Legendary chef Fu Pei-mei (傅培梅) died of pancreatic cancer at the Veterans General Hospital Taipei yesterday at the age of 73. \nAccording to hospital sources, Fu had been fighting liver cancer, and later pancreatic cancer, for seven years. Thanks to her open-minded and optimistic attitude, she seldom complained about her diseases, a family member said. \nDespite her disease, the family member said, Fu took great delight in traveling abroad. \n"Travel helped her forget her debilitating illness," he added. \nFu wrote many cookbooks, teaching homemakers cooking skills, recipes and the fun of family cooking. She is reputed to be the first Chinese person to gain fame by writing cookbooks, and her works were once considered vital for a bride's dowry. \nFu used to be the most popular television cooking show host in the country. Starting in 1962, she hosted many weekly culinary programs at Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) for almost 40 years, introducing more than 4,000 different Chinese dishes. The programs have been exported to the US, Japan, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries. \nBorn in Dalian in northeastern China during the era of Japanese colonial rule, Fu spoke fluent Japanese, and many Japanese expatriates in Taiwan liked to study Chinese cuisine with her. Japan's public TV channel NHK once invited her to host Chinese cooking programs. \nDuring the heyday of her career -- from the 1970s to the 1990s -- Fu helped promote Taiwan's international presence, as she was often invited to demonstrate Chinese culinary art and skills in various countries. \nFu also ran a cooking class that attracted many housewives and brides-to-be. She closed the class some 10 years ago because of family financial disputes, retired, and was seldom seen in public. \nShe moved to Taiwan at the age of 19 after the communists took control of China, first working at a trading company and appearing in TV commercials promoting electric home appliances. She began to learn how to cook only after she married. \nFu is survived by two daughters and a son. One of her daughters and her daughter-in-law are also versed in culinary skills. Despite this family background, Fu never ran a restaurant.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
RSS