December 5th, 2016

Since I've been away for a while and have leaned towards the more personal of topics of late, thought I'd through out a quick all Taiwan edition. 

Have often complained that the Yum Corporation does not see the Taiwanese market fit for Taco Bell. KFC and Pizza Huts galore, but not a single queserito or Dorito taco to be found.  I saw an article this week  about the Philippines Taco Bells offering gawdamn Cheetos quesadilla.  How come the Philippines gets Taco Bells?  Was out with friends the other night, and they had some of their friends along too, and we started talking about food.  The question I ask all other expats is 'what food will you miss when you leave?"  The two most frequent answers are Din Tai Fung and a blank expression.  This gal the other night thought hard and said the guy that serves up Roman style food.  "La Lupa?" I said.  Indeed it was and that is our family's favorite spot too.  Small world and even a smaller culinary community in this town

In equally tragic/hopeful news, the inventor of General Tso's chicken died this week.  I did not know that it was created here in Taiwan, albeit by a Chinese chef that fled the mainland in 1949, but have never seen it served around town.  The description in the article about him says that "he decided to chop some chicken into big chunks, fry it to a golden hue and then added a different combination of sauce and seasoning to create a new dish."  I can't think of a single thing that has a golden hue that isn't awesome...chicken, sunsets, the baby Jesus.  The world morns the loss of a genius but from tragedy comes hope as there are restaurants serving his creations still around town.  Am gonna have to have someone translate this page and go soon. 

The biggest  news story about town, which also appears to be big in the geopolitical community as well, is Trump's call to Taiwan's delightful President Tsai this week.  As with most things Trump, who initiated what, when and why is unclear,  His motivation is cloudy and think we're all in agreement that he either doesn't know the nuances of the unique relationship between the US/China/Taiwan, or doesn't give a shit.  In the line to defend him, I am pretty far back, but cannot fault his rationale that as we sell them billions of dollars in weaponry, why wouldn't we talk to them?  And if you've read this space with any regularity, fuck China is a recurrent theme.  Their historical assumption that the island is part of China is tenuous at best and their circumspect passive-aggressive big brother stance towards Taiwan that can be seen in their blocking them access to things like the international aviation safety conferences is both dangerous and childish.  They get credited with a wise foreign policy due to their taking and acting with the long view, but think they are just big bullies that are real pussies.  I haven't been with any of my local anti-Trump acquaintances, which is all of them,  since this came out to see what the consensus here is.  The View from Taiwan blogger guy has a decent take.  My gut reaction when I heard it, and ever since, was good job Donald.  I'm not one of the jump off a bridge type liberals and have a wary but open mind to see what he does.  Not terribly hopeful or enthusiastic with his inner circle picks, but he is in a unique position to stir up some outmoded status quos, much like  Obama's opening a dialogue with Cuba.  I have little hope that he's gonna do the right thing, or even if he knows what the thing is, but maybe?

Finally, my favorite band, the beloved Yo La Tengo, were in Taipei this week.  Am not going to go in depth on the show here as I have been meaning to write a long love letter to them and will do so soon, but must comment on the crowd here.   I also went to Seoul to see them a couple of days previously and it was a great show (natch) and the fans were good, but the Taiwanese were awesome.  Yo La Tengo's current tour has them typically playing two sets: one acoustic and one electric.  The Taipei crowd was virtually silent in the exceptionally quiet first set.  I had some gas that I wanted to pass at one point but held it back in fear that the whole place would have heard it.  OK, I didn't hold it back as an expert in flatulence like myself can let them go silently much like the Red October, but you get the point.  During the loud set, they roared at all the right spots and even sang the back up 'bop bop bops" in just the right spot during the encore.  As rabid, polite and knowledgeable crowd of any band I've ever had the pleasure to commune with.  Good on YOU Taiwan.