這是牛皮菇，只長在芒果樹幹的菌菇。朋友說可吃的，但我不敢吃。An edible fungus found only on mango tree trunk.
Salon as a third place
Getting a haircut is a ritual whenever I am in Taitung. It so happen that I go back once every three to four weeks, perfect timing for a trim.
Shuqing gave me some bananas, a local variety that is humongous. They may look green but are ripe now. 
Yam 芋頭
My neighbour came this morning, bearing a gift from his garden, a yam plant. The root has many tiny new shoots, which I removed and planted in a spot with plenty of water. Yam needs high humidity to grow well.
The part that is edible is the black part, only about 10cm in length, but double in volume once cooked.
Torch ginger
GQ interview, July 2016
No knead Olive bread
This is an Olive Bread recipe, based on the no knead method, pioneered by Jim Lahey.
Ingredients
(a small loaf for two to three persons)
200g Bread Flour
100g Kalamata Olives, pitted, drained, roughly chopped (or a mix of green and kalamata olives)
1g Salt
1g Active dry yeast
175ml Water
Step 1
Drain the olives and pat them dry. Roughly chop them and make sure all the olives actually don’t have pits. (If the olives are really salty, reduce the salt in the bread).
Step 2
In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest 12-18 hours. The hotter the weather temperature, the shorter the time needed for fermentation. (Jim Lahey recommends preferably about 18 hours, at room temperature of 20 Celsius degrees. My personal experience in the hot summer weather in Taipei is about 7-8 hours for the bread to double in volume and surface bubbly.)
Step 3
Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface. Scrape dough out from the bowl gently, you don’t want to disturb the gas inside the bubbles too much, let he dough roll on to the floured surface. place Sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.
Step 4
Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.
At least 30 minutes before dough is ready, heat oven to 240 degrees. Put a heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.
Taiwan’s indigenous quinoa, Djulis or Hongli 紅藜
Decide to write a piece on this amazing food, since I have been in love with quinoa since 2013. The year 2013 was the year of quinoa designated by the United Nation.
We were the first to introduce this ingredient at Nonzero and collaborated with Peruvian officials to promote this ingredient. We even flown in a Peruvian chef for a month long Peruvian food promotion. So you can imagine my utter delight to find that Taiwan has its’ own indigenous variety, called Djulis in indigenous Taiwan language. In Chinese it is called Hongli (紅藜).
This native crop has been eaten by Taiwanese aboriginal people for hundreds of years, who also use it to brew a traditional type of wine. The main agriculture area for this crop is in Taitung, where I live. Let me take you to see what the plant looks like and how they are grown, harvest and processed.
Djulis (Chenopodium formosanum) belongs to the Amaranthaceae family of green vegetables and pseudo-cereals, along with its close botanical relative of quinoa. Djulis is known for having a high protein and fiber content, as well as for containing eight kinds of essential amino acids. (This is all the information I could find in English, and there is a bit more info available in Chinese).
紅藜的澱粉約50%
蛋白質含量高達14%，與小麥相當，為稻米的2倍
膳食纖維高達14%，為燕麥的3倍，地瓜的7倍。
礦物質含量方面，含鈣特別豐富，高達2,523 ppm，為稻米的42倍，燕麥的23倍；鐵質與鋅的含量也很高，分為地瓜的11倍與8倍。
紅藜也含有重要的硒與鍺元素，並具有全部九種高量人體無法自行合成的必需胺基酸，例如離胺酸（lysine）、纈胺酸和組胺酸等，其離胺酸為稻米的5倍，而離胺酸可幫助鈣質吸收，促進膠原蛋白合成，幫助抗體、荷爾蒙及酵素的製造等。含有甜菜紅素（Betacyanins）、甜菜黃素（Betaxanthins）、黃酮類（Flavonoids）等抗氧化物。紅藜也有很高的抗發炎效果。
Here’s a BBC report on Djulis. http://www.bbc.com/news/av/business-38312876/taiwan-s-surprising-superfood-an-indigenous-quinoa
Kampung house: entrance
There may not be walls but a house must have a proper entrance.
Black rice 黑米
Experimenting with a new type of rice, black rice. Instead of turning golden yellow on maturity, the black rice is a mix of black, red and yellow. Really pretty.
Inspired by nature
I learned how to be playful and creative today. Anything can be a toy or resource. This is the leaves of a common roadside plant yet I had never thought of using them as clothing decoration .
