In the next
few weeks there will be a series of eight (8) blogs from my recent experiences
visiting factories and their tour museums in the New Taipei City area. The New Taipei City Hall in conjunction with
one of their Public Relations and Marketing companies, K. G. L. AD. Media
Agency International Company, arranged a two day tour on November 1, 2012 and
November 2, 2012.
 |
| Tamsui Station |
During these
tours, I had the chance to meet many of the executives, their family members
and business managers. Indeed I learned
a great deal about their business, their operation, and their products. At the end of each tour there was a DIY (Do
It Yourself) activity that we had a chance to literally do it ourselves, and
take home a small memento of the tour. I
hope you find these blogs as informative as I found the tours and factory
visits.
K. G. L. AD.
Media Agency International Company sent two of their associates, a camera man
and a bus to escort 10-15 reporters and bloggers each day on this tour. Director Kelin Chen, and Account Executive,
Ann Li did a wonderful job organizing the tour, keeping us on schedule and
ensuring we all had an enjoyable time.
Both Kelin and Ann did a wonderful job and they went out of their way to
sometimes translate and to answer questions for me in English. Thank You Kelin Chen and Ann Li!
凱格蘭公關媒體整合行銷有限公司
K.G.L. AD.MEDIA
AGENCY INTERNATIONAL CO.
記者會｜媒體公關｜媒體採購｜大型活動｜公關活動｜研討會｜講座｜網路行銷
Press Conference｜Presentation｜Press
Relations｜Media Advertising｜Events
Strategic
Communication ｜Seminar
｜Internet Marketing
Tel:｜886-2-2599-2875 # 213
Fax:｜886-2-2599-3022
Website｜http://www.kglpr.com.tw
Address｜10461台北市中山區中山北路三段25號9樓之5
9F.-5, No.25, Sec.
3, Zhongshan N. Rd. , Zhongshan Dist.,
Taipei City
104, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thursday,
November 1, 2012, we took the MRT to Tamsui, the end of the Red Line.
Outside
Tamsui Station
My first
time in this station and area, and I found the station, built out of mostly red
brick to be beautiful and easy to navigate.
We met Kelin, Ann and the other invitees and bordered our bus.
(Left to
Right) Ann Li, Kelin Chen and their Photographer on the Bus Ready to Go
Around
9:30am, and headed to our first stop, the Teng Feng Fishball Museum. We did not visit their actual manufacturing
plant in Danshui on this trip.
The curator
of the museum, Mr. Kuo-Feng Lin and his staff met us at the door, and escorted
us to the meeting and DIY room of the museum.
Mr. Lin gave us an informative presentation of his company and two main
products, fish crisps and fish balls.
The meeting/show room had fish hanging from the ceiling, walls, and lots
of valuable information on their company and products.
The
presentation also went into details about the various fish in the Pacific Ocean
and waterways of Taiwan which was very interesting to me since I am an avid
fish lover! I will tell you more about
me at the end of this blog.
Dolphin fish
also known as Mahi Mahi
Teng Feng
Fishball has been in business for over 60 years, and has a n interesting
culture going back to the World War II era.
The early company roots were established in the Danshui district and has
remained there ever since. Throughout
their many years in business, they had built many specialized pieces of
production equipment for their products, and some were on display in the show
room.
In 1963 they introduced the fish crisps which
was the same time plastic bags were also used to keep the product fresh and
crispy. These are a great snack with
lunch or in between meals, and my wife and I love them, not only for their
taste, but because they are much healthier than potato chips and similar
snacks. We were offered a bowl of this
crisps to snack on during the presentation.
The
fishballs produced by Ten Feng use primarily a variety of shark in their
product which gives them a better taste, aroma, and overall superior
quality.
Actual Shark
jaw on display in the show Room
In our DIY,
Mr. KF Lin actually taught all of us how they hand produced fishballs before
automation was introduced. We made them,
his staff cooked them, then ate those
fishballs that we hand made !!!
Processed
Fishball ingredients ready for our DIY
Ok, I am not
a fishball expert, and fishballs are not a common staple in American’s diets,
nor are they easy to purchase unless you have an Asian grocery store
nearby. But if you love to eat
fishballs, boiled, steamed, fried, etc. you should really try the Teng Feng
brand and compare.
Teng Feng
Fish Crisps Ready to ship to a Store Near You !
For more
information you can contact:
Teng Feng Fishball Musuem
8F., No.43, Ln. 3, Sec. 1, Zhongzheng E.
Rd., Danshui Dist.,
New Taipei City 251, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
http://newtpc.sp-store.com/store03.html
Phone: +886-2-2629-3312
Attention: Mr. Kuo-Feng Lin
e-Mail:kflin972@gmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~~
MY FIRST FISHING EXPERIENCE
So you might
ask why do I consider myself an avid fish lover. Well there are several reasons, going back to
my childhood to present day and I want to share some of these with you.
White
Crappie - Photo courtesy of Ohio Dept. Natural Resources
.jpg)
Yellow Perch
- Photo Courtesy of www.fishfish.net
Since my Dad
was too busy to take me and my younger brother to learn fishing, my Uncle Eddie
offered to take us. I was so excited the
night before I hardly slept. When Uncle
arrived, we were ready to go and we went to a small nearby lake in Ohio. He showed us how to carefully put the little worms
and maggots on the sharp hooks, and he gave us long bamboo cane fishing poles
with a long string attached to one end, with a plastic bobber and of course the
hook and bait on the end.
This is not
me, but could have been! - Photo Courtesy of Travels.com
It only took
us a few attempts to cast the hook in the water. Uncle reminded us we had to be
quiet and patient and wait till the fish took the bait and pulled the bobber
under the water. It took several
attempts, and the fish kept eating my bait, but finally I caught my first small
Blue Gill fish (too small to keep and eat) and I was so proud. We caught many more that day including a few
big enough to take home and eat. That’s
it! I was HOOKED on fishing at an early
age and still love fishing to this very day.
More about some of my big game fishing experiences later.
~~~~~~~~~~~
AFRICAN CICHLIDS
When I moved
out on my own after college, I bought my first aquarium with some common
fish. These were fun to watch and to
care for, but when I was about 24 years old, I read about these unique fish
from Lake Malawi in Africa in the library and actually went to a book store and
bought an early edition of the book below:
 |
| Image Courtesy of Amazon.com |
Most all of
the fish in Lake Malawi and lake Tanganyika are not found anywhere else in the
world naturally. Many are very small
species measuring only 2 inches to 6 inches in length. They are known as African Cichlids, and the
lake is actually heavy in minerals and some salts making this a brackish water
(somewhere between fresh water and ocean salt water).
The
fascinating characteristics about these remarkable fish are as follows:
1. The males are very territorial and will fight
to keep their nest area. They dig a
small pit in their area by scooping up sand and small stones n their mouth and
build a small breeding nest/pit.
2. In a small area there is usually has only one
dominant male that actually changes color showing females it is dominant and
ready to breed. This begins to happen
when the waters warm up, and breeding starts only when the temperatures reach a
certain range.
The auratus
(Melanochromis Auratus) for example is naturally a yellow fish with black
strips going from head to tail. The
dominant male changes to a black color body with brilliant lilac/purple stripes
from head to tail.
.jpg)
Female
auratus - Courtesy of Wikipedia
.jpg)
Dominant
Male auratus in breeding colors - Courtesy of Wikipedia
The Kenyi
(Maylandia Lombardoi) are normally baby blue with darker blue triangular
stripes from top to bottom. The dominant
male turns golden yellow with darker golden orange set of strips from top to
bottom. So cool………………..
Male & Female Kenyi - Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia
3. The male shakes its body above the pit to
attract the female, and when she arrives, she lays eggs in the pit. The male fertilizes the eggs, and the female
picks up the eggs in her mouth and then lays more. for this reason, these
cichlids are known as "Mouth Brooders".
A Red Zebra
African Cichlid Female with fry in her mouth - Photo courtesy of Aquarium.net
4. Some
females will carry 20-30 eggs in her mouth or as many as several hundred
eggs. She keeps them in her mouth for
several days to a week, not eating until the small “fry” or baby fish can swim
away and hid in the grass or rocky areas.
 |
| Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia |
5. Sometimes the female will release all her
small fry in a grassy area. She will
then get food for herself nearby and then return to let all the small fry swim
back into her mouth.
I was so
addicted to these species of African cichlids that at one point, I had six (6),
yes six aquariums in my home full of different African cichlids, and many of
them breeding each year.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SALT WATER AQUARIUM
Almost 10
years later, living in Oregon, I bought a huge 200 gallon aquarium for salt
water fish. After a lengthy process to
prepare the water, and ensure there are no metals or bacteria to harm the fish,
I was ready to start buying fish. At one
point, I had almost 30 incredible fish in my aquarium, including a baby spotted
fish. I purchased it when it was only two inches long…..and so very
beautiful. When Mr. KF Lin showed this
following photo on his presentation, I immediately remembered this story.
Some of the
salt water fish in my aquarium cost me $50 USD or more back in the 1985 time
frame, and little did I know that some could be aggressive predators.
Note: the following (7) seven fish photos are
courtesy of Wikipedia.com
Clownfish
Emperor
Angelfish
Flame
Angelfish
Longnose
Butterflyfish
Royal Gramma
Lionfish
I had Flame
Angelfish, Emperor Angelfish, Longnose Butterflyfish, Clownfish, Lionfish, two purple and gold Royal Gammas (my
favorites), and many more.
The spotted fish, sold to me as an Ivory
Polkadot Grouper (which I later found out was a Hunchback Grouper (Cromileptes
altivelis) started growing fast. While
the other fish were happy with flake and pellet food, or frozen baby shrimp,
this grouper needed more, so I trained this fish to eat a tasty chunk of thawed
squid or shrimp from my fingers.
Hunchback
Grouper
On a 3 day
business trip, I came home late around midnight and went to my aquarium and
turned on the light. I noticed quickly
that I could not see a few of my smaller fish including my two Royal
Grammas. Since I had a few cats, I
thought maybe they somehow got on top of the tank and scooped out the fish from
the top back opening of the aquarium near the filters…….. the fish were jumping
out the opening in the back of the tank.
I immediately looked all over the floor and the back of the aquarium to
find my fish. They were nowhere in
sight. Maybe the cats ate them! I was really upset at the cats!
But I
decided to scan the large aquarium more carefully. The Hunchback Grouper was now over 7 inches
long and as I spotted it behind a large piece of coral, I realized that it had
one of my Royal Grammas in its mouth, and the its yellow orange tail was still
hanging outside. In a panic, I grabbed
my large net and chased the spotted grouper all around the aquarium and when I
caught it, I reached in and grabbed the grouper, and it spit out the Royal
Gramma. The Royal Gramma immediately
swam to the bottom of the tank and hid in the coral, STILL ALIVE!!! I could not believe my beautiful Hunchback
Grouper was eating hundreds of dollars of my prize fish……. 5 STAR sushi!!! It was eating more expensive dinners than
me! Well, the grouper stayed in the net
all night, and in the morning I took it back to the fish store and told them to
take this cannibal predator, or I was going to fillet it and eat it myself!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BIG GAME
SPORT FISHING
Now for the
main reason……big game sport fishing. For
many years, I would go to lakes in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and even Canada fishing
for Large Mouth & small Mouth Bass, Walleye, Muskies, large catfish, etc. In the New York area and Boston area, I had
many chances to catch Striped Bass, Sea Catfish, Blue Fish and others. In Oregon, large Lake & Rainbow Trout,
Salmon and Steelhead in their rivers, lakes and streams. In Florida we caught
small Dolphin fish (Mahi Mahi), Bonito, Red Snapper, yellow fin tuna, and many
more. But as I grew older, I wanted the
thrills of a lifetime catching BIG game fish.
I traveled
to Hawaii; Puerto Rico; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Acapulco, Mexico; Port St. Lucie, Florida; Long Island, New
York; Bermuda; Bahamas; Aruba; and many more locations to go fishing for the
elusive BIG game fish. My dreams have
become reality, and my largest prizes and more memorable fishing experiences
are listed as follows:
1. Acapulco:
9 ½ foot long Sailfish. (Approx. 100 pounds)
Sailfish -
Photo Courtesy of National Geographic
Caught at
about 7:30 am leaving the harbor and trolling.
This monster took be over 2 hours to bring to the boat. Sailfish are the fastest fish in the oceans
with speeds up to 68 miles per hour.
Because this fish I caught swallowed the bait and would die, I gave this
beast of a fish to the captain and his crew to eat. I will try to scan a photo when I get back to
the states and add the photo of this actual prize fish.
2. Blue Marlin: Cabo San Lucas. (Approx. 220 pounds)
Blue Marlin
- Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia
Another
monster caught mid-morning. It was lying
on the surface, and we tossed bait fish to lure it to our trolling bait, and he
struck fearsomely. He jumped out of the
water many times, and after a 2 ½ hour fight, I released him when he arrived
near the boat.
3. Striped Marlin: Cabo San Lucas. (Approx. 40
pounds & 170++ pounds)
My first
Striped Marlin - Small but ~ 5 ft. long nose to tail
The first of these two fish were caught early
in the morning around 7:00 am (the camera had a Central US time zone set two
hours early) and the second one hit before 7:20. My first striped marlin was small and it took
only about 15 minutes to land. Not more
than 5 minutes later, a monster took the bait, and it took me over 1 ½ hours to
bring this beast to the side of the boat where it was released.
35 Minutes
of fighting, and I am tired, but determined to win this battle of Fish vs. Man
41 minutes of fighting, and I can feel the pain in my hands
and arms - what a fighter of a fish!
1 hour 4 minutes of fighting, & near the surface. The blisters on my hand are starting to hurt
1 hour & 10 minutes, and it leaps out of the water! what an incredible fish!
Over 1 hour and 30 minutes and the fish is at boat
side.
I am exhausted and my hands are
raw but I feel NO pain from the exhilaration and excitement
Landed Striped Marlin at Boatside just before Release ~170++
pounds & over 6+ ft. long
4. Wahoo:
Bermuda. (5 fish in 4 hours, 40 to 50
pounds each)
Image of Wahoo - Courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica
I caught these in the afternoon in a light rain. These fish are fighters and jumpers and can
swim upto 60 miles per hour and are some of the fastest fish in the
oceans. They dive deep, and fly back to
the surface. Great fun, and some of the
best tasting big game fish I have ever had.
These fish were all in the 5 ft. to 5 1/2 ft. range in length.
5. Bull Dolphin Fish
(Mahi Mahi) Hawaii & Aruba. (40 to 50 pounds each plus many more small
females).
Bull (Male) Dolphin fish - Photo Courtesy of
guyharveysportswear.com
I have caught these beautiful dolphin fish in both the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in many locations.
The male “bulls” have squared heads and triangular from top of the head
to the chin like a ‘hatchet’. These fish
are fast, like to jump 3-4 feet in the air and give a great fight, not to
mention they are simply delicious as sushi, cooked, baked, or even deep fried
filets.
6. Yellow Fin Tuna:
Cabo San Lucas. (17 fish in 4 hours, 25 to 35 pounds each)
Tunas (from top): Albacore, Atlantic Bluefin, Skipjack,
Yellowfin, Bigeye - Image courtesy of Wikipedia
In the right season, tuna fishing in Cabo San Lucas is
awesome, especially in the peak months of october and November. On one trip, I caught 17 tuna….non-stop action. Sometimes we caught 2 or 3 at a time and they
just had to wait for me to reel them in.
I took two of these fish home, and one went straight to NikSan Japanese
restaurant where they served us deliciously fresh tuna dishes including many of
their specialty sauces for more than 3 hours for a modest price per
person. We left the rest of the fish for
the chef. When in Cabo, if you love
sushi and Japanese cuisine, you have to go to NikSan’s!
7. Albacore Tuna:
Florida. (Five fish on one rig at same time, 15 to20 pounds each)\
I caught this late morning with a rectangular rig with a
hook and bait in each corner and one in the center. We found a school of medium size albacore
tuna and by the time I got it to the boat, I had a fish on all 5 hooks! That was one tough fight hauling in load of
tuna!
8. Blues: New York. (40+ fish in 4 hours, 9 to 15
pounds each)
About 20 lb. large Bluefish - Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
Ok, so Blues are not big game fish, but this fishing trip
started at dark, 7pm and we arrived back in dock at 2am. We left from the marina near Montauk Yacht
club Montauk Yacht Club which is situated in the Hamlet of Montauk, on New
York's Long Island in East Hampton County.
The boat was a party boat with about 20 fishermen all around the boat.
Blues start their migration as young fish off the coast of
Florida in the winter months and by April they are migrating North, feeding
constantly on their journey. By
September/October, they are off the cost of Boston and the state of Maine and
they have grown to 12 to 18 lbs or more.
These predators feed in large schools, driving small feeding fish such
as anchovies off the bottom and up to the surface where hundreds of Blues begin
devouring their prey. In feeding
frenzies, they “spit out” what they just ate, and eat more and more and
more. On our fishing trip after
midnight, the captain turned on the lights around the boat, and before we knew
it the water turned whit with anchovies. Then the water became turbulent with
hundreds of blues, and we did not even have to bait our hooks, just throw in a
silver spoon with hook, and they would strike right on or just below the
surface. In a few hours’ time almost
every fisherman on the boat had 25 to 50 blues on board. No this is fishing
madness at is chaotic best! I was
exhausted hauling in these fighting monsters.
Caution, be careful when blues fishing, they have razor sharp teeth and
will eat fingers as quickly as anchovies……OUCH!
9. Striped Bass: Boston (Approx. 35 pounds)
Striped Bass - Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia
I caught this big prize just outside Boston Harbor and I was
really surprised that I got this big fish in the boat on light tackle.
10. King Chinook
Salmon: Oregon (Approx. 34 pounds)
King Chinook Salmon - Image Courtesy of Wikipedia
I caught this one with my friends during the winter salmon
run on the Wilson River. We caught
several nice size salmon in the 5-10 pounds range, but when I got this one on
line, I thought for sure I would lose it, but I followed it along the shore
until it just got too tired to run and fight.
NOTE: {Unfortunately, I do not have the photos from many of
these trips with me here in Taiwan, but I will try to find when I return to the
states. (some of these fish I caught
before I had a digital camera!) In the meantime, these photos will at least
give you an idea of the types of fish I have caught.}
So, I hope you enjoyed this long story. My memorable trip to Teng Feng Musuem and my
conversations with Mr. KF Lin brought back these wonderful memories that I have
shared with you.
I am ready to go Big Sports fishing again soon!!!!
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