Odeon means "house of song" in Greek and is thus a popular name for cultural venues and restaurants that want to give off a classy, artsy vibe. It's the name of a cinema chain in the UK, an events center in Saskatoon, Canada, a restaurant on New York's Broadway Avenue and a student district cafe in Taiwan.
Though the Cafe Odeon opus II (now known as CO2) on Xinsheng Road probably doesn't have much on the US$20 entrees at The Odeon on Broadway, it does a respectable job of creating a culture-friendly atmosphere. The theme for both the food and the decor is European, with an emphasis on Belgium. Picture albums on a bookshelf by the door chronicle owner Arvin Cheng's (
The cafe's location in an alley across from National Taiwan University works well to heighten the sense of artsy academia CO2 strives for. Written in chalk on a blackboard sign by the door is an explanation of how Cheng chose the name Odeon: "Odeon is the name of a stop on the Paris subway in an area where the arts and humanities flourish ... we hope that Odeon can provide a similar cultural space."
PHOTO: MEREDITH DODGE , TAIPEI TIMES
But CO2 is better known for providing a wide selection of Belgian beer, and that is not a bad thing. From the light to the dark to the positively fruity, CO2's beer fridge has what you're looking for. After walking around in the hot sun I decided to order a Watou's witbier (Flemish for "white beer") -- refreshing with a hint of jasmine.
The meal I ordered to go with it, a stack of pork ribs with beer wurst, wasn't exactly refreshing, but it certainly was replenishing. The salad was an unnecessarily large pile of lettuce and a few tomatoes criss-crossed with thousand-island dressing -- I only ate about a quarter of it. That's because I was thoroughly engaged with the hunk of meat sitting next to it.
The rib meat was tender and juicy and accompanied with an appropriate layer of tasty fat. Though the steak knife they gave me cut the meat easily off the bone, I worked up a sweat eating the ribs. Luckily I had saved some witbier to quench my thirst. I say luckily because the lame salad and the bone-dry raisin toast (they could have at least given me some butter) did nothing to counteract the ultra-heavy meatiness of the ribs. Overally, however, CO2 is a great place for a beer and a chat
with friends. Food is served till late.
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) and the New Taipei City Government in May last year agreed to allow the activation of a spent fuel storage facility for the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Shihmen District (石門). The deal ended eleven years of legal wrangling. According to the Taipower announcement, the city government engaged in repeated delays, failing to approve water and soil conservation plans. Taipower said at the time that plans for another dry storage facility for the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) remained stuck in legal limbo. Later that year an agreement was reached
June 2 to June 8 Taiwan’s woodcutters believe that if they see even one speck of red in their cooked rice, no matter how small, an accident is going to happen. Peng Chin-tian (彭錦田) swears that this has proven to be true at every stop during his decades-long career in the logging industry. Along with mining, timber harvesting was once considered the most dangerous profession in Taiwan. Not only were mishaps common during all stages of processing, it was difficult to transport the injured to get medical treatment. Many died during the arduous journey. Peng recounts some of his accidents in
What does the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in the Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) era stand for? What sets it apart from their allies, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)? With some shifts in tone and emphasis, the KMT’s stances have not changed significantly since the late 2000s and the era of former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九). The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) current platform formed in the mid-2010s under the guidance of Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), and current President William Lai (賴清德) campaigned on continuity. Though their ideological stances may be a bit stale, they have the advantage of being broadly understood by the voters.
In a high-rise office building in Taipei’s government district, the primary agency for maintaining links to Thailand’s 108 Yunnan villages — which are home to a population of around 200,000 descendants of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) armies stranded in Thailand following the Chinese Civil War — is the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC). Established in China in 1926, the OCAC was born of a mandate to support Chinese education, culture and economic development in far flung Chinese diaspora communities, which, especially in southeast Asia, had underwritten the military insurgencies against the Qing Dynasty that led to the founding of