Hey there,
Last weekend saw the end of our high school baseball season. We went on a weekend trip to Hualien, about 4 hours southeast of Taipei, leaving Friday morning and coming home Sunday evening. Fortunately, our rides there and back were uneventful...last year, we went on the day of an awful train wreck and the 4 hour drive took 10 hours. We played 4 games and won one, but the teams we played were good and we held tough for the most part.
We had a couple parents taking photos and they sent a link to them...there are literally thousands. I took two. One is from the breakfast buffet at the hotel. They were serving salad, but the card describing it made it more than just that.
I am dying to know how the translation app came up with that and what comprehensive means in Mandarin. Of course this prompted thoughts of comprehensive synonyms like Infinite Ice Cream, All-Inclusive Asparagus, Far-reaching Fava Beans and Extensive Eggs.
The other photo I took was a selfie. After our Friday game, the boys washed their baseball pants at a laundromat across the street from the hotel. In the group chat late that night, the leader of the group sent a note as he was pissed that someone included their underwear in the communal bag and demanded to know who it belonged to.
The sterile glove was a nice touch. No one claimed them so they hung them up in the middle of our bus where they stayed all weekend. As we got on the bus to return to Taipei, told the boys that I rarely took a selfie, but was going to take one with the underpants if they wanted to get in on it. They did.
Love that picture. It was a fun trip. Betty came along and is invested in this group now too. It is quite pretty there and our fields were right up against the mountains.
And for posterity, here is the baseball brain trust. We're #1.
Betty and I will be pulling through Hualien next week as we are headed south for Spring break to our favorite little spot in Dulan. You may recall that last year in that area they were battling an invasion of iguanas with hefty bounties placed on the leftover dinosaurs. This year, there has been "an invasion of cane toads". That article talks about how they can be lethal to dogs that eat them and how Australians brought 102 toads to Australia in the 1930's to combat some insect, but now they number between 200 million to a billion. Aussies are adorable, but not too smart as evidenced not only by their decision to bring in the toads in the first place, but that they can't count for shit. From what I gather, the Taiwan Amphibian Conservation Society doesn't kill the little buggers as they are considered "fortuitous" in local culture. Tell that to Fido when he gets poisoned by one. You know what kind of shoes a frog wears? Open Toad sandals.
Have been looking forward to this trip for a while cause we haven't been anywhere lately and love this little corner of the world, but am getting a bit nervous as Covid cases are on the rise. Nothing that the States would consider significant, but massive for here and they have freaked out about it before. Last few days, it went from the twenties, to the eighties with today being 160. They are pretty well vaccinated and saw something about the identified cases showing mild symptoms, but if they start shutting stuff down, like school, I'm outta here. They're a pretty pragmatic bunch and would think that they have to let it wash over the country based on what the rest of the planet is seeing, but if the death rate goes up...
In some lighter news, have a few articles saved up to share. First...Cockfighting and gambling operation in southern Taiwan busted. Probably could have shortened the headline by taking out "and gambling" cause I assume that if you are going to a cockfight that you are gambling on it as you'd have to be a sick fuck just to go and watch the sport for the beauty of it. I recently read that some cockfight in Mexico got shot up by a drug cartel and one of the victims was an American schoolteacher from Wisconsin. Cool. I kind of gave up gambling years ago cause I suck at it, but if we can get in on some action next week, might have to try my luck. The fine for getting caught at a cockfight is NT$9,000 (US$300), so totally worth the risk.
Next up...Taiwanese food. I am finally getting traction on my contention that the cuisine here sucks. On our baseball trip last week, the parents arranged a dinner at a local establishment that is "legendary". We had 5-6 big tables and at all but one, they brought out the stuff that isn't objectionable for non-local tastes. Pot stickers, pineapple shrimp, etc., but at one table they served up all the nasty tasteless animal parts. Betty sat with them and I felt a bit insulted that I was not invited to their table, but after looking at their boiled wet pork fat, was happy with the insult. And a few of the folks at the "local" table made their way over to ours to eat some of the dumbed down food. Which leads me to Pizza Hut's new specialty pizza consisting of cilantro, intestines and pig's blood. At Pizza Hut!. And as part of the Yum! Corporation, they don't offer Taco Bell here? They call it the Wu Geng Chang Wang and copy a piece of the article below.
Wu Geng Chang Wang (五更腸旺) is a dish thought by many to be of Sichuan origin but was actually invented in Taiwan, either by a chef of former dictator Chiang Ching-kuo (將經國) or in a military dependents' village. The name of the dish is interpreted either as a reference to the time it was cooked (3 to 5 a.m.) or to its five plant ingredients — garlic shoots/green onion, suan cai, chili pepper, garlic, and ginger.
In this case, the Wu Geng includes pig's intestines, pig's blood cake, pig's blood, cilantro, garlic shoots, and chili pepper topped with mozzarella cheese. The pizza also features a special "Wu Geng sauce.
They put mozzerealla on top of that? Jeez. Way to get your story straight too...either the President's chef or military dependents, and the time it was cooked or ingredients. Taiwan history really isn't that old and this is less than 40 years ago so how is there so much confusion? And the mind swirls thinking about what is in the 'Wu Geng' sauce. I'm sure it is fish based, but wonder who puts the Wu in the Wu Geng sauce?
Last and relatedly, photos show pig organs spilled across bridge in Taiwan. You gotta click on that to see the carnage. It says the driver didn't properly close his back door and that the parts were to be made into feed, but who doesn't suspect that some of them were earmarked for Pizza Hut?
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