Photo by MJ Klein

In this blog you will find articles about Lee (and also Paul), friends of mine in Taoyuan with whom I like to party.

That’s Mr. Lee on the left, singing karaoke with Hui-chen.  I got some bad news today: Mr. Lee suffered a heart attack and he didn’t make it.   I used to enjoy singing and drinking with Mr. Lee, who was known for his excellent English skills and his love for singing English songs, often in harmony with me.  Mr. Lee, you will be missed.

Video by MJ Klein

Another video of the big hill, but this time I used the new GoPro Helmet Hero WIDE camera.  The trike gets going pretty fast by the time it reaches the bottom of the hill.

I’m having fun with this new camera!

Photos by MJ Klein

UPDATE:  Please register for this event.  While registration is not a requirement, we would all like to see who is going to attend.  Thanks for your cooperation!

It’s time for another blogger party folks!  This time, it’s going to be a grill party on the beach!

I’d been searching for a new place to do something different, and in my travels I found a cool place by the beach that would make for an excellent blogger party.  I’ll show you some photos in a minute, but first, let me announce the date (and why).

September 19th, 2009

In case of a typhoon, the backup date is September 26, 2009.

Where: Sinfong, Taiwan. Coordinates: 24 54.698 120 57.994 (plug this into Google Maps).  It’s just off Route 15 along the coast.  Very easy accessible from anywhere in Taiwan.

The place is very easy to find and the coastline here is incredible.  Like many beaches in Taiwan you cannot swim here, but the view is nice and there is always a cool breeze.  What’s more important is there is a place where we can set up some grills and have a party and no one will bother us.

Why This Date?

September is much cooler than July and August, yet warmer than October.  The weekend before is still part of Ghost Month, and many people don’t go out during that time.  The weekend after is fine too, but then there isn’t any backup date in case of a typhoon.  This date is still plenty of time before the Lunar Festival so it won’t interfere with that holiday.  So, September 19th seems to be the perfect date.

Here are some details about the place:

There is a sizeable parking lot.

Just around the corner is the first of two shelters.  You can also park on the right side across from the shelter.

We’ll have to bring some tables to make things easier.  I have a small portable table and a few chairs that I’m going to bring.  We could use a few tarps and some rope to extend the top for better sun shielding.

Next to the shelter is a “boardwalk” where lots of people walk on the weekends.

The view on the Taiwan Straight is very nice.

This area also has some great bicycle trails so bring your bike!  You can ride all the way up into Yong An if you like!  There is also a place to rent one of those 4-wheel bicycles.

I’m going to arrive early in the morning to set up in the shelter.  Like Yong An, you can’t “reserve” the shelter so it’s first come-first served.  The good news is that there is another shelter down the road from this one.  There is nothing stopping us from setting up on the sand or on the boardwalk either.  So no matter what happens, we can have a good time and enjoy the outdoors!

What To Bring?

• Whatever you want to eat, and drink.
• Portable grill
• Charcoal
• Small table (and chairs if you like)
• Bicycle(s)

We Could Use:

• Tarp to extend the roof
• Rope to tie the tarp

Hope to see you all there!

Total Attendees: 2

#	Name
1.	MJ & Hui-chen
2.	Olivia, Karen & Andre

Video by MJ Klein

There I was, riding along, minding my own business, when my air pump fell off the trike!  I was going through a tunnel and apparently hit a few bumps that were more than the pump could take and it fell off the mounting bracket.  So then I had to park the trike, walk back and get the pump out of the tunnel.  This being Taiwan, that was easier said than done!  In fact, it was a bit dangerous since the tunnel is narrow and big trucks go through there.

I offer you this video, hosted on Youtube.  Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!  We’re looking forward to your comments.

Photos by MJ Klein, Hui-chen, and other people that used our camera!

UPDATE: Here is Ashish’s account of the day, on his blog.  Here is Carrie’s account of the day’s events.

I have 2 videos for you from that day.  I’ve embedded them at the end of this article for your convenience.

It was time for another fantastic day at the Miaoli cabin.

Like, usual, the event started out by my talking with Becky about another party.  We invited a few people we knew would enjoy being there, and before you know it, we had a party on our hands!

I know this is an unusual opening shot but whenever you see charcoal being started with a torch you know you’re in for some serious cooking of some sort!  Today was no exception!

Before I get too far along in the article, there is something that I wanted to say to those who weren’t invited to this party.  This was not a blogger event. People were talking about it on Twitter and I didn’t want to give the impression that some people missed out hearing about an organized event.  This was a private party but we bloggers tend to make much of what we do, public.  This article is a good example.  So please don’t take offense if you weren’t invited.  Space is limited and quite frankly the ones who were invited this time were the ones who have expressed a desire to go to the cabin for the next party.

I will reveal that the next planned Bushman event will be in September: Bushman’s Blogger Beach Party! I’ll have more details on that one shortly!

I brought 2 Dutch ovens with me, a 12″ and a 10″.  There was also Becky’s dad’s 12″ on hand, and I used all 3 of them.  I set up the Dutch oven cooking area on the side of the cabin, as usual.

While I was setting up, the first group of people who were there began setting things up (in the background).  That’s Andre’s parents on the left, talking with Hui-chen’s mother.

Some closer up shots of the Dutch oven work area.

This is my 12″ (with the cracked lip on the lid) going.

Neil fired up the grill in the front and began grilling some meat.  Other fare is shown on the table.

After the first Dutch oven had been going for about 30 minutes, I set up the second one and then stacked them up.

Nothing like a stack of Dutch ovens!

Hui-chen took this shot of me checking things out.

I don’t know who took this shot but it shows the waterway that goes by the cabin.  Later on people would be hunting for shrimp here.

A few more people arrived.

What a great front porch!

Sorry that I wasn’t able to hang out under the porch at the beginning.  I was tending the DOs.

This is the first dish, all done.  Or should I say overdone?  This is chicken and stewed vegetables.   The top coals had baked the dish but was just a little bit too hot and it scorched the very top of the food.  I used some rosemary that grows on the property of the cabin, and the rosemary flavor permeated this dish nicely.

Carrie Marshall in the background on the left, and our friend Tiffany on the right.

This was the second dish I cooked - stuffed peppers and mushrooms.  I used cilantro (coriander) for the spicing in this dish.

Here is a close up of the chicken dish.  As you can see, the black part looks a lot worse than it really was.  We just cut that out.  But I do hate it when that happens.  Managing the top coals is perhaps one of the most difficult things about Dutch oven cooking.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the food and no one complained about the burnt flavor.  Thanks everyone!

HC’s mother & Tiffany.

The weather was really great.  It sprinked 2 times for about 10 minutes each.  The clouds rolled in a few times and the scenery was simply gorgeous.

This shot can only mean one thing - John is cooking his famous burgers again!

He used the teppanyaki pan on the grill.

John, hard at work.

Just about done!

Putting the finishing touches on the Kellen-burgers (sorry about that pun John, but I saw it here first).

The finished product.

Hui-chen’s mom enjoying one of John’s famous burgers.  For those of you who have yet to experience them, one of the ingredients is bleu cheese.  The combination is excellent and the flavors match very well.

Everyone was tucking in.

The last Dutch oven item was a chocolate/cherry cake.  I’ve done this one before and it came out just about perfect this time.

Tiffany liked the cake.

Caleb, John’s son, was energetically playing catch with David and John.  I got some of that on video (to be edited soon).  Caleb is a very nice young man and everyone enjoyed having him around.

Someone used my camera and took some nice shots of flowers on the property.  Whoever you are, thank you!

Just hanging out on an old log.

One of the human faced spiders that inhabit the area.

You know by now, that we just had to have some karaoke at the cabin!  I brought my PA and set it up outside.  Then we hijacked the TV and put it on the big table.

Carrie was in great form and she sounded excellent.

Here I am taking a turn at it.

Caleb getting in on the act.  Cute!

Here he is again!

MJ @ the mic.

While Carrie and I were singing, some of the others went hunting for river shrimp in the waterway that goes by the cabin.

They caught a few shrimp but I really don’t know how many because I was too busy singing together with Carrie.  We don’t get a chance to do that very often.

But soon, we had to pack up and leave.  It was all too short!

I want to thank everyone for coming to our little party in Miaoli.  It was a fun time and we hope to do it again soon.

Thanks for reading.  We welcome your comments below, and feel free to rate this article.

July In Miaoli from MJ Klein on Vimeo.

Dutch Oven Chicken from MJ Klein on Vimeo.

Photo and video by MJ Klein

By now all our readers know that I enjoy riding, especially the recumbent trike.  I’ve taken lots of photos and done ride reports using my Nikon D80.  But I’ve been looking for a camera specifically designed to capture action for activites such as rides, and I’ve found such a camera - the Gopro Helmet Hero WIDE angle.

The Helmet Hero comes in an impressive package with a clear plastic case on top.

While not intending to be a review of the camera, I will tell you a few of the cool features:

• Records on an SD card (up to 56 minutes of continuous video).
• 5 MP still camera.
• Self-timer.
• Interval photo mode, either 2 or 5 seconds.
• Has a waterproof plastic case (to 10 meters).
• Various mounts that stick on flat or curved surfaces.
• Helmet mount (for vented bicycle helmets).
• Wearable head strap.
• Versatile mounting system to adjust X and Y axis position.
• 170 degree field of vision (very wide-angle!)
• Upside down capture mode for increased mounting flexibility.

This camera was more than I bargained for and I am very pleased with the results I am getting.  I recommend reading the information on the website as well as viewing the sample videos there to get the maximum information.  I purchased the camera in Taiwan from Riddle Technology (through PC Home).  They made it very easy because their salesperson is on Skype and speaks English.  I gave them my CC information in an email and they shipped me the camera.  It couldn’t have been easier and the whole transaction beats having to use a Chinese website to order something!

Now of course you know that right away I took the camera out for a ride and gave it a test.  I used the Giant MTB and rode to the other side of Hukou and got lunch to take back home.  I shot video (using the helmet mount) and captured the ride.  It was actually raining a bit so the waterproof case came in very handy.  I’ll leave you with this first video to enjoy.  I’m looking forward to bringing you lots more ride videos!

Lunchtime Bicycle Ride from MJ Klein on Vimeo.

Thanks for reading!  We’d like your comments on this article.

We’re proud to bring you a guest article written by our friend Mike, from Lynn, Massachusetts.  Mike is a frequent reader of this blog (as well as a long-time personal friend of The Bushman) and he knows our readers love articles about food!  So, please enjoy Mike’s first guest article:

The 2009 Phantom Gourmet BBQ Beach Party

Photos and article by Mike01905

Its time again fro the Phantom Gourmet BBQ Beach Party. “The Phantom Gourmet” is a TV show in the Boston area.  They review restaurants throughout most of the 6-state New England region and they review everything that is food related. Whether its Chinese, Sushi, Pizza, BBQ, Seafood, Bakeries, Candy shops, and anything else you can think of, they’ve reviewed it.

For the past 3 years, TV show has sponsored their BBQ Beach Party. They visited various BBQ Masters around the USA and invited the best of those that they visited to come to Boston to take part. The first 2 years were held at Boston City Hall Plaza. This year they held the event in 2 locations. On June 19-21 they were at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods in Ledyard, CT and on June 26-28 they were at Suffolk Downs in East Boston, MA.

Now I’m not much of a writer… but here is my article that MJ wanted me to write on the 2009 Phantom Gourmet BBQ Beach Party. I think at this time I need to give MJ’s “food warning” for this article.

The Phantom Gourmet (www.phantomgourmet.com) BBQ Beach Party that I attended was held at Suffolk Downs in East Boston from June 26tth thru June 28th. They trucked in 100 tons (90.7 metric tons) of sand to create their “beach”. There were 8 BBQ Teams that took part in this event. Seven of them were from different parts of the USA and one came all the way from Australia. Seven of the eight BBQ Teams took part in the event last year with one new BBQ Team this year.

Taking part in this years BBQ Beach Party were…

• Paul “Aussom Aussie” Mackay - Aussom Aussie BBQ - Sydney, Australia
• Dallas “Beef Baron” Green - Cowboys Barbecue and Rib Co. – Fort Worth, Texas
• Joey Sutphen – Joey’s Texas Thunder BBQ – Amarillo, Texas
• Dennis “The Don” Carrino - Porky N’ Beans - St Lucie, Florida
• Johnny “No Sauce” Willingham - Willingham’s BBQ - Memphis, Tennessee
• “Happy” Jack Mcdavid - Jack’s Down Home Barbecue - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Dan “Arkansas” Johnson - Johnson’s Bar-B-Que - Chesapeake, Virginia
• Steve “Boston Bulldog” Uliss - Firefly’s Bar-B-Que - Boston, Massachusetts

All of these teams arrived with big 50 to 60 foot (15 to 18 meters) long trailers that were complete with smokers, grills, meats, and everything else they needed for the event. All of them have won many awards in different parts of the USA and in other countries. They’ve won “Best Ribs, “Best Sauce”, and other various categories.

Now ribs were the biggest seller of the event, then probably followed by pulled pork sandwiches.

All of these BBQ Teams smoke their ribs anywhere from 4 to 6 hours before putting them on the grill and applying their BBQ sauce to them. They smoke their brisket and pork shoulder 16 to 18 hours before putting them on the grill and applying the BBQ sauce. Some of the BBQ teams had items that only they made and they all had their own special BBQ sauces.

• Aussom Aussie BBQ - The Aussom Aussie has won more than 150 awards in the USA, Canada, And of course Australia. His BBS sauce is “fruit based” because at a time, apples were cheaper than tomatoes in Australia.  The “base” of his BBQ sauce is made from Apple, Pineapple, Orange, and Tomato. Then he adds in his combination of spices to give it his award winning taste. His BBQ sauce tastes sweeter than most other sauces.
• Cowboys Barbecue and Rib Co. - His BBQ Sauce has won “Best Sauce” awards over and over.  He’s the winner of over 180 State, Regional, and World titles. He can’t be missed at BBQ Competitions in his big 10-gallon (or would you call it a 15 gallon) foam cowboy hats. Probably best known for his BBQ brisket.
• Firefly’s Bar-B-Que - The hometown favorite. They had a couple of nice items for the BBQ Beach Party. With Boston/New England being known for its fresh seafood, they had a plate they sold that they called ”Bellies and Bones” which consisted of 3 BBQ ribs and 6oz (170 grams) of fried clams. They also had “The Bulldowg” which is an 8oz (227 gram) Pearl Hot Dog along with shredded chedder cheese and BBQ pulled pork all piled into an 8inch (20cm) long roll. The hot dog was so big, it looked more like a sausage.
• Jack’s Down Home Barbecue - Even tho he is an incredible overall chef (even won Food & Wine magazine’s “Best Chefs in America” award), BBQ is what he loves to do the most. Probably best known for his ribs and pulled pork, he also makes some great BBQ nachos.
• Joey’s Texas Thunder BBQ – Winner of many BBQ awards… probably best known for his ribs and BBQ sauce. When at various events… he’s also known for his red, white, and blue cowboy boots and his big, chrome 6-shooter which are actually a smoker.

• Johnson’s Bar-B-Que - Known for having probably the hottest BBQ sauce at the BBQ Beach Party. He had 3 kinds with him. His X rated sauce is called All American. His XX rated sauce is called Fire Starter. His XXX rated sauce is called Thermo-Nuclear. They say “Johnson’s Thermo-Nuclear sauce will improve your cardiovascular system, sinus, colon, and pancreas instantly. No Guts, No Glory” (ok… I wimped out and only tried his XX rated Fire Starter sauce which had a mighty kick to it). For his Thermo-Nuclear sauce, you must sign a “release of liability” form. You have to be LESS than 7 months pregnant AND you must be 21 years of age or have parental consent.
• Porky N’ Beans - “The Don” (as he’s known as) has won many Best Ribs and Best Sauce awards over the years. He’s known for creating the “Kansas City Double Stacked” sandwich which is half BBQ beef and half BBQ pork on a double-decker roll. He also had HUGE BBQ Beef Ribs (need a knife and fork to eat them) as well as smoked and BBQ’ed turkey legs.
• Willingham’s BBQ - Their saying is “BBQ sauce was invented to cover up the mistakes of bad BBQ”. They don’t use any BBQ sauce on the things they make. They’ve been winning BBQ awards going back to 1983 for Best Ribs, Best Pork, Best Lamb, Best Brisket, and even Best Whole Hog.

No matter who you bought things from, all of the BBQ Teams had tables setup with 3 or 4 different styles of their BBQ sauce so you could add more sauce to what you bought (I believe only Johnson’s Bar-B-Que didn’t have containers of BBQ sauce to add to what you bought). Even Willingham’s BBQ had containers of BBQ sauce if you wanted to add some of their sauce to their items.

All of the places had the standard items and some places had things that only they had. Aussom Aussie BBQ had BBQ Shrimp on the Barbie. Porky n’ Beans had huge beef ribs as well as smoked and BBQ’ed turkey legs. Willingham’s BBQ had southern fried catfish and hush puppies (being from the northern USA, I have NO idea what those are). Jack’s Down Home Barbecue had BBQ nachos. Firefly’s had deep fried clams.

Prices were pretty much the same for everyone that served up the same things. A 3 rib “sampler” or “teaser” was USD , a 6 rib “half slab” was USD , and a 13 rib “full slab” was USD . Pulled Pork and BBQ Chicken sandwiches were USD . You could add USD to various items to make them a platter (with beans, cole slaw, and cornbread).

If you were in the mood for something other than BBQ… there were other things to choose from. The Upper Crust was there selling their very thin and very crunchy crust pizza. Fuddruckers was there selling their burgers, hot dogs, french fries, and onion rings.  Boardwalk Fries was there selling roasted corn on the cob, french fries and chicken fingers.

For desserts, Wicked Whoopies was there selling various varieties of their whoopie pies, Wholly Cannoli was there selling cannoli’s that they were making up fresh on location.

And of course… there was plenty of water, soda, and beer to go around.

There was also some entertainment at the BBQ Beach Party. The BaHa Brother’s band played each night. They are a cover band that plays mostly “beach music” (Jimmy Buffett, The Beach Boys) but also covers other classic music from the 50’s to the 90’s. They had a mechanical bull for those that wanted to try to stay on for 8 seconds as well as a mechanical surf board for those that wanted to try and “hang ten”. Also, since the event was held at Suffolk Downs, on Saturday there was also live horse racing going on.

Tickets for the event were USD if you bought them in advance online and USD if you bought them at the event.

Now that the Phantom Gourmet BBQ Beach Party is over, they are probably starting to work on next year’s event. Next
up for the Phantom Gourmet is their Food Festival which will be held on September 26, 2009 in the shadows of historic Fenway Park. Tickets are USD which allows you to sample the food of all of places that will be there (advertising 80 different places), give you access to the clubs in the area that will be doing things for the food festival, and so on. Beverages aren’t included in the USD ticket. It’s a 21 and older event.

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures for this event as well as last years Phantom Gourmet BBQ Beach Party and other pictures I’ve taken at various events, go to my Flickr page located at…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike01905/

—

Thanks for a great on-the-ground report Mike!  Wish we could have been there!  Looks like an incredible food fest of BBQ offerings, sauces and a lot more!

Photos by MJ Klein

Wow, what a glorious day it was today.  The sun was shining and no threatening clouds anywhere.  I put on my sunblock, strapped on my helmet and gloves and went for a nice ride on the trike.  Today I decided that I would take my D80 and shoot more photos than I normally do.  I found that I don’t mind riding with the camera around my neck.  For those of you who are visiting from other countries, you’re going to get a nice view of what it’s like to ride in Taiwan.

But that’s not all.  Since I had the GPS running, and the GPS was also recording a track log, I used GpicSync to geotag all the photos from my ride, so they work with geotag-aware sites such as Flickr.  So, clicking on any photo will take you to the photo’s page on Flickr, where you can then view it’s position on the map.

UPDATE: For some unknown reason, some of the photos in the blog did not link to their Flickr photo page.  I’ll try to correct this but I cannot find the reason for it.  The same exact procedure was used to post every photo but a group of them in the center of the article did not link.  Weird.

I broke the Nikon out around 30 minutes after I took off on my ride.  This is one of the roads that I ride on in the Sinfong area on my way to the coast.  I was heading in the same general area as I had done in a previous ride, but I took a different route on the way back.

These street shots are nothing special, but I’m familiar with them and some of these places represent personal milestones along the way.

Look at the sky!

Today was perfect.

This is one of the intersections where you can take either the left fork, or the right fork.  I took the right and kept going straight.

I had to stop because this car was backing out of the garage shown to the right.  An elderly gentleman was waving the car on and out into the roadway, acting like a traffic cop.  When the car was out in the middle of the road, he stopped is waving and went around to the front of the car.  The driver didn’t stop though, and backed into a truck that was parked on the roadside.  That dimple in the bumper is the result.

I’m approaching an intersection that I’m always cautious of.

That is the “Chen Shan” woodworking store on the right.  I like the store, but seeing it reminds me to be aware.

There is a group of stray dogs that live at the OK store.  Whenever they see me, they run after me, barking.  Some of them seem very aggressive and I’m always prepared to strike back at them.  Today there was only one dog and he was asleep.  Fortunately the trike is nearly silent and he didn’t wake up.  About 2 KM back I was chased by one dog already.  I gave him a good solid blast on the air horn and he went running for cover.

Like my previous ride, I took a left and went to the mangrove park area.

One of our famous bike path signs embedded in the road.

This is the “red tree” area that we’ve blogged about before.

Passing under the new route 61.

This time, I parked the trike and got onto the walking bridge that goes across the canal.

The Taiwan Straight looked absolutely gorgeous today!

Looking East towards the highway.

A wide-angled shot looking toward the ‘Straight.

There wasn’t enough shade for me to park the trike under.  But I wasn’t planning on being there very long anyway.

I continued down to the water.

This is the beginning of the bike trail.

I went out to the edge of the Taiwan Straight and parked the trike again.  This ship was crusing the ‘Straight.

This colored brick work goes on and on….

Today I checked out a couple of shelters to see if they were suitable for having a beach party.  More on that later!

A view of Hsinchu city.

This is not the bike path, but the road along the coast.

Soon, I took a turn and got back on the bike path.  This is a beautifully forested area near the coastline.

In a moment you’ll see that I’m heading for the dead-end.

But now that I know it connects to the older part of the trail,

I can get on the trail from there and continue around the dead-end.

At times the old trail gets pretty rough!  A guy on a scooter came from the opposite way and I had to pull over to let him pass.

You can see where we are on the GPS.  I moved the equipment around a little bit so one of these days I’m going to have to do another update on the trike cockpit layout.

This is the end of the old trail.  Ahead is unexplored trail.

Same position, view to the right.  That’s highway 61 at the light.

I decided to continue down the unexplored trail to see where it went.  I found out: someone’s house!  I did a quick turn around because I remembered passing that house before on the highway, and I heard quite a few dogs barking.  I didn’t need them chasing me.

I took that trail to the right and crossed highway 61.  This is a typical bike trail in Taiwan.  Bikes are supposed to travel in that tiny lane, even if it’s on the wrong side of the road with reference to the direction of travel.

I turned left onto a section where I had a run-in with someone’s dog a few weeks ago.

That mutt was nowhere to be seen today, though.  These kinds of scenes are quite common in Taiwan.

Bike trail sign points me to the left.

Then I took a right and,

out onto a road that crosses highway 15.

Someone is building a pretty nice house on that road.

This is route 117 heading in to Hukou.  Home is about 10 KM from here if memory serves.

Winding my way down to the turn into Hukou.

I wanted to head into Hukou to get something to eat.

This is a milestone turn-off that leads to the downtown of Hukou.

Today I was going to take a slightly different route though.

I came to this railroad crossing as I made my way across the tracks an into the main area of downtown Hukou.

But the train had other ideas!

My first stop at a railroad crossing on the trike.  When you’re sitting there on the trike and all exposed, you can really feel the power of the train as it passes!

One cool thing about Taiwan’s railway crossings is that they tell you the train direction.  That’s not the direction that the train is coming from but rather the train’s actual direction of travel.

I snapped this photo as I passed the tracks.

Finally, I pulled in at a restaurant across from the train station.

This is a very hastily framed shot of my lunch, 1/2 eaten.  Those are boneless duck feet on the left, and dry noodles.

This is the Hukou train station.  Hukou has some very beautiful women and they pass through this station a lot.

Now I’m on the way home.  There is a huge government construction project going on, and the fences go on forever.  No one seems to know what it’s all about though.

Heading back on the final 5 KM.

There is a gentle down slope that’s welcome after a long ride.

One last hill to climb to get back home.

I’m about 1/2 up.

Rounding the summit and on the straight and flat.

Left turn,

through the tunnel,

and we’re back in the Hukou industrial area.

Thanks for reading.  We hope you liked taking this ride with us, and check out the geotagged photos on the map.  Please leave us your comments and a rating below!

Photos by MJ Klein, and anyone else who grabbed my camera!

We had been wanting to do another roof party for some time, but lately we’ve been battling bad weather.  All during the week we were watching the weather forecasts to see if the approaching typhoon would veer off and spare us.  It did!  The party was a “go” for launch!

The clouds looked threatening, almost like they were saying that they weren’t going to give up so easily!  But the threat of a storm turned out to be mostly more hot air.

I had been shooting photos in my foyer and had used a funky white balance setting.  I forgot to reset the camera back to normal, and this explains the reddish hue, although the setting sun cast a huge red bath on everything so I do kind of like the effect.  Hey, there are all these people out there screwing up their photos with Photoshop so if I tell everyone that I just ’shopped them, then that makes my photos more “artistic” right?  So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Andre (L), Olivia and Karen were in attendance.  I’ll introduce the others in a moment.

The only thing that I don’t like about having roof parties is hauling up all the stuff to the roof.  Thank goodness I had plenty of help or else it never would have happened.  The cooler is packed with ice and drinks.

This is new father Asish, holding baby Susan.  We’d never seen Susan before so it was a real treat having her with us!

The first thing that went on the grill were these pork ribs.

Using the top creates more of that smoky flavor.  The ribs turned out very well.

I asked Olivia to take my photo….

She sure is cute!

This is new mom Selina, Ashish’s wife.  Selena is holding Susan who has decided to take a little nap.

About this time, the sky began to threaten us with dark clouds.

The air was remarkably clear though and the Taiwan Straight was easily visible from the rooftop.

So far, so good, and the threatening clouds weren’t producing any rain.

Hui-chen attends to the grill while I talk with Selena.  Not long after this we began to feel some raindrops.

The cloud formations were incredible!

A few drops did come down, and only enough to make some spots on the umbrellas, but the rain didn’t last and soon the clouds cleared out and the sky became bright and beautiful again.

This is salt pork and some burger buns toasting.  The salt pork was incredible as always, but personally I was too stuffed to eat much of it.  This is what happens when you lose weight and get accustomed to smaller portions as I have.  I had to take a break from eating and come back later.

After awhile we took the umbrellas down to enjoy the sunset.

By looking at the shadows on the building in the background, you can tell how low the sun was.  It cast a beautiful red glow on everything.

Hehe!

The day winds down….

We really enjoyed meeting Susan.  She is so cute!

I wish I had taken this photo.  Its cool because of the multiple lighting elements present.  I like the glowing coals in the grill, and also teh street lights.  The light was fading fast.

This was the last photo I took of the evening.  We turned on the patio lights and lit the torches.  Our party would down around 10:00 PM.  It was a great ending to a perfect day of relaxing and eating.

The next day Hui-chen and I lazed around in bed for most of the day.  We were so relaxed from the day before.  We got up in the late afternoon and decided to grill some of the leftovers:

Outside, the neighborhood kids were playing a game of Dodge-Stickball.

I think I’m going to keep this relaxed feeling for several more days!

Thanks for reading!.  We look forward to your comments below.

Photos by MJ Klein

Wow, we’ve had a lot of great meals in 2006!  It’s our pleasure to bring you part #5 of the 2006 series.  This is a meal we had in Laohukou with our good friend Saumen.

Pan fried togun or dried tofu.

Cold Chicken with dipping sauce.

This was the best dish on the table - Pan Fried Shark.

Duck Intestine with Garlic Greens.  A great version of this dish!

A Taiwanese standard: Pan Fried Cabbage with Chili.

We had an enjoyable time with some green tea and Taiwan beer.  Wish you could have joined us!

Thanks for reading!  Please leave your comments with us below!