A: What am I going to do? It’s Mid-Autumn Festival, and I’ve been so busy I forgot to prepare anything for the BBQ!
B: Who says you need to have a BBQ on Mid-Autumn Festival? That was just a marketing ploy dreamt up by a BBQ sauce producer 30 years ago. Moon viewing, eating moon cakes and pomelos are the traditional ways of celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival.
A: Yeah, I’ve always wondered why loads of people set off rockets on Mid-Autumn Festival. If the Jade Hare or Chang-e really did live on the moon, they would long ago have hopped off in fright.
Photo courtesy of a reader 照片:讀者提供
B: Well, if you think about it, with the cool autumn breeze and the full moon in the sky, Mid-Autumn Festival should have more of a literary feeling, and we should do something more cultural to celebrate it.
A: You mean like composing poetry? I don’t think I’m quite up to that, but I do know there’s an exhibition in an art gallery nearby. Fancy taking a look?
B: Now that is a splendid idea.
A: 怎麼辦,中秋節到了,我忙到忘記準備烤肉材料了!
B: 誰說中秋節一定要烤肉的?這也不過是三十年前烤肉醬廠商搞出來的名堂。賞月、吃月餅和柚子,才是過中秋真正的傳統吧!
A: 對呀,我也搞不懂為什麼中秋節一大堆人都在放沖天炮。如果月亮上有月兔和嫦娥,也早就被嚇跑了吧!
B: 其實想想看,秋高氣爽、明月皎潔,中秋節應該是很有氣質的節日。過中秋我們應該要做點有氣質的事才對。
A: 吟詩作對嗎?這我沒辦法。不過附近的藝廊有個展覽,我們去看看怎麼樣?
B: 你這真是冰雪聰明的好主意 !
(Translated by Paul Cooper, Taipei Times / 台北時報林俐凱)
Audio recordings for Speak Up! dialogues will be suspended until further notice due to the pandemic.
Jumping rope has long been considered an excellent form of exercise. It not only burns calories but also improves cardiovascular health and __1__ core muscles. Anyone who has used a traditional jump rope, though, knows that it requires a certain level of skill and coordination. However, with the development of the cordless jump rope, this is __2__ the case. The cordless jump rope is an innovation in the fitness industry that has gained popularity in recent years. As its name suggests, it doesn’t have a cord connecting the two handles. Instead, each handle features a short cord with a
A: Wow, three Taiwanese restaurants just won the 2024 “Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants” awards. B: Awesome! Which three restaurants? A: Taipei’s Logy at No. 22 and MUME at No. 34, and Taichung’s JL Studio at No. 33. B: Actually, there are many more great establishments in Taipei. How about other Asian cities? A: Singapore claimed nine spots this year, making it Asia’s new “food capital.” A: 2024「亞洲50最佳餐廳」名單揭曉了,台灣有3家餐廳上榜。 B: 好厲害,哪3家? A: 台北的Logy和MUME分獲第22和34名,台中的JL Studio獲第33名! B: 其實台北還有很多好餐廳,那其他的亞洲城市呢? A: 新加坡今年入選9家,可說是亞洲美食之都。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Let’s explore another delicacy primarily known to Tainan locals: floating milkfish in thick soup. Despite its peculiar name, this dish is another Tainan specialty that showcases the popularity of milkfish, which is made into fish paste and served in thick soup. Unlike the version with tutuo fish, which also adds other ingredients to its thick soup, the floating milkfish version primarily features the “floating fish” itself in its thick soup, ensuring that the fish paste remains the star of the dish. 讓我們來探索另一道台南人熟悉的美食:浮水魚羹。這道菜名奇特的美食,再再展現了台南虱目魚料理的多樣。浮水魚羹是用虱目魚漿做成的羹品,雖然和𩵚魠魚羹一樣是羹湯,但不像𩵚魠魚羹會在湯中加入其他食材,而是讓虱目魚漿成為這道料理的主角。 peculiar (adj.) 獨特的;古怪的 The belly of a milkfish is considered the most
The practice of freezing embryos as part of in vitro fertilization (IVF) was thrown into chaos in Alabama this year, when the state supreme court ruled that such embryos should be considered children, exposing clinics to wrongful death claims in the event they are destroyed in the thawing process. In 2021, more than 80 percent of US IVF procedures involved the transfer of frozen embryos, according to a recent report by the US Department of Health and Human Services. HOW IS EMBRYO FREEZING USED IN IVF? IVF uses high doses of hormones to stimulate ovaries to produce as many eggs as possible. Once