission for the garden is education, and as such they host nature groups and classes in a delightful outdoor terraced area, heavily shaded by the dense canopy. In addition there is a enclosed gazebo where one can take refuge during inclement weather or rest and take advantage of their small refreshment counter which serves up cool drinks and perfectly frothy cappuccinos. A spiraling wrought iron fern staircase leads to the deck patio above where you can see all the way down to Danshui and the river.
Small grottoes with cool ponds and small rocky streams provide aquatic homes to the dragonflies(?), frogs, and newts. In the distance you can hear the birds mocking and whistling to each other. I even saw a couple of large raptors- didn't have my glasses so not sure exactly what kind...
Continuing up the hill, we stopped by the kitchen garden patch (mostly dormant for the winter) and the chicken run where the flock of chickens scurried around pecking at the bugs and grubs. They're the special Taiwanese mountain chickens that lay large creamy pink eggs- pretty enough for Easter. We peeked into the nesting box where a broody hen was setting some eggs. Careful, don't disturb her, she looks pretty nervous.
Then we wandered into the neighboring plot which is the largest private single person cemetery in Taiwan, for the mother of the guy who started the first Taiwanese cruise line. It's secluded and private and very manicured compared with the fern garden.
