Someone had an issue with my name recently. It was not a person more familiar with European or English names – “Oh great! Why can’t he make it easier for everyone and call himself Matthew or Mark?” – nor was it a Hongkonger, like that officer from the Immigration Department from years before who had … Read more
The remark was a reference to a long-abandoned plan by the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek to “recover” the mainland after his Kuomintang (KMT) forces lost a civil war with the Communists and fled to the island in 1949 to set up an interim government. Before he died in 1975, Chiang had vowed to use Taiwan … Read more
The flat white – two shots of espresso with gently steamed milk and little or no foam, described as a more velvety cappuccino – was recently described by The Economist as “Australia’s greatest culinary export”. Australia’s coffee culture is rooted in post-World War II Italian immigrants’ coffee techniques – and language. Since the 1980s, coffee … Read more
