For more than half a century, since it moved from Chengdu, Szechuan Province to Taipei, Chili House has been considered the most authentic place for Szechuan cuisine. It is a favorite of Taipei's gourmets and mainlanders who miss their hometown flavor.
It is also known for its very reasonable prices. Frequent guests include politicians John Chang (
You really can't say that you have been to Chili House if you haven't tried their trademark wontons in red chili oil (
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN, TAIPEI TIMES
In fact, wonton in red oil is such a common snack that it is widely available in night markets. But the way it tastes at Chili House makes the dish stand out and makes Japanese tourists come all the way to taste the NT$55 dish.
Fragrant, spicy and hot are major tastes of Szechuan food. The secret lies in chili, pepper and the unique Szechuan pepper (
For variation, there are wontons in hot and sour oil (
Kung-pao chicken (
Other recommendations include sauteed eggplant with frog in chili sauce (
And so, in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s trip to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), all the experts on the Strait of Hormuz suddenly became experts on US-China-Taiwan relations. The Internet has certainly expanded human knowledge. Lots of these sudden experts made noise this week about Trump’s words after the meeting with PRC dictator Xi Jin-ping (習近平). Trump is going to sell out Taiwan! Longtime Taiwan commentator J. Michael Cole summed the situation up neatly in the Guardian: “We need to keep in mind that he has a tendency to say many things — sometimes contradicting himself within
There is considerable frustration and confusion among many, both in Taiwan and abroad — including in Washington — as to why the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) seems so dead set on using their legislative leverage to slash defense spending and disrupt the ability of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration to function. Are they pawns of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)? Are they traitors? In reality, there are multiple reasons. In the first column in this series on this subject, “Donovan’s Deep Dives: How and why the TPP and KMT help Beijing” (Sat May 16, page 12), we examined three
Last week US President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter whether he would speak on the phone to the President of Taiwan. “l’ll speak to him. I speak to everybody. We have that situation very well in hand,” Trump said. This marked the second time in a couple of weeks he had said he would talk to the President of Taiwan. In 2016 he famously took a call from then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), when he was president-elect. Despite warnings that the apocalypse was nigh because of a phone call, the world quickly forgot about the conversation between two democratically-elected presidents.
It took 12 years and months of standing in the same mountain location for director Liang Chieh-te (梁皆得) to capture a few seconds of footage: Taiwan’s largest resident raptor locking talons with its mate and spinning through the air in a courtship ritual. With only about 1,000 left in the wild and very short flight windows, the mountain hawk-eagle remains among Taiwan’s most elusive birds. The species generally produces only one offspring per year. Using forest cameras, the film crew and research teams document the arduous process the monogamous pairs go through for the chick to hatch and grow up, weathering