If one late night finds you and your friends prowling Taipei for a midnight snack and ice-cold beer, Red Dragonfly Eatery, in the Yongkang neighborhood, is not a bad option. sThe eatery offers a decent range of Japanese-style brochettes and other light snacks commonly seen in Japanese beer houses.
A small, intimate place which seats 20, Red Dragon is popular; patrons usually need to wait around 20 minutes to be seated during the dinnertime rush.
But the wait is worthwhile. The joint offers many grilled, barbecued and deep-fried meat options as well as fried noodles and chicken rice bowls -- standard fare in most Japanese eateries. There is also an extensive drinks menu featuring beer, sake and plum wine.
PHOTO: HO YI, TAIPEI TIMES
A plate of meat or vegetable skewers costs between NT$80 to NT$100 and are must-try snacks. The popular chicken and chicken meatball brochettes are seasoned with the eatery's trademark sauce, which requires 24-hours' preparation time.
You can also order the grilled delicacies plain, with just a sprinkle of salt. Meat-lovers should try the pork neck. Other Red Dragon creations include miso and perilla pork brochettes that come highly recommended by regular patrons.
More exotic snacks include include deep-fried chicken skin (NT$100) and cartilage (NT$150), both of which come in
relatively large portions. The tangy, crunchy skin will should disarm and beckon diners who are usually put off by the sight of greasy subcutaneous fat.
The menu also features sweet fish, shrimp and European carp. This reporter ordered a charcoal grilled carp (NT$250) and was disappointed with its overly salty flavor, which required more than a few sips of beer to slack the resulting thirst.
For people who prefer lighter dishes, the grilled mushroom brochette is a pleasing option. The mashed daikon topping complimented the mushroom and left a fresh taste on the tongue.
Another highlight was the pork miso soup (NT$80). The cabbage, carrots and potatoes were stewed to perfection and melted in the mouth.
If you expect attentive service in this eatery, you will most likely be disappointed. The atmosphere is cozy but very casual as the young staff members natter among themselves, and tarry over diners' orders.
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
Pei-Ru Ko (柯沛如) says her Taipei upbringing was a little different from her peers. “We lived near the National Palace Museum [north of Taipei] and our neighbors had rice paddies. They were growing food right next to us. There was a mountain and a river so people would say, ‘you live in the mountains,’ and my friends wouldn’t want to come and visit.” While her school friends remained a bus ride away, Ko’s semi-rural upbringing schooled her in other things, including where food comes from. “Most people living in Taipei wouldn’t have a neighbor that was growing food,” she says. “So
Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated