No, it's not a traditional Taiwanese holiday, but for those readers who have suffered through the "Beer Story", it might interest you to know that it is currently "Beer Festival" (pIjiu jiE) at a local chain of convenience stores. Yep, buy three cans of imported beer and get 21% off! (I have no idea how they come up with these things.) You'll notice from the picture that Chinese discount language is "backwards" to what we use in English -- they express the percentage of the price that is remaining, so where it says 79, that means 21% off.
Today was officially Hotter Than Heck. Since I was up until nearly 3 last night between jet-lag and getting onto the topic of "What's the best way to learn Chinese" with some aspiring language students in the lounge of the hostel, I didn't manage to get up until nearly 10 (which is actually a good thing in terms of making the time change). I had breakfast at my favorite place, which may have to change as the ladies there are set on fixing me up with English students, which is about the last thing I want at this point. I also finally managed to catch up with my friend Laura of cello fame and arrange to go out to their house at 4 to play some music. That, consequently, left me with a few hours to kill and nothing in particular to do except finish up a portion of the translation from yesterday. So, logically, I ducked into a tea house.
The place was empty when I started, but at five minutes past twelve, as though someone had let the stopper out of the bathtub, hordes of students from the university started pouring in. It got so crowded that two of them actually had to -- gasp! -- sit at the same table with the foreigner! Actually they must have gotten to like it, or like watching someone draw, as they didn't move when they were eventually offered other seating. They had their lunch as I nursed a pearl milk tea along and drew the scene across the street.
The part you can't see in this painting is the owner, who kept coming back periodically on her bicycle and hopping off to give both woks a stir, then ride away again. Since the locals were saying she didn't start doing business until evening, it's anyone's guess what she was actually doing. I don't know much about Malaysian food so I really couldn't say. These temporary-looking street stands under the tarps have been here as long as I can remember and never seem to go away. At night, everything loose or movable is piled under the tarp and the front closed down. It seems to be some honor system going. I've seen tables in the underground market at the MRT station with the merchandise laid out and covered with a cloth secured to the four sides of the table with clips and left there all day long if the seller wasn't going to do business that day (not that people here take many days off, that's for sure.)
No comments:
Post a Comment