Filial Piety

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Our plan was to see the rest of Lugong and then head back into the hills to see the center of Hakka culture in Taipei. Arriving at our hotel in Hsinchu we decided that we were too exhausted to move still further and opted to stay in town and explore, checking out another Hakka village the next day. After a few minutes rest we were back to trudging through the heat and found the city's famous glass museum which was less Dale Chihuli than Red Skelton. Aside from a few truly beautiful pieces of art there were some real bombs. Hilariously so.

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We then headed to the the night market which was serving the city's second most famous product: meatballs wrapped in a big gelatinous noodle. It was great. We also stumbled across a delicious Chinese burrito type dish that was like a mushu pork pancake with little crunchies inside. After a final dish of more traditional noodles we headed to a quaint tea house where we learned the basics of traditional Chinese tea brewing. Little balls of oolong are steeped in a little clay pot and then poured into a tea decanter' through a filter. Only then can the tea be served. We steeped the leaves for far too long (t-oolong) and found ourselves wincing through the powerfully bitter taste of a too strong oolong.

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After all the steeping, the balls of tea had uncurled so that the clay pot was suddenly full of huge spinach like leaves whereas before there had been just a few pellets. It was like a tea pot clown car, with a never ending amount of spent leaves being pulled out.

After tea, which turned out to be quite an expensive outing, we returned to the hotel via the 7-Eleven for a beer run and all relaxed on the veranda of our room in the muggy night air.

We looked into several options for submersion into Hakka culture. Hakka people are a kind of wandering tribe of ethnic Chinese, many of whom ended up in Taiwan. Chieni is half Hakka, so it was important that we head to a Hakka town and try some of the culture on for size. As usual in Taiwan, the differences in culture revolve mainly around food. If the Hakka were oppressed in China for some perceived difference, it must have been because their noodles weren't salty enough. We took a cab to the town of Beipu which cost us less than riding the bus which would also have to switch at several points.

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Taxis here are really cheap, especially if you are traveling as a group. The driver was even game to return for us in a few hours, so with our return transport sorted, we dove into the old town center. We explored narrow alleys and the town's main temple. Our main objective was to find a specially brewed tea that the Hakka are famous for, a tea which is best served freshly ground with peanuts, sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, 20 or so other grains, and oolong tea. It is called lei cha or cereal tea since it is made with so many different grains and nuts, and perhaps because it tastes like the milk left in your bowl after a big granola feed. We were given a free sample at a stall which whetted our appetites but we needed the true experience of breaking a sweat and working up a real thirst by grinding the brew ourselves.

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We found one of the old tea houses on the main street and soon the four of us were taking turns grinding a green pasty mash in a ceramic bowl. Occasionally the waitstaff would come by and tell us it wasn't done yet, or comment on our poor technique. They were understandably reluctant to do it themselves since none of them wanted Popeye sized fore-arms. We were all exhausted and relieved when they declared the now fine mush complete. After they added the boiling water we had a giant clay bowl full of milky green tea. The tea itself was an entirely new taste, and very rich. It was good, but we decided that now that we'd had the experience we could drink the stuff from the blender without guilt the next time. All of us had a bit of a buzz too by the time it was time to go meet the cab.

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As we browsed the final stalls an old Taiwanese man who had lived for several years in Indiana, of all places, introduced himself to us. He gave my dad a long lecture in broken English about the importance, and lack of, "filial piety" in the world. It was a phrase which he'd obviously long treasured and had polished off for the special occasion of meeting an English speaking parent. The taxi arrived and we had to cut our bizarre discussion short, unfortunately, as we may have been treated to a few more gems if we'd given the old fella the time. We descended out of the hills, back towards the train station to return to Taipei.