Posted on
May 9th, 2011
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4 Comments
Sarah and I did some casual, Sunday afternoon, stroll-y type shopping at the Cherry Street T&T yesterday. It was my intention to give her a taste (yes, pun included), of my years in Taiwan — at least in terms of product selection. We were missing the traditionally oppressive humidity and funky odours known as “authentic street cuisine”, but with its hordes of English-less products, mystery ingredients (on the labels we could read), and unintentionally hilarious packaging, I feel pretty satisfied with the authenticity of the store. And to top off a fully immersive experience, you should always walk out feeling a little more ignorant than when you came in — mission accomplished! Well, maybe ignorant isn’t the exact word, but I’m sure you get the gist.
Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Pictures
Posted on
May 28th, 2010
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3 Comments
In the past few days anyone stepping off a plane for the first time at Pearson or City Centre Airport probably got a bit of a rude awakening to the real Toronto.
I do my best to try to warn people that, no really, it gets pretty fucking hot here in the summers, but usually I just get an incredulous expression in response. When I compare recent Toronto temperatures (31 Celcius / 88 Fahrenheit) to, say, The Bahamas (30 Celcius / 86 Fahrenheit), they just kind of look at me funny, like maybe I’ve been spending too much time in the igloo or something.
It’s a bit warm for May, granted, but not by much.
“Yeah, but it’s not a humid heat like they get on the islands”, is often the next follow-up. Once again, spoken by someone who hasn’t been to Toronto in the summer. No, it really is. It can get as soupy here as it does in Hong Kong or Jamaica. I mean, did you ever wonder how south Asians, East Indians, West Indians, and people from similar countries could manage to live in Toronto if it’s some dreary northern podunk town? That’s because it’s not so foreign to them. In the winter they’re usually a miserable bunch, but in the summer they’re right at home. Right from the horse’s mouth that.
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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures
Posted on
May 20th, 2010
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12 Comments
Aha! I finally figured out why the smell of frying food conjures up such strong feelings of summer. And it isn’t all funnel cakes either.
The whole synesthetic experience must’ve started when I was still doing my ex-pat thing overseas. It was on the tropical island of Taiwan where winter temperatures hardly dipped below 10 Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), and the summers we non-stop steam baths regularly hitting 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), that I first made the association. After a few years of that, the link between summer heat and fried food musta just burned into my brain, I guess.
The fried food part of the equation is my favourite Taiwanese breakfast, usually eaten in small roadside shops surrounded by greasy steam and greasier customers.
The three most common meals at such establishment are, as I recall, lobogau, diced fried daikon (giant white radish), congee, a cold soup consisting of rice, some kind of shredded meat, and a variety of veggie / nut toppings, and dan bing, which I’ll be discussing here and the only thing that I actually enjoyed in the mornings. (Fried radish — gross!)
The name dan bing comes from the Mandarin words “ji dan” (chicken eggs), and “bing” (platter or plate – or ice if mispronounced). It’s usually accompanied by “nai cha”, literally “milk tea”, but with whitener being used instead of real milk — for a variety of reasons. Incidentally, this is also the secret ingredient in Tea Shop 168’s milk teas, unsurprisingly since this is also a Taiwanese company. (With tapioca in the milk tea — buble milk tea — it’s called “jinju nai cha”.)
Dan bing is super easy to make:
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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures
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