Hey Doc

Mid Autumn Festival is the formal name of a Chinese holiday to celebrate the abundance of the summer's harvest. It falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar when the moon is at its fullest and brightest so it is also known as Mooncake Festival because of the moon cake is the symbolic food of the celebration. For two years in a row I am visiting in US during this holiday. I don't see the kind of celebration like in Taiwan where people gather with their family and friends admiring the moon and having BBQ, moon cake and pomelos at an open field.

Cha Chaan Teng (茶餐廳) is the Cantonese name for Hong Kong style tea restaurant. Ever since I came back from my last trip to Hong Kong. I started to noticed that there are many same type of restaurants in the city, especially here in the East District. I saw four all within one city block. I am curious to see how they measure up with each others. I started going there, ordering the same thing and compare.



One dish represents a typical Hong Kong cafe food is the Dry Fried Beef Ho Fun. You can use this dish to measure the skill level of it's chef.
1. Each strip of Ho Fun must be separated. It can not be lumped or stuck together.
2. The edge of each strip of Ho Fun should be browned but not burned.
3. Sliced beef must be tender. Most of the time, the meat tenderizer is used.
4. It should be covered with flavor of seasoning but can not have sauce present in the plate
5. Last, the color. The photo here is a little too light in color



The vegetable dish is also very typical, Oyster Sauce Green.



A good drink to cap off a good meal is nothing better than the Sz Wa Nai Cha - Silk Stocking Milk Tea.

I start to see a consistent pattern of the clouds. Every time before and after a typhoon, the cloud in the sky will put on a show like you have never seen before. I took this shot with my Fuji IS-1 IR camera, stitched using Panorama Maker Pro 4.0 then converted to black & white in Photoshop.

I did not know there was a such day to celebrate in Taiwan. It was the 6th anniversary of the Car Free Day. It was about educating the citizens to use public transportation in terms of reducing the emission from cars. It was also intended to bring up the awareness of protecting our environment and green living. The celebration meant well but the execution was not well thought out. The city simply blocked off a section of one of the busiest streets in the East Section of the city. It redirected all the traffic to other adjacent streets which caused huge traffic jam. They should have blocked the private cars from entering the city and let the buses continue their service so people can experience what its like to use the public transportation.



For the people of the city, this 2 blocks of now empty street has turned into a street carnival. People were riding bicycles, roller skates, even taking pictures of laying down on the traffic lane. Doing all kinds of things you normally can't do while its full of cars. For more photos, go here

The scorching summer heat seems to be a history. The day time temperature in the city has dropped to around 30 degrees C. With a little cool breeze on the face, it was not a bad day to go outside for a change. Besides, I am tired of the boring work out routine at the gym. I have been wanting to go for a hike at the countryside south of Taipei. The hills around here average two to three hundred meters in height. Nothing is really difficult but its very steep that trails are mostly stairs. All the trails are well maintained by the city, during my hike, I see people with blower clearing the leaves off the paved path. Some trails even has lights for evening hike.
One nice thing about the trails here is that they are covered with thick trees. Provides plenty of shades on a hot sunny day. The stairs are killer for my aging knees. I have to take it slow and easy. Maybe that is why I see people wearing knee brace.



I chose going to the Tiger Mountain for a 3 Km hike. It took me about 2 hours from start to finish. The trail was almost empty today. I only met few hikers coming back down as I start. Normally the trails are packed on weekends. Besides, I had a late start. Usually people starts very early in the morning. Here is their Chinese web site . Another link for their English version.

Beef shank and boneless beef rib are the two most used meat for the beef noodle soup. They are the best meat for soup because the longer you cook it the better it tastes. Besides the meat, I also like to add diced celery, onion and carrots in the broth for flavoring.

1 lb. of meat of your choice, cook it in whole
1 cup of diced celery
½ cup of diced onion
½ cup of diced carrots. Cut the portion in half if you don’t like it too sweet.

The broth: Put all the ingredients in a soup pot, simmer for 2 hours. Once its done, remove the meat and let it cool. Refrigerate it before slice it. Pour the broth through a strainer, discard the vegetable. Let the broth cool completely then put it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Remove the solidified fat on the surface, now you have a tasty and nutritious beef broth.
Cooking:
Cook the noodle of your choice to al dente. I prefer simple wheat noodle for this dish. Reheat the beef broth while the noodle is cooking. It happens that I have a bag of frozen soy beans in the frig so I added it to the broth. Finally some sliced green onion is added.
Presentation:
Place the cooked noodle in a serving bowl, place the sliced beef on top, pour the hot broth over the whole thing.

Tip1: What do you do with the extra vegetable?
Almost everything we buy in the super market comes in pre-packaged and very seldom we use all of them in our recipes. What do you do with the extra? In this case, the vegetable is used for flavoring the broth so it does not matter if it is fresh and crispy. I will dice it, then put them in Ziploc bags according to the portions and freeze it for the next time.

Tip2: What about green onion?
I will wash the dirt off the green onion, let it dry on the rack. Cut it 5-6 inches in length. Wrap the green onion with an A4 size printer paper. Secure with a rubber band. Store it in the freezer. There is no need to defrost it before use.

My company was gracious enough to allow me a three months LOA for personal reasons. To celebrate the beginning of the three month "freedom", I decided to take a trip to Hong Kong. I have visited the city 2 years ago so I am confident that I know my way around the city without any troubles this time. Hong Kong has a very convenient subway and the ground transportation system that provide easy access to almost everywhere in the area. For tourists, there is a 3-day pass that gives you unlimited ride on their subway system. If you want, you can also add one or two trips to the airport. Since I will be there for 3 days, this was the best deal for transportation arrangement.



One of the suggestions for the "must do" was the afternoon tea at The Peninsula.
Even thought we were there a little after the start time, there was a line at The Lobby restaurant already. We had no idea how long the wait will be thinking that this is a "relaxed" dining experience. The wait was shorted then I expected so to give the people behind us the same courtesy, we left right after we were finished. The afternoon tea features a set menu. Your only choice was to have tea or coffee. We both chose tea for the beverage. The dessert tray was well stocked with tasty finger sandwiches and treats.



Combine with this tea sets that the movie Titanic came into my vision. Every time I had the chance to go to LA, I will made an effort to stop to see the ship Queen Mary at Long Beach Harbor, just to marvel her elegant Art Deco design and surround myself in the grand feeling of that ship. Sadly that the ship has turned into a tourist attraction. I guess its better to preserve it in anyways you can than ended up as a pile of scrap metal.

Tan-kau aka charbroiled is a popular method of cooking in Taiwan. You see that mostly in restaurants or out picnicking because where most of us live don't have the convenience of lighting a fire to cook at home. The price varies a lot to have a Tan-kau meal in the restaurant. Depends of what kind of meats offered or if its all-you-can-eat type. Younger people with big appetite often choose the AYCE thinking that they can eat for all their money's worth. I personally don't like going to AYCE places because I always ended up eating more then I should. The only thing I found its acceptable is that I can try out many different stuff.



Tan-kau is not just an eating frenzy, its also a social gathering. You and friends surrounding the small fire stove drinking and cooking the food together. There is a lot of interaction than eating from your individually served plates. You and your friends even have time to chat while the meat is cooking on the fire. Slow cook is the secret.



In addition to Tan-kau, optional Hotpot is also featured at the same table. It cooks by boiling the food in broth, often used to cook the vegetables or none meat items. This way, keeps the moisture in the food nicely.
The restaurants who serve good deserts is also a big draw. One of the popular deserts is the Häagen-Dazs ice cream. A single scoop in Taipei will cost you nt$120, that is close to $4 a scoop. If you can eat 5 scoops, that will pay for the whole cost of your meal. For me, I can eat a pint in a heart beat. I have the waist to prove it ;)