Feature: Glosasry III (no talking)

Many vegetarian restaurants are self-serve buffet style (自助式), and the photo above shows a typical sign seen at such places:

(word-by-word horizontally from top left to bottom right):

夾菜時      "tweezering vegetables time      
請勿交談    please not exchange talk
謝謝合作    thank-thank combine action!"

i.e. "When selecting vegetables, please do not talk; thank you for your cooperation."





 

                                                                Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

Feature: Glossary: Religious reasons complicate timing

Most restaurants have regular opening days and times, but with many Taiwanese being irregular vegetarians based around the religious calendar, things can get confusing.

This sign reads (word-by-word, vertically from top right to bottom left):
each week-sun (=Sunday) public rest
(meet with
beginning 1, 15 as
usual operate business)

i.e. Closed on Sundays (unless Sunday is the 1st or 15th of the lunar month, in which case, open as usual).

Feature: Bread in any language --Photo

While in Hengchun, i passed this bakery.
It doesn't say "bread" in English, but in Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese and, I suppose, sort of in Portuguese. (Another Portuguese word to make it to Taiwan via Japan is tempura -->天婦羅 -->甜不辣)




                                                                                     Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

News Brief: Cabbages and oranges enter seasonal low prices

2011’s low rainfall has lead to high productivity and consequently low prices for oranges and cabbages, Formosa Television reported yesterday (Chinese article here). 

Prices of Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata (高麗菜; “Korean vegetable”) and Chinese cabbage (大白菜; Brassica rapa pekinensis; “big white vegetable”), fell as low as NT$5-6 per kilogram in areas of production, while that of ponkan (椪柑; Citrus poonensis; a relative of the tangerine) fell to NT$4-6 per catty (台斤; 600g). 
 

This is causing much dismay to farmers—and their political supporters—since capital costs for ponkan, for example, are estimated at NT$12 per catty.

                                                                             Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

News Brief: School lunch suppliers, caterers substandard -- CPC

Many parents deliver hot lunches to the school gates

A random sample by the Consumer Protection Commission (消費者保護委員會) of 57 school lunch ingredient suppliers and caterers in six counties and cities around Taiwan found excessive levels of agrichemicals in ten cases, the National Education Radio (國立教育廣播電台) reported today (full Chinese-language article here). 

All fresh meat products were found to be up to standard, but four processed meat items had unacceptable levels of livestock agrochemicals. Similarly, six vegetable items tested positive for pesticide residues.

The CPC under the Executive Yuan asked the Ministry of Education to instruct schools to deal with the suppliers in accordance with their contracts, and asked the county- and city-level departments of health to investigate the sources of the meat products and deal with the manufacturers in accordance with the law.

No contraventions were found in Taitung County, whereas one to four below-standard ingredients were found in each of Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung and Tainan. 

Photo: Crab festival in Yeliu

Shortly after dawn, 漁山 168 steams into Yeliu Harbor

Sorting crabs on the quayside, Yeliu

                         Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011