Hey Doc

Before the electronic age, the bus driver or the ticket taker will call out the name of the next stop to warn the passengers. The advance of the GPS technology which can pinpoint your present location on earth plays a major row for this automated ticker-tape display of bus stops announcer now installed on most the buses in Taipei. BTW, the message you see in the picture is "Do not eat or drink on the bus". The on board GPS system sends the location of the bus to a central computer system. The computer system then tells the bus which stop the bus is approaching and which is the next stop. With all this information on hand, it is very easy to organize it and put it on a website. Here is a diagram of this system. To see the example of the system in real time, click on the blue button "Real-time bus information" on the top of the page. Pick a route and click on the button. I found not all routes are active, route 285 seems to be working. You will see few flashing green and blue bus icon along the route map. That shows where each buses are. Green indicates in-bound and blue is out-bound.

Pretty cool if all works thou.

Taipei Fine Arts Museum Spring/Summer class sessions started last week. The offering of The Art of Photography caught my attention. From reading the class description, it did not seems to be a class of teaching how to use a camera. It is designed so that each student can discover their creativity in photography through the open discussion and working on some interesting projects and assignments. The class meets on Tuesday morning from 10:00 AM to 12:00 AM for 16 weeks. I am not sure what to expect after finishing the class but at least I will meet a few new friends with common interests.

One of the many Asian delicacies is the stinky tofu. It is served as a snack at road side food stand or at the night market. It is rare to see them on the main dinning table. What makes it special is the smell, it has been described as rotten garbage. Even though the smell is pungent but the taste is rather mild like blue cheese. Its a hate or love type of food. The tofu is soaked in the brine of fermented vegetables and shrimp for weeks to produce. You can only buy them at specialty food store if you want to prepare at home. Be sure to ask double or even triple bag it because if it ever leaked while you are on the bus, you will get kicked off right away. Maybe even inform your neighbor before you cook them.



Stinky tofu can be prepared many ways but commonly it is cooked by deep frying or in mala (hot and peppery) broth (see picture above). The way I like it is steamed topped with chopped dried shrimp and preserved cabbage for the flavoring. Drizzle a little hot oil on top before serving to kick up a notch (borrowed from Emeril).

It has been raining for the past 2 straight weeks. Chinese new year is in two days. As much as I don't like to go out in the rain but I need to buy a few things for the occasion, specialty foods you don't get normally. It was close to noon when I got everything I needed. Since I am very close to the Yung Kang street, A street best known for its diversity of restaurants, why not go grab an eat there. As I getting closer to the main street, I have noticed this unobtrusive little restaurant. The "Ham burger", its the one mentioned in another food blog I read recently. It got me interested instantly because of the positive review given by the author. Besides I have not had a hamburger for a long time, even for the McDonald's.
I placed the order at the counter, the beer was delivered as I sit down at the table. Corona was the only beer they have left. Few more people came in as I waited for my order, two of them were foreigners. Food seems more authentic when the patrons are the same as the ethnicity of the restaurant. The food came not long after the waiter finished taking orders from those people. I was a little surprised by how small the portion was. You can compare the size by the beer bottle next to it in the picture. Small but it has all the fixings except the lettuce.
The taste, it was wonderful. The meat was fully cooked yet it was still juicy. The cheese and sauce mixed with cooked onion bits was very good. I wish the bun was toasted but it tasted fresh enough. They also serve chicken and fish burger. I will try that next time I am there.

Thumbs up.