Yi Fan Ting is a hip little ramen joint with three branches around town -- on Yongkang Street, Guangfu Road and Qingdao Road -- and at each you should consider yourself lucky if the wait for a table is under 20 minutes. Popularity, of course, isn't necessarily a sign of good food, but in this case, it certainly is.
The menu offers a large range of foods, but the specialization in ramen is clear, in particular the chef's signature spicy ramen. When diners sit down, they're handed a plastic fan and at first I thought this was a cheap excuse for not turning the air-conditioning up a couple of notches. It turns out that the fan comes in handy if you have the gusto take on the spicy ramen, which has cautionary flames next to it on the menu and is served with a deep ochre-tinted layer of searing spicy oil. Those who bravely (or foolishly, it's hard to tell) take on the spicy ramen challenge are identifiable by their frantic fan flapping and sweaty, beet-red faces.
PHOTO: MAX WOODWORTH, TAIPEI TIMES
But I've seen Tampopo enough times to know that superior ramen is achieved through subtlety, which could hardly describe Yi Pan Ting's spicy noodle specialty. So, if heart-stopping spice is not the experience you want for lunch or you forgot to bring a change of shirts, there are tamer offerings. The fatty pork ramen is a good place to start, with its rich broth, delicate slices of pork and a fistful of mushrooms and bamboo shoots, or the zesty
miso-based ramen. This being the dog days of summer, there are two cold noodle dishes, one with hearty soba noodles under heaps of fresh garden vegetables and another that takes its cue from Taiwan's own ground pork dan-zi noodles.
One of the more interesting dishes on offer is the Osaka fried noodles, which is actually mixed with fried rice and topped with a fried egg, making it a hefty and flavorful main course that would be perfect if it weren't a tad overly salty.
Most of the ramens and the fried noodle dishes can be part of a set meal which run between NT$210 and NT$260 and come with either a salad or chunks of fried chicken, self-serve ice cream and either coffee or tea. The set meal should satisfy most appetites, but larger hungers may seek out the fried dumplings, which are also too salty for their own good, or the Mr. Cola fried rice and beef patty. Whatever you choose, it's worth the wait, and makes the J-Pop pretty enjoyable too.
What was the population of Taiwan when the first Negritos arrived? In 500BC? The 1st century? The 18th? These questions are important, because they can contextualize the number of babies born last month, 6,523, to all the people on Taiwan, indigenous and colonial alike. That figure represents a year on year drop of 3,884 babies, prefiguring total births under 90,000 for the year. It also represents the 26th straight month of deaths exceeding births. Why isn’t this a bigger crisis? Because we don’t experience it. Instead, what we experience is a growing and more diverse population. POPULATION What is Taiwan’s actual population?
After Jurassic Park premiered in 1993, people began to ask if scientists could really bring long-lost species back from extinction, just like in the hit movie. The idea has triggered “de-extinction” debates in several countries, including Taiwan, where the focus has been on the Formosan clouded leopard (designated after 1917 as Neofelis nebulosa brachyura). National Taiwan Museum’s (NTM) Web site describes the Formosan clouded leopard as “a subspecies endemic to Taiwan…it reaches a body length of 0.6m to 1.2m and tail length of 0.7m to 0.9m and weighs between 15kg and 30kg. It is entirely covered with beautiful cloud-like spots
For the past five years, Sammy Jou (周祥敏) has climbed Kinmen’s highest peak, Taiwu Mountain (太武山) at 6am before heading to work. In the winter, it’s dark when he sets out but even at this hour, other climbers are already coming down the mountain. All of this is a big change from Jou’s childhood during the Martial Law period, when the military requisitioned the mountain for strategic purposes and most of it was off-limits. Back then, only two mountain trails were open, and they were open only during special occasions, such as for prayers to one’s ancestors during Lunar New Year.
March 23 to March 29 Kao Chang (高長) set strict rules for his descendants: women were to learn music or cooking, and the men medicine or theology. No matter what life path they chose, they were to use their skills in service of the Presbyterian Church and society. As a result, musical ability — particularly in Western instruments — was almost expected among the Kao women, and even those who married into the family often had musical training. Although the men did not typically play instruments, they played a supporting role, helping to organize music programs such as children’s orchestras, writes
RSS