@Taiwanfest

Taiwanfest was taking place a few blocks from my apartment, so I decided to check it out. Apparently, a lot of other people had the same idea - I've rarely seen Granville quite this crowded.



For me, the main appeal was the infamous Taiwanese street food.



Ok, so I know that Stinky Tofu is a popular dish in Taiwan, and I have no right to judge... but I might have considered trying it if it had a more appealing name..



Further up the line - grilled squid. Another delicacy that I was happy to skip over...



Oyster "Omelette"... ok, this dish seemed to have some promise on the onset, I'd been told that this was a favourite among the non-Chinese. Unfortunately, I had a very different experience - the choi was bitter, the egg part was goopy, and worst of all the dish was already cold by the time it was served to me. All in all I found the entire dish mostly inedible. Even by street food standards, it was pretty awful.

I will caveat that it may have just been the plate I was served - I noticed omelettes from other food stands were steaming hot and visibly much more aesthetically pleasing than mine.



Taiwanese Hot Dog - I definitely was pleasantly surprised by this. The "bun" was actually made of sticky rice, and was of the same texture and consistency that you'll find at a dim sum restaurant, and the pork sausage paralleled the barbecued pork chunks that you might find in the sticky rice. Delicious.



Cross section of the Taiwanese Hot Dog



After finally finding something satisfying to eat, I walked over to the Main Stage area in the plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery. I wasn't really expecting to get much from the experience since I'm not really familiar with the Taiwanese music scene. But the costumes were pretty... interesting.



From what I gathered, the main singer of this group is from an aboriginal tribe in Taiwan call the Amis. His outfit is similar to one worn during the Harvest festival, even though I'm sure his is significantly more colourful than you'll find in Taiwan.