I’ve gambled for money,
for pride, for a beer and occasionally for meals. I’m an Eagles fan, which means I’ve lost
more football bets than I’d like to admit. But until two nights ago, I’d never,
ever gambled for sausage. But we did – myself and my friends in Taipei - and by golly, we
won.
Here’s how it works. A man
with a tiny charcoal box, and some freshly made Taiwanese pork sausages, seasoned
with five spice and not a small amount of sugar, sits outside Cashbox (Qian Gui), a
well-known chain of karaoke bars. You approach the stand (which also sells individual
sausages for 30NT, about a buck) and pay 100NT to roll the dice. Doubles are
excluded, as are ones, and your total is tallied. We rolled a twelve – holler!
The sausage man frowned,
took the rocks in his hand, shookshookshook and let ‘em dance around in the dish… And
came he up short, with five. You see that face? That’s the look of defeat, of
hitting rock sausage bottom, of surrendering your porky riches to a plain stranger.
We subtracted his sum from
our own, and walked off with 7 hot sausages.
Call me the tumblin’ dice.