Lone Locust Productions

Category: Travel

Travel-related posts before they get moved to travel.lonelocust.com

  • How to prevent shopping cart theft.

    IMG_0624.JPG

    Back home, shopping cart theft of a big problem. Homeless people steal them to live out of, kids take them just to dump them in canals, crippled people use them to haul their groceries all the way home – the excuses are endless.

    Those carts aren’t cheap either, they cost hundreds of dollars each. It’s no wonder that stores want to keep them.

    The latest attempt is a wheel-locking device. If the cart is pushed past the edge of the parking lot, one of the rear wheels is locked, and has to be manually released by an employee. Sounds like a great idea except that three wheels and skid are better than carrying the groceries all the way home.

    it’s not uncommon to see someone pushing the cart, locked wheel and all, down the streets. Better yet, when the carts do get returned, the locked one has been worn flat, which makes for a pleasant thumpy push in the store.

    In Taiwan, they’re trying a different approach, seen here. The carts are all locked together and to release one you have to put a NT$10 in. When you return the cart, you get your money back. You never see carts in the parking lots or on the streets.

    Seems like a great idea, but, somehow I doubt I’d waste my time pushing the cart back to the lock up for US$ 0.30. Perhaps this is the way to finally get the Sacagawea $1 coins in wide usage.

    Technorati Tags: , ,

  • And your forecast for tomorrow is… rain, punctuated with more rain.

    View large for details

    So far the trip has been characterized by rain. The first two days it rained in the morning and it rained in the afternoon/evening and it rained all night, but there was a window between 10AM and 3PM when it was dry, if overcast and threatening all the time.

    Today we’re well on our way to 24 hours continuous rain without a break. Forecast for tomorrow: 100% chance of rain. Sunday: 100% chance of rain.

    As we arrived at 7-11, the torrential rain started again. We bought umbrellas (everyone sells umbrellas) and made a circuitous route back home. The rain continued for hours and it really makes it feel like the morning was wasted, but, truth be told, we had nothing to do anyway.

    I’ve decided that, rather than a continuous monologue of what happened, I’m just going to highlight some pictures and the events associated with them…

    Technorati Tags: , ,

  • Rose Garden Restaurant – Curry Shop – Review

    IMG_0657.JPG

    Last trip I discovered a curry shop that was supposedly famous for being the best curry in Japan and it was, indeed, excellent. The name, in English is Rose Garden Restaurant.

    We stopped in during last night’s torrential rains and had dinner.

    I had the Katsu Curry, which is a breaded, boneless pork chop with rice, covered in curry. The meal also includes a miso soup and a red bean soup dessert. Once again, the curry sauce was excellent, although this time I had it “medium hot” instead of extra hot. Last time I had the extra hot and it was almost too much for me. (And I have a fondness for very hot food.) The miso soup was “just miso soup” and, well, I don’t like sweatened red beans, so I passed my dessert to my father-in-law.

    IMG_0655.JPG

    Irene had the combo meal, which came with a mini-ramen soup, some vegetables, a katsu and a strawberry ice dessert. She rated it “good”, but without a curry sauce, the katsu was a little light on the flavor. (The Japanese called that “subtle” flavoring.)

    I’d highly recommend this restaurant, specifically for their (apparently) award-winning Japanese curry. I couldn’t track down any information on them on the web and the website listed on their menu doesn’t appear to be correct.

    I don’t have an exact address, but it’s located on Yongkang St, Alley 10, just west of a small park, surrounded by other restaurants.

    Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

  • Mormonism in the rain

    Despite the torrential rain, my in-laws decided to take us out to dinner last night. My wife, the kids and I headed out first so they could close up the house and bug spray the place. Despite umbrellas, the rain was causing standing water 4“ deep in places and Michelle and I both managed to step ankle deep in water, soaking our sandals and feel to the bone.

    As we struggled in the pouring rain, we came to an intersection and had no choice but to stand waiting. Two foreigners approached me and started to ask if I lived in the area and did I recognize them. Of course, I didn’t and then, just as the light changed, they decided to talk to me about mormonism.

    It’s bad enough that the duped followers of a convicted con man (Joseph Smith) want to try to induct more people into their religion, but it’s another thing altogether to be so irritatingly inconsiderate as to try to keep me and my family standing in the rain for even 10 seconds to spread more religious poison in the world. Perhaps it’s better for them they didn’t get the opportunity to discuss my opinion of religion with them…

    Technorati Tags: , , ,

  • “Dammit, I don’t have my camera!” moments

    It’s been so wet that taking out the big cameras has been impractical, but I usually keep my wife’s new Canon SD1000 handy. It’s small enough to fit in my pocket or on my belt. I went out a few minutes ago just to run to the 7-11 for a Coke and didn’t bother to take it with me. Mistake.

    Taipei is always a city of surprises. Most of those surprises involve the populations almost playful disregard for anything resembling the law or basic rules of common courtesy. I say playful because no one seemed bothered by it and take it good-naturedly, presumably because they’ll disregard the next person just as fast as they themselves were disregarded.

    If you see a “no parking” sign, someone will be parked in front of it, even if the sign is painted on someone’s front gate and they have no other way to get out. If there’s a no jaywalking sign, you can bet someone will be jaywalking there.

    I was shocked to learn that, on Heping Rd they’ve started to install covered bus stops!. It seems like a great idea to me, but in Taipei there’s always someone ready to take advantage of it. On my way to the 7-11 I passed one of the new covered stops, which is now being used as covered scooter parking. True, there’s no sign saying, “don’t park your scooter under the bus stop”, but it shows a complete disregard for the people who might be using the bus stop for something like… oh, I don’t know… how about waiting for a bus and trying to stay out of the rain?

    I also missed a photo of the female construction worker coming off a job site. Nothing special about her except that she was kited up in the standard construction gear: Hard hat, t-shirt, lifting belt, blue jeans and bright pink “Hello Kitty” wellingtons.

    Technorati Tags: , ,

  • Cong You Bing

    IMG_0619.JPG

    I’ve been eating at this place for years and, as far as I know, it hasn’t got a name.

    It’s quite literally a 6′ X 6′ corner store, with just about enough room for the 3 workers to stand and cook. The door is held together with cardboard and it looks as ramshackle as it sounds. Nonetheless, the old guy that runs this place and his wife never fail to pack in a crowd every day, rain or shine. The store was recently featured in the news and business seems even busier than usual.

    He’s located just west of Xinsheng Rd on Heping Rd. on the south side of the road, next to a 7-11 (which is convenient for me because I can get a Coke or some tea to go with my cong you bing. Cong you bing is roughly translated into “green onion pancake” and, while pancake conjures up images of maple syrup, this is not a sweat concoction, more of a fried bread. This store’s cong you bing is somewhat unconventional as most vendors griddle fry them, while these are deep fried.

    Maybe it’s my personal taster, but his cong you bing are the best.

    His menu is only 3 or 4 items, but his most popular item is the lou bo si bing (蘿蔔絲餅), or “shredded daikon cake”. He also serves cong you bing with an egg fried on top.

    Pictured here, clockwise around the ring, cong you bing, cong you bing w/egg, lou bo si bing.

    Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

  • The pressure is on, Diana

    IMG_8832.JPG

    This made the news as far away as Pakistan.

    As we returned from dinner the other day, Taipei 101, still the world’s tallest building, was lit up with the marriage (or is that “mappiage”) proposal.

    No word on if Diana said, “yes” or, for that matter, even saw it.

    Update: I’ve seen some indication that this was a “fake” proposal to “sell” the concept of using the Taipei 101 for marriage proposals.

    Technorati Tags: , ,

  • Dangling thoughts

    Ever start a sentence and realize you have nothing to say?

    Technorati Tags: , , ,

  • Day 2 – What I ate

    IMG_0592.JPG

    How exciting is a list of my meals, day-by-day!? I know! I can hardy stand the excitement.

    Still, I’m doing this for science. There are just some things that I either can’t get at home or they suck back home.

    This morning I went back for Shao Bing You Tiao just so I could get a picture for everyone. We went to a place (might as well be nameless) on Heping Rd that my wife likes to get breakfast at. It wasn’t as flavorful as the “famous” (and yet still nameless, as far as I know) place we ate from yesterday. Photographically, though, they were pretty much the same. (Incidentally, if anyone knows the name of the famous place, it’s located near exit 4 of the Shandao temple MRT station.)

    Lunch: Costco, hot dog and a soda. They used to have proper beef hot dogs at Costco Taiwan, but they’ve switched to pork for the “local taste”, which just means they’re aren’t particularly good, but they’re better than any hot dog you’ll get at a Taiwanese 7-11.

    IMG_0617.JPG

    Dinner: Stopped in at the Emperor’s Happy Pork Chop near Xinsheng and Xinyi Rds. Two years ago I had the pork chop with noodle soup. I recall liking the pork chop but being unimpressed with the soup. This time I went with a simple pork chop and rice. It still came with a bowl of clear soup, which just didn’t have much flavor. The rice was served with a variety of toppings.

    The highlight of the meal was, of course, the pork chop and it was quite good, although there was a rather large fatty section near the bone which mostly went to waste.

    Technorati Tags: , ,

  • Day 1 – What I ate

    Had three meals today, for breakfast, on the way “home” from the airport, we stopped at some “famous” place that makes shao bing you tiao (燒餅油條). I forgot to get pictures and will try to get some later, but it is basically several pieces of deep fried batter in long stick shapes, wrapped by another piece of pan-fried dough, rather in the shape of a squared-off pita. It’s filling, but it can hardly be nutritionally wholesome. This place apparently had “thin” and “thick”, the thick being a unique non-traditional specialty form from this particular restaurant. The difference between the two was almost imperceptible.

    Din Tai Fung

    Lunch they insisted on taking me to Din Tai Feng, which is almost always welcome.

    We went out later in the day to stay awake and we stopped at the nearby MOS burger (a new one has opened up less than three blocks from home) for my dinner.

    I enjoy MOS Burger because it is different but, of all the hamburger places, they make it the hardest. There’s no combo meal with a cheeseburger, and there’s no pretty picture menu for the illiterate foreigners (like me), and then they have to ask about options so I always have to order my food “the hard way”. “I’d like one MOS Cheese hamburger, spicy, no tomato. One small order of french fries (if only I knew how to ask them to salt them.) One large drink, cola. To eat here.” (In chinese, of course)

    DSC00536.JPG

    The incompetence of my pronunciation not withstanding, I can usually get my point across, unless they start asking questions. Now they’ve added a new one, “Do you want ice in your cola?” Anything they can do to make it hard for me.

    Because I basically don’t have a huge repertoire of restaurant reviews for Taipei, but Ifrequently read the Hungry Girl’s Guide to Taipei blog, which has a nice back-catalog of restaurant reviews, for her comments on:

    MOS Burger

    I’ll try to link to her reviews on places that I eat at.

    Technorati Tags: