※Burma street in Zhonghe: Li Yuan Yunnan

Preface: I have known Burma street in Zhonghe long time ago, but until I read it on a Japanese magazine that SKY had shown me, I didn't know Burma street is internationally famous now.

I always love Southeast Asia food. When I get to Burma street from Xingnan road, the whole atmosphere is different. There is some kind of exotic smell all over the area, and it makes me wonder where I am for a second...

Anyway, there are a lot of great restaurants on Burma street in Zhonghe. Unless you have some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder (as for cleanness and smell), you will love here as much as I do.

Zhonghe 中和市 is a city in Taipei county, there is a river between Taipei city and Zonghe.

Enjoy.

Here is the Chinese version.

※一週最愛Favorite of the week


Take Taipei MRT to Nan-Shin-Jiao station, then get on Xingnan street and keep walking toward south. Walk pass Zhonghe high school for a few minutes Huaxin street will be on the left hand side.

Make a left turn to Huaxin street, the whole street smells differently, I guess it is the smell of cooking, the incense of Burma food.


Let's start from the beginning of the street, let's start with Yunnan Li Yuan Muslim restaurant on 9 Huaxin street, which closed every Thursdays.


They are always busy in the store, and that's a fresh guarantee.


Chinese characters would be some kind of decoration. It's good to have pictures to help people who don't understand Burma.


They have the best Indian scone in the city. I guess what makes it tastes so good it's because of the freshness. Their scone is thin and not so oily, much better than the ones we have at department stores' basements in Taipei city.


I ordered a Indian scone with pea dipping, with a hot Burma milk tea. You can get instant Burma milk tea in any grocery store on Huaxin street. It tastes a bit of like Thai milk tea, but it got sweeter and more taste of the tea.


Indian scone is small, if one scone can't fulfill the needs you can order chicken soup with rice noodle. The food on Burma street has some kind of depth which is hard to find in Chinese food. Aftertaste is always required.

Afterwords: The restaurants on Burma street in Zhonghe can't be judged by normal standard. They have few things in common:
1, The stores may look old but don't have to be unclean,
2, Food is cheap,
3, Most of them are friendly.
Due to those qualities, I won't put up the chart here since it doesn't mean anything about what we think on Burma street anyway.

貓空茶園魯冰花

從小在城市長大的我生平第一次看到魯冰花，之前百思不得其解，為何茶園裡會出現一排茶樹一排魯冰花的現象呢? 本以為來貓空賞的魯冰花是野生的魯冰花，結果發現居然都是人工裁種的，而且還是產發局協助美化的，現場看起來和之前在家想像的感覺的確不太一樣。

回家後稍稍谷哥了一下，才知道原來茶園裡的魯冰花是拿來當綠肥的，一開花就倒楣，因為開花後就會被當成肥料砍掉。魯冰花雖然早逝卻換來甘美的茶，因此有人將魯冰花比喻為母親，稱它是一種奉獻的花。 換句話說女人一生小孩，就倒大楣被當成「孩肥」，咳咳咳，這個議題爭議性太大，不提也罷。

貓空魯冰花，這二週最美，過了這二週就成綠肥了，想看看什麼是魯冰花的人可要趕快囉。有心想去貓空賞魯冰的人可以繼續往下研究一下，因為貓空那裡的指南路，說起來還蠻詭異的。怎麼說呢，通常一條路的號碼是一邊單號一邊雙號，當遇到巷子就直接以順位的號碼命名。比如說一段二號，一段四號，一段六號，如果一段八號的地方凹進去變成另一條巷道時，就算一段八巷了。 在指南路三段可要小心，因為以上推論完全不成立。

所以貓空茶園魯冰花雖說在指南路三段38巷走進去，卻不在指南路三段32號的下一條走進去，指南路三段38巷其實就是貓空纜車站對面的一條大巷，想看魯冰花的一定得堅持到了貓空纜車站再開始找路，不要像我呆呆的到了指南路三段32號的檳榔攤前就迷路了。


貓一空狗就來。


到了貓空纜車站再往三玄宮方面走去，指南路三段38巷就在那裡。


從三玄宮往裡走不到五分鐘就可以看到樟樹步道的指示牌，茶園魯冰花就在樟樹步道上。


往樟樹步道走去約走個五分鐘才會看到茶園魯冰花。一排茶樹一排魯冰花還蠻特別的。


黃澄澄的魯冰花其實還蠻可愛的。


魯冰花的葉子上長有小小的纖毛可以把水滴留在上面，晶瑩剔透的模樣讓我忍不住再靠近一點。

後記：魯冰花是lupin的譯名，正式名稱是「羽扇豆」，在台灣有著特殊用途，那就是當羽扇豆盛開的時候，茶農就會把她砍倒，作為茶肥。因此，魯冰花開就是枯萎的時候，「還未燦爛，即已亡散」。

感覺上和「開到荼蘼花事了」的荼蘼有一些些類似，雖然荼蘼代表的是夏天最後開的一種花，開到荼蘼便沒有退路，所有的美麗也隨之煙消雲散了。不過荼蘼的美有種悲涼因為是自然而然不能改變的事實，魯冰花則有種慘烈因為是人為加工不得不然的宿命。