Notes on the corners
of the world

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Streets

Notes on the History of YouBike in Taiwan

At MRT exits, university gates, and ordinary street corners, the same yellow-and-white bicycles wait in neat rows before disappearing into traffic. Their constant presence makes it easy to overlook how unusual it is for a public bicycle system to become this unremarkable.

Food Culture

Notes on Nasi Kandar in Malaysia

At a nasi kandar counter, the food is arranged less like a menu than a brown range of curries, fried chicken, fish, and vegetables. A customer points, and the plate only takes shape when several sauces are poured over it.

Notes on the Long Memory Inside a Bowl of Braised Pork Rice

At a Taiwanese street stall, the braised pork sauce sits on the rice rather than disappearing into it, coating the short, sticky grains in a glossy layer. The bowl looks simple, but even its texture carries traces of somewhere beyond the stall.

Food Culture

Notes on Nasi Lemak in Malaysia

Before sunrise, roadside tables in Malaysia fill with small green tetrahedrons folded from banana leaves. Their contents stay hidden until the packet is opened, but coconut, sambal, and something salty have already begun to escape.

Food Culture

Notes on Bao and Jiao in Taiwan

On Taiwanese menu boards, shui jiao, tang bao, hu jiao bing, and sheng jian bao appear as variations on the same idea: meat enclosed in wheat dough. But the final character in each name marks a sharper divide than their shapes suggest—and xiaolongbao sits across it.

Visits

Notes on Nasi Kandar Pelita at KLCC

Beneath the Petronas Twin Towers, a semi-outdoor hall stays busy with rice, curry, fried chicken and sweet tea long after the offices and shops around it have gone quiet. At Nasi Kandar Pelita, the skyline suggests one Kuala Lumpur while the plate and the people around it belong to another rhythm.

From a Corner

Taiwan

Notes on the Fluffy Xiaolongbao of Taiwan’s Breakfast Shops

At a Taiwanese breakfast shop, xiaolongbao arrive in the same bamboo baskets as soy milk and steamed buns, their wrappers puffed and bread-soft rather than thin enough to show the soup inside. They look less like delicate dim sum than something meant to be carried out the door before work.

Taiwan

Notes on Two Forms of Soy Milk in Taiwan’s Breakfast Shops

At a Taiwan breakfast counter, asking for soy milk can bring either a cold, sweet glass or a hot bowl of vinegar-curdled curds with fried dough, shrimp, and scallions. They share a name, but one behaves like a drink and the other like a soup.

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