World of Taste and Sluurrp! - Taipei 2

-At Dan shui Old Street-

Fried Octopus (Japanese Hua Zhi)

Xiao Zai Mian

(Native Taiwanese Noodles, resembling our normal yellow noodles)

Clams cooked in Native Gingerish Soup

Yam and Sweet Potato Riceball Dessert

-Native Taiwanese Eatery near Ximending-

Lu Pork belly (Native taiwanese style)

Lu Pork (Native Taiwanese style)

Lu Bean Curd (Native Taiwanese style)

Wun Dun Mian

(Taiwanese rendition of Wanton noodles with Flower Egg. The ancient saying, or rather the genuine Chinese saying, of wanton is actually wun dun.)

Flower Egg with Noodles

(the egg was supposedly cooked in boiling water to achieve the smooth pale yellow texture and flowery appearance - interesting dish)

-Ancient Cuisine - (old Chinese style)

Sweet and Sour Pork - Vintage style

(Really queer and vintage. Looked steamed, but it is not. The sauce is sweet and sour, but it is not cooked in the modern way. Something very ancestory about this dish.

Beancurd fried with Bean Pate and Lard
(Queer taste - yet delicious. Every ingredient was well mixed to bring out the overall flavour. Though such a dish is nowhere near modern style.)

Little Buddha Jump Over the Wall

(Queer taste - but also delicious. Nothing like a modern dish. Bits of dried shrimps wer found, and the golden round thing is actuall fried pigeon egg (resembling "tie dan" or metal egg))

- Yong Kang street-

Black Sesame Paste Pastry
(The pastry layers are really soft and slightly crisp, and the roasted black sesame paste is really fragrant with its original taste well-kept to reach your taste buds at every bite)

- Back to Night Market at Ximending-

Japanese Crepes

Taiwanese Chicken Cooked in Rice Wine

It's a "wait, wait..." society

Everywhere we turn to people are asking us to wait. Different languages spoken to ask for the same thing from us. "Wait a moment, please." or "Wait ar." Or even "Qing shao deng yi xia.". How long is that "moment" actually going to be - well, who knows? Not even the person who had asked you to wait.

Sick and tired of waiting, Singaporeans developed a culture of "kiasuism". Because waiting consumes time, and time is precious, it cannot be retrieved no matter what, therefore to reduce the extensive waste of time, they become "kiasu". To the world outside, this may seemed a bad reflection of their principles of life - they are desperate not to lose out. But is it really just that?

Although not a native, but living in Singapore for so many years, I too feel the need to be kiasu sometimes. I came to realise that every corner of this country is requesting for the same thing, and such a request is possibily one of the reasons that cultivated an intrinsic "kiasu-ism" in every native. If we miss a bus or a train, we might have to wait for another ten to fifteen minutes for the next one, so why wait? Why not die-die get on this one, so I don't have to do the waiting? (I might also escaped the terror of getting marked for being late.)

There are also other things that required true blue waiting. If I need to process an important legal document, I need to first take a half-day (or maybe, a whole day) leave from work, then proceed to the building to do the processing. There, I have to first wait in line for about twenty minutes to get my queue number, and the brief information about which counter I had to proceed to. After which, I had to possibly wait for another hour, before the number on the screen finally revealed the number on my queue ticket. Then, when the moment I've been waiting for has arrived, but after a brief audience with the consultant or officer, I noticed that the actual processing of the document took only ten minutes. Shortly afterwhich, I'm back to waiting for another hour (worst case scenario - maybe two) to make payment, which, needless to say, took only five minutes. As the number of processing stages increases, my waiting time increases, and half of my day's time (worst case scenario - whole day) will be exhausted. When I leave the building, there is just enough time to go home for dinner.

Yes, our voices are heard. Our pleads are well-received. The solution? Customer service hotline, and online services. Good or bad? You decide. For me - the customer service is just another portal for the same request. "Our care consultants are busy at the moment. Your call is important to us. Please wait, and we'll attend to you shortly." And of course, I was attended to after waiting for one hour, with the phone tightly tugged to my right ear. I bet many users of such supposed solutions to longer waiting time might have provided their heartfelt feedback to the "customer service people", but so far, the wait goes on.

Of course voicing out problems is one thing, finding the appropriate solution is another. As customers, we do expect the people servicing us to "solve the problem". But often people wonder - how? Well, there are countries on the globe in our vicinity who has set pretty good examples. They might not have entirely solved the problem, but they provided solutions that actually better the situation; not make it worse. They promised to reduce the frequency of asking customers to wait, and they did. They ensure that waiting time will be shortened, and they did. I mean seriously, if the best you can do is this, us, being on the receiving end of your service, would truly appreciate the effort, as there are signs of improvement.

So much for yapping on a bad experience with customer care service hotline. I mean, frankly, they do care - I can definitely feel the sincerity. But unfortunately, maybe they are busy caring for so many people, they sincerely needed you to wait a moment, please, before they could shower you with the same attention.

"My hand is holding one's hand, yet my heart holds another's - who holds the greater pain?"

A show that explores in detail about revenge and forgiveness. Guy on the right killed the elder brother of the guy on the left, 12 years ago, when everyone was still in their teens. The death coincidentally caused another death - the mother of the guy on the left. Unfortunately for him, the two deaths wiped out his entire family, and in addition, brought down the reputation of his family name. Thu, naturally, he vows to get even with the guy on the right, in due time. So, using 12 years, he single handedly planned his revenge.
Like all shows of this genre, as the story goes, the guy on the left gradually falls in love, and hangs onto the little piece of human soul still left within him. He is torn between fufilling his supposed destiny and acknowledging the existence of the only person who understood his pain.
A very common plot about revenge and forgiveness, but what makes this series unique and outstanding is the details.
The people needed to be killed for revenge was murdered under naturally occuring incidences and accidents that were cleverly maneuvered. There were no traces of anything that will evidently point towards the mastermind or threaten to surface his name. By the middle of the series, when every event starts falling into place, you'll realise that his plot for revenge moves like a chess game, and with each brilliant flawless move he makes, he gets closer to checkmate.
However, the director also captured the emotional parts of the series in an intrinsic fashion that makes the audience feel for the characters and what they would likely experience at different stages of the plot - especially for the guy on the right and the left. For example, in the early episodes, you will enjoy the victories with the guy on the left as his plot succeeds, but in the later episodes, when the plot starts involving more lives, and you see the guy on the right repenting deeply for his past actions, you start wanting the guy on the left to stop his plotting. I guess the collaboration between the director and the acting cast accurately displayed all the emotions through the different parts of the series.
I really enjoyed every bit of this show.