La Lotte

The seventh Course at Mélisse consisted of celtuce (celery lettuce, but really just a big stemmed celery), maitake mushrooms, jus de rôti (juice from roast), mustard sabayon (a very light custard).  I’ve had monk fish before.  It’s a very firm texture fish and is difficult to cook.  Most of us are familiar with monk fish (ankimo) from their liver which is served often in sushi bars.  This is the first monk fish dish I really enjoyed that did not incorporate the liver.  The fish was expectedly firm, but the jus, vegetables and sabayon really complimented what is usually an oily and seemingly bland fish.  Monk fish is very difficult to not over cook.  I’ve had monk fish that has been cooked so that it’s almost rubbery with no flavour.  This dish however, was remarkably savory with a texture between cod and lobster.  The celtuce is a puree under the monk fish.  A great dish, but not the best that we had at Mélisse.

Read the rest of this entry…

teared up dough

Shao Shao Ke offers Shanxi style (陝西) cuisine which is not very common in Taiwan. In Chinese the word “shao” means “spoon” and shao shao ke simply means someone who cooks well. Located in the quiet alley near RinAi road, this small restaurant is always packed with young fewd enthusiasts eager to try new flavours and ready to take on new fewd advantures. Okay I’m talking about people like myself, but this place really was packed and a reservation is definitely recommended.

Read the rest of this entry…

cold platter

This year my mom and aunt cooked a full table of dishes for our annual Chinese New Year’s eve dinner. The fewd tasted great considering the last time those two cooked was 8 years and 54 days ago.

Read the rest of this entry…

curry udon with beef

Konaya is a Japanese chain restaurant known for udon in curry broth. There are currently 13 Konaya restaurants in Japan and this one we visited is the one and only Konaya in Taiwan.

Read the rest of this entry…

The lanterns at Jiufen are all illuminated during dusk.

The literal translation of Jiufen is nine portions which alludes to the nine families that used to live here during the Qing Dyansty.  Because of a gold rush, the village became more of a tiny town.  It’s heavily influenced by Japanese culture as the town flourished around the time of Japanese rule.  Yes, this is all on the wiki page.  I encourage everyone to check the wiki page since the town has a pretty interesting past.  Anyhow, there is a fewd market, as well as countless shops making this a destination for a lot of tourists coming to Taipei as well as locals.  Here’s what we did.

Read the rest of this entry…