吃飯了嗎？

WASABI Japanese Buffet

The father-in-law had to fast for his health checkup so a nice all-you-can-eat buffet seemed like the perfect post-op fill-up. And he likes Japanese food, so the premium buffet in the Taipei101 restaurant row seemed liked a perfect option. We had a coupon for one-person-free which made the pricey buffet a more worthwhile value. The restaurant was packed but not overflowing even on a Tuesday night, which was good in that all the eaters helped to keep the buffet fresh. The place must be an absolute zoo on holidays, though.

The buffet line featured a wide variety of seafoods, meats, and main dishes. The coal-grilled skewers were tasty and freshly grilled, and they were surprisingly generous with the sushi with decent quality raw fish. The raw oysters and crab legs were a bit harder to come by, though, but the FIL was a crafty buffet-goer and snatched up enough of the good stuff for all of us. Probably not the best value-option for us small-stomached folk, but it worked out nicely for this particular occasion.

WASABI日式自助餐廳
台北市信義區市府路45號4樓
(Taipei101 4F)
02-81018166

La Douceur 品悦糖

Went with the SO to the NSO ticket office to pick up her membership card and thought it'd be appropriate to go to this nearby cafe known for its hi-fi setup and authentic French-style desserts.

The cafe was full of posh ladies gathered for coffee and desserts. In the background are the massive Dynaudio Evidence Master pumping out the background music for $85K a pair, powered by Accuphase gear commensurate with the high-end speakers. Le Cordon Bleu graduation certificate hangs on the wall to show off the chef's French training. Obviously the cafe's a labor-of-love since audiophile gear don't come from pastry chef salaries.

I had a Montmartre underlaid with an authentically-French almond paste biscuit and loads of whipped cream on top along with a cappuccino to wash it down. By then the SO's already demolished her apple-Napoleon with hazelnut creme. Too bad since it was an exquisitely constructed symphony of layers, flavors, and textures.

Unfortunately it's not a terribly convenient location for us to hit on a regular basis. But considering the calories inherent in the creamy, buttery desserts it's probably all for the best.

La Douceur
品悦糖
台北市大安區信義路二段18號
02-33222833

十二燒

SO's cousins and David all have birthdays around mid-April so it seems like a good reason to get everyone together for an evening out. A good izakaya is always good for a party, and this one on 市民大道 is one of many in the area.

The menu offered all the izakaya basics. Mixed salad with Japanese-style miso-sesame dressing. Deep-fried chicken wings and scallion-stuffed pork-instestine rolls alongside. All designed to make you drink plenty of beer, sake, or soju along with the food.

Moved into a bit more substantial fare for the next round with a mixed meat-skewer plate and the coal-grilled squid (with mayonnaise for dipping). Well-marinated edamame and other pickled morsels for even more 下酒菜. Topped it all off with a kimchee nabe. The bubbling fermented cabbage hot-pot looked like an evil witch's brew and smelled similar, but the spicy soup is surprisingly tasty. And you can always put out the fire with more beer.

All in all it was a good time. The only downside is that beer is a bit costly compared to similar places. They didn't offer pitchers and the per-bottle price was a bit high, which added up fast, especially with David around. Still, there was more than enough suds to put me away well before the night was over, and they've got to make their money somewhere, considering the high-rent of the premium East-side district.

十二燒居酒屋(市民店)
台北市大安區市民大道4段36號
02-27791185

避風塘

Wanted to get something to eat after watching the U2-3D concert film at the Living Mall's movie theater. We were tired of the usual mall food so we went to the upstairs restaurant row instead of the basement food court. Been a while since we've had dim-sum, and the small dishes seemed like a good way to avoid a big stuffy meal, so we decided on the Hong Kong-style restaurant.

The dim-sum are ordered off-the-menu instead of choosing off of push-carts, which helps to make sure the dishes are freshly prepared instead of sitting in a steam-cart forever. We ordered a few basic things for the two of us. Lots of meat in the beef chow-fun, which is always nice. The dim-sum standards are nicely done, maybe a tiny bit greasy but that's the way they're supposed to be. A bit pricey for the simple dishes, but the quality does beat the hell out of the 24-hour dim-sum places around town. SanWant Hotel's Cantonese restaurant has nice quality and service but not as big a selection of dim-sum items. That makes 避風塘 definitely the #1 dim-sum I've had in Taipei so far.

避風塘
台北市松山區八德路4段138號10樓
(京華城10樓)
02-37621188

知味鄉玉米

Spent our day on Yangmingshan then drove down the back side of the mountain toward 金山. Stopped alongside the road for the popular purveyor of fresh-grilled corn on the highway between 金山 and 基隆.

Long line of cars were parked along the road and the lines of people were equally long waiting for the pricey (70NTD an ear!) but tasty corn-on-the-cob. The place's not much more than a roadside shack selling snacks to the passing tourists. But it's grown large enough that they have stands on both sides of the road to capture the two-way traffic.

Obasans stood in front of the hot grills briskly turning and basting the corn with a tasty BBQ sauce, while the youngsters handled the order-taking and crowd control. In the back room, the guys shucked the corn and par-cooked the cobs by burying them under hot steamy rocks.

知味鄉玉米
台北縣萬里鄉萬里頂社76號
(02)2498-0345

冠宸食館

Wife's family prefers this one out of the many eateries on Yangmingshan serving down-home food featuring locally-grown vegetables. The restaurant courtyard is dressed up with a pond and some farm fowl to entertain the kids, but the makeshift tables and stools hark back to more humble origins.

A couple of plates of stir-fried vegetables like cabbage and kong-xin-cai are crispy and sweet thanks to the mountain-grown environment and fast, hot stir-fry of the restaurant woks. Shiitake mushrooms are lightly floured and fried along with basil leaves. A free-range chicken boiled then cleaved into chunks for dipping in the chili soy sauce.

The entire mountain was packed for the calla-lily season, and flower fields neighbor the restaurant. Behind us were a tableful of cyclists, quite admirable if they pedaled all the way, more for dodging the traffic than for the climb itself.

冠宸食館
台北市北投區竹子湖67號
02-28626408