Shan Ding Lu

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When it rains

A good tropical torrential rain is a wonderful thing. It is cooling and so refreshing. At this time of year Taiwan is blessed with so many torrential downpours.

Typhoon Fung-wong has been bearing down on Taiwan for the past few days. Like a thundering bowling ball it hit the central east coast early this morning, hurled over the 3000m mountain range and left the central west coast early this evening. Though the winds were not too strong, the rain has been steady. And there is yet more to come over the next day as the tail of the typhoon drops its remaining water. It is now on its way to China and hopefully on course to Beijing for a final scrub down before the Olympics.

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Tags: Shan Ding Lu, Weather by Stephen
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Riding through the great aerial ocean

I recently listened to a speech by Australian of the year, Tim Flannery where he describes our atmosphere as The Great Aerial Ocean. It is a great speech by a great man that jolts you in to realising just how valuable, vunerable and scarce that thin layer of air really is.

Kaohsiung haze looking West across the airport

There is a circuit I regularly cycle across the flat plains either side of the Goaping river. It is fertile and irrigated land, covered in small farms, factories and villages. Each of the activities that take place along the route let off a tell-tale odore of their existence. A reminder of the aerial ocean in which we swim. [Read more →]

Tags: Around Da Liao by Stephen
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Oysters

There is a very enjoyable dish that anyone who has visted a Taiwanese night market must have enjoyed. It is an oyster omellete or er a jien (蚵仔煎) . It consists of a corn starch base with egg, a dozen or so fresh oysters and cuttings of fresh green vegetables. All quickly fried such that the oysters are just warmed and greens keep their stalks crisp. It is then covered with a mostly sweet but slight chilli sauce. Yum.