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Photos by MJ Klein - Attention: FOOD PHOTOS!

UPDATE: I’ve added some video to the end of the article.

It was another great weekend in Taiwan.  The weather let up on us a bit and it got something approaching cooler.  So, when Becky invited us up to their cabin in Miaoli, well we knew it was a great time in the making!

The ride up was spectacular as we took the mountain road that comes up behind the cabin.  We brought our friend Ed with us and he’s very well traveled.  His comment is that he’d never been on a road like that one before and the mountain view was one of the top things he’s ever seen.  We agree!  Taiwan is incredible but you have to get out of Taipei to find out.

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Photos by MJ Klein  Caution: Food Photos!

As most of you know by now, Hui-chen and I went back to the USA for about 3 weeks. The reason for this trip will become apparent in future parts of this series. In Part One, I want to introduce you to a few people and places.

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Photos by MJ Klein - Attention: Food Photos!

The weather has been great for the past few days so we decided (of course!) to have a party up on our roof! We invited Andres and his family along with his friend and co-worker Rich. We had a great time with good company and good food.

I have been wanting to build some kind of an outdoor cooking table for some time. I wanted one that could hold a Dutch oven and also a grill and do everything I needed to do in connection with cooking outdoors on the roof. So, I went to B&Q and bought some stuff, and spend a few hours on Friday putting it all together. Take a look at what I built:

This is the far end of the roof at the back of the house. This is the cooking table that I made from ordinary shelfing materials you can buy in Taiwan. We also picked up the small black grill in the left corner. It’s basically a copy of a tried and true US design.

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Photos by Huang Shao Mao, Hui-chen and MJ Klein

This article has it all - music, drinking, food, and babes!

Introduction

I am producing the Fong band’s new recording sessions. This is the first production gig I’ve had in Taiwan, and I hope to get more. I’ve really missed producing and it felt great to get back into the studio, although these days “the studio” is a lot different from the 2″ analog tape and huge mixing consoles I’m used to.

In the past, given my considerable experience, I sometimes have performed on records that I’ve produced. This is nothing unusual, and in the case of the Fong band sessions, I played the backing guitar parts, mainly because it would be faster and much more consistient. It remains to be seen whether either of the two guitar players will add some parts to the recording, but at this writing, I personally played all the guitar parts. Needless to say, I won’t be doing any singing on these records because the songs are in the Thai language. I’m sure that I could learn the phonetic pronunciation and fake it but there isn’t any need for me to do so. These guys can sing quite well and we used 3 of them in a “gang vocal” configuration that you’ll see later (with photos taken from video stills).

So I hope you enjoy this article about what we did over the weekend. I enjoyed doing all these things for sure!

Bryan Chen, owner and engineer of Wellrick Studio

It was a weekend full of music and fun. It all started out on Friday (which was a holiday here in Taiwan). First, it was guitars, guitars, Burns and VOX mayhem and more guitars!

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I’ve been invited to perform at this year’s Thai New Year Celebration, taking place at Taoyuan Stadium on April 13, 2008.  There is no admission charge and all people are welcome to attend.  This will be a multi-national event with many Southeast Asian countries represented.  I will post more details as they become available.

Food Photos by MJ Klein

Hui-chen and I are off in China and Hong Kong on business for a few days.  We’ll be back soon with some great photos and stories to tell!  In the meantime we’d like to show you some dishes that Hui-chen’s mother cooked during Chinese New Year.

By now, everyone knows that these are the family specialty.   Hui-chen makes her own version too, and they are great.

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February 29 comes once every 4 years.  So, I propose a party at Shao-hui’s!

Hui-chen and I have a visitor coming from the US and he will be here for the 29th.  Let’s show him a great time with the legendary company of Taiwan’s bloggers, and the food and drink at Shao-hui’s.

We’ll be there in the early evening so just show up anytime.  All are welcome to join us!

Check the Geotagged Articles Map to locate Shao-hui’s.

Photos by MJ Klein, and others where noted.

It was almost a throwdown in some respects, but the party at the Blue Sky was more or less successful in that people had a relatively good time, and nobody got hurt, although the event was not up to my personal standards. First, let me thank everyone who ventured out on that cold windy evening to join us. Your company is what makes things like this worthwhile. Second, please allow me to apologize (more on that later).

Why I like Nikon cameras, reason #57: IR remote control. This shot was taken on a tripod from my seat at the table at the far end of the shot.

Many of Taiwan’s famous people were on hand at the surreal Blue Sky.

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Photo by MJ Klein

Hui-chen and I were in Kaohsiung for Chinese New Year. We decided to go to the Liuhe tourist night market for dinner. After finding this huge crowd, we decided to pass on dinner there!

So, how busy was your Chinese New Year?

Food Photos by MJ Klein

At this time of year there are many articles about people in Taiwan attending their company weiya or banquet. I don’t know why but most people write badly about them, as if they hate them. Personally I like weiya banquets and Hui-chen and I were invited to one recently. I like these banquets because it gives me a chance to meet with workers and bosses in an informal manner, do some drinking with them and get a chance to rub shoulders without any pressure. I’ve seen a few bosses get drunk and let loose and even sing a little karaoke. This article will stick to the food though, because although some people hate the weiya, I like the weiya food!

First out of the chute was this appetizer dish, consisting of (clockwise from the bottom) imitation crab meat with a Hollandaise sauce, fish skin, sliced noodles, some kind of seafood skin stuff, and sliced duck meat plus beef.

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