The Islamic Cultural and Halal Food Festival may not be the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of festive year-end events in Taipei. But the open-air festival at Daan Forest Park promises to have something for the entire family.
This weekend, more than 70 vendors offering Islamic food, crafts and cultural experiences will set up shop along the park’s pathways. Visitors can try out Arabic calligraphy and henna and shop for wares drawn from around the Muslim world.
It will be a rare opportunity to catch many of Taiwan’s small, online businesses in the flesh: La Femme Dromadaire stocks lamps, figurines and burnous (Berber tunics) hand-made in Tunisia; Camel Hump Stay will bring Moroccan leather bags and shoes; and From Syria offers up delicate woven earrings and pouches made by female refugees from the war-torn country.
Photo: Davina Tham, Taipei Times
Visitors can also look forward to a picnic with freshly-served food and drink from a range of Indian, Turkish and Moroccan vendors. Some unusual treats to look out for include food from North Africa, intense brews from Saturn Landing Turkish Coffee and baklava from the Taiwan outpost of Zalatimo Sweets, a 159-year-old Jordanian sweetsmaker.
The festival is co-organized by the Chinese Muslim Association (中國回教協會) and Taipei City Government.
■ The Islamic Cultural and Halal Food Festival takes place tomorrow and Sunday, 10am to 5pm
Photo: Davina Tham, Taipei Times
■ Daan Forest Park (大安森林公園), 1, Xinsheng S Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市新生南路二段1號)
March 24 to March 30 When Yang Bing-yi (楊秉彝) needed a name for his new cooking oil shop in 1958, he first thought of honoring his previous employer, Heng Tai Fung (恆泰豐). The owner, Wang Yi-fu (王伊夫), had taken care of him over the previous 10 years, shortly after the native of Shanxi Province arrived in Taiwan in 1948 as a penniless 21 year old. His oil supplier was called Din Mei (鼎美), so he simply combined the names. Over the next decade, Yang and his wife Lai Pen-mei (賴盆妹) built up a booming business delivering oil to shops and
The Taipei Times last week reported that the Control Yuan said it had been “left with no choice” but to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of the central government budget, which left it without a budget. Lost in the outrage over the cuts to defense and to the Constitutional Court were the cuts to the Control Yuan, whose operating budget was slashed by 96 percent. It is unable even to pay its utility bills, and in the press conference it convened on the issue, said that its department directors were paying out of pocket for gasoline
On March 13 President William Lai (賴清德) gave a national security speech noting the 20th year since the passing of China’s Anti-Secession Law (反分裂國家法) in March 2005 that laid the legal groundwork for an invasion of Taiwan. That law, and other subsequent ones, are merely political theater created by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to have something to point to so they can claim “we have to do it, it is the law.” The president’s speech was somber and said: “By its actions, China already satisfies the definition of a ‘foreign hostile force’ as provided in the Anti-Infiltration Act, which unlike
President William Lai’s (賴清德) March 13 national security speech marked a turning point. He signaled that the government was finally getting serious about a whole-of-society approach to defending the nation. The presidential office summarized his speech succinctly: “President Lai introduced 17 major strategies to respond to five major national security and united front threats Taiwan now faces: China’s threat to national sovereignty, its threats from infiltration and espionage activities targeting Taiwan’s military, its threats aimed at obscuring the national identity of the people of Taiwan, its threats from united front infiltration into Taiwanese society through cross-strait exchanges, and its threats from
RSS