One of the bigger pleasures I get from living in Taipei is that i'm living in a city where almost everyone knows about good food.
I'm from England and this is one reason I don't live there.
In the market the older ladies were picking up fresh produce.
It's hard to believe if you get all your produce from a giant mega market where you buy and eat the stuff that has an impossible colour and has been in suspended animation for the past two years what its like to watch serious cooks shop.
You stand behind them and watch as they harrangue a vendor to desperation before buying a kilo of broad beans off him.
I was involved waiting in such a scrum when this woman caught sight of me and ran through the crowd to pitch her product.
She had trouble getting to me because she was dressed at nine am in a human size tetra pac that advertised an American vitamin drink.
She had a green face and looked like the jolly green giant dessed in a box.
"Are you American?"
"No I'm English."
Same thing, what did you have for you're breakfast?"
"Coffee and toast."
"Would you like to lose wieght, this vitamin supplement from America will help you lose wieght if you drink it every morning."
"I don't want to lose wieght."
If you want to gain wieght the same drink will help you do it."
"You mean that same drink will help me gain wieght if I want it to, and lose wieght if I want that?"
"Yes to lose wieght you should drink a little and to gain wieght you should drink a lot."
This is what some people have been reduced to, I left her there behind me wearing her tetra pac with her green face looking for somebody else.
