Lantern Festival Snacks

No gathering of Taiwanese would be complete without something to eat. At Pingsi this was no problem as vendors from all over the Taipei area set up stalls to sell their wares. I would say the snacks were a step up from the usual night market fare. There were the candied apples and sweets on a stick.

Tofu on a stick.

Sausages made of both meat and with rice.

There were big woks full of soup, fried rice and fried noodles.

 Healthy snacks from dried and fresh fruits.

And Florence's favorite, roasted corn on the cob.

There were many more specialties, all of which made waiting in line more bearable.

Food Court

There are several big department stores in Tainan and they are laid out like US Macey's or Nordstrom's, cosmetics on the ground floor, clothing on the second, ...
But they also have a food court in the basement and also a supermarket like QFC or WholeFoods. I think most of these department stores are associated with department store chains from Japan so many of the products are from Japan. But they also include the more expensive Taiwanese products. It's a good place to shop for well packaged Taiwanese specialities.


I went to the food court with my Japanese schoolmate and he was amazed as how inexpensive the food is compared to similar amounts in Japan. Japanese food seems to be expensive and comes in small portions compared to Taiwan. We probably made a mistake and went for the big platters with "American Sized" platters.

He talked me into buying the most expensive platter on the menu, that was 299NT or about $10US. I didn't finish it.

It was a pork shank, french fries, omelet wrapping rice, carrots, broccoli and pickled cabbage.  He ordered the fish platter for 160NT,

Fried fish with curry was the only difference, so you can see that fish is much less expensive than the pork. We bought a couple of 16 oz cans of beer at the supermarket and drank while we ate. I don't think the food was particularly good but there sure was a lot. There were other food stalls maybe I'll try it again and try something smaller.

We were there on a Monday night so there weren't many people. I know even Taiwanese have some apprehension about eating on the street and in a respectable place like the Japanese food court I guess everyone feels more secure. I would guess that the same meals on the street might cost half as much.

Compared to the Taiwanese street resturants, the food court was well lit and clean and spacious and relatively quiet. This was the stall from which we ordered.

And of course, one of the stall was something like Benihana.

My schoolmate stumbled upon this place my accident, I suppose all Taiwanese know about it from talking with friends, relatives or coworkers. But students just don't have as many contacts and aren't there long enough to know all the ins and outs.

Lantern Festival

About two weeks after the Chinese New Year, we celebrate the Lantern Festival, whereas the Chinese New Year falls on the day of the new moon, the Lantern Festival falls on the Saturday about two weeks from the New Year's date. This is so as many people as possible can enjoy it.

In the Taipei area the biggest Lantern Festival event is held in Pingsi which is a small mining community up in the mountains North and East of Taipei. Mining in that area has been played out and having the event there was a way of helping that community. About 100,000 people mostly from Taipei went to this small village for the event.

Florence, her niece, a friend and I made the trip. It was a 3 hour train ride there, mostly spent waiting for the next train. It was a three hour bus ride back to Taipei, mostly spent in line waiting for an empty bus. It was in the longest queue of my life, at least a mile long and 4 people wide.  We left at 2PM and got back at 11PM for 6 hours in transport and 3 hours at the event. But it was worth it, in all that time in line I never saw anyone lose their temper or even complain(except Florence).

The big activity is to launch Sky Lanterns. These are 4 foot high plastic bags of hot air producted from a fire at the base of the upside down bag. Here is the sequence of events:

1. First write your hopes for the new year on the balloon.

2. Start the fire in the bottom, this is the "ghost money" soaked in kerosene.

 3. Let the hot air build up in the balloon.

4. When the balloon fills with hot air you let it go.

5. The effect is best when hundreds are released at the same time.

I suggest just ignoring any UFO reports on Lantern Festival. But then again, it would be an excellent time for the aliens to attack.

There was a rock concert going on at the same time. I then remembered that it has been a few decades since I went to a rock concert.

Most of the crowd was young people, you would have to be to put up with the transport problems.

Dorm tip #314 - dual thermometers

Most houses in Taiwan do not have heating. Certainly space heaters have been a big item this winter, but generally, heating is not built in. One of the reasons I like the library at school is that it is heated and air conditioned. It seems the books last longer in a controlled environment and people are more flexible than the books.

Each room in my dorm has its own air conditioning unit, but I doubt that anyone has used them these past 2 months. The only additional fee beyond the dorm fee is an individual electric bill that is paid bimonthly.

Originally, I thought the only way to keep the room warm is to keep the room closed up tight. Once the room gets closed up, the warmth can't get out but also the cold can't get out. One day the room was cold from the night before but going to school it seemed much warmer than the room. I should have opened the window and let the warm outside air in. When do you open the window?

I solved this problem with my patented dual thermometer solution. I have two identical thermometers. One at the entrance to the room(attached to the wall with double sided tape).

And one thermometer outside my window.

Now when I go to school in the morning I check to see which thermometer has the highest temperature, and open the window accordingly. I also turned on the air conditioning control unit just to get another data point on the room temperature.

I am determined not to buy a space heater, but thermometers are OK.

Dorm tip #315 - duct tape is your friend

Everyone has trouble with mosquitoes. Once a mosquito gets into the room, its buzz is annoying and the diligent dormer won't rest until the intruder is dead. How did she get in?(Blood sucking mosquitoes are always female.) Mosquitoes are the original heat seeking missiles. They follow the drafts of warm air to their victims. That's why even in a car with door closed, the mosquitoes come in, they follow the vents from the hot air heating system. (Once the car is warm, close the air vents.)

The cracks between the door and the door jam in my room are big enough to drive a mosquito through. So I used duct tape to reduce the door crack. There are plenty of tape products to choose from, all from the dry goods or hardware store.

The most veratile tape is the middle one, duct tape. It can be folded over to make double sided tape but sometimes, I just splurge and buy the official double sided tape, the bottom one, from a good company like 3M = Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing.

Using duct tape 1/3 folded over, I made a strip that can cover the door cracks, not perfect but at least is cuts down on the drafts(also retains heat).

When all done, the door is now more of a sealant, keeping the heat in and the mosquitoes, hopefully out. And allowing occupants to still go in and out.

One more point of access is the shower drain, I know that modern plumbing has U tubes(not youtube) that trap the water in the pipes but from the smells, I don't trust the U tube. So I use a simple kitchen plug to add security.

Dorm tip #316 - the hard floors of life

In Taiwan, it is so humid that very few floors have carpeting. Similarly, wood floors are prone to rot and insects so they are seldom seen. The most typical flooring is cement tiles:

These floors are unforgiving, if you drop something breakable it will break. So the good dorm equipment is that which doesn't break. There are "The Good", like plastic and metal.

All of these come from the 24 hour dry goods store or were donated from relatives. But there are some uses that can't take metal or plastic. Microwaving requires some glass/ceramic material. There are "The Bad", like glasses and corelle.

I use to have 2 nice white corelle bowls, like above. But I dropped one and it became, "The Ugly", in about a 100 pieces.

But somethings just require glass. I think that anyone who drinks beer out of  a plastic container just doesn't enjoy beer. Without the heft and coolnest of a glass, beer is just not as enjoyable.

Dorm tip #317 - the clothesline

Dorm rooms are just small, anything you can do to increase the space is worth the effort. (Even though my dorm room is small, I still seem to lose things.) A clothesline is a good way of making space.

No only can you use it to dry off clothes, but also for just hanging stuff up so it's right in you face. With a couple of dollars worth of material a clothesline is a reality.

Rope and hooks are available at the hardware store. Knots are so permanent, so I like to use a gravity loaded end of the line. It gives when you add load. This is something I learned from around Tainan.

You still have to anchor the ends, that's where the hooks come in.

Remember not to cut the rope, just double string it, because there is a variant to Murphy's law:

"A length of wire cut to specification is always too short."