May 29, 2009
富順樓
Wife's uncle took us to the old-school Beijing-style restaurant near the dealership where he works. Nothing fancy in the decoration of the room, but everything was clean and well lit, the sort of mid-range restaurant perfect for a casual meal with the extended family without breaking the bank. Nowadays these family restaurants are being squeezed out by the M-shaped marketplace and extravagant Taipei rents, as only high-end pricing or low-end volume survive. But a glance around the room shows that it's full of loyal supporters who've most likely been coming for years, now with English-speaking ABC grandchildren in tow. You know it's an authentic place because it's filled with old folks with mainland-China accents. The veterans of Chiang Kai-Shek looking for the flavors of a long-lost place.
Nothing exotic here. We could order with barely a glance at the menu. The duck required pre-ordering at reservation time. Other things like 蔥油餅 onion pancakes, 京都排骨 fried spareribs, and 清炒蝦仁 prawns on greens are all de rigeur on Chinese menus around the world. The main thing wasn't in the exotic flavors, but doing the basics well. Unfortunately with so many people sharing there wasn't quite as enough duck skin to go around, but that's the just the quadratic vs. cubic scaling effect of the surface-to-volume ratio of the duck. And even the most creative chef can't fight the laws of physics. The bones made for a tasty soup, though, part of the duck-three-ways preparation.
富順樓
台北市松山區八德路三段139號
02-2577-4860