吃飯了嗎？

Forchetta

Decided to take the wife out for one more nice meal before her due date. What she really wanted was shabu-shabu, but the iPhone failed me, as the address it found for the place I had in mind was out of date. So we walked a long way the wrong way, which did not put her in a good mood. Was just about to just hail a cab when we noticed Forchetta's sign peeking out discreetly in an alley. She'd read a good review, and fancy-fusion food instead of hot-pot was fine with me.

A dense wall of greenery was planted to shield the busy street and create a calm, cocooned interior despite the floor-to-ceiling picture windows. The kitchen is completely open, separated from the main room by a bar, with many crisply-dressed chefs already in action to serve the patrons. That doesn't leave much room on the main floor, but in the basement are a few more private spaces for larger parties and overflow. Thankfully on a Thursday evening we could walk in and still have a table in the main room, and we'd just come from work so we were not underdressed for the sharply decorated space, with shelves oh-so-casually populated with arty architectural books and precious wood-carving pieces.

The prix fixe menu featured many courses and many $$$. For a weekday dinner we were content to order one multi-course meal with an extra entree for her, sharing the appetizers beforehand, making it into more of a small-plate kind of experience, and they were quite accommodating with the extra plates and silverware for her throughout.

We started with a pumpkin soup with cream foam on top. The dramatically oversized bowl formed a dark background for the bright yellow soup and white topping to stand out. It was kind of ridiculous to be sharing such a small portion, but the cup in the bowl is deeper than it looks, and a few sips of the rich soup is more than enough to satisfy.

Chicken salad with an EVOO and balsamic dressing. Walnuts added a bit of crunch and gorgonzola for richness. Many strong flavors but they blended well and didn't overwhelm the delicate greens. Too bad my sucky cell phone camera couldn't capture the metallic sheen of the gold foil embedded within the bowl.

An Asian-fusion preparation as mushrooms and bamboo shoots were dressed with truffle oil, wrapped in won-ton skin to be seared crisp in butter. A couple larger stalks of the mushroom artfully arranged to balance the heavy wrap on the rectangular slate. An inky streak of balsamico, like a bold brushstroke, connected the two elements. It was like a really fancy spring-roll, infused in flavorful oil, instead of soaked in cheap grease like the typical take-out fare. The glass of crisp white house wine was a good palette-cleanser afterwards.

Wife ordered a steak (more protein for the baby). If she was only going to have the one entree, the accoutrements certainly made it seem like a worthwhile choice. As they brought out a tray of various flavored salts and spices to dress the steak. From left to right we have a Fleur de Sel, home-made garlic salt, a fantastic infused curry salt, and crushed red peppercorns. No blase iodine salt and black pepper here.

The meat itself was a good-old rib-eye steak. Cooked medium at her request, then sliced. The meat was tender despite the medium cooking. Garnished with grilled 筊白筍 mini-leeks and the ubiquitous mushrooms. The various flavored salts and the accompanying sauce gave a simple dish multi-dimensional flavors.

My entree was a white fish cooked en-papillote with white wine and extra-virtgin olive oil along with clams and baby mushrooms. The spicy olive oil and the clam juices offered clean, light flavors. Although I couldn't resist sprinkling some of the salts on the fish, too, just for fun.

I was miffed for a second because I thought the chocolate-dipped strawberry and single-bite-sized macha cake was the only dessert to finish the meal. Turned out there was still a real dessert afterwards so it's all good.

Considering the creativity already shown in the previous dishes, I was okay with a standard offering like tiramisu for dessert. However, if you're going to do the basics you should do it well. So I was a little disappointed to find plain sponge cake, a bit dry around the edges, instead of ladyfingers, and the coffee flavor was a bit weak. Although the actual cup-o-coffee alongside was quite good.

All in all it was a fine way to celebrate the end of our childless life. The chef obviously has a good idea of what he wants to do and the vision was executed well. The ingredients are as local as possible, organic, etc. Not gaudy or overwrought, but solidly high-end. I'll have to visit again with a decent camera next time to do the food picture more justice, although the iPhone camera did as well as it could considering the low-light conditions.

Forchetta
台北市大安區安和路一段127巷4號
02-07077776

Famous Larry's NY Pizza

I've kinda given up on pizza in Taiwan, after even Costco went native with toppings such as Seafood&Corn and Beijing Duck. Sure, there are fancy Italian places serving up thin-crust Euro pies, but nothing like the bread-y topping-packed American-style big-slice.

Was browsing The Hungry Girl In Taipei blog and noticed her recommendation for Famous Larry's. Not sure about how famous Larry really is, but I'd already begged off dinner at home so I had to forage for myself. So I decided to grab takeout on the way home from work.

Unfortunately, it's not like the high-turnover American fast-food-pizza shacks, where you can choose from the ready-cooked pizzas and take a slice to-go immediately. I could choose any flavor off the big blackboard menu, but then they have to assemble my single-slice order by putting the appropriate toppings on a slice of par-cooked pizza base and finishing it in the oven. On a slow weekday evening I guess I can understand why they do it this way, but I wanted to get home and the open storefront was drafty, albeit nicely decorated with Americana touches.

So I finally received my slices and speed-walked home before they cooled off. Had to have a slice of the pepperoni pizza just to see how they do the basics. The Soho pizza adds a California touch to the NY-style pizza base, with pesto, mushroom, and chicken toppings. The crust is corn-meal dusted and thin, but not too thin. The slices are generously large, cut from a 19" pizza round. Two slices were almost too much but I could afford to be gluttonous alone at home.

I'm not a super-picky pizza connoisseur and it seems like they have the right idea except the slice couldn't be folded, a deadly sin for a self-purported New York style pizza. Maybe the crust got hard between the re-baking and the cooling-off process during transport. Nevertheless that was a pretty major bummer.

On the other hand, the flavors are all good, and it's close to home, so we'll give it a second chance sometime. Anything but Pizza Hut.

Famous Larry's New York Pizza
Yanji St, Lane 137, No. 2
台北市延吉街137巷2號
02-2771-1032

also

Heping E. Rd., Sec. 2, Lane 118, Alley 54, No. 8
台北市和平東路二段118巷54弄8號
Tel: (02) 2738 4747

聚園烤鴨

The mother-in-law was in the mood for Beijing duck and her co-worker recommended this family-style place tucked away in an alley behind the Sherwood Taipei. The duck must be reserved ahead of time, so advanced planning was required. Plus it's not as if you can eat a whole duck by yourself, so she made the reservation then recruited all the usual suspects, including us, to join in on the fun.

A ten-course meal, including one whole Beijing duck done two ways. The skin and meat rolled in crepe with spring onion, cucumber, and sweet sauce 甜麵醬. The remaining bones are taken away to make a tasty soup. Meanwhile, they dished up plenty of other northern-Chinese specialties like onion pancakes 蔥油餅 and steamed dumplings 蒸餃. Also offered more typical family-style dishes like fish in brown sauce and salt-crusted prawns, and there was even typically Taiwanese standards like three-cup chicken 三杯雞.

The duck's skin and meat were robust and thick-cut, unlike the more delicate skin-and-fat carving I had in Beijing, so the resulting wrap turned out more like a burrito than a crepe. The skin was crispy and tasty but a bit overwhelmed by the hearty meat and garnishings. The other dishes are the kind of food we'd like to have but no longer have the time nor inclination to make at home. The ten of us had a full meal for about NT3000, and there was still plenty of leftovers to take home for grandpa. Solid, unassuming food at a good value, no wonder it's popular with the obasan-set.

北平聚園餐廳
台北市松山區民生東路三段113巷25弄39號
02-27185477

La Crema

After all that time cooped up at home nesting, it's time to get the wife out and moving about a little bit. First a stroll around SYT park, then into the side alleys nearby looking for a cafe for afternoon tea. Noticed good reviews for this cafe and managed to find it with some help from the Google Map on the iPhone. Although the wife did wonder why I kept looking down at my phone as we walked.

Compared to the flashier, hip lounge-cafes in the area, LaCrema offers a more old-World European feel, with dark woods and small, hard chairs, which probably wasn't the best thing for the wife, come to think of it. The background music was certainly a notch above the rest, being played on some hard-core audio equipment mostly comprised of massive BAT gear, with a Jeff Rowland pre for the front end, plus a NuForce solid-state amp for the modern touch.

The cafe is obviously a family affair. The kids plus some hired help took the orders, the wife handled the food and the register, while the serious-looking dad painstakingly made all the coffee drinks. They offer a few simple desserts and snacks, but the focus is definitely all about the coffee. As one might imagine, with the small crew and filled tables, the service was a bit spotty, and it took a while before my cappuccino and her hot cocoa arrived. But the wait turned out to be worth while, as LaCrema joins the short list of places where I can honestly admit the coffee is better than what I can make at home. Almost a wine-like lingering complexity in the coffee's flavor. The home-made cheesecake is pretty good, too, and complemented the coffee drinks well.

Despite its low-key nature, the cafe seemed to be doing great business. It's always nice to see quality being rewarded, which is not always the case in Taipei. We'll have to make time for more visits, once the wife is allowed to have caffeine again.

La Crema
克立瑪
台北市大安區光復南路280巷45號
02-27313264