Translated…
Don’t know when it’d started trending, that there is a certain sort of style of afternoon tea combo with cheesecakes, sandwiches or scones, a few macaroons, or handmade cookies, and, if you really cared for the displays, it’s best placed on those three-tier English style tea trays, with honey and blueberry preserve, with a cup of coffee of tea, and, you would feel like a nobility.
Even if the working class couldn’t find the time to enjoy this setting at a dream-like café, they’d needed to order a cake from the famous shops to celebrate on special occasions; in the normal days, we shouldn’t miss out on the opportunities to shop as a group, waiting in line for the sweet treats, like without these little things in life, then, you would’ve missed out on the perfect afternoon tea session for the day.
the snacks from the past, tasted better, with the memories…
not my photo…
“What is your specialty?”, my friend visited the small town of Yunlin, and, my husband who couldn’t make the trip told him to not forget to bring something from the local regions to Taipei to share.
Specialty? There are a lot, handmade soy sauce, rose tomatoes, chicken, and shrimps without the agricultural pesticides………I’d started scanning through the information database inside my mind, and the food items that are best fitted to share floated to my consciousness one by one. It’s best, that he drives to the spot, to check it out, it would, be an eye-opening experience, and, for some, you need to go there in season, otherwise, you would’ve, missed out. Oh, you want sweets? The flour cakes from Beigang, the ancient cake shop of Ji-Tong, but, my memory scanner is, limited, I can’t quite produce the list of delicate sweets on display in the windows of the pastry shops. Could it be, that I’m lacking imagination in the realm of sweet treats?
cookies from the older days, not my photo…
“Is it, enough? There’s the yam I’d steamed up earlier, the broiled corn on the cob, the steamed pumpkin.” Oh wow, there are the original taste snacks lined up on the tables for me! Man, am I lucky or what! My older friends sent over the traditional sauces for the tomatoes, the grinded ginger powders, with the soy sauce goo and the fine sugar, adding a slight of licorice powder, it’s, so very, aromatic. Says who there is only one appearance for sweets? “You can have it for now when you are visiting, but you can’t take them with you!” wow, this sort of in the moment enjoyments, it’s the best kind of satisfaction, for someone like me, enjoying, a simpler life.
So, this is how a woman returned to the basics, there are an assortment of goodies, treats in the world, specialties for all the various locations, but, no matter how wonderful those things from afar looked and tasted, it still doesn’t beat that simple, plain, savory food items you can make easily, I mean, sure, it would be nice, to have the specialty items from afar every once in a while, but, we need to focus more on what’s closer to home here.
a shop with an assortment of older kinds of snacks, to satisfy your sweet tooth! Not my photo, once again…
Life, the Obstacle Course 