吃飯了嗎？

Taichung Miscellany

居酒屋ととや

Cousin K set off to Taichung a day before us, and she enjoyed her meal at Izakaya Totoya so much that she reserved a place immediately for the next night when we arrived. The old-school style Japanese interior is comfortably worn by patrons and servers scurrying back and forth along the long, narrow restaurant. As befitting any good izakaya, they offered a wide variety of tasty morsels, grilled to perfection on smoldering charcoal. They must have some heavy-duty exhaust equipment to draw away all the smoke from the continuously busy grill. Especially liked the grilled fishies, in-season and full of roe in their swollen bellies. The girls wanted something a bit more substantial than glorified beer snacks (especially since they weren't drinking beer), so they ordered a kimchee-beef nabe. The Korean pickled cabbage added some serious zing, and there was also lots of beefy good stuff in the pot, too. The mixture of tender beef-shank slices, hearty chunks of stew beef, and collagenous beef tendons shows care and consideration in the preparation. Good thing we had reservations, since he line of waiting diners was still out the door and down the street even as we were leaving after our meal.

肉片土司

Our hotel room was very nice but it didn't include breakfast. But on a gorgeous sunny day we'd rather get out there as early as possible anyway. Still gotta have breakfast, though, and cousin K was well prepared in guiding us to this shop across the street from a park. We weren't the only ones looking to start our day with a good meal, as the line was already out the door by the time we arrived. Thankfully the line moved very quickly, as well it should, for the simple menu of modern Taiwanese breakfast basics done right.

The signature port cutlet sandwich is a marinated piece of meat pan-fried and slapped between a couple of slices of mayo-ed white toast with a fried egg. The meat is a slab of recognizable, compared to the mystery-meat that's in breakfast-cart sandwiches. The crepe wrap with egg and bacon is another solid favorite. Perfect with a cup of milk tea or soy milk. Not innovative or fancy, but good ingredients freshly prepared makes for a noticeable step up from the usual street-corner breakfast shops.

洪瑞珍

We fanned out near the train station to stand in line for the various famous local goods. The most curious being 洪瑞珍 which somehow became famous for generic white-bread ham&egg sandwiches. Masked ladies assembled sandwiches with mindless efficiency in order to satisfy the long line going out the door. Fresh baked de-crusted white toast is layered with a thin piece of ham then an even thinner layer of egg skin. The twist is in the spread, where they slather one of the layers with whipped cream instead of the usual mayo. The cream adds a richer mouth feel to sandwich, but some folks found the tinge of sweet milkiness objectionable. Good, more for me that way. It's not gourmet cuisine, but it brings back fond nostalgic memories of snack-time in elementary school.

ととや 和道屋
台中市北區健行路766巷2號
04-2206-8853

肉蛋吐司
台中市西區健行路1005號
04-2327-1066

洪瑞珍餅店
台中市西區自由路一段122號
04-2226-8787

明森宇治抹茶專賣店

With mom & dad coming to Taiwan to spend Chinese New Year with the baby, we couldn't hardly be skipping out for a long vacation. But it'd be a shame to spend to whole week's holiday cooped up at home, so we decided to take an overnight trip to Taichung with wife's sister & cousin. Unfortunately the weather was lousy with rain when we arrived. The steady rain meant that outdoor activities were all out. So there wasn't much else to do besides sitting around and chat, which is no burden for the ladies, thankfully. Cousin K took us to the Net-popular tea-house featuring macha green tea imported from Japan and hand-made desserts.

Each of us got drinks, but the waffle combo was large enough to share. A decadent bowl of fresh strawberries, strawberry ice cream, and whipped cream on one side. Warm fresh-made green-tea infused waffles on the other. The macha latte, powdered green tea whipped into hot foamed milk, isn't as strong in flavor as the traditional preparation, but much more palatable. And you can't beat warm milk on a cold day. Their famous green-tea cream puffs features a QQ-chewy puff crust and shockingly green pastry cream filling, both green-tea flavored.

Aside from the Western-style desserts, they also offered more Japanese options with the green-tea ice cream, azuki paste, and mochi combination. It was tasty enough, but not as good as the version we had in the real Uji in Japan, and on a winter day the cold dessert isn't as appetizing. The comparison is perhaps a bit unfair, but if you're going to name your shop Uji Macha Specialists you better step up your game to match the real deal. Nevertheless the warm, intimate atmosphere was a welcome refuge to perk up what otherwise would've been a forgettable vacation.

明森宇治抹茶日本咖啡專賣店
台中市西區存中街161巷1號
04-23756262

Cafe Grazie

Dad was back in Taiwan for Chinese New Year and we decided to take him and the baby out to the Shihlin Official Residence on a nice day to enjoy the gardens. Good thing we got there early enough to have some space for ourselves before the busfuls of mainland-Chinese tourists arrived. During the tranquil morning it's no problem to feed the baby from the bottle and let him take a nap, but as it got past noon-time us adults would like something to eat, too. Thankfully there are a number of chain restaurants around the tourist site that are already open after the CNY holiday and this one had seats open.

Cafe Grazie is a mid-scale Japanese-influenced (you can tell by the mintaiko dishes) Italian restaurant with branches all over Taipei. The colorful picture-menu offers a large variety of pizzas and pastas, with numerous up-sell combos to add side-dishes, appetizers, desserts, and drinks. As we usually do, we ordered a pizza a la carte, and got a couple of combo meals to share the side dishes. Typically wife takes the soup and I take the salad from the combo meal. But this time we chose a grilled vegetable side instead since wife and dad prefers their veggies cooked. The grill marks on the zucchini were cute, and made it seemed like more of an upgrade over the usual insipid iceberg lettuce salad.

Pesto-pasta is wife's default choice whenever we visit a new Italian place. The linguine is softer than al-dente for Chinese tastes, but otherwise the flavor is good and there was a fair amount of seafood. My paella is about as Spanish as I am, but there's a generous amount of goodies in the the sizzling skillet. The rice was plenty yellow, but I'm guessing that was more turmeric than saffron. Probably best to think of it as an innovative Chinese fried-rice dish rather than as an European creation. The pizza was a bit different without being over-the-top weird, except for the green peas. The hard-boiled eggs worked surprisingly well and adds a nice color contrast. It's cute that they cut the fresh-baked pie at your table, and the medium-sized pie is perfect for three to share.

The stark black & white decor with tiled floors was like an Asian take on a New York style Italian restaurant. Despite the crowd and the hard surfaces, baby was able to sleep peacefully through most of it and we could have a pleasant meal. Drank up the honey-lemon Italian soda quickly though, once he woke up and wanted attention. So Cafe Grazie isn't quite up to authentic foodie Italian standards, but it's a step up from the overly Asian-ized corner spaghetti shops, although it remains to be seen how well the different restaurants in the chain maintain consistency.

Cafe Grazie
義式屋 古拉爵
士林中正店
台北市士林區中正路122號1樓
02-2835-9890

Alleycats Pizza, Huashan

Asian pizza has long been the butt of Western jokes, and even now I get slightly queasy at the sight of green peas and corn with squid on a cheesy seafood pizza. However more authentic alternatives have been popping up all over the place in Taipei. And Alleycat's Pizza has been leading the way building thick-walled brick-ovens and hand-made thin-crust pizzas with Italian-style toppings like Margherita and Quattro Stagione.

Starting from their original location near Yongkang St., Alleycat's has steadily expanded with new branches in hot spots where trendy young folks would appreciate the foreign-style pizza. The latest Alleycat outpost in the Huashan Cultral Center fits the pattern, inserting itself amidst the former warehouses that are now transformed into art galleries and performance spaces. Taking over one of the buildings on the grounds, they had plenty of space to work with, unlike their other more high-rent locations. And they took advantage of the breathing room in the decor, with rustic wood beams across the high ceiling and faux-fresco wall paintings behind an open bar and kitchen.

On a weekday lunchtime the room was fairly empty and we had our run of the place. Two pizzas would probably be too much, but one pizza plus a biz-lunch sandwich combo sounded good. Wife chose the pesto-chicken panini which was solidly competent, although Toasteria Cafe's version is a bit better (more cheese!). The side-salad was a surprisingly decent Caesar, real Romaine and all. I've been eating way too much meat and other heavy foods lately, so a thin-crusted veggie pizza seemed like a good idea for a satisfying but light lunch. Veggies were lightly cooked but still crunchy from the fast, high-heat cooking in the pizza oven. The hand-formed dough and dedicated stone oven really make Alleycat's pizza crust one of the best in Taipei. Not cheap, especially with a beer to wash it down, but good food in a good space makes it worthwhile.

Alleycat's Pizza Hua Shan (華山店)
台北市八德路一段一號
No. 1, Sec. 1, Bade Rd.
02-2395-6006