Tag Archives: ROC

Monga

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Monga is a Taiwanese gangster movie set in Monga, or 萬華 (Wanhua), a district in Taipei. Set in the 80′s, Monga is a story of a gang of young hoodlums trying to figure out their place in the life of a Taiwanese gangster. There’s a lot of fighting, drinking, whoring, scheming, and wearing fancy flower print shirts, all of which are per the norm of the Taiwanese 黑 道 (literal translation is black road, but I think it means black society).

Coincidently, I’ve been living in the Wanhua district for the past month. Parts of the movie were shot on location in Wanhua, including the night market behind my place and the Longshan Temple next to the Longshan MTR stop that I use. Pronounced Báng-kah in Taiwanese, Wanhua, like in the movie, still has a red light district. Unlike the movie however, the red light district of now is dark, dank, and has a mix of beat up looking hookers and street peddlers selling stolen junk. There’s also a naked man who stands around waving his arms. You might want to stay away from parts of Wanhua if you ever visit Taiwan.

As for the movie, it’s OK. It was hard to understand the Taiwanese parts of the movie and some of the cultural things kind of flew by me. The ending was also a little too artsy and profound for my taste. In the end, I came away with two things.  One, in certain angles, John does look like Mark Chao, the main actor in Monga, as some people have said. Two, I really need a flower dress shirt to complete my wardrobe. Nothing says bad ass G like one of those shirts.

Taiwan Beer I Believe

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While listening to music in the kitchen the other day, I heard a catchy chinese song that had a hook that went “台灣啤酒, I do believe!”. Translation:  ”Taiwan Beer, I do believe!” Even after my cousin explained that the song was a Taiwan Beer advertisement, I still didn’t believe what I heard, maybe because the song was too good to be a commercial jingle.

Thanks to youtube, I found the song and it really is an ad. The song is so good however that the singer turned it into a single. I’m not exactly sure what the song is about but there’s something about believing in himself, believing in tomorrow, and believing in being able to touch the sky with both hands. But the bottom line, believe in Taiwan Beer and its magical powers to bring good times.

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MV 我相信 – 楊培安

TPE before SE Asia

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The last two days of my stay in Taiwan before I embarked on the Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and HK part of my trip was spent eating. What’s new?

On Saturday, John took us to eat a late hotpot lunch (2pm) at Go Bar (?). I had already eaten a late breakfast @ this place called Apple 203 where I ordered a Taiwanese Omelet, and I had to go to my uncle’s place after lunch to eat dinner, so I was limited by the amount of all you can eat hot pot food. It was tough not to eat a lot because the selection of hotpot stuff was overwhelming and the quality was stupendous. I must have eaten twenty different kinds of fish ball/paste things and the beef was off the heezy. Sorry SSH, you might not be my favorite hotpot place anymore.

Dinner @ my uncle’s was again another eat fest. My aunt cooked a bunch of stuff and I was encouraged to eat everything. My aunt thought I liked oysters, which I don’t, so she cooked a big plate of oyster omelet. My uncle then asked what I liked to eat and for some reason I said pork intestines. More pork intestines later.

After dinner, John took us to the lounge/bar that big brother John has a minority stake in. The place is called Marquee and is across the street from Taipei 101. Fantastic place with a big expat crowd. John and I revealed that we have zero game when it comes to approaching the ladies, hence why I’ve stopped calling him rockstar in this post.

Sunday, my cousin and godmother took me to Dragon Field, a direct translation of Long Tien. It’s a farming community about an hour outside of Taipei where my godfather either grew up or use to live at. We ate throughout the day and went for a stroll along an irrigation ditch filled with dead fish. For dinner, we ate at my grandmother’s place. Since it was mother’s day, dinner was a giant feast with the whole family in attendance. There was a lot of Taiwan beer flowing throughout the dinner. Whenever you wanted to take a sip of beer, you had to cheer someone. It was a bit weird for me to have to do that, but after the first bottle, I was cheering like I had been doing it for years.

After three nights of drinking and feasting, I spent the remainder of Sunday night and early Monday morning packing and drifting in and out of sleep in anticipation of my journey through SE Asia.

Taiwan: Day 2 – Eating Taiwan

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Like the prior two trips to Taiwan, rockstar John took us out to “Fuji” fish port to eat seafood. I forgot to bring my camera cable so you’ll have to imagine the fresh feast of squid sashimi, fried fish thingies, steamed crab, steamed lobster, lobster miso soup, sauteed clams, and cabbage that filled up the table. Nom nom nom. Unfortunately, this was probably the last trip to Fuji fish port because rockstar John felt like he was played by the fish lady who wouldn’t give him a deal for our meal. I told rockstar John, “Don’t fret my dear friend. I will take a negotiations class in Taiwan and we will come back and show the fish lady who is boss.”

Next up on the eat parade was dessert @ 85 Degree C. I didn’t get to try 85 C on my last trip and since then, it has spread all over Taiwan. There’s also a branch in Irvine. I got a #4, which was some kind of chocolate cake, and an ice coffee. Such a shame we don’t have more places like this in the states because the cake and ice coffee was awesome.

For dinner, I met up with Camille and we ate at one of the millions of street vendor places in Taiwan. Apparently the cops fine the vendors if the patrons eat in front of their stalls so we had to wolf down our mi-fun soup, pork and bean curds double time.

A couple of things I noticed throughout the day. One, Taiwan is so old looking, mostly due to the humidity that stains the concrete buildings. Second, Taiwanese girls are so pale and fleshy looking. Three, every local on the street carries a bag, be it a purse, murse, messenger bag, tote, backpack, or plastic bag.

To cap the night off, rockstar john, yv, dr. chang, Camille and I went to Cashbox to do what every Taiwanese loves to do, sing. Rockstar John brought some heavily spiced chicken, lamb, and pork skewers that was probably really good when it was hot. By the end of the night, I was exhausted and fell asleep on the couch, but that was before I sang my heart out to Runaway Train and Jay Chou’s greatest hits.

Taipei: Day 0.5 – Touchdown

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I’ve never flown in a 777 before so I was really surprised by how small the plane is once you get inside. The seats however have more than enough leg room and the cabin is very cavernous feeling due to the high ceilings. It also helped that the flight was only 3/4 full so yv and I took up a whole roll.

The movie selection on the flight was horrible. I watched bits and parts of Invictus and The Book of Eli and fell asleep. I ended up watching all the Nat Geo stuff and other variety shows instead.

Enough about the flight. So we touched down in TPE @ 2200 on the dot. After waiting for forever to get our luggage, we found rockstar John (forgot to take a pic) and headed for Taipei. After dropping off our luggage, we went to the shrimp fishing center of Taipei to eat, wait for it, shrimp. The food reminded us of why Taiwanese eateries are superior to those back home; quality and accessibility. The shrimp, or prawns, were prepared in a refreshing lemon sauce and a stinging black pepper powder. Pics on yv’s camera.

This morning, I woke up to the sound of scooters, a construction site, and sirens. Breakfast was bought for a little more than a $1 USD which consisted of cold soy milk and a bean sprout burrito. Fantastic.

Off to sea port for more seafood today.

The unwinding process has begun.