Right. About whatever that was the other night, and even though my notes are called “notes I won’t reread,” I unfortunately broke my own rule, and that's not shocking news for me, nor for you to see here. so after reading it, i’ve come to the conclusion that it clearly wasn’t me. no, don’t deny it, it wasn’t me. not a chance. I refuse to believe that I sat down and wrote something that was emotionally aware. Genuinely concerning behavior, i blame it on the hospital stay-in week. if anyone knows who stole my keybored and replaced me with a sensitive little philosopher for a few hours, please let me know. i was reading it back thinking, “whose is this?”, and i guess i do really have other personalities, which is a wonderful, fantastic news. One of them really likes self-reflection. I’ll have to keep away from keybored, notebooks, pen, napkin, walls, and any other surface capable of holding written language. Either way, I’ve spent years, years. making fun of social media. watching people desperately throwing their thoughts into the void, hoping someone would clap for them. i used to sit and think “Look at these attention-starved creatures. It is a pathetic way to degrade your own humanity.” Now look at me. Turns out the clown was inside the circus the whole time. it was originally supposed to be an experiment. like some socially confused wildlife researcher documenting the habits of internet people, then somehow i became one of them. Every day i open an app i once hated, or was confused about, or making fun of, and find myself voluntarily announcing my existence to people, i dont even know. And I’m sure if past me could see this, he’d probably beat me to death with that pathetic self-reflection note. And honestly, i think of disappearing. ill still write notes here just not get involved in that wildlife ecosystem and return to my natural habitat. Or maybe I’ll keep all of it, not because i enjoy it, God forbid. Maybe I’ll stay just so the woman i’m definitely not stalking doesn’t discover that im actually not nearly as harmless as I’ve let myself seem.

Curiosity is a terrible habit, so perhaps I’ll stay. Post a picture. write something stupid to fit with the wildlife and pretend I’m a perfectly ordinary person with perfectly ordinary hobbies and a perfectly ordinary amount of interest in other people’s lives and everyone wins, especially me, so that’s all about today.

Sincerely, Ordinary Ahmed

We went to Taiwan earlier this month, including 5 fantastic nights in Taipei. This trip had very few plans other than “eat all of the excellent food”; we weren't worried too much about the various sights around the city (although we checked some of them out) as we prioritised our days & nights around the dishes we wanted to eat.

Taipei has a crazy density of Michelin recommended venues; there were two within a 5 minute walk of our accommodation and another couple a quick train trip away! Here's the official list from the Michelin website if you want to explore.

Din Tai Fung – dumplings & buns

We were in Taipei from Wednesday through Sunday, and we wanted to avoid the bigger crowds on Friday/Saturday/Sunday we headed to this ultra-famous restaurant mid-week. We thought we were smart by getting there for when it opens at 11am and we were absolutely wrong! There was a queue of ~70-80 people already ahead of us so we were worried we'd have to wait a long time, but the staff are super efficient at seating everyone and getting the orders going.

Of course, we had to get several dishes of xiao long bao, what DTF is famous for – we opted for the standard ones, as well as the truffle version which was recommended by a friend.

We also got some beef noodle soup, which was unfortunately a waste of calories. The noodles were fine, but nowhere near the quality of the dumplings. The side of cucumbers you can see in the photo above was a common salad dish we really enjoyed, and it balanced out the textures of everything else we ordered.

After ticking off the signature item, we then got a serve of the shrimp shao mai (i.e. the things that look like the Like Like creature from the Legend of Zelda).

I have to mention again that the service at DTF is crazy fast. All of the popular dishes are clearly prepared in large amounts, so our first dishes came out within 5 minutes of hitting the order button.

Anyway, after filling up on various dumplings, my sweet tooth started yelling at me so we got some custard lava buns. Phenomenal – no other dessert we had in Taipei got close to this.

A great brunch all round.

Lao Shan Dong – noodles

A quick walk from our accommodation was a Michelin recommended noodle shop that was open for breakfast. Given how late everything opens up in Taipei, we took the opportunity to get out before 10am and try it out.

It was down a creepy basement underneath a shopping centre – you had to walk down escalators that hadn't turned on for the day yet, and then walk around aimlessly until you found the restaurant which was the only thing open on that floor. But as with all good food, the journey was well worth it.

My wife fortunately remember to take some photos of the staff & store itself, while I was focused on rubbing my full belly.

The width of the noodles is what you notice first – they're much wider than any other Chinese noodle. The broth was really tasty but the flavour wasn't too intense – it was subtle and fairly balanced (like most broths we had in the country). Excellent cuts of meat as well too!

Wang's Broth

The following day, we got brunch at Wang's Broth – a roughly 10-15 minute walk from our hotel. Nothing wild here, just excellent braised meat and rice.

Wang's Broth uses the same broth for all of their dishes; you walk past the big vat as you take your seat inside.

My wife got the dish with the mushrooms included but she regretted it and said she would have preferred the classic pork & rice, as there's more sauce to mix in which isn't absorbed by the mushrooms.

Raohe Night Market – Black Pepper Pork Buns

Of course I have to finish up with the classic black pepper pork buns from Raohe Night Market. These things are crazy cheap – 60 or 70 NTD (~$3AUD) and quite large & filling. If you're thinking of having several smaller dishes for a night at Raohe, this one might ruin your appetite for some of the other options in the market so plan ahead.

The queue snakes around the front of the store right at the main entrance of the market, so you can see the team preparing the buns, activating your saliva glands:

It was belting down with rain when we visited, so we were eating our buns while huddled under our umbrellas – sorry, no photos of the buns themselves! Here are a few articles that show them in detail: here and here.

Bonus: Jensanity!

During one of our nights in Taipei, we checked out Linjiang Night Market after eating dinner with a cousin who lives in the city. Apparently this is where Jensen Huang (Nvidia CEO) visited about a week earlier, and tried a bunch of food!

When looking for a little dessert, we coincidentally visited the same place that Jensen dropped into for some shaved mango ice. Turns out that all of the vendors that Jensen visited ended up taking photos with the guy, and plastering them on the wall as advertising:

Lucky us!

guerilla gardening

the activity of growing plants without permission on land that belongs to someone else or on public land, with the aim of producing vegetables and fruit for people to use and enjoy

We live in uncertain times where a range of factors from geo-political instability through to unpredictable weather threaten to impact the food supply chain. The threats to our food supply lie in part with long and complex supply chains which are vulnerable to disruption. As regular readers of this blog will be aware, we're passionate about de-centralising and localising our food supply chains. As part of achieving that, why not join up with your neighbours to start your own community vegetable and fruit garden? You end up having some degree of control over your food supply and it will be as fresh as it’s possible to get!

If you have a back garden, by all means turn it over to growing your own vegetables and fruit. However, collectively working with your neighbours on a community garden helps to build the neighbourhood solidarity and resilience we need in these challenging and volatile times.

Starting a project to make a change in your neighbourhood can seem to be a daunting prospect. Yes, there are grassroots community projects that are complex and there are probably good reasons for that – changing the world is not an easy business and a degree of organisation is required. However, there are things you can do which don’t require a lot of organisation or hours writing funding applications. Guerilla vegetable and fruit gardening is one of those things you can do…

If there’s an awkward shaped smallish plot of land in your neighbourhood that’s been neglected and no one’s sure who owns or has responsibility for it, why not cultivate it for the benefit of the community? Canvas opinion in the immediate neighbourhood to see how much support there is for the idea of transforming the plot from an eyesore into a vegetable and fruit garden that will become a vital community asset. Find out who’s willing to help you work on it and then work out a plan for what you want to do.

You could ask for permission if you want but if the land has been neglected for years, then whoever is responsible for it obviously doesn’t care about the impact of their neglect on your neighbourhood so…just get on with it! There’s a welcome, non-violent anti-authoritarian aspect to guerilla gardening that should be embraced.

While at one level, it’s about making your neighbourhood a better place to live, at a more fundamental level, it’s asking questions about land ownership and control. It also offers a more sustainable method of securing genuinely fresh vegetables and fruit than that offered by large scale farming and the massive corporations that control the sourcing, supply and distribution of our food.

The other benefits are building a feeling of solidarity and cohesion in your neighbourhood as people get together to work on a common project. A project that as it matures will give people a sense of pride in and responsibility towards their neighbourhood and boost community morale. A confidence booster that can inspire people to take on bigger and more complex projects that will start to lead to real, meaningful change.

Start small, gain confidence, start to think bigger but above all…just do it!

When I was sitting at the bar, two women were next to me on my left. Then another woman joined. They grabbed the stool on my right and moved it to my left so they could sit together. I was already settled in and didn’t wanna move for them. They said “sorry” and “thank you.” I accepted the situation, but I wasn’t gonna smile and be unnecessarily nice about it. What annoys me annoys me. I won’t be apologetic. I was proud of that. I was real.

I went through and selected six categories and candidate photos and started going through them. I’m honestly anxious, and I find myself caught in this cycle of wanting my first impression to be my best foot forward because that’s essentially my seeding for the algorithm. It is honestly kind of scary if I’m being honest.