吃飯了嗎？

松江自助火鍋

Wife's been having cravings for hot pot in the latter stages of the pregnancy. Makes sense since hot pot cooks up plenty of hot, nutritious food without being overwhelmingly rich. Perfect for helping the baby to grow. Her sister and cousins are more than willing to accommodate, so they chose this hot-pot place which they visited all the time when they were little. It's the perfect option for a drizzly wintry evening.

The modern shabu-shabu resturants offer individual-sized pots of broth bubbling away on sleek inductive hot plates, with the food coming as all-you-can-eat or as set-meals. However 松江 has remained old-school family-style, with a big heavy communal pot full of hot broth sitting in the middle shared by the whole table. Anyone can walk over to the fridges to grab plates of meats, veggies, or sides and dump them into the pot. In the end, the experienced waiters count up the plates and multiply out the final check in their head. So you don't have to stuff yourself trying make all-you-can-eat worthwhile, and you get exactly what you want unlike a set meal.

The restaurant itself has seen better days, but it's still clean and there's still enough turnover to keep the food moving along freshly. One can imagine not so long ago when it would've been packed with multi-generational families, groups of classmates, etc. That would've been about the time when we moved to the US, so it's nice to have an echo of that experience in the present-day. Unfortunately the location is not convenient for us, so it'll most likely remain a nostalgia trip.

松江自助火鍋城
台北市中山區松江路315號1樓
02-25012064

長谷川先生的家

We always together with wife's younger cousins to celebrate the big school holidays. The kids love American-style burger-and-fries. The workin' folks prefer a posh restaurant, preferably in the fashionable streets of east-Taipei. Nowadays there are plenty of places which can satisfy both requirements, as fancy-burger restaurants seems to be the latest fad.

This particular spot went with the quiet-elegance approach. You know it's a low-key place when the Help Wanted sign is bigger than the store's name sign. The restaurant and its large picture windows are obscured behind an artfully overgrown garden and patio, topped off with a red telephone booth. They endeavored to make the inside like a cozy home, with thick wood dining tables and lots of bookshelves filled with random items and mirrors on the walls. Sitting around the long table it felt as if we were in the dining room of a well-appointed European home, which is certainly a unique atmosphere for these parts.

Invited David along with us for this occasion, and he went straight for the deluxe signature-burger. You get an extra fried egg and onion rings on top of the standard bacon-cheeseburger, which is like an Aussie or Kiwi thing, I think. Unfortunately the beer was stupid expensive, so he only had a couple of small-bottle Heinekens and I demurred altogether. The Oreo milkshakes were good, though, fresh hand-made and all.

As for me I had the straight-up bacon-cheeseburger. All the elements were certainly in place. Lots of fresh veggies and good crunchy bacon on a fresh-baked bun. But where's the beef? Although I'm sure the beef is as high-quality as the rest of the ingredients, the Mickey-D-sized patty seemed to get lost a bit within all the trimmings. The Diner is still the winner, far as patty mass goes.

A good time was had by all, although the location seemed more appropriate for a date than a boisterous gathering, apparent by the fashionable couples occupying the other tables. Maybe we'll have to come by ourselves the next time. But boy there sure are lots of other burger places still left to sample.

長谷川先生的家
光復南路240巷45號
02-27415880

Bruce Kitchen

The New Year conveniently extended into a long weekend, so it was a good occasion to get everyone together. Specifically, for the sis-in-law and her boyfriend to take us to their latest restaurant discovery. 布佬廚房 is located in the green hills of Xindian, above the suburbian crowd but still within easy driving distance. The converted house is arranged to insure all the tables and seating areas are open and airy, which was a bit cool in the wintertime but must be perfect in the summer. The atmosphere and inexpensive food attracts groups of students and other young folks puttering up the hill on their scooters, as well as young families in their SUVs.

Since we had such a large group, they seated us across the street in the covered terrace annex, where they could put a few tables together to more easily accommodate us. The food was mostly Japanese-style Italian. Since the SIL had been there before we let her order the food and shared amongst everybody. The pumpkin soup wasn't as subtle as one might hope, but it was warm and hearty, which was useful on a chilly day out on the terrace. Mushroom rissoto au gratin was the big hit with the kids, so much so we got a second order. The spicy seafood spaghetti had enough seafood to be worthwhile, but the sauce was a bit weak. The saffron paella was quite yellow, although most likely more due to turmeric rather than saffron. Plus a Coke. You know, for kids.

The food was decent for the price and the location was very nice. However didn't get to appreciate either as much as I should have since I was getting viciously sick on something which knocked me out for most of the following week. I was already feeling unwell during the meal, though, so it's probably not their fault, and don't take it as an indictment against BK.

布佬廚房
Bruce Kitchen
台北縣新店市車子路137號
02-8666-6181

紅洋蔥

We've passed by the unassuming little family-style steakhouse dozens of times without giving it a second look. However, the wife was looking to eat more protein to help the baby gain weight. So the big red banner offering two steak dinners for price of one caught our eye. Thankfully we were there relatively early and could snatch a table, as the restaurant was soon packed with bargain-hunting families and young couples.

There were five different combo-meal combinations one could choose from. A small glass of brisk fruit-vinegar worked to cleanse the palate. Didn't expect much more than generic iceberg salad mix for the salad, but we were pleasantly surprised with a whole-leaf Caesar. Loved the presentation, whole romaine leaves covered with dressing on the root end, leaving the green leaf exposed, sitting in the perfectly shaped elongated bowl with croutons, cheese, and bacon bits on top. Although bacon bits aren't suppose to be in Caesar salad, they do use real bacon, and you never go wrong by adding bacon. I was also impressed by my beef consomme soup, clear but beefy in flavor. The wife's onion soup was a bit more pedestrian in comparison, lacking that intense caramelization of well-cooked onions.

For the main course, I had the triplet combo of jumbo prawn, herb chicken, and steak, with mushroom sauce on the side. The steak was a bit tough, the prawn was kinda small, and the crisp-skinned chicken was... chicken. But all in all it was a good amount of food and greater than the sum of the parts. Wife had the Angus steak and had a good time hacking away at it.

A competent creme brulee and panna cotta rounded off the meal and went nicely with the half-decent coffee. There was ice cream available, too, but it was icy, barely scoopable, and not worth the trouble.

Sure, it's no Ruth Chris or Mortons, but there are good reasons why this place has survived for so long even as more fashionable eateries have came and went around it. Sure it's a bit faded and old-fashioned, but I think that actually adds to the atmosphere.

紅洋蔥
台北市光復南路180巷14號
02-2721-7512

Cacao et Chocolat

The wife is usually not a big chocoholic, but she was intrigued by the mention of this particular French import's Taipei opening, as mentioned on a celebrity blog. Plus she went to some pre-birthing classes which encouraged her to get more active in preparation for labor. So a short walk out to the nearby shop seemed like the perfect destination to get out of the house.

The little shop is tucked away in an alley off of 光復南路, next to a 7-11. The refrigerated glass case displayed the truffles and bonbons in a variety of exotic flavors, directly imported from France. Each were decorated in their own way with edible gold paint. A chocolate fountain was pouring out over itself for the choco-dipped strawberries, etc. Another big glass case in front showed off the chocolate macaroons. The side cases displayed packaged chocolate-coated nuts, candies, cocoas, and various gift boxes. Priced according how you'd expect for French-imported perishables would cost.

NTD 50-60 per candy was a bit too much for just a single bite. But they also offered some cafe-style sit-down options for a few small tables inside the shop. We decided to share a small pot of the chocolat chaud. The intensely concentrated European-style hot-chocolate was plenty to satisfy the both of us. They also offered us some taste samples of the other candies, too. Some fresh whipped cream like Anglina in Paris would've been nice, but that'd be too rich to handle, to be honest. On the other hand, they do throw in a shot of Grand Marnier on the side which you can add to your hot chocolate for an orange-liquer kick. Very nice touch.

So if you ever need to gift someone with expensive chili-pepper-flavored chocolate, this is the place for you!

Cacao et Chocolat
台北市光復南路180巷14號1樓
02-2775-1106