Cultural Oddities in Taiwan and Elsewhere

It's a bit past midday on the Isle of Formosa and I have not yet posted...I had better get a move on!

I thought starting off with one from the "whatever comes to mind" category would be nice. Let's see if you agree with me or not.

Here are a couple photos of products I recently saw on store shelves here in Kaohsiung. (Funny that I say, "saw on store shelves," because that is not where the photos of these items were taken!)

Let's begin with a discussion of "exhibit A" above, the so-called "icy pancake." What a great product! Delicious ice cream between a couple froze flapjacks - you can't beat that! (It's actually pretty tasty, or so a little birdie told me.)

Next is the "ice cream cracker" version of the ice cream sandwich. This one doesn't work quite so well. Think ice cream between two Saltine crackers and you get the idea...not exactly a hit. This one wouldn't sell in the US, I don't think (I guess it must sell alright here, for it is still available in stores).

Then we see the "next item up for bid," so to speak, the regular ice cream sandwich (seen below - properly called an "ice cream cookie" 'round these parts). Klondike Bar has no worries of going out of business with this product as competition, let me assure you, but all in all it is not too bad. (The consistency of the "sandwich" portion of the dessert has a weird consistency unlike that of a typical "American" ice cream sandwich, not as sweet, more like, well, a cracker - even though this is clearly not the "ice cream cracker" product seen above.)

All these ice cream "crackers" and "pancakes" got me thinking about other places I've been where there were novelties like these, and I couldn't help but think of Australia, 1997, the legendary "Hi-protein slice." (Les B., I know you're out there - do you remember the Hi-protein slice that we found in Darwin, Australia? Come up in the comments if you do!) Alas, I will have to describe this product to you with words, as that my attempts to find a graphical depiction of it using the Interwebs have to this point come up dry. How to describe this food...? First off, it's a product marketed to bodybuilders and weightlifting enthusiasts, which for people who knew me at the time, can be fairly said to have accurately described by primary leisure-time interests at that point in my life. It's similar in size to a Clif Bar, comes in a plastic wrapper like a protein bar, and was, in flavor, texture, and appearance, a lot like a....slice of cake (not as moist, though - much drier). Hence, the name made a lot of sense, not a bar, but a slice. Perhaps this type of nomenclature for "energy bar"-type products in Australia is routine, I do not know. Anyhow, from the "Hi-protein slice" in Australia in 1997 to the ice cream "pancake" and "cracker" in Taiwan, nothing gets past me!

I can't talk about cultural oddities here without mentioning my favorite - the infamous Hei ren ya gao (quite literally, "Black person toothpaste," so marketed because of the supposed stark contrast between a black person's skin color and their white teeth - their teeth must be much whiter than other people's teeth, so let's name a toothpaste after this phenomenon!) Seriously, could you imagine this product on a shelf in the US?

GJS