Kaohsiung baker Wang Peng-chieh (王鵬傑), who early last month was awarded the international Master de la Boulangerie title, said he used to despise baking, because his family forced the trade on him.
To rebel, he joined a local temple dance troupe and brawled with other temples as one of the Eight Generals (bajiajiang, 八家將), Wang said at a National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism event on Monday last week.
Years later, he would win the coveted award for his nearly life-sized bread titled Infernal General, one of the eight generals in a traditional temple troupe.
Photo: Hung Chen-hung, Taipei Times
“I despised making bread. Bread stole my childhood,” he said, adding that since elementary school, his father made him help in the bakery each day after class.
Later, he took the college entrance exam and was disappointed that he qualified for the Kaohsiung university’s baking school.
While training, he realized that he was good at baking, and that it enabled him to compete, Wang said. “I’m a showman and competitions give me an audience.”
Wang’s baking took him to France this year for the prestigious Masters de la Boulangerie competition.
The theme in the artistic bread making category required contestants to reflect a unique aspect of their national culture, which immediately made him think of the Eight Generals, Wang said. “They are my most vivid memory from my youth.”
The bread had to taste good, look beautiful and measure 160mm tall and 110mm wide, much larger than in previous years.
The larger size allowed him to make better use of flavors and ingredients grown by Taiwanese farmers, such as roses, strawberries and lychees, he said.
Wang said one panelist was moved to tears after seeing the Infernal General, telling him: “Thank you for participating for Taiwan.”
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
BETTER SERVICE QUALITY: From Nov. 10, tickets with reserved seats would only be valid for the date, train and route specified on the ticket, THSRC said Starting on Nov. 10, high-speed rail passengers with reserved seats would be required to exchange their tickets to board an earlier train. Passengers with reserved seats on a specific train are currently allowed to board earlier trains on the same day and sit in non-reserved cars, but as this is happening increasingly often, and affecting quality of travel and ticket sales, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced that it would be canceling the policy on Nov. 10. It is one of several new measures launched by THSRC chairman Shih Che (史哲) to improve the quality of service, it said. The company also said
A magnitude 6 earthquake last night at 9:11pm struck off northeastern Yilan County, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The earthquake’s epicenter was located in waters between Toucheng Township (頭城) and Turtle Island (Gueishan Island, 龜山島), about 22.1km northeast of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 112km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Yilan’s Dongshan (冬山) and Nanao (南澳) townships and Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義), where it measured 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. It measured 3 in other areas of Yilan and Taipei, as
RSS