Satisfying a vegetarian diet is seldom an issue at restaurants in Taiwan, but being a vegetarian can limit the variety of eating experiences you have here. Veggie alternatives to traditional indigenous dishes might taste delicious but will never be quite the same experience as eating the "real" thing, and this was confirmed on a recent visit to a Gulu Gulu .
A popular spot for authentic indigenous cuisine, Gulu Gulu was opened last year in Taichung city by Paiwan singer Chiu Jin-ming (
Other recommended dishes include Taimali's pig knuckle, which is pickled with spices and millet wine to give it a unique tart and salty flavor, said Chiu's wife, who also works at the restaurant.
PHOTO COURTESY OF GULU GULU
Several of the dishes can be ordered separately for light dining or late-night snacking, but the best way to sample as much as possible is to opt for a set meal, which includes a starter, soup, main course, dessert and beverage.
It isn't often that starters are the main attraction but a slice of ah vai was said to be an exception. Ah-vai is a traditional Paiwan dish prepared with sticky rice, pork and peanuts, and wrapped inside two large leaves, which absorbs some of the oil but retains its flavor. Both the ah-vai and spicy tofu-based dipping sauce it is served with are made by Chiu's mother and shipped weekly from her Taimali village in Taidong.
Every set meal includes a small glass of millet wine, and even if is not your drink of choice, it would be a shame not to try one glass of vava-yoyo or ma pu lao (a stronger version).
The restaurant is a small colonial-style house converted into a two-floor dinning area, which also doubles as a gallery space exhibiting aboriginal art works. Large driftwood sculptures and mural paintings are intermixed with black and white photographs, depicting some of Taiwan's indigenous villages.
On the first floor is a small stage for daily performances at 12:30pm and 7pm. Although the scheduled time is one hour, the music often continues or starts up again later in the evening.
On this particular occasion, Chiu was accompanied by costumers from other tables and took to the stage several times in a two-hour period. The restaurant gets busy during the weekend so reservations are recommended.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s