Sunday, October 5, 2008

Kampai!

 
Amber in the child carrier, ready for a ride on my back this morning in the hills above Chung-cheng Park in Fengyuan 豊原.

There are three English-language daily newspapers in Taiwan (China Post, Taipei Times and Taiwan News), and I like to take turns reading all of them, in order to get a better idea of what is going on both in Taiwan and the greater world. The Taiwan News, however, is getting harder to find in Fengyuan. The one 7-Eleven near my apartment that had been carrying the paper stopped selling it last week, and now I have to go across town to another 7-Eleven, across from the city hospital, to buy a copy.

Of the three dailies, the Taiwan News is the leanest in terms of content (due to its decision to go to a tabloid format), though it does run good in-depth articles from time to time. It's also a pro-Green publication, providing a welcome contrast to the pro-Blue (read "wacko") leanings of the China Post, and the editorials are generally excellent. Two other points in its favor are the daily crossword puzzle (the most challenging of the three) and the fact it carries "Doonesbury". On the other hand, the paper has a habit of printing glorified adverts in the guise of news stories, without identifying the articles as being "publicity". But once in a while, one of these pseudo-stories (the newspaper world's version of infomercials) turns out to be mildly interesting, like this one which caught my eye this morning:

"Autumn is a time to sip and savor Japanese sake 日本酒. The experience is even better if you are able to drink sake with gourmet delicacies, specially made to accompany the Japanese wine. From Oct. 1 to Oct. 31, the Hotel Royal Taipei, Hotel Royal Hsinchu, Hotel Royal Chiao Hsi, and Hotel Royal Chipen are jointly running a gourmet banquet and accommodation discount to invite everyone to come and enjoy the large array of sakes available at the four grand hotels."

The Royal Hotels are part of the Nikko Hotel International chain, a part of the larger JAL Hotels JALホテルズ group. The story describes how diners can enjoy a seven-course meal of Japanese-style dishes (though the only one actually mentioned in the article is "roasted duck breast with a blueberry sauce", hardly 日本料理!) with seven chilled sakes. It sounds like it would make for a fine dining experience, something I haven't had in quite a long time. However, although no prices for the meal were mentioned in the story, I'm pretty sure such a night out would stretch the budget of a humble English teacher and his equally humble salary. So for now, when it comes to Japanese cuisine, I'm just going to have to make do with the mediocre local Japanese eateries, until my next visit to Japan, where even the budget diners outshine the finest establishments of central Taiwan (here's a hint to our local, wannabe Japanese chefs: don't be afraid to use salt, dammit! Though it might come as a surprise to you, Japanese food is actually supposed to have flavor!). And as for the sake, I'm presently enjoying a glass from the NT1200 bottle of Takaisami 鷹勇 that I a bought a few weeks ago at the Tottori 鳥取県 Fair held at Fengyuan's one and only department store.

乾杯!

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