Finding a trendy pub in a tranquil upper class residential area near Taiwan High Speed Rail’s Hsinchu Station is no longer such a tall order. Located in Hsinchu County’s Jhubei City, Titty Tea, a unique American-style pub with a quaint rhyming name, has been catering to the palates of people from different walks of life for over a year now. Titty Tea’s laid-back atmosphere, homemade meals, wide variety of beverages, impressive selection of Austrian craft beers — difficult to find elsewhere in the city — and live music every Saturday certainly make it a perfect place for people to hang out. On top of all this, they offer a 10 percent discount if you order food and drink in English, a gimmick that has proved very successful among foreigners and Taiwanese alike. It doesn’t matter how good your English is, the point is to immerse yourself in a special English-speaking environment.
Titty Tea owner Shawn Sonnenberg, a US native married to a Taiwanese, told the Taipei Times on Wednesday that “My wife Amanda (Chang Jung-jung), a Jhubei native, had always wanted to open a coffee and tea shop. So it was her idea that gave birth to Titty Tea.” Titty is actually the name of the couple’s dog, and customers, if lucky, may see Titty in Titty Tea’s office on the second floor. Amanda is a charming young lady with a warm smile and welcoming “hello” for anyone who walks into the store, with its 25-seat capacity and soft lighting, dark wood furniture, and warm decor all adding to the relaxed ambience. Given that many engineers at Hsinchu Science Park live in Jhubei City, many of Titty Tea’s customers are engineers, but there are also a good number of English teachers, according to Shawn. Many students spend their evenings and weekends at Titty Tea, too, to practice their conversational English. Other than immersing themselves in an English-speaking environment at Titty Tea, netizens can also learn a new English word and its usage every day by following Titty Tea on Facebook.
Live music is another feature, showing Shawn and Amanda’s zeal for their shop. There are about 10 local musicians taking it in turns to give live performances every Saturday night, says Shawn. They include Taiwanese jazz guitarist Hope Yeh, Canadian singer-songwriter Pauline Edwards, Blue Grass country guitarist Van Stokes, and South African Classic Rock guitarist Mark Duncan-Brown. Stokes and Duncan-Brown will perform at Titty Tea tonight starting 8:30pm; and Edwards and Yeh will give a performance, starting at the same time, next Saturday. If the weather is nice, said Shawn, Titty Tea sometimes sees more than a hundred customers gathering both inside and outside the shop. Unlike pubs with DJs that are loud and quite common in the city, Titty Tea hosts relatively lighter music so that people can talk to one another while appreciating an eclectic blend of music. The weather looks promising today, so why not check Titty Tea out.
(LIN YA-TI, TAIPEI TIMES)
Photo: Lin Ya-ti, Taipei Times
照片:台北時報林亞蒂
想在高鐵新竹站周邊僻靜的高級住宅區中,找一間有具有時尚風格的酒吧,不再是太難的事。坐落在新竹縣竹北市具獨到美國風並有著可愛押韻名稱的酒吧Titty Tea,一年多前就開始提供餐飲,迎合各行各業人們的味蕾。店內輕鬆氣氛、自製美食、琳瑯滿目的飲料選擇、新竹少見種類多樣的奧地利啤酒,以及每週六的現場音樂演奏,讓Titty Tea成為一個可以恣意逗留的好去處。此外,店內還推出「凡用英文點餐即享九折優待」的好康,光此一賣點,就吸引許多不管是否會說英語的外國人與台灣人光顧,以沉浸在一個特別的英語環境中。
Titty Tea男主人尚恩‧松嫩堡是位美國人也是台灣女婿,他週三向《台北時報》表示:「我妻子亞曼達(張容榕)是竹北人,她一心想要開一間餐飲店,所以Titty Tea是為她而開的。」Titty其實是這對店主人的愛犬,若運氣好,顧客有時可看到牠在Titty Tea二樓的辦公室。亞曼達是位親切的年輕女士,顧客一進到有二十五個座位的店內,即可感受到她微笑與招呼的溫暖。店內柔和燈光、深色木製桌椅,以及暖色調裝潢,營造一股放鬆氛圍。因為許多竹科人住在竹北,所以尚恩表示,店內常有竹科工程師造訪,也有許多來台教英語的外籍老師光顧。他並說,傍晚與週末也可見學生來店裡,順便練習英語會話。除了置身Titty Tea的英語環境中,網民也可以上Titty Tea臉書,閱讀該店推出的每日一英文單字與例句教學。
尚恩與亞曼達對於經營這家店的熱情,由他們致力於推出現場音樂節目,可見一斑。尚恩表示,大約有十位音樂家輪流於週六晚間在店內演出,這些樂手包括:台灣爵士吉他演奏家葉賀璞、加拿大歌手及作曲家寶林‧愛德華茲、蘭草鄉村吉他演奏家凡‧史托克、南非古典搖滾吉他演奏家馬克‧鄧肯─布朗等。史托克與鄧肯─布朗將於今晚八點半在Titty Tea演出;而愛德華茲與葉賀璞將於下週六同一時間獻藝。尚恩表示,若天公作美,Titty Tea有時甚至會有上百位客人齊聚在店內外同歡。相對於音量較大且隨處可見的DJ酒吧,Titty Tea提供輕音樂,讓客人可以在欣賞各式混搭風格的樂音中,也能輕鬆聊天。今天天氣看來不錯,或許走一趟Titty Tea也不失為一個好的選擇。
(台北時報記者林亞蒂)
Photo: Lin Ya-ti, Taipei Times
照片:台北時報林亞蒂
Photo: Lin Ya-ti, Taipei Times
照片:台北時報林亞蒂
Photo: Lin Ya-ti, Taipei Times
照片:台北時報林亞蒂
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
A: Artificial intelligence technology has been causing controversy lately: a student was caught cheating with AI to win the grand prize in an art contest. B: That’s so absurd. Does this mean that AI paints better than humans? A: Maybe. Luckily, the student was later disqualified. B: And more absurdly, it’s becoming more and more popular to use AI technology to “resurrect” people. A: Yeah, some netizens even posted videos featuring the late singer CoCo Lee, who was “resurrected” by them with AI software. A: 人工智慧的爭議不斷,有學生違規使用AI參加美術展,甚至贏得首獎。 B: 真誇張,這是不是代表AI比人類還強大? A: 或許吧,幸好得獎資格被取消。 B: 還有更誇張的︰讓死者重現的「AI復活」技術越來越熱門。 A: 對啊,還有網友製作已故歌后李玟「復活」的影片呢! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
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