A tribute to Singapore Kopi

I was lamenting to my colleagues about the lack of really cheap coffee here in Taipei so naturally they asked how much is the coffee in Singapore... and naturally, I told them a cup of hot coffee in the coffee shop costs SGD 0.80, which is roughly about 17 NTD...

Now that's considered very cheap, considering that the cheapest made-on-the-spot coffee you can get here is from 7-11 or convenience stalls and costs NTD 30 (that's for a Latte) Packaged or canned coffee costs about NTD 25 here, so Singapore still beats that...

From there, our conversation continued into how the coffee in Singapore is made, how to order coffee etc... which made me realise how unique our eating and coffee culture is in Singapore...
this post is dedicated to Singapore Kopi! :)

Making Kopi
Here, you have the typical 'equipment' for making coffee...

The boiling water, which goes into the pouring can. On the rim of the can, you can see something that looks like a filter... That is the coffee sock holding the coffee powder. The hot water is poured through the powder.

Here's a close up view of the sock... Here, you can also see the condensed milk and sugar used in Kopi (more explanations on the names in a moment)
Coffee from pouring can then goes into the cup. (p.s. the guy in this photo is showing off his skills.. they don't usually pour from such a height). Depending on the person preparing, the milk and sugar are poured into the cup before or after the coffee goes in.
After adding a final bit of hot water, your steaming cut of Kopi is ready for SGD 0.80!

Ordering your Kopi
Now you know how it's made, you need to know how to order it like a true Singaporean... It's an art similar to how some Americans order their Starbucks (Half-caff half-fat soy latte grande with rose scented syrup and vegan dark-chocolate biscotti)... so here's how it works:



All the above apply to orders for Tea (or in Hokkien, Teh)
Warning though... not all drink stalls may understand this, as far as my experience goes, it works best with Singapore chinese because of all the Hokkien involved... but it really depends, we have ordered Kopi-O gao Kosong at an Indian stall before and it came out just fine...

Prices vary for Kopi, Kopi-O, Kopi-O Kosong and Peng... I don't think they change for Gao and Siew Dai...

and speaking of prices, it also depends on where you have your Kopi...
So here's a quick guide to the types of eating places in Singapore (and where you can find Kopi... If you want to order Kopi in a Chinese Restaurant, do it at your own risk of embarassing yourself)

Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall at night

I happened to pass through the memorial hall on Thursday night and took a few shots...

Imagine living in a place where...

you stay in a rustic house like this...

this is the view that greets you from your kitchen window...

this is part of the view just outside your home...

This is the kind of night view you can experience within a 10 mins walk from your home...

No I do not stay in such a place, but my colleague does :) She was nice enough to invite me over to her home on Yang Ming Shan on Saturday (4th April), which is the Tomb Sweeping weekend in the Chinese calendar... the visit to her home was followed by a hike around the area on the mountain...

check out the photos here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=239672&id=576355703&l=6298d651a3

on a very random note, I just HAVE to post this photo... I find it sooo funny :)

Linking Park live in Taipei on Yang Ming Shan! :)
ok ok... so it's just a spring exhibition thingy in the park :)

Way overdue updates...

So yes... I have been lazy and have not blogged anything in more than a week... my bad... many apologies to all you ardent readers out there for the absence (this is me assuming that there are ardent readers in the 1st place... ahhh self-disillusionment)

anyway... I suppose I shall update briefly about the weekend of 28 and 29 March, aka last weekend of March aka my 2 month anniversary in Taipei... how time flies!

If I could choose one word to describe that weekend, it probably will be "Weird"... here's what happened...

Saturday
I was going to visit Cheng Chi University and do a bit of hiking with Jhenyu (LCP of CCLC) in the hills in that area.. the hike will supposedly bring us to 貓空 (mao kong) area where we will be just about in time for dinner and some post dinner hot tea up in the hills... I was supposed to reach the university at 4.30pm, so I dutifully traveled to the right MRT station, found the bus stop and boarded the right bus number... Just when I was wondering why the journey was taking so long (Jhenyu definitely mentioned that the university is quite near the MRT station) when our bus exited the tunnel and horror of horrors, I saw Taipei 101... which meant I was headed in the opposite direction and was back in the city area!!

Lesson 1: always check the bus boards for the bus routes, and if I can't seem to understand the routes (which I occasionally still cannot manage), ASK THE DRIVER!

so I had a brief tour of the 101 area on a busy Saturday afternoon... only consolation was seeing the Merlion appear in Taipei:

Yes the Merlion was featured on the poser for some Taipei Travel Fair :)
After that round trip by bus, I finally reached the university at 5.40pm... and since the sun was starting to go down, Jhenyu and I mainly walked around one of the smaller slopes on campus... better than nothing I suppose... :) after that we took a bus up to 貓空 and headed for one of the tea shops along the slopes...


Dinner was good as usual... featuring my goose meat mini hot pot meal, and our chinese tea set... thank god for Jhenyu.. despite many tea joys in Singapore, I have yet to master the art of making chinese tea...

Sunday
so I had a good dinner on Saturday, good conversations with Jhenyu and good tea... unfortunately, thanks to the tea, I could not sleep on Saturday night!!! I think I managed to drift off fitfully for a while, though not enough to call a proper rest...

Lesson 2: don't drink too much chinese tea after 9.45pm

In any case, I was up early on Sunday to visit the Martry's Shrine.. it was 329 (29 March),　Taiwan's Youth Day which commemorates the revolutionary Tenth Uprising in 1911 and there was a marching ceremony at the Shrine...
unfortunately, we arrived too late, only to find that the marching ceremony was already over... and that due to some commemoration ceremony that day, the shrine was closed to visitors that morning...

Lesson 3: when it comes to schedules, check and check again :)

so yes.. it was quite a strange weekend in that sense.. but nonetheless, I did visit some places that I have never been to before, plus I always appreciate the great conversations I can have with the people I hang out with...

more photos from that weekend (and some from the weekdays before that) can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=239661&id=576355703&l=0a32b48fa2
p.s. also features some photos on "mini elections" hype in Taipei

How many people have you Validated today?

Sunday in Ban Qiao 板橋 - 15 Mar 09

After a very eventful Saturday, I headed out again on Sunday, this time to Ban Qiao 板橋 in Taipei county... many thanks to Justian and Yue Guang from YZLC for being my tour guides that day :)

Ban Qiao is the largest and most developed area in Taipei county, and is also where the County government is located... interestingly, the building is open to the public so we headed to the top floor (oops I don't remember which floor it is) to check out the view...

it's clearly quite a tall building for us to have such a superb, unobstructed view of the surroundingsfrom this next photo, I am sure you can roughly guess the ratio of scooters to cars in Taipei :)

After that, we headed for lunch and on the way we came across THIS!!
a store selling Singapore fried noodles, rice and Bak Kut Teh!! haha... we didn't eat there though, which was probably a good choice cos I did enjoy our lunch: hungarian beef noodles :)

Our post-lunch itinerary involved total immersion into chinese culture so we headed on to the Lin Family Mansion and Garden (林家花園) - chinese names always sound funny when translated to English, don't you think?... you can read more about the history of the place at http://www.tonyhuang39.com/tony0500/tony0500.html.. there are loads of photos there and in my Facebook album (link will be at the end of this post) so at this point, I shall just feature these 2 shots from the garden:


This guy was just one of the many people painting in the area.. do you see the resemblance between his painting and the real thing?

the environment there was really great and we ended up spending almost 2 hours there, simply because it was so relaxing and conducive for conversations... (p.s. from now till 31st May, entrance to the garden is free as long as you produce a receipt from any other shop in Taiwan)

So if you happen to drop by Ban Qiao, remember to visit the garden, and while you're there, ask for directions to a store selling cuttlefish soup... if you get to the market area, it's hard to miss because there's always a looooong queue... but well, if there's cheap and good food, the queue will be worth it :)

Carrot cake (HUGE!) for only NTD 15 and cuttlefish soup (overflowing with cuttlefish!) for only NTD 35!!!

So yes these were definitely the highlights of my trip to Ban Qiao 板橋 :)

For more photos, check http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=231685&id=576355703&l=b45c83980a

p.s. finally I have cleared my backlog of updates
p.p.s. I just realised that most of my trip updates feature food :)

Danshui Trip - 14 Mar 09

14 March 2009 was White Valentine's Day (mostly celebrated in Japan and Korea as far as I know) and I spent it with a big crowd of AIESECers at Dan Shui...
Dan Shui (淡水) is located north of Taipei and literally translated, means "fresh water"... it's famous for the Dan Shui river, which flows into the Taiwan Strait so naturally, one would expect lots of water, and boats like below :)

The trip was planned by some of the members and we started off with a "store treasure hunt". We were split into groups and each group was given 6 photos taken from stores in Dan Shui... so we had about 1.5 hours to explore the areas and locate the stores... it was quite fun and fulfilling, especially since we also took the chance to explore the food in the area...

This is my ah-gei 阿給, it's glass noodles packed inside tofu with some kind of sauce... isn't it creative? why have boring noodles outside of tofu when it can be inside?

This is me with my stick of potato chips... again, Taiwanese creativity with food... why bother having chips separate from each other and packed in a bag when you can "curve-slice" the potato, skewer it and roast it over fire? (I don't think there's such a word as "curve-slice" officially but it's the only word I can think of, considering the slices are cut such that they are linked together... like skinning an apple in a single slice)

Other tasty food I encountered: Dan Shui fish balls (with meat fillings!) and Iron eggs or 鐵蛋 (eggs which have been repeatedly stewed in a mix of spices and air dried)... that means I've pretty much eaten all the supposed famous food from Dan Shui... hooray for treasure hunts!!

so with a very full stomach, and an incomplete treasure hunt paper (we only managed to find 4 of the 6 stores), we gathered again with the other groups and headed out for part 2 of our Dan Shui adventure...

After a brief (but very windy and cold) boat ride across the river, we reached Ba Li (八里) island... yes there's a Bali in Taiwan too!! :)

It's a small township, and mostly visited by people looking to enjoy some nature and cycling... Here I am with Maxx, an intern from Thailand/New Zealand (he's Thai but has studied in NZ since he was 13) who is working in Kaohsiong but comes to Taipei some weekends just to sightsee and hang out with AIESECers here.

Ba Li is quite nice for cycling, since there are specially constructed tracks for cyclists and you get some really nice views along the way

for example, rows and rows of mangrove trees beside us (that wooden path is for pedestrians)
and a blend again between the city, factories, nature and open space...

So all in all, it was another great day spent with lots of cool people exploring another cool place in Taipei... and just to round it off, here's part of what I had for dinner :)

Mussels, prawn balls, Miso soup, sauteed squid, vegetables and (missing from the photo) diced chicken!!!

for the rest of the photos, check out http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=231682&id=576355703&l=2087f7cab4

Speak Out for RED!

I was extremely touched and proud to come across the “Speak Out For Red!" multimedia competition organized by AIESEC Singapore. What a creative yet impactful way to reach out to the masses and engage them in the fight to raise awareness and dispel discrimination against those with HIV/AIDS. For more information, please visit www.speakoutforred.com

Please support the cause for HIV/AIDS!!

Intellectual and Classical Friday (13th!)

time really flies... another week has just gone by! and all this while I was lazy to update about last week.... my backlog is getting worse... anyway, here's some updates about last Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Friday
My colleages and I went to the Grand Hotel in Taipei to attend a seminar “金融海嘯下，企業經營生存之道研討會” (How enterprises can survive in this financial crisis)... the hotel was quite fancy.. very old-ish kind of flavour (see here) and the seminar was mildly interesting... my boss was one of the panelists sharing his advice and another speaker, Professor Seeto also left quite an impression for the way he was talking about the need for education system to be closer to the industry, so that the people who graduate have the skills and knowledge for the kinds of roles they will play in the industry work force... definitely got me thinking (and I will probably share more about that later on)


After the seminar, I had a quick dinner with one of my colleagues, Quentin at Shilin Night Market, where he introduced me to 水煎包, pork rib herbal soup and smelly tofu... it was really a nice dinner :)
After dinner, I headed to the National Concert Hall at Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall for a symphony orchestra concert titled White Day Concert (next day was White Valentine's Day you see... 白色情人節） Ereca, another colleague had given some of us free tickets so I was at the concert with Prior and his wife, Phoebe, Sandy and Sandy's friend (whom I didn't get to meet cos their seats were further away)... anyway, the music was really good... I felt so cultured and classical after that :)

and that was Friday... very eventful, wasn't it? I think for ease of reading, I shall put Saturday and Sunday into separate posts... :)

Funny but true?

This is so funny... but it's kind of sad that such people exist (I strongly believe in their existence)


On a separate note, lots happened since last Friday.. updates on Fri, Sat and Sun coming soon...

Adventures on Motorbikes in 宜蘭

Some very nice photos from the 宜蘭 trip, featuring a bunch of very yellow people just before heading home on our scooters :)

The following two photos speak for themselves (yes that is me on the left)

Weekend in 宜蘭

I had such a great time in 宜蘭 over the weekend of 7th to 8th Mar 09! The team of LC VP ICX were having their monthly Functional Meeting with the MC VP ICX there and I was lucky to be invited along :)

宜蘭 is south-east of Taipei county, so part of it lies on the east coast of the entire Taiwan island. We took a coach down and if traffic is smooth (like when we traveled there), the ride only takes about 1 hour and 10 mins so it's really quite accessible...

When I spoke with my colleagues, the most common things they would say about 宜蘭 is that you can eat cheap and fresh seafood there, there is a traditional arts museum to visit, there's the 羅東 (luo dong) night market, and there's the really cool beach where people go surfing in summer...

So naturally, I expected a lot of beaches and all... but I definitely did not expect this:
Mountains with clouds rolling along in the distance, rice fields and ponds just beside the road, huge expanse of nature... it was such a refreshing sight...

and then, there was the view when we reached the sea and port area:

These 2 shots were taken from a cliff overlooking the bay... the cliff was about 6 storeys high from the water levelSome of us couldn't resist being adventurous and climbing down to the water itself...That was one great highlight of the trip: being so close to nature, and being able to "exercise" even if it was just a bit through the cliff climbing...

Other highlights include:
A trip to the National Center for Traditional Arts, a very cool place where we also saw how the center is bringing traditional art designs and forms into modern day items such as plates, fashion, accessories and even collectible toys...
A LOT of cheap and super good foodA lot of riding on scooters, whether it was rain or shine :)
And to wrap it all up, a lot of great conversations with a great bunch of AIESECers :)

All my photos (including details of seafood restaurant and homestay hostel) available at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=227841&id=576355703&l=7018c

Part 2 album at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=229895&id=576355703&l=f498aa3b5c

Any floorball in Taiwan?

I've been sharing with some people that I used to do sports once a week and the usual question they ask is "what sport do you play?" Unfortunately, when I answer "Floorball", I mostly receive blank looks.

So here is a post dedicated to floorball, one of the BEST sports to play ever :)

Floorball (福樂球）is easiest to imagine as indoor hockey. It is mostly popular in the Scandinavia countries, and is especially popular in Finland, where a Finnish friend tells me it's almost like a national sport.. in Asia, it is probably only more well-known in Singapore and Japan.

It is played indoor between two teams, each comprising 6 players which includes 1 goalkeeper. Here, you see a photo of the game in action, taken during one of our weekly sessions in Singapore. Our court is smaller than the usual one so we usually play 4 or 5 per side.

The game involves lots of running and controlling of the ball with the stick. It also involves team work to defend and attack. Both guys AND girls can play, and I can tell you that in some of our sessions, the girls seem almost as good or even better as some of the guys :)

The ball and sticks are made of plastic, which means that they are very much lighter than the sticks and ball in field hockey.

Because the stick is plastic and light, if you use the right techniques and right amount of force, you can make the ball move extremely fast. And of course, since the ball is light, it does move very fast, which makes the whole game all the more exciting!

It's a great game to be played with a bunch of friends, great form of exercise, and extremely easy to pick up! It's also very addictive, as can be seen from the increasing number of "regular" players at the weekly sessions in Singapore

So if anyone comes across floorball anywhere in Taiwan, maybe as a school club or a small self-playing group, let me know!! :)

More on floorball: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floorball

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