Hey Doc

Phone rang
man: "are you XXX?"
me: "yes"
man: "this is the police department criminal investigation, section 165"
man: "we are investigating a case involving your home phone number"
man: "apparently the criminal had hijacked your phone number and used in a fraud scheme"
me: "ok"
man: "can you appear to the court in Kaohsung today?"
me: "not really" (Kaohsung city is about 4 hours drive from Taipei, and it was around 2:00PM)
man: "are you sure? this is last day of this court, we need your presence"
me: "sorry, I will go if I have been notified earlier"
man: "we have notified you on the phone twice already"
me: "sorry, I didn't get it. No messages left on the answering machine"
man: "ok, I can take your statement over the phone, can I record the conversation?"
me: "o...o..k..k.." (thinking)
man: "state your name"
me: "XXX"
man: "date of birth"
me: "...." (ding! red light came on in my head, I can't give this guy whom I have no ideas who he is any personal information)
me: "sorry, I can't give you anymore info over the phone, how would I know this is not the fraudulent calls we get so often?"
man: "are you insulting the police department?"
me: "no, but if you still want my statement, I can go to the court tomorrow"
man: "ok, no need to come, just wait for the summon in the mail"...(hung up)

I get all kinds of fraudulent calls at least once a week. Some tries to swindle for money, but this was the first. I even got a call from my "son" telling me that he was in a trouble, needed money to pay the bail. I told him to go to hell.

Near the southern edge of the city of Taipei, frequently visited by wedding photographers and their clients, is a small Baroque style building that used to be the pump house of the city. Now it has converted to a museum featuring the history of city's water supply. I saw 5 groups of bride and groom were taking wedding pictures on the day I visited.


(pump room)

(terimayo japadog, my version)
I frequent visit many food blogs. I came across this blog about japadog recently. Looks like its just a hot dog stand in downtown Vancouver, BC. Obviously it has been getting a lot of attentions from TV shows and celebrities. Simply taking a normal hot dog and turned into a innovative food. I wish I had known this a year ago when I was visiting there. Now I can only try to create this interesting food from the photos. There are three versions of this dog. Terimayo is the one I am making because I was able to find the major ingredient, the wasabi mayo. Somehow I can't find hot dog buns in Taipei so I settled with a slice wheat bread.

(Japanese wasabi mayo)
First, fry up thin sliced onion in teriyaki sauce. Put a layer of it in the middle of the bread. Second, cook the hot dog and place the hot dog on top of the onion. Give a generous squirt of the wasabi mayo over the dog. Sprinkle some shredded nori over and you are done. I am not sure how close this taste compare to the original japadog but it does change the taste of the dog to a new level.

Last typhoon Jangmi brought over 1000mm of rain for most part of the island. Also, brought cooler temperatures for the days indicating the Summer has finally passed.