吃飯了嗎？

長白小館

Wanted to pick a place not too far from home to avoid fighting through the new-year celebration crowd converging on the 101. GF's cousin suggested this place, and I put in my vote for the sour cabbage hot-pot. as a change of pace from the usual Sichuan ma-la hot&spicy. The place wasn't as fancy as all the fancy new places in the area, but it was scrupulously clean and plenty packed with folks waiting by the door.

The basic hot-pot package came with plenty of trimmings but we ordered some more plates of hot-pot stuff and got to cooking. The fermented sour napa cabbage is a Bejing/northern style, but the sour flavor is very much similar to the Hakka which is fermented mustard greens. The familiar flavor made it more like homey comfort food. The soup base contained plenty of good stuff beside the namesake cabbage. Thinly sliced fatty pork belly added fattiness and richness to counterpoint the sour broth. A whole halved crab sure was impressive, and provided plenty of umami. The side dishes such as the chive pockets and scallion pancakes were crisply pan-fried and tasty, too.

The clear cooking broth meant that the dipping sauce played a bigger role. They provide a wide array of condiments for you to whip up your own mix, but also set out a recommended recipe which I happily ignored. The soy sauce makes up the base, of course. A generous sprinkle of scallions and a sprinkle of fresh sliced chilis for freshness. A dash of sesame oil and a small spoonful of sesame sauce for that distinct toasted flavor. Never seen the bright green mashed chive flowers before so throw in a small spoonful of that for the heck of it. A bit of mashed garlic because more garlic is always better Finally top it off with a splash of lemon juice for acidic brightness and more flavorful than the standard white vinegar.

The plates of meats, veggies, and other things (e.g. duck blood chunks) were expensive but generously portioned. Everything cooked quickly in the boiling broth and my dipping sauce combination was a real winner, IMHO. The clear broth allowed one to enjoy the flavors without the tongue-blistering heat of the ma-la hot-pot. Not to mention that by the end of the meal, all the stuff cooking in the pot made the broth pure goodness.

The most surprising thing, GF's cousin paid (everyone keels over in shock)! Not that I mind paying the tab, but having someone else pick up the tab once is nice on a symbolic level, at least. Maybe that was the real reason why the whole meal tasted better.

長白小館
台北市大安區光復南路240巷53號
(延吉街口)
02-27513525

肥前屋

The place is famous as an inexpensive place for great unagi grilled eel. They even keep tanks of live eel in the back for optimal freshness. It's near the GF's workplace but all her co-workers have tried it enough times to be tired of it and so she's never been there either. Seemed like a good choice for a quick get-together weekday meal, while avoiding the long lines on more popular days.

Walked in and snagged a table before the rest of the after-work crowd got there. The tables are communal to maximize usage, though, so we had to share with another couple anyway. The obasan waitresses sat us down, handed us one menu, and stood there expectedly awaiting our orders. Didn't exactly leave us much room to peruse the options, which mostly consisted of standard Japanese quick-meal options plus some extra grilled items. Got an unagi-rice and a tempura meal, plus grilled squid and a couple of yakitori skewers.

The unagi was as advertised. Not the meatiest eel I've ever seen, but certainly fresh, appropriately fatty, and perfectly grilled with the sauce which makes it go so well over rice. Found the rice a bit lukewarm, perhaps a bit pre-prepared for the dinner rush. The tempura was generously portioned with two large prawns and plenty of veggies, but the fry wasn't quite on and the coating was a bit soggy with oil. The grilled squid was a bit tough and definitely not the best we've had. The miso soup wasn't bad, though.

The place was atmospherically shabby. The heavy wood furniture worn smooth from heavy use. It's an open kitchen, a touch of modernity which must've been well ahead of its time, considering what horror shows the typical Asian street-food kitchen can be. Not the absolute cheapest option out there, but certainly well worth a visit, as confirmed by the number of tourists in the house. Next time we'll stick closer to the specialties grilled items though (the neighbor's grilled 秋刀魚 fish looked good, too).

肥前屋
台北市中山區中山北路1段121巷13號之2, 1樓
02-25617859

Namaste Curry

For some practice time behind the wheel, GF drove us down to the NTU area where her mom has a parking pass. There's always plenty of cheap eats around a uni campus. Many of the convenient places in the streets and alleys already had lines out the door as we neared dinnertime. There's a row of curry houses and GF noted the colorful sign and the unconventional Nepalese style. It's also located at the top of a very steep flight of stairs. We figured all that would be sufficient to discourage the bulk of the crowds but even then we only barely got the last free table in the small 2nd-floor space.

The menu mentioned the owners love of Nepal and its culture. The space was painted in gold and maroon reminiscent of the Nepalese temples, with large blow-ups of photos printed on the walls. The hangings and decorations also are also nominally Nepalese, including a beautiful rug which decorated the floor of a no shoes, no chairs, raised sitting area. The menu consisted of a few simple curries with some extras as a set meal. The soup is generic Taiwanese slop, but the Nepalese flatbread was a bit more interesting, crispy pan-fried surface reminiscent of the Chinese green-onion crepes but with a very strong buttery flavor.

The restaurant's not big and the kitchen's even smaller, and it struggled to keep up with the dinner rush as we had to sit quite a while before we got our main dish. The saffron rice had a nice color but wasn't particularly memorable flavor-wise, i.e. probably not much real saffron in there. The curry appeared similar to your standard Indian curries, as one might expect based on geographical proximity. My beef stew had a strong note of cardamom to distinguished it, and GF's chicken curry was a more standard turmeric-based sauce. However, both our entrees were absolutely loaded with actual spices, as I was picking out coriander, bay leaf, peppercorns, and who-knows-what-else. The spices and seeds could've used a good bash with the old mortar-and-pestle to really bring out the flavor, but it is definitely a refreshing change to see the aggressive and one-presumes authentic spicing in a Taiwan restaurant.

The menu blurb stated that the restaurant was a labor-of-love. The decor and flavors certainly demonstrated love and care. However, the service showed the downside of amateur enthusiasm, as servers had no clue which dishes were due for which table. The kitchen was slow and inconsistent in delivery, as our neighboring table had one entree delivered long after his friend had already finished his meal. I was willing to accept the bad with the good, but the brutally competitive marketplace may not, and all those spices and seeds don't come cheap. I fervently hope that they can fix the problems and find a niche before market pressures force them to water down the authenticity to better fit mainstream Taiwan tastebuds.

The uninspired soup should've been a hint, but we we were finishing up our meal with the complementary dessert and I was intrigued by the gelatin. What was that delicate flavor and how did it acquire the translucent purple color, I asked our server?

It's grape jello. We didn't put enough sugar in it, did we?

Oh, that's good to know. Thanks.

Namaste Curry
台北市中正區羅斯福路3段316巷16號2樓
02-23629538

Patio Contemporary

Was looking for a place to eat before the movie. Didn't feel like fast food but also had to wait for GF's sister and cousin to meet us after work so no time for a leisurely meal either. The restaurants in Mitsukoshi seemed liked a convenient choice. Went looking for a casual Japanese-style Italian place in A9 but turned out that it had been replaced by the Patio, selling an Italian-Asian fusion theme. Was a bit skeptical considering Taiwan places can barely even manage to get straight-forward Italian right, but the open kitchen had a guy hand-rolling pizza dough, and it did seem interesting, plus we were short on time. So why not.

Ordered while the GF went to get the movie tickets. Chose two pizzas plus a pasta and two sets of soup+salad for a light dinner for four people. The daily salad was a Caesar, but it was actually good Caesar. Whole leaves of romaine hearts, with a zesty creamy dressing (unsweetened!) full of cracked pepper. Okay, the bacon isn't authentic Caesar, but it was real bacon, and you can't take points away for more bacon.

The cream-of-spinach soup had more of a split-pea color and it was creamy and green but not all that interesting. Should've stuck with good-old cream-of-mushroom. The Thai-style seafood soup was a creamy-tomato broth with a big mussel, calamari ring, shrimp, and some squid-ink noodles. The Thai-ness came from the bit of sour and heat in the soup which was an interesting touch.

The pizzas were thin-crust. Could've been a bit more blistered and the crust sogged and sagged a bit under the toppings. The cheese tasted a bit cheap, but the toppings were good. The tomato+mushroom was simple but tasteful, with thick slices of bright red tomato. Mushroom was plain-old button, but I can see how fancy 'shrooms wouldn't fit in the budget. The other pizza had a Thai-style topping, some sort of chewy dried fish with a spicy crust. It certainly was different, but not sure how well it really went with the cheesy base.

I picked the squid-ink pasta with soft-shelled crab. The crab was breaded and fried and one could eat it shell-and-all as advertised. The black pasta was dressed with a simple but zesty tomato-onion-mushroom sauce. The rich flavor of the crab really put the dish over the top, with all the crabby goodness and none of the hassle.

On a weekday night the place was mostly populated by folks coming off work from the nearby office towers. Considering it's situated in a department store with a nice view the prices were reasonable enough, plus the food was actually pretty darn good. Seemed like somebody was paying attention to the ingredients and preparations. We'll see how long the good intentions stick.

PATIO Contemporary 義式料理
新光三越信義新天地A9館7F
02-8789-5008