If you're not a fan of Latin music or a good salsa dancer, there are still plenty of reasons to visit Barrio, the new Latin bar in Taipei: the food for example. At Barrio there are no microwave pizzas or cold snacks, and no burritos or enchiladas, the flour for which comes from Taipei's Florida bakery.
Barrio's kitchen offers a third choice, what chef Tomer Feldman calls "fusion Latino food." On the menu you see interesting combinations such as Latino sushi or Italian-styled quesadillas.
"I wanted people to see the unexpected when they come here, and to have some new impressions about Latin food," said Israeli-born Feldman. Having been a chef at up-scale New York restaurants for 12 years, such as Italian restaurant Puccini in upper West and Bari Cafe in Soho, Feldman said he's experienced with Latin food. Creating variations and fusion seems to interest him most. In Taiwan, his previous job was a chef at Rendezvous, the first fusion Italian restaurant in Taipei.
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Latino sushi is actually tortilla rolls, like burritos, but chopped in slices which resemble sushi. Goat cheese and roasted pepper roll is the best-selling item so far among the Latino sushi dishes. Traditionally, Mexican burritos comprise wrapped rice and beans, thus giving a heavy feel after a meal. In Feldman's recipes the fillings are much lighter and healthier, good for dancing, perhaps?
One more reason to eat at Barrio is you get to taste different kinds of dipping sauces with just one tapas dish. According to Feldman having different dipping sauces in one dish is common to Israeli restaurants. These home-made sauces have, again, each been infused with unusual ingredients. Salsa sauces are added to beans and toasted with ground cumin seeds. Coleslaw is added to jalapenos for a spicy coleslaw, or "fusion kimchi."
In March, Barrio's kitchen will present main course dishes such as burritos, enchiladas and tacos. "But again, they will be unconventional Latin main courses," Feldman said.
Jan 13 to Jan 19 Yang Jen-huang (楊仁煌) recalls being slapped by his father when he asked about their Sakizaya heritage, telling him to never mention it otherwise they’ll be killed. “Only then did I start learning about the Karewan Incident,” he tells Mayaw Kilang in “The social culture and ethnic identification of the Sakizaya” (撒奇萊雅族的社會文化與民族認定). “Many of our elders are reluctant to call themselves Sakizaya, and are accustomed to living in Amis (Pangcah) society. Therefore, it’s up to the younger generation to push for official recognition, because there’s still a taboo with the older people.” Although the Sakizaya became Taiwan’s 13th
Earlier this month, a Hong Kong ship, Shunxin-39, was identified as the ship that had cut telecom cables on the seabed north of Keelung. The ship, owned out of Hong Kong and variously described as registered in Cameroon (as Shunxin-39) and Tanzania (as Xinshun-39), was originally People’s Republic of China (PRC)-flagged, but changed registries in 2024, according to Maritime Executive magazine. The Financial Times published tracking data for the ship showing it crossing a number of undersea cables off northern Taiwan over the course of several days. The intent was clear. Shunxin-39, which according to the Taiwan Coast Guard was crewed
China’s military launched a record number of warplane incursions around Taiwan last year as it builds its ability to launch full-scale invasion, something a former chief of Taiwan’s armed forces said Beijing could be capable of within a decade. Analysts said China’s relentless harassment had taken a toll on Taiwan’s resources, but had failed to convince them to capitulate, largely because the threat of invasion was still an empty one, for now. Xi Jinping’s (習近平) determination to annex Taiwan under what the president terms “reunification” is no secret. He has publicly and stridently promised to bring it under Communist party (CCP) control,
One way people in Taiwan can control how they are represented is through their choice of name. Culturally, it is not uncommon for people to choose their own names and change their identification cards and passports to reflect the change, though only recently was the right to use Indigenous names written using letters allowed. Reasons for changing a person’s name can vary widely, from wanting to sound more literary, to changing a poor choice made by their parents or, as 331 people did in March of 2021, to get free sushi by legally changing their name to include the two characters
RSS