Fruit in Taiwan

The third day of classes continues the trend of getting better and better. We now have 10 people in the class, nobody told the woman from Slovenia that she had to go to class this week so she missed the first 2 days. There's always mis- communication if you don't ask questions but it's embarrassing to ask questions.

There's an old quote from Mark Twain:

"It's better to keep you mouth shut and let them think that you are stupid than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."

We've all learned this lesson too well.


These two pictures are of the 24 hour fruit stand about 5 blocks from my dorm. I like going there at night after the heat has gone down. Last time I spend 260NT(~$8.12) for
4 Fuji apples, 2 Bala and 1/8 of a watermelon, I don't think this was exactly a good deal. Then I read the labels and it turns out the apples are from Chile and the price of the watermelon seems to indicate that it was imported too. Only the bala was local and cheap. There are lots of local fruit for sale but I don't know there name


and haven't tried them. I should be more adventurous and try some of the mystery fruits. lots of them need a knife and cutting board to get through the skin. So for today I'm buying a cutting board.

I think Taiwanese love fruit and are willing to spend to try foreign fruit from New Zealand, Chile and California. I have to confess I did buy two peaches without looking at the label until I got back to the dorm. They were from California. The locavor movement hasn't yet made it to Taiwan.



Here's the Fuji apple from Chile and the inside of the native bala(Guava). Watch out for the seeds inside, they can be hard of the teeth.










Here's a different kind of apple from Chile and the peach from California.


My new motto is:

"More fruit, Less pai gu!"








This the typical taxi in Taipei and Tainan. It is a Toyota Altis, which is pretty close to a Toyota Corrolla. Not all of the taxis are this new.

While in Taipei, we once rode in a BMW taxis and my nephew asked him what's the deal? The driver was retired but didn't want to stay at home so he bought the BMW and turned it into a Taxis which he drives all day. (The bus man's holiday). It costs him twice as much to operate because it uses premium gas and it gets lower gas mileage and the fares are fixed by the city government. He is my retirement hero.