Tall stories from Taiwan

From dumplings on the footpath to the view from the 91st floor, Taipei is a series of surprises, writes Darren Gray. WITH arms flexed and eyes focused firmly on the target ahead, the young Taipei kitchen hand carries a giant bag of pork mince through heavy kitchen traffic.

He places it over the top of a large bowl, manipulates the bottom of it, and kilogram after kilogram of fine mince tumbles downwards.

After a mountain peak of pork has been set in the bowl, another man thrusts silver chopsticks into its base. The chopsticks dive, grab and empty; dive, grab and empty - dive, grab and empty, all so quickly that you expect them to send out sparks. They leave behind many generous portions of mince, sitting atop flattened pieces of dough. Eyeing the whole operation carefully from the side is the third member of this Taipei kitchen production line, a young woman who wraps each piece of dough into a nice, round, plump, shiny, complete pork bun.

She's not the only person looking on. A quick count shows that the four-person kitchen crew (completed by the cook) is being watched by up to 34 eyes at times - because the whole scene is unfolding on the side of a footpath in the centre of Taipei on a Wednesday afternoon.

The crowd of hungry onlookers, who line up neatly while waiting for the buns to be baked, is diverse. There are Taipei businessmen dressed in sharp suits, young teenagers in school uniform, a couple of wide-eyed Japanese backpackers, and somewhere about the middle of the queue a fairly lanky (by local standards), curious and more-than-a-tad-peckish Australian.

Once I make it to the front of the queue I can see how the buns are cooked. The cook lifts a round lid sitting on top of the benchtop, revealing a cylindrical oven sunk into the bench. After he empties out the golden brown buns, two other kitchen workers approach, pork bun in each hand. They delicately reach into the hot oven and slap a bun on the inside wall, pressing firmly until each bun is attached. They keep repeating this until the oven wall is covered in buns.

Because my understanding of Mandarin goes little beyond "Tsao an" (good morning) and "tsai-chien"' (goodbye), I wonder, as I progress along the queue, how on earth I'm going to organise this pork bun deal. I try to get help from the Taiwanese woman in front of me but she just looks at me blankly. And then I'm at the front, right next to the baking oven, looking at the dough-folding woman, who is now doubling as saleswoman. She passes me a small and very warm paper bag containing one pork bun, and says in English, "Forty". I count out 40 New Taiwan Dollars and we're done.

Well, we're done at least once anyway. The delicious pork bun, which costs only about $A1.65, is so good that it demands another. So with one down I head back to the rear of the queue and start counting out my money again.

Famous dumpling

Taiwan is a gourmet's delight. If chowing down on beautifully fresh pork buns on a city street is not your style, there is a wide array of good restaurants where you can do it all indoors. If dumplings are your fancy, simply hail a Taipei cab, hop in and say "Famous Dumpling Restaurant". According to local tour guides, you will be taken to Ting Tai Fung.

The restaurant has an L-shaped dining floor that wraps around the kitchen. Both walls between the kitchen and the dining area are made of glass so diners can aid their digestion by observing another feverish kitchen crew. About 17 cooks work behind the glass, preparing the dough and the dumpling fillings. The activity on the kitchen floor is matched by that on the dining floor, where about 20 waitresses scurry around the tables.

The menu at Ting Tai Fung has about 70 dishes to choose from. Orders 51 and 52 - steamed pork dumplings - and 56 and 57 - steamed shrimp and pork dumplings - are among the highlights. The dumplings here are light, juicy, tasty and affordable. A good meal will set you back about $T300, or about $A12.50.

Taipei 101

Taipei 101]" title="Taipei 101">With the lunch bill paid, you've got plenty of change left over for a visit to the nearby Taipei 101 tower, the tallest building in the world. This structure stretches more than half a kilometre (or 508 metres) skyward from the roadside. While its scale is world-beating, Taipei 101 will soon be topped by a 600-plus-metre building due to open in Dubai in 2008.

It has an indoor viewing deck on the 89th floor (382 metres above road level) which gives views of the city in all directions. To the north are impressive views of the domestic airport, the Dr Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, the Taipei Dome sports stadium and a host of other city landmarks.

The more adventurous visitor can climb the stairs to the outdoor deck on the 91st floor, which is as far as tourists can go up the 101-storey building. A solid fence up to chest height rings the deck, and on top of it a steel fence with thick upright pieces extend another two metres or so upwards. If your head isn't too fat, you can just squeeze it between the steel posts. While that's no comfort, there's certainly no danger of the rest of you following through.

Because it's not always calm when you're 500 metres tall, Taipei 101 has a giant wind damper suspended from the 87th to 92nd floor. Weighing 660 tonnes, the damper itself - really a giant internal pendulum - is a massive feat of engineering. It is secured by 16 cables 42 metres long and is said to reduce movement by up to 40 per cent.

The trip to the 89th floor of Taipei 101 costs $T350 for adults (about $A14.60) and $T320 for children (about $13.30). There is an extra cost of about $A10 for visitors who want to climb to the 91st floor outdoor deck.