Chinese New Year preparations!

Chinese New Year is approaching and city is decorated with Red lanterns and tiger shaped designs. Malls are super crowded, people are flocking to every shop and every mall to buy gifts for families and for themselves. All the SALE signs now have been updated to FINAL SALE signs. People at work are busy planning for their vacations for a week long holiday. Some have already taken extended holiday and things are starting to slow down. People have already got their fatter pay check in Dec and January ( love the 14 month pay system instead of 12 months) and there are no inhibitions against confident spending. I love the way culture and economics play along with each other. Now, this scene is no different than the scene you would see in weeks approaching Christmas in US and other Western countries or Diwali in India. Everybody goes shopping and trips when the vacation approaches in any part of the well-to-do world. This isn’t as exciting to me so I have to deep digger and discover more of the local customs and celebrations that differentiates Chinese New year from Christmas.

So I start talking to my peers weeks before CNY and start to get my scoop on real Chinese New Year celebrations. The preparation for CNY will start few weeks before the actual day. It starts with the cleansing custom. House is thouroughly washed and cleaned to get rid of ill-fortune so that it makes space for the good fortune in the coming year. I learn from my peers that on Saturday he and his wife had cleansed his parents house on Sunday they cleansed his wife’s parents house and then following weekend they will clean their own house. This was very common in Taipei and it is considered their duty to clean houses of their old parent’s house. But many times parents live in smaller towns away from the city and in this case their children will make arrangements to get their house cleansed. Now, I do have to say that cleansing custom is also widely prevalent in India before the Diwali times. I remember as a kid we used to help parents every single corner of the house and in exchange we used to get lot of Diwali treats at the end of the day. After the cleaning is completed, they will also paint doors and windows with RED color and put lanterns and paper cut outs on the door saying things like “fortune”, “wealth” and “Longevity”. Oh, so similar to the “Shubh”.”Labh” stickers or cut-outs that we used to put on the doors and colourful designs that we used to paint on the floor right outside our door (Rangoli) to welcome good luck and fortune in our homes in India.

Coming back to CNY day, it’s the day to earn lot of money. People will travel and visit relatives who are eldest in the family and extended family usually parents, grand-parents. Red packets ( envelopes filled with money) are exchanged on this day. Children will receive these red pockets from elders in the family but once children starts earning they will start giving red pockets to their parents instead of receiving from their parents. I think this makes so much sense and it is so practical. Even at workplace all employees receive Red Packets from their employers but bigger companies like us now directly deposit money in your salary account. All the family members will have a grand meal together and enjoy some family entertainment. In earlier days, there will be holiday food prepared at home but these days atleast in Taipei they have chosen a shortcut of ordering food from outside or going out to eat. All the restaurants and hotels are now advertising their CNY family style menu for in-restaurant or take-outs. Reminds me of Thanksgiving meals that people order from outside in US. Afer dinner and entertainment, kids and family members will watch the fire crackers. Taipei city has a dedicated Fire-cracker show put up for the occasion.

On the second day of CNY, married women must visit her parents house. They say that uou cannot go on the CNY day itself as it is considered a bad omen. I did not get a good explaination for what happens if you do that. My guess is that in olden days families lived far apart and it was not practical to visit two sets of familes boy side and girl side on the same day. My peers have warned me to not be too ambitious and travel or drive on that day as I will 100% get stuck in traffic and the whole country or Chinese community in the world will travel to get blessings from the girl’s parents.

This festivities will go on for 15 days and on the last day also called pinyin, families will lit lanterns outside their houses to help wayward spirits find their way home. Other custom very prevalent in Taiwan is to fire the lantern and let it rise up in the air. Messages and wishes are written on these lanterns so that God can read their wishes and help them out of their worries. Thousands of lanterns rise in the air on this day giving it a magical look, I definitely plan to visit the pinyin area and witness this marvellous site myself.

Winter Fashions

Walking up and down the Da-an area is my favourite pass time. Watching people walk, stroll, run, shop, eat and nap is too much fun. Amongst all this action, you cannot miss to notice that the fashion sense of the city is way above normal and it will definitely score very high if there was such a contest among World cities! This early February streets are filled with chic urban women in fitted woolen coats, stockings, long boots and the look completed with desginer accessories like hats, scarves and bags. Unlike NYC or Chicago, I am surprised that this town is still colourful in terms of wordrobe in winter and does not limit to Black and Grey coats. Collection and variety for coats, boots, hats and all the other Winter accessory is great! I am never bored of window shopping be it the fancy malls or the night markets.
Today is another winter day in February, parade of pretty women continues on the road. I notice beautiful cherry blossoms on the street on my way to work. Sun started to break-in and it was refreshing to get some natural light mixed with the wet mist in the air. Is it spring already? I wondered. I check for temperature and it shows solid 75 degrees. I look around and I still see women in long coats and boots and they continue to look pretty but for godsake its 75 degrees! Please shed your coats and enjoy the Sun! .

Cama Coffee

If you are a type of person who gets kick out of just smell of the coffee without a need to drink it then I highly recommend to go and stand within 100 feet radius of this cool little coffee joint called Cama. The smell of coffee is so strong and inviting that it does free marketing for its brand. You walk towards the smell and you will notice one or two very tiny wooden table with 2-3 tiny stool bars on the side walk by a big pillar. You will always find people sitting there, sipping on their coffee at any time of the day!
The shop behind is completely open and you will see a man grinding fresh coffee at edge of the coffee shop near the pavement, behind him are bunch of sacks of coffee neatly placed on the floor. Now that does explain the coffee smell in the area.
The other thing that you cannot miss is the loud music! They have an excellent music system and they are always playing great music that is perfect to pep you up while you are waiting in the line or waiting for your coffee once you order.
Going back to the décor, its simple, its warm, its catchy. Behind the coffee bean sacks on the wall is several shelfs with coffee makers, coffee mugs and coffee on sale. On the other side of the wall is a wooden shelf serving as a bar table with 3-4 small bar stools. The shelf is also stacked with lots of Taiwanese newspapers and magazines on one corner. Right in front of the shop is the main serving and cash counter which runs wall to wall but its small. If I forgot to mention, this shop is not more than 250 sqft in size )or smaller) where there are at least 6 young smiling baristas are standing at any given time and preparing coffee for you as fast as they can. There is a big menu of coffee right above the counter. They serve all basic types of coffee and tea at a very good price. What I always like to read is the Slimming tea on the menu but I have never tried it yet, smell of the coffee is so good that I cannot take my mind off from coffee and order tea. Once you place your order and pay, you are given a buzzer. When your drink is ready they will buzz you - nothing innovative but I find it very surprising of them to do this for such a tiny little shop.
Now here is the best part about this whole coffee experience. I always settle on the tiny stool inside the shop, pick up my favorite Taiwan Fashion magazine and flip the pages while I listen to some great music. I am always happy at this particular moment, tapping my feet, smelling coffee, watching people standing behind me in line and flipping fashion magazines of which I still do not understand a written word. I remember one time I was so lost in my moment that my buzzer kept ringing and I did not even notice it ( I blamed it on the nice loud music ;) ) Tiny little girl behind the counter gave up on me and somehow managed to walk out of the counter to hand over my cup of fresh cappuccino.

Tiamore Café, He Ping

We decided to walk out of work on a pleasant Dec afternoon in search for that warm smell of coffee. Sun was out today and weather felt nice and crisp after a long cold and wet week. We were on our feet and moving without any prior knowledge of where we are heading. I enjoyed the feeling of exploring the streets, where I had know idea of where I was heading but I was sure I'll keep walking until I find that right warm smell of coffee. I wonder if the explorers feel the same way when they go out on excursions on unknown lands for weeks and months or years.
Well fortunately or not, we did not have to go too far on our exploration. On He-Ping road, not very far from our office we noticed 3 old local men sitting on a table on the side walk and laughing loudly with their cup of coffee! Behind the table was the old western style big glass window, dressed with traditional white curtains and simple Christmas decoration. Smell of coffee was welcoming and so we entered the Tiamore Coffee shop.
At this hour, we were the only patrons in the warm coffee shop apart from the three old men who decided to sit out in the open air. There was a book shelf on the right as we entered, small display of desserts and cakes right in front of us and a coffee bar on the left hand side wall of the shop. I could have taken the interiors for an old tavern or a western bar if it was not serving coffee. There were 8 -10 wooden tables with Red table cloth and wooden chairs neatly lined up by the right hand side wall of the café. Walls were lined up with big sized frames of very diverse things! One of the frame was of Sydney harbour while one more was replica of last supper but with modern White Men and Women instead of Jesus and his disciples. Each table had a little paper lamp and it was decorated with a Christmas tree paper cut-out, cute!
Waiter very promptly filled our glasses with water and gave us the tea time menu. They had tea-time sets of drink and a snack / dessert. They were offering bottom less regular coffee at this hour but other drinks were only by the cup. I must say, they had a pretty elaborate list of teas, chocolate drinks but coffee was left to basic expresso, americano and cappuccino. Well, most of the times I stick to Cappucino for my afternoon drink but sometimes I like to see more options on the menu. Especially in winters, I like the smell of cinnamon or nutmeg or toffee in drink to add the warmth. We ordered our drinks and in due time our drinks were served in nice abstract art cups and a small wooden condiments tray of Cinnomon, chocolate powder and brown sugar. Coffee was very good, not very strong and tasted nice with a dash of cinnamon on the froth.
All delighted and warm, I was ready to head back to work.