We were wandering around Central when wife mentioned that there's a famous egg-tart shop nearby. Checked the guide-book and found that it's a quick detour up the Mid-Level Elevator, which I wanted to ride for fun anyway. The interior is nothing special, but the big traditional-style sign outside and the steady stream of customers demonstrated its history and popularity. We got a few egg tarts and a couple of chicken pies to go. Should've got a sugar donut, too, since that's their other signature item. Oh well next time.

TaiCheong's egg tart is classic HK style. The egg custard is smooth, with a crumbly pie-like short crust. The custard filling is a beautiful yellow that comes from lots of real egg yolks and butter. It's different from the Portuguese egg tarts in Macau which have dark patches of caramelized custard tops and a flaky choux crust. Either way is good with me! We had reservations for lunch at a Michelin three-star restaurant in 30 minutes, but who can resist a fresh, warm egg tart staring at you in the face? So we had to have one right then and there. Yum. Haute-cuisine restaurants aren't exactly known for their generous portion sizes anyway, so a pre-meal snack won't hurt anything. The only regret was that we couldn't find a nearby milk-tea stand to go with the egg tart.

池記雲吞麵家

Made our way around Hong Kong all day before taking the ferry across the harbor then back to Causeway Bay to drop off the day's shopping in our hotel room. Wasn't too hungry, but didn't want to totally skip dinner, either. So a hot bowl of won-ton noodles seemed like just the thing. This shop near Time Square Plaza seemed nicely decorated, with a good crowd, and featured press clippings from the Michelin Guide. Which to be honest is not really a plus since the Frenchie judges don't know jack about HK street-food culture, at least according to the local critics. On the other hand, one can be assured of some basic level of quality and service by the recommendation, even if one might have to pay a bit extra for the privilege. At nicer HK establishments I do best by speaking English instead of Mandarin, but what about a small place like this? Turned out most of the waitresses spoke fine Mandarin, most likely imported labor from mainland China.

In the Chiuchow style, the wontons are made with pure whole-shrimp filling, and the shells go into the broth. The broth tasted strongly of the shellfish, without obviously tasting of MSG (they say they don't use any but I'm always a bit skeptical). I found the noodle had a bit of a basic (as in lye) taste that seemed harsh residue on the tongue. Not to mention the portion is tiny. But that was enough for us, plus it comes with dessert or veggies for HK$50, not that either was particularly memorable.

翠苑甜品

Kept saying that we didn't want a big dinner, but a small bowl of noodles isn't exactly satisfying, and there's always room for dessert. Wife's mom said good things about this place when she was in HK last, staying near Times Square. So when we passed by and found a free table in the tiny store-front we decided to give it a shot. The shop was run by a bunch of Little Old Ladies, selling traditional Cantonese 糖水 desserts. Wife chose the soft-tofu sweet soup with lotus-seed. While I had milk pudding with sesame paste. Warm on a cool evening, and not too sweet, per Chinese tastes. They stuck the wife with an unwanted hard-boiled egg in her soup and charged us an extra HK$2 for it. Wasn't worth the trouble arguing about it but it was kind of a bummer. Still, even with the surcharge it was less than HK$20, so it's not wonder why the mother in law liked it so much, and the experience was a slice of old-Hong-Kong in the midst of the fashionable district.

正斗IFC

The wife was flying back to Taiwan in the afternoon while I head into Shenzhen to our factory. So we spent our morning in the IFC mall, right above the Airport Express train station. She could take her time in Zara in the morning without having to fight off the hordes of tourists later in the day. But it didn't leave us much time for lunch. Didn't want to go too far since she had a train to catch soon, so we looked around inside the mall for options. But the options seemed either uninspired or expensive. This Hong Kong style restaurant seemed like the best mid-range option, and we were there early enough to get a table quickly before the main lunchtime rush. Lots of fancy kitsch-Asian decorations, designed to appeal to the tourists that pass through. Kitchen is open and clean, although the window was heavily fogged by all the steamers and woks going inside. Picked some dim-sum favorites, as well as a bowl of frog-chicken congee, if only to make sure we didn't miss out on these Hong Kong staples during our trip. Liked their version of shrimp wonton noodles better than Chi Kee last night, too. The congee rice gruel was slow cooked until the rice grains have almost totally melted into the stock. Very tasty. The dim-sum items were freshly made and simply a step up from anything you can find in Taiwan. Not cheap, but we didn't have time to go out into Central, and for the IFC it's fair enough. A representative, albeit touristy, final meal in Hong Kong.

池記 Chee Kee
銅鑼灣波斯富街84號地下
+852 2890 8616

翠苑甜品專家 Tsui Yuen Dessert
北角北角道13號地下

正斗粥麵專家 Tasty Congee & Noodle Wantun Shop
中環港景街1號國際金融中心商場一期3樓3016-3018號舖
+852 2295 0101

The restaurant is plushly furnished and well spaced, a rarity in and of itself for Hong Kong, where personal space is an unaffordable luxury for most. The Saturday lunch crowd featured an equal mixture of curious tourists and upscale locals. The table was impeccably set with silver salt & pepper shakers, a nice flower arrangement, and gorgeous plate settings, although the initial setting of beautifully gilted plates got whisked away when it actually came time to eat. The included wines aren't quite up to three-star standards, but our palates have been slightly spoiled by tastes of uncles' fine Bordeauxs so one can't quibble too much about the perfectly drinkable freebie.

I'd managed to book a window-side table with expansive views of Hong Kong Harbor and Kowloon across the water. However on a gray day the views weren't quite picture perfect, and the Kowloon harbor-front isn't as architecturally impressive as the Hong Kong waterfront seen from Kowloon-side. But we'll go check out the postcard view in Kowloon from TST when they have their light-show later in the evening. During the daytime with sunlight through the picture windows threw plenty of light on our table, so the massive crystal chandeliers serve more as decoration than illumination, but it's nicer to have natural light during the meal anyway. After all, Chinese folks still prefer a brighter restaurant space, compared to the dim, atmospheric lighting of a typical high-end Western place.

The wife's brown lentil soup didn't seem particularly appetizing at first. But the warm, hearty soup was just the thing on a cool day. The mound of crab meat is sweet and fresh. And the dab of shellfish emulsion contains the umami souls of untold number of shrimps and bivalves shells cooked down and concentrated into the rich buttery mix.

The small slice of toast that came with my big slice of oxtail-foie terrine wasn't nearly enough to absorb the flavorful oxtail meat and foie pate. Thankfully the waiter offered free refills from the bread basket. The olive whole-wheat bread was particularly tasty. Although the plain ciabbata complemented the dish better.

My Crisp-crusted Chilean sea bass with basil aroma, on a bed of crushed zucchini and yellow bell pepper coulis, wasn't designed to be a mind-bender, but it's still a perfectly executed Western seafood dish. The clean and subtle flavors accompanying the meaty white fish were very different from the soy-ginger-scallion flavor profile of Cantonese fresh-fish preparations. But both show the same attention to detail and freshness. The heavy knife they set out for the wife turned out to be superfluous as the wagyu beef shoulder has been braising in red wine for a dozen hours and it was fork-tender and infused with flavor. Seems a waste to cook wagyu beef in such a heavy sauce. On the other hand, even wagyu cows must have tough cuts, and the price we were paying for the meal wouldn't get us more than a small bite of the prime stuff, compared to the hearty chunk on her plate.

The relatively light meal left plenty of space for dessert, and ours eyes lit up when the waiter pushed over the cart with a huge silver tray filled with:

• Double-chocolate tart
• Giant lemon macaron
• White & milk chocolate mousses on almond crust
• Milk pudding with brown sugar cognac sauce
• Caramel-chocolate tart
• Blueberry and butter-cream mille feuille

We were thinking that it was going to be awfully hard to choose from amongst the six options, they all looked so good!

Then the server offered, "each of you may choose three."

Well that's easy then.

Like the food, it was all classical French desserts, done without much innovation but with impeccable technique and top-notch ingredients that shows in the taste where it counts. Amongst the tarts, cookies, and puddings featuring creamy, fruity, and chocolatacious flavors, the selection satiated just about every sweet craving that one might've had. Totally earned the stars there.

We were plenty full by this point, so we took the petit fours away with us to munch later.

Unlike so many other expensive Western restaurants in Asia, there was no big-shot star chef's name to help brand Caprice. But the large crew in the open kitchen looked like they knew exactly what they're doing, not afraid of letting diners see them at work. And it's no surprise they managed to impress the Michelin tasters on their home-turf cuisine. It's perhaps lacking the fiery creative spark that would drive a French 3-star, but that was okay with us, since we were exactly hoping for well-executed fundamentals for our visit. Given the quality, service, and setting, our mid-day meal was an excellent value, which is definitely no sure thing at Michelin-rated restaurants.

We slurped down the first appetizer of Australian raw oyster with scallion-lime sauce and ginger snow before taking a picture of it. Oops. So the image above was liberally borrowed from Luxeat. At home we might do oysters with scallions and ginger as a hot stir-fry. Having it as a chilly appetizer was certainly a refreshing change.

Squid ink Chiuchow noodles dressed with XO sauce. Topped with fresh uni. The strongly flavored XO sauce distracted a bit from the fresh seafood taste of the urchin roe.

Scallop carpaccio in rich 高湯 broth. Puffed rice and snow peas. The most classically Cantonese preparation, but delicately arranged as Western-style single-servings.

The Molecular XLB is the creation that put BI on the map, integrating Chinese flavors with molecular gastronomy. A typical 小籠包 xiaolongbao's meat stuffing is cooked to extract the meat juices. The outer surface is gelatinized to form the "skin" while retaining the hot, juicy center. Overlaid with a piece of dehydrated vinegar-pickled ginger to complete the one-bite experience. Not sure the flavor really outdoes Din Tai Fung, but the presentation was very cool nonetheless.

Finally, ocean-trout fillet marinated with fermented black bean and honey-miso. Sprinkled with freeze-dried fermented black-bean 豆豉 powder. Pickled bok choy and ginger gelee cubes accompanying. Another array of traditional flavors presented with innovative flair. I can think of a lot of uses for that fermented black-bean powder, if I had a freeze-drier of my own.

Her entree was a smoked pomfret fish, foie gras, topped with apple foam. The smokiness helps the fish to stand up to the generous portion of rich foie. The fruity foam is also designed to accompany the foie in flavor profile while maintaining a light touch unlike the typical sticky, jammy sauces.

My plat was wild hunter-caught duck breast. cooked sous vide. Preserved kumquat, longan, and red rice on the side. The wild duck meat was darker than farm-raised birds, quite red due to the slow-cooking process. Unfortunately on the dimly lit patio it was impossible to get the picture to get the dark meat and dark wild rice to show up nicely, even with the f1.8 prime lens maxed out. Found the wild game meat flavorful, but a bit tougher than expected.

Just like an Asian banquet, they service a rice dish after the mains to make sure no guest leaves hungry. Bo's Fried Rice was a salmon fried rice with fish roe sprinkled in. The fried rice was cooked hard, almost al-dente, to clearly delineate the elements. Certainly, if there's anything they know how to do in HK, it's fried rice.

Dessert was caramelized banana poached in "shui jing fang" sweet chinese rice wine, accompanied by a classic dark-chocolate ganache, with a kiss of jasmine. It doesn't get more classic than banana-chocolate combination, but the luxurious coating of rice wine sauce and the floral accents made the rich dessert worth savoring slowly.

Petit fours came in a gorgeous little rattan basket. Inside were 山楂 mulberry-flavored marshmallow and gelees in the top basket. 山楂 macarons and chocolate-filled sesame-mochi balls in the bottom layer. The mulberry flavor is more subtle and well-integrated with the Western-style candies, unlike the harsh chemical-tasting 山楂餅 in the cheap candies of our youth. Accompanied by excellent tea.

Mr. Alvin, the founder and head chef, is quite the character, going from cooking neophyte to Michelin-star restaurateur in only a few years with his culinary creativity and outsized personality. With only one seating per evening the chef can take his time to come out and visit each table. I blabbered something about appreciating merging Eastern flavors and Western techniques, which he politely acknowledged before moving on to share a glass of wine and a puff of cigar with better-dressed and higher-paying patrons at other tables.

Okay, so maybe the dishes weren't quite as consistent and reliable, compared to other Michelin-starred restaurants. But one visits Bo Innovation for the innovation and they definitely delivered there, deconstructing familiar flavors in creative ways. We had plenty of well-executed food, but I still had to wonder what we missed out on when I saw the liquid nitrogen, CO2 cartridges, etc. featured for the degustation at other tables. Maybe next time when I need to impress on someone else's dime.

The main dining room featured a long sushi bar and tables for couples and small groups. But we were ushered through narrow corridors to one of the private rooms with the large Chinese-style round table, with nice views of the Mitsukoshi complex across the street and Taipei101 in the distance. Halogen spots lit each seat in the evening, but the natural light from the windows suffused the room during the day felt more comfortable and better complimented of the blonde wood decor. Good thing the private suite featured its own bathroom, because once you open the thick door to leave there's no distinguishing sign to mark your room. Between the main room and the private suites the restaurant is carefully designed to accommodate hip young couples out for seen-and-be-seen as well as discreet moneyed folk treating customers or the extended family to a fancy meal.

The cuisine is Japanese kaiseki-style, but they do try to incorporate some Western-fusion elements into the dishes, not always successfully but the effort is worthy of appreciation. There was a nice variety of dishes between two visits, a good sign that they menu won't get stale over time. Being newly open and eager to woo high-rolling regulars, the chef was quite generous with both the quantity and quality of the food. Almost too much so, as we were almost uncomfortably full and one feels way too guilty leaving such fine food uneaten.

Family kindly indulged my DSLR at the table, so I will (mostly) let the food speak for itself. It was all quite tasty, but I was glad that I wasn't responsible for the final bill. Frankly, one can visit Robuchon properties at a great many places. But the combination of Japanese-style kaiseki cuisine with Chinese-style banquet portions is a uniquely Taiwan combination and a darn good value, even if the service efficiency isn't quite up to three-star standards.

• Appetizers

  

  The chef obviously wants to start the meal with a bang here. Slices of perfectly roasted duck breast covering a generous chunk of foie gras, more French than Japanese.
  Mixed greens, whole abalone on the half-shell, garnished with pomegrante seeds. A bit of truffle is shaved into the Japanese-style soy-vinegar dressing for luxurious effect.

• Sashimi and Sushi

  

  The sashimi plate featured top-notch everything, even the salmon which is wild not farmed. The shrimp's feelers were still waving weakly despite the de-shelling and decapitation. And don't forget that perfect piece of luciously fatty tuna belly toro hiding in the back there. Particularly notable is the sweet raw oyster garnished with lemon and salmon roe. A bit of raw bar with the raw fish.

  

  A uni hand roll, deconstructed. The sea urchin roe and nori sauce on rice are laid out on a romaine leaf, garnished with salmon roe on top. Felt like there were few too many elements which distracted a bit from the flavor of the uni itself. Ume-pickled tomato goes to the wife. Dad gets the pickled ginger.
  Sushi East-West style. Wild anago eel is less slimy and much rarer than the more typical unagi. The seared foie gras was full of rich, fatty juices inside. The vinegar rice ball hidden under the massive slices of topping helped to moderate and balance the flavors in the mouth.
  They brought out another big plate of sushi compliments of the chef, just in case were were still hungry. Soft-shell crab maki-sushi coated with bonito flakes. Chopped tuna maki roll coated with chopped scallion greens. Actually I was quite full but I couldn't help but have a piece of that. Both are favorites of mine and I would've been happy to have made a meal out of just that.

  
  Sakura somen in mintaiko-cream sauce, which was a bit too adventurous for the older folks at the table. The 烏魚子 mullet roe on top is expensive stuff, but the intensely fishy taste kinda obliterated any delicacy of the remaining ingredients.

• Seafood

  

  The shrimp heads from the sashimi plate weren't waving their antennae anymore after being deep-fried for a mid-meal snack. The tamago egg roll in rich crab broth is something tasty and different. Although the wife liked it better than I did.

  
  Fresh steamed scallop on tofu with uni sauce dressed with scallions. Almost Cantonese in the preparation.

  
  When they said the chef was sending out something complementary we weren't expecting a whole platter of stir-fried lobster. It was toward the end of the meal and way too much to finish. But thankfully we could take it away and it reheated nicely for dinner.

• Meat Entree

  
  Wagyu beef in cubes, almost like how it'd be served at a teppanyaki. Like the typical Japanese beef course, what it lacks in portion size it more than makes up for with the tender, flavorful meat essence in each small cube.

  
  Beef tendon and gobo root, roasted in leaf-wrap. The slow roasting softens the tendons and infused the gelatinous rounds with the soy sauce and herbaceous leaf aromas. Mom liked the slightly bitter gingko nuts.

• Dessert

  
  Cream-puff with pralines, sprinkled with macha powder was very tasty. The butterfly is edible ink printed on corn-styrofoam, edible but not tasty at all. The coffee was perfectly competent and complimented the western-style dessert well.

Wife's mom and aunt were kind enough to take the baby for the evening, giving us a night to ourselves. We were too tired for an fancy, extended meal, but we wanted to at least get out of the house and go some place nice. Thankfully there are plenty of options nearby, so we could just head out into the alleys between SYT and ZhongXiao DunHua and see what restaurant inspired. We passed by Alohas, which I remembered that it's got some good recs on the Net, and the light-colored, well-lit space seemed attractive, so we decided to give it a try.

The menu is short but more innovative than the typical pseudo-Western place, with an emphasis on healthy, low-fat dishes. Got excited for a second when they brought out Pellegrino bottles, but it turned out they only used the bottles to hold regular water. Knew it was too good to be true.

The Ikea-style low-rent modern decor, with whimsical murals on the walls, is comfortable while subtly encouraging one to dawdle. The signature French-style onion-chicken featured juicy chunks of chicken and onions baked to sweetness all stuffed back into the hollowed out onion shell. Seasoned with provencal herbs and the mellow sweetness of the slow-roasted onion infusing the tender chunks of meat. Wife wasn't as pleased with her curry-vegetable fettucine. The pasta was fresh-made and there were plenty of veggies, but it wasn't as toothsome and satisfying as my chicken. But then she knew it was vegetarian when she ordered it.

The restaurant featured a long bar as well as tables, perfect for light meals during a quick lunch or after-work dinner. I like my fancy dining and all, but sometimes it's nice to still be able to have a nice meal out without busting my gut and my wallet.

Coffee and toast at home is nice and all, but we've missed being able to go out for a relaxing weekend brunch, now that we've got a little ball-and-chain. Finally the baby is able to sit up on his own in the stroller, so brunch seemed like a good excuse to take him out on a little local excursion. Omelet To Go has good reviews amongst the local food-bloggers, and its location near the XinYi-Jilong intersection next to a park wasn't too far to walk with a stroller. And the wife likes omelets.

Got there early, before the sun got too high in the sky and became too hot for the baby. Good thing, too, as the place filled up quickly, many are also young families out for weekend breakfast. Wife even ran into an old classmate, there with his own little baby, who was already being sent to classes!? The space was clean and well-lit with picture windows in front and solid wood furniture inside, definitely a step up from the typical Taiwanese breakfast-shack. The straight-forward menu is scrawled on blackboards that lined the walls, featuring a wide variety of omelets and sides, plus some other light lunch far like pasta and wraps. With a name like Omelet To Go, though, we certainly weren't going to order anything but. Wife had the Denver Omelette with hash browns. I had the weekend special cheese omelet with smoked salmon cream sauce, eggplant parmesan on the side. The omelets were generously proportioned with lots of filling, definitely American-style rather than French. The exterior perhaps a bit more singed than proper, but the interior still soft and gooey with melted cheese. The hash browns were thin and crispy, definitely not the thick, mealy, mass-produced stuff. Endless coffee is nice and decently drinkable, although they only had creamer cups instead of real milk, which was a minus.

Once the baby started to squirm in the stroller, we had to take turns eating while the other held him in our laps, and when that wasn't enough take him out for a walk around the park. But he never made a big fuss or bothered the other diners, which was awesome. It was nice to be able to go out for a meal as a family unit, and Omelets makes for an excellent morning option. Unfortunately we won't be able to indulge too often, with that pesky work and all during the week.

The restaurant specialized in northern-Chinese style food, hearty noodles and dumplings with meaty fillings. Compared to the usual run-down hole-in-the-wall 小吃 places, the restaurant's decor is almost sumptuous, with real, solid furniture and indirect lighting. Priced slightly higher to compensate, but not outrageously so.

牛肉餡餅 pan-fried buns filled with juicy ground beef is a signature offering. That first bite is always risky as you have to be careful of hot squirting juices. Once the initial bite is taken quickly catch the leaking meat juices with a spoon since it would be a shame to let all that savory goodness go to waste. There's also a vegetarian 花素 version that's filled with chives, egg, and rice noodles instead. The wide array of side dishes are good, too, like the 干扁四季豆 string beans. They serve it cold as a side, but the beans are well-cooked and infused with flavor without being too oily.

The beef rolls featured thin slices of roast beef wrapped in a thick crepe-like 餅. A thick scallion stem is wrapped in the middle to add a fresh spiciness to the salty, savory mix leaving you wanting more. The 炸醬麵 fry-sauce noodles had the usual soy-brown sauce mixture but with a generous sprinkle of cucumber and bean sprouts to cut the heaviness of the sauce with fresh crunch. The sauce wasn't too salty and complimented the noodles well once you blended it together, although personally I wouldn't minded it a bit spicier.

The simple nature of the food makes it suitable for takeout, but the restaurant's also nice enough to sit-in, and it's all really good, which is quite a rare trifecta. The location is not terribly convenient for us to regularly visit, but if we can con someone into doing the driving for us it's not so far out of the way for a good 餡餅.

We only had half a day in Osaka before our flight home in the late afternoon, and most of that time was reserved for shopping. The shopping arcades of Shinsaibashi, filled with real-life household shops, was more our speed, compared to the exclusive boutiques that line Mido-suji avenue the next street over. Even better, the main Akachan Honpo shop is right at the head of the shopping street, where we could get our fill of made-in-Japan baby-stuff in one stop.

All that didn't leave much time for lunch. No time for leisurely multi-course menus here. On the other hand, I was hoping for an authentic Japanese-style meal for our last one in-country, rather than settle for some chain fast-food. While the wife went through both buildings and all eight stories of Akachan, I had time to scout ahead a little bit. There are a zillion eateries lining the Shinsaibashi arcade. But this particular shop seemed like it's been around for a while, it was filled with locals, and featured udon which the wife likes. So when she checked out of Akachan I was right there to help carry the bags and lead us to the restaurant. We'd taken a look at the plastic food outside to get a rough idea of what's available, and we didn't wast time, just pointed to the highlighted specialties on the menu. Tanooki udon with shrimp-tempura sushi for me. A hearty beef and mushroom curry udon for her.

A few puffs and I was slurping away at my soup-udon. But the thick curry sauce in the wife's curry udon retains heat longer, so she had to wait patiently before getting started on her lunch. While she was waiting for her udon to cool off she could mooch off my plate of tempura-ebi sushi. It's a popular side dish that goes with many of the set meals so they do crank them out and the nori and breading have softened just a tad from sitting out. But the set meal is still a great deal and can't quibble too much with the fresh-fried shrimp. The curry is flavorful, with just a tiny bit of heat which you don't notice at first but builds up over time, especially when combined with the heat of the noodles themselves. Good thing we could serve ourselves from the ice water cooler.

The atmosphere and decor is exactly that of a decades-old Japanese food hall. Well-experienced obasans and their younger apprentices with headscarves and aprons scurry about bringing food and cleaning tables. Solid wood furniture haven taken many years of abuse and can stand up for many more. Locals carrying shopping bags and workers on lunch breaks come in-and-out for a quick bite and so did we. For less than 2000-yen it was fast and filling and now it's time for us to move on.

Uji has a long history in tea production, serving the noble houses in nearby Kyoto. With its two UN World Heritage temples and many historic tea merchants, it makes for a conveniently interesting day-trip in Kansai. Many of the tea-merchants have added tea-houses to serve the tourists, and Nakamura Tokichi is one of the larger places. They have a newer cafe along the river near the Byodo-In Temple, but we decided to visit the original Honten building, opened for business in 1858, located in a prime spot near the JR train station.

We were expecting hot weather and big crowds on a summer Saturday. But a freak thunderstorm in the morning had scared away the day-trippers and cooled off the air, leaving the streets relatively empty and us slightly wet. However we still wanted to get a taste of their summer specialties. The vegetarian soba seemed like just the ticket for a light lunch, since the menu promoted it as a lunch special with big, attractive pictures. Turned out other tables got the hot-soup soba which would've been preferable to the cold noodles, but we couldn't read the Japanese menu so we missed out on that option. But the combo meal was a decent deal, also coming with a serving of macha ice cream topped with azuki and mochi, served in a cute bamboo cup, as well as a glass of iced macha tea.

Even though we were almost shivering in the air-conditioned room, we still had to order the signature きんとき shaved-ice dessert. A big bowl of finely shaved ice, with macha and molasses syrups to drizzle on top. Azuki paste and mochi balls to moderate the icy coldness and offer different taste textures. Topped off with a dollop of soft-serve vanilla ice cream just because they can. The syrups were sweet with flavor without being artificial-tasting, and by judicious pouring you can keep it from getting to sweet. The ice cream added some rich creaminess to keep the pile of slush from being too overwhelmingly cold. You can always chew on a mochi ball for a while if brain-freeze kicked in.

Unfortunately Japanese food sites like Tabelog was too much for me to decipher via Google Translate. And I wasn't particularly inspired by the typical names thrown around Chowhound. Ran into the Kyoto Foodie site and was intrigued by the tales of a foreigner who lives in Kyoto, with a good understanding and personal experiences of the local culture and cuisine. He was especially effusive in praise for Kichisen, with many articles featuring the chef and showing off many of the his fine cuisines. But frankly what really sold me was finding out that Tanagawa-san had defeated Iron Chef Japanese Masaharu Morimoto in single combat in Kitchen Stadium. So I carefully composed a polite, but short reservation request in English to make it as easy to understand as possible. Auto-translated it to Japanese just in case. And faxed it off to the restaurant (no Internet reservations here). A couple days later I received a formal, well-composed English reply by email confirming our reservation and requesting us to confirm the price level at which we wished to dine, ranging from 18,000 to 28,000-yen. Flinched a bit at the big numbers, but bit the bullet and chose a medium-level option.

Patiently followed the wife around as she spent the day browsing the shops in Kyoto's old town until late afternoon, before catching a bus out towards Shimogamo Jinga. Would've liked to explore the World Heritage Site a bit, but the temple and the surrounding park already closed at sunset. Not much else to do on the quiet streets of the early evening, we walked over to the unassuming-looking restaurant a bit early.

After the greeter at the door figured out that we were diners with reservations instead of lost tourists, he quickly brought us inside and took us to our private room. We had a hostess and a server, and they were the only other people we would face for the rest of the evening. A warm towel and a cool glass of umeshu was brought to welcome the guests. Then we start the kaiseki tasting menu with a bang. The covering leaf tied with streamers and decorated with gold leaf undoubtedly has cultural and/or regligious significance we're not aware of. Underneath were five flower pods each filled with delicious morsels. One contained shoyu-mirin braised minnows. Others featured a slice of abalone, tempura hamo eel, lotus seed with aspic, shitake mushroom, etc.

Sweet fig soup is a surprising follow-up to the previous appetizers. The figs have been cooked in syrup until softened and fallen apart into strings speckled with seeds. The clean, sweet flavors of the fruit made for a fine contrast with the more savory appetizers before.

The origin of kaiseki cuisine was a light meal to accompany the tea ceremony, and the soup recreates that spirit most directly. 茶碗湯 featured a iron teapot packed with big chunks of pricey matsutake mushrooms and chunks of hamo eel to infuse the light but flavorful broth. Pour some broth into the teacup, a squeeze of Japanese lime, and savor each sip.

The maple branches adds a living, organic touch to the arrangement on the miniature sashimi boat. Not really able to identify all the different types of sashimi (I think there was definitely a tai of some sort), but I'm sure everything is rare and local and definitely quite tasty. Love the multi-colored tail of the fresh ebi-sashimi.

All the frou-frou appetizers were beautiful to look at, but didn't add up to a whole lot in terms of actual food volume. The big plate full of nigiri-sushi provided plenty of bulk, however. The hamo-zushi uses the Kyoto-specialty hamo eel instead of the conventional unagi eel, brushed with the sweet mirin-soy sauce and grilled. The rice perfectly cooked and still warm, unlike the cold vinegar rice of typical nigiri-sushi. Just sticky enough to hold together while maintaining the texture of each grain, to complement the chewier and less fatty hamo. On the side was a small jar of mintaiko and edamame. Not so strongly fishy like the typical heavily marinated, red-colored mintaiko.

Uncovering the bamboo's top reveals a simple arrangement. A slice of lotus root, a single shrimp, a piece of fish. Steamed inside the bamboo section. One might consider it bland and boring. But for the price we're paying let's say it perfectly maintained the delicate flavors of the original ingredients.

Next is hamo shabu-shabu. Are we seeing a theme in the menu yet? Hamo is a long, bony fish, and it's no mean trick to fillet it into the delicate, thin slices. Each slice is to be cooked quickly in kombu broth.The firm flesh of the fish scrunches up into a perfectly formed cluster upon hitting the hot broth, thanks to the fine knifework. The shabu pot is an ingenious contraption with a stick of smoldering charcoal on one side heating the copper vessel, the wall of which is exposed to heat the broth half of the single-serving pot. This must have been how they did shabu-shabu before the advent of gas-powered hot plates. Just a single piece of knotted kombu kelp was enough to imbue an amazing amount of flavor into the broth. A yuzu-flavored dipping sauce provides bright, fruity acidity for the cooked fish.

We could smell the pungent smoke even before the server entered with the big tray. Thank goodness there was no smoke alarm in our room as the smoldering bancha tea leaves would've triggered quite a racket otherwise. Ayu is another typical Japanese summer fish found the in the rivers near Kyoto. The fish had been salt-grilled before being placed on the smoking contraption. The tea-smoke and the fish innards add a bitter tone to the meat that Asian folks all seem to like as one goes crunching into the little fishies.

At first I thought it was just a hamo fish soup. Then I dug into the bowl and found that there was freshly cooked white rice at the bottom. I've always been impressed with how good plain white rice could be in Japan, even in the most non-descript fast-food places like Yoshinoya. And fine Japanese rice cooked by a master chef in the traditional manner makes the gohan into an essential component of the dish. Break up the soft-cooked egg, and then slurp away to get soup, rice, and egg in each big mouthful. On the side is a bowl of 漬物 pickles. Kyoto summer vegetables lightly pickled just enough to infuse a bit of acidity and salt, but retaining the freshness and flavor of the obsessively perfect vegetables that one finds Japan.

The post-dinner fruit course is expected, but was certainly not going to be merely slices of cut fruit. A whole grapefruit, hollowed out and refilled with a soft gelatin made from the juice. This ain't Bill Cosby's Jello. The entire citrus essence of the grapefruit rendered from the meat and juices then returned to its original home in a more easily consumed home. Not as sharply icy as a sorbet, but serves the same palate-cleansing function. The gelatin retains the hint of grapefruit bitterness, to be moderated as needed with the accompanying simple syrup.

Now for the real dessert, in the style of Japanese tea ceremony and its accompanying wagashi sweets. Style and taste is the thing over quantity here. Red bean paste is packed into a section of bamboo. The finely ground red bean paste is compacted into the bamboo section almost like a glue-stick, except much tastier. The smooth paste has a delicate taste without the overwhelming sweetness that's sometimes found in other anko fillings. Yuzu gelee candy is alongside. The thoughtfulness extended to the engineering aspect of the presentation, as they punched a breathing hole in the other end of the bamboo section so you can suck out the anko filling easily without forming a counter-acting vacuum suction. A small dish of finely whisked macha green tea balanced the sweetness.

Most of the dishes were similar to things we've had before in other Japanese restaurants, but everything was done to such a high-level of refinement that it was obviously a cut above. It would have been even better if we could've learned more about the ingredients and thoughts that went into the dishes, but that's our fault for not speaking the language. Although the hostess did call someone on her cell phone to translate for us, but that was just too much trouble and we declined. We had the room to ourselves for the whole evening and took our entire meal without seeing any other diners, as if the entire restaurant was devoted to us only. Which was probably the point. Good thing wife and I had plenty to talk about after our day's touring, and the big room let me spread out and carefully photograph each dish. So much so that the hostess actually asked if I were a food writer on assignment. After the meal, the hostess and the server escort us all the way out the door. Thankfully the bus stop was far enough down the street so they didn't see us taking the cheap bus instead of hailing a taxi like most of their upscale clientele. It was certainly worthwhile to experience expert kaiseki cuisine in its home setting. But given the pricey bill it won't be something we'll indulge again anytime soon. So thanks to the wife for being willing to skimp a bit on fancy hotels and transportation for extra budgeting on food (for me) and souvenirs (for her).

Kyoto is known for it's classical Japanese cuisine, sticklers for tradition. On the other hand, Japan also offers excellent Western cuisines, possibly the finest in Asia. Certainly better than anything we would find in Taipei, anyway. So I also did some research on Western restaurants in Kyoto. Hidden away amongst all the traditional Japanese restaurants is this modern fusion of kyo-ryori and Italian cooking.

The converted house near the Yasaka Pagoda doesn't stand out amongst from its surroundings and only a modest sign inside the porch confirms that we'd indeed found the right spot. The interior has also been renovated with high ceilings, warm wood floors, with upholstered banquettes as well as seats. The kitchen is open in the back, along with some more intimate booths. It would fit just as well in any European city, but the small garden outside the picture windows reminds one of the Japanese influence.

Puzzling through the Japanese website (damn Flash animation made translation websites useless), it looked like they opened reservations exactly one month ahead of time. Wanted to be sure so I made the international call on the appointed date. Thankfully the person taking the reservation spoke passable English and the booking was confirmed without issue. Turned out to have been a good idea since the place was fully booked even on a Thursday evening. The menu was hand-written with a cute design, but Japanese-only, offering prix fixe courses at a few different price levels as well as dishes a la carte. Wife wasn't in the mood for a full degustation, so we ordered one full course from the menu plus one entree and made it into a small-plate kind of thing. They were quite accommodating with the extra plates and silverware for sharing.

We started with a white peach and lobster tail salad, with a yogurt foam dressing. Sprinkled with green cucumber-enfused tapioca. Cool and refreshing to start the meal after a hot day walking about Kyoto.

Next was salmon confit, squash and shitake mushroom chunks. Topped with salmon roe and a salad of spicy greens. Purees of green and yellow peppers and tomato plus a streak of olive tapenade provided distinctive flavor highlights.

Nothing fancy here. Japanese beef slices cooked perfectly medium for the wife. Fresh Kyoto summer vegetables like squash, okra, and baby corn char-grilled. Not going to get blown away with the portion size, but you don't expect big slabs of meat when it comes to Japanese beef.

Edamame cream, steak tartar topped with edamame, and soy-milk panna cotta. Usually not brave enough to try raw beef, but it was a good thing I couldn't read the menu beforehand because the chopped beef was tender and spiced to enhance the natural beefiness, treated with the same respect and with a similar silky mouth-feel as a fine piece of sashimi. The soy-milk pudding was creamy and worked surprisingly well as a palate-cleansing savory.

Seafood spaghetti dressed with olive oil and Kyo-ryori style ingredients: mintaiko, cucumber, and shiso flowers. Wasn't quite sure what the tiny edible florets were until the first mouthful released the distinctive shiso flavor. A tasteful fusion of flavors and cuisines.

Hot risotto is dumped out of the hot pan into a block of Parmesan cheese and stirred to incorporate a bit of the cheese into the rice. A lot more impressive than shaving the cheese on top, that's for sure. A classic cheesey risotto with chunks of ham, chicken, and kernels of grilled sweet corn. The flavor's very Italian, but the rice grain's texture seemed a bit different. Asked the server and turned out they use Japanese rice instead of arborio rice. Cheap Taiwan pasta place uses local rice to make risotto and it's sacrilege. Expensive Japanese restaurant uses local rice for risotto and it's brilliant fusion. Go figure.

My entree featured juicy chunks of pork belly, with firm meat, crisp skin, and a silky but not overly thick layer of fat. Mixed with asparagus (green and white) and mushrooms. Too bad we couldn't put it over some white rice and let the rich lard soak into it.

Nothing says summer refreshment like watermelon. A red-watermelon sorbet, garnished with yellow watermelon chunks, topped with a gelatinized cream-soda foam.

Had a few choices for dessert. Decided on a grilled-banana tarte, with a scoop of caramel ice cream and caramel sauce. A good cappuccino went nicely with the dessert.

The wide bench and good spacing between the tables allowed enough space to set down my camera bag and the wife's breast pump, and let me snap away at the food with the DSLR without causing a fuss. Meanwhile other tables featured a group of nicely dressed ladies, a few couples on a romantic meal, and a family celebrating a birthday or anniversary. The food was tasty and interesting and unique to our experience. Very highly recommended.

We were out of everything at home, which seemed like a good excuse to go out for brunch. Wanted something a bit more substantial than coffee and pastries, but with the baby along we couldn't go far, either. Been to this cafe hidden away in an alley nearby for dinner before, but never tried breakfast. So we bundled the baby up in the stroller and rolled down the street for a visit.

I had the signature breakfast, which included salad, toast, egg, and a choice of breakfast meat (salami, in this case). I could do just as well at home, but then I'd have to cook, wouldn't I? Coffee or tea is free with the breakfast but I ponied up extra money for a cappuccino, which was kinda unnecessary, to be honest.

Wife had the breakfast croissant with smoked chicken. I've done the croissant rant elsewhere already so I won't repeat it here. But at least the croissant-like bread made for a pretty good soft roll, in this case. Some good fresh greens to go with the cheese and chicken. All in all a pleasant way to spend the morning in a quiet unharried environment. The food is just a bonus. Thankfully the baby was good for most of the time, as long as we passed him back and forth to keep him occupied. And when he got fussy we could just ask for the check and go back home.

On another occasion the wife took baby to her mother's house for the evening and I was on my own for the evening so I dropped in for their dinner service. They offer some simple pseudo-Western dishes like pastas, herb chicken legs, and rice gratins. My pesto chicken spaghetti was practically drowning in the creamy green sauce. It's pretty tasty, in a reheated vacuum-packet kind of way. But I was satisfied with it for a quick single-person meal in an upholstered chair and nice space with free wireless networking.

Taiwan bakeries follow the Japanese style of fluffy soft sweet breads stuffed with strange things like red-beans, taro paste, or tuna fish. I like those just fine, and in fact I get annoyed with the Euros who whine about the lack of "real" bread in Taiwan and Asia.

On the other hand, having experienced the fine artisanal bakeries of the Bay Area, it would be nice to have a solid loaf of crusty, natural-yeast bread once in a while. And actually, far as European-style baguettes, cibattas, and rustic loaves go, Taiwan's high-end bakeries have shown a great deal of improvement. Sure, they're not up to the level of Acme's au levain sourdough loaves yet, but still quite acceptable for a nice continental breakfast

Still, the one thing that even the finest Japanese transplant bakeries haven't been able to reproduce is the butter croissant, and associated flaky viennoiseries. So I was intrigued by the opening of the French chain Paul, which was supposedly importing all the key ingredients from Europe and doing everything exactly the old-world way. But the expensive prices and the location meant that we simply hadn't got around to trying it, until now that grandma's moved nearby.

Sure it's a bit pricey at NT35-50 per piece, but the croissant is legit. Compact, with a crispy crust and soft layers that ooze real butter. The pain-au-chocolat had the right amount of dark chocolate filling that was rich without being overly sweet. Unfortunately danishes don't hold up as well in the summer heat&humidity, the syrupy filling turned into a soggy mess in less than a day.

They also have a nice space perfect for brunches and afternoon tea, but I'd rather just take the bread home and make my own coffee. Lately they've started to offer a nice combo package: NT300 gets you half a baguette, a petit sugar loaf, a pain-au-raisin, and a generous slice of bread pudding, or some equivalent thereof. That's a few days' worth of breakfast taken care of, albeit at a bit higher cost than your typical hole-in-the-wall white-bread breakfast-sandwich shop.

(Also at XinYi Mitsukoshi A9 2F)

Wife's mom took the baby so we finally had an evening to ourselves. Wanted to go some place nice for dinner, but nothing too formal, and there's certainly nothing formal about pizza. Located at a prime location on the 仁愛-安和 intersection, down the block from the Dunhua Eslite bookstore, NYPK is an Italian-American restaurant offering American brunches in the morning and New York style pizzas and pastas at night. The restaurant was full of ABCs looking for decent pizza, and hip chicks stopping in for a bite before heading out to the many lounge bars nearby. Us unreserved late-comers were exiled to an outdoor courtyard. Thankfully the evening had cooled down just enough to make the outside temperature tolerable, and we were reasonably sheltered from the street noise, such that we were disinclined to move inside even after a table opened up.

We were there mainly for the pizza, but we weren't hungry enough for a whole pizza, and they also offered other dishes. So we got a red-sauce seafood spaghetti and a Sprite float to go with a couple of pizza slices. The pasta was decent but forgettable. The pizza base ain't bad, thin-crust but not too thin, cooked in a dedicated brick oven visible in the open kitchen. But NT95 for three pieces of pepperoni is not a good $/meat ratio. It's even worse with the chicken-parm pizza as it's NT120 for three chunks of chicken.

NYPK is an American restaurant in Taiwan, and much like a Chinese restaurant in the US, it may be pretty good, but it's still not the same. On the other hand, it's nice to have a safe option for a good-old American slice of pizza. Not Italian authentic-but-different, and definitely not the Asian-style franken-pizzas.

Big Tom Ice Cream is located on the grounds of the SYT Memorial itself, with a large patio extending into the park and air-conditioned rooms inside. It does great business on the weekends with all the kids running around the park, but we just happened to run into an empty table inside. The baby could have his bottle, a cold glass of juice for auntie, and ice cream for the rest of us.

Big Tom has your standard array of fruity and chocolatey flavors, named after American locales for interest. The waffle combo seems to be an especially good deal. Three scoops of your choice on a big freshly-made, warm Belgian waffle for about NT300. Crunchy waffle cones and bowls are also available to hold your scoops. Nothing fancy in the presentation, but good desserts at a good value at a convenient location. Not quite as many unusual flavors as Haagen Daaz, but the ice cream seems a bit thicker and creamier, and the entire atmosphere is much more down-home than the big flashy brand name places.