It’s getting warmer
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008We’re less than halfway into April here in Taipei and it’s already time to put away the sweaters. In fact, it was already so warm and saturated with humidity today that I felt ready to keel over right over the bar in El Toro 20 minutes into my shift.
I was never so glad to see the first customers of the night walk through the door. The owner of El Toro, with reluctance, turned the air conditioning up to full blast. They’ll probably stay on all summer long — as long as there are customers in the restaurant. Meanwhile, the mercury is going to inexorably creep upwards until it hits a plateau around the mid to high nineties and stay there, seemingly forever.
This doesn’t make the owner happy. The current administration in Taiwan, in a craven bid to pander to voters, have put in temporary freezes in the price of gas and energy. But those price controls will eventually have to go, and Taiwan is steeling itself for a steep utilities price hike in the coming months that will undoubtedly be felt keenly by a populace already suffering through an economic downturn.
“If our utilities were $10,000NT (roughly $330USD)a month last summer, it might go up to as high as $14,000NT this year…” said Chef Charlie. The owner said nothing but furrowed her brows.
“Good,” I thought to myself, diplomatically not voicing that thought… (more…)