Today we had our second social engagement of the week. We returned to Yangmingshan, albeit a different part of it: a very curious part indeed. This was US officer housing upto the 1970s, and the hillsides here are dotted with prefab American houses, like a little suburb in the hills. It was a windy, rainy day and took me back to our own Yangmingshan abode, only a few weeks ago. The area itself was, well, I can’t say I warmed to it, it was a curiosity, no more than that. We arrived at the designated cafe whihc was set in a bamboo grove and looked very swish. It was packed and the rather snooty maitre d’ told us it was a two hour wait. Well, we put our names down and wandered off for a meal, as we were all very hungry.
It took less than two hours to get our call and we returned to find a fairly expensive menu before us, with the usual lattes and drip coffees, all-day breakfast with pancakes, and various other cakes. By now our friends arrived – strictly speaking the Boddhisattva’s, a couple of whom one is a linguist and the other a revolutionary. The coffee and cake were as mediocre as they were overpriced and made me and the GF very grumpy as it was a waste of money, time and patronage. We learned later that this cafe is actually owned by one of the Starbucks style chains, but they are trying to rehabilitate their gas station image by going all out on exclusivity while still serving the same old product. There’s a good Urdu mahavara about that but I can’t quite remember it.
Nevertheless the conversation was good as the couple were interested in political/ social discussion in a way that the GF and I really enjoy as well.
After coffee we strolled around the settlement and came across the university’s beehives. The university is the Chinese Cultural University, and apparently it’s fairly common for universities to make links with specific farms and sell their high quality branded produce. This was inside a crumbling mansion, with stairs sweeping up to a gallery around the entrance hall and the back garden full of chickens and beehives. In common with every other country I’ve ever been to, the Taiwanese are inordinately proud of their honey and consider it the best in the world. We had a taste, the GF (who is a honey afficionado) bought some for himself, and the beekeeper offered to show us his hives. We donned the netting and went out though only the GF and I dared to hold the frame.
The further on to see the view, which was obscured by cloud, and looping back to the car. The friends had booked a meal in town at one of their favourite places so we all piled in, somewhat sneakily as we were four in the back instead of the permitted three. I sat a little forward, the Boddhisattva leaned back, and whenever we passed a police car we pretended to be one person.
Dinner was excellent and more than made up for coffee. It’s an updated Taiwanese place, so served plenty of traditional food, but all done with great finesse and care, possibly my favourite meal in Taiwan. Best of all, there were six of us, so all the various dietary restrictions could safely be ignored and I got to try lots of things.
A pleasant day, though tiring and I returned and closed my bedroom door for a bit before coming out again to watch a new episode of The Wire.