A particular variety of the hot pot a Chinese dish in which vegetable, meets, seafood and other item are boiled in a large pot in the table, has became very popular in Taipei recently: spicy pepper pot. Restaurants have responded by introducing many special new flavors and other variation to the traditional hot pot format.

Just seeing the words “spicy” and “peppery” we know that his kind of hot pot must come from the Chinese province of Sichuan. According to historical materials, as early as Emperor Tao Kuan of the Ching Dynasty, people in the province of Sichuan were already avidly consuming spicy pepper hot pot, particularly in the areas around the Yangtze River and the city of Chungching. The earliest versions of hot pot were available on the city from roaming vendors. For the hot pot , beef organs were washed and clean and cut into small pieces. A pot full of hot pepper soup boiled on the top of a charcoal fire inside a clay stove. Customers would drop their sliced beef innards into the hot pepper soup and then eat them right there on the road side. Later, a Chungching restaurant moved this street-side affair into a shop and provided each proton with his own copper pot for boiling and dipping sauces. Spicy pepper hot-pot shops caught on quickly and the popularity of this dish has extended down to this day.

The Island of Taiwan is blessed with abundant fish resources. Each winter, large school of mullet fish follows warm currents to the south in other to spawn, providing high income to the villagers along the southern Taiwan coast. Full-grown mullet fish are about a foot long in length, and each part of the fish’s body ha economic value. The meet, which is rich and tender, is good in rice-noodle soup. Its air bladder and tendon contain high level of protein and make for an expensive seasonal dish in seafood restaurants. And its plump, golden-yellow roe, after being preserved, is a long-standing delicacy in Taiwan and a popular gift item during festival and New Year.

In the past, catching mullet fish and preserving their roe was a prevalent profession in the winter month in the fishing villages around Chia Ding Town in southern Taiwan. Because of the popularity of the preserved roe, which always sells out at New Years, and the fact that the mullet-fish catches in southern Taiwan can’t always meet, demand, mullet roe has traditionally been shipped in from North, Central and South America. This is way stores island-wide are able to stock mullet roe year round without running out.

In the olden days dating back only to the last century, seeds were used by goldsmiths to measure a quality of gold. This has been the most fundamental of known system of weights based upon the weight of seeds. In particular, the saga (Adenanthera pavonina) seeds found in tropical Asia were used as a measure for gold, and small units of gold are still referred to as saga. Because of the prestige of the renowned saga seeds for their durability, reliable and stability, our first Made-in-Malaysia car has been given the name Proton saga.

Seeds stored in the germplasm or seed bank as generic resources for the future generation have been described as a treasure far more valuable to mankind than all the hoards of gold, precious stones and other material wealth in the world. This is because agriculturist general and seed technologist in particular believe food (seed) holds the key to a better world and plant breeders are busy developing even more productive seeds to help the meet the challenge of food production for the future. Man’s exploitation of plants in agriculture depends upon seeds. Despite in the modern technology there exist the threat of worldwide poverty and also hunger.