Everybody marries in May

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It's the Parental Units' anniversary again, so naturally I find myself back in Taipei for this important date.  After all, if they hadn't gotten married on this day so many moons ago, I wouldn't be here today, would I?  Anyway, today was a different sort of anniversary from years past.  Instead of just the three of us, Mr and Mrs. Tigger as well as Grandma Bear joined us for this occasion.  As it turns out, everyone (except me, of course!) got married in May!

There was never gonna be any question about which type of cuisine we would have tonight, and I booked ourselves a little room at Shunsai (旬採).  After a pretty good experience the first time around, I was looking forward to trying it again.

As usual we started with some homemade pickled radish (沢庵), which were delicious and crunchy.

Our amuse bouche was Matsuba crab tofu (松葉蟹豆腐), with a little mash of okra on top.

From Yuen Long to Wanchai

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Margaret Xu is a well-known figure in the local restaurant scene, having started with places like Cuisine X in Yuen Long and an early proponent of the farm-to-table movement.  A few years ago I paid her a visit at Yin Yang (鴛鴦) when she moved her operations into town, and for one reason or another I haven't managed to find my way back.  That chance finally came today.

My friends kinda know Margaret from her Yuen Long days, and asked her to send us whatever she felt like.  Apparently there was a Japanese chef at the next table who also knew her, and we were just getting the same thing that Margaret's preparing for them.  I definitely don't have a problem with that!

The starters have pretty interesting names, and I have a hard time figuring out which items the poetic names actually refer to…

Spring summer affair (春夏之間): I'm guessing this refers to the various veggie items, which were

Lemon-flavored eggplant with takuan (沢庵)

Corn pudding - not bad.

Once more for old times' sake

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Mr and Mrs Locust are doing a tour of Asia, and came into town today for a few days.  We were debating about which restaurant to visit, and somehow in the end Catalunya came out on top.  I had been very happy with my first visit last month - even though the focus that evening wasn't on the food itself.  I was pretty excited about going back, as it would give me a chance to see how the restaurant would do on a "regular" evening.

I left the ordering to Mrs. Locust, not wanting to push them into ordering anything in particular… other than a couple of things I really enjoyed from last time.  We ended up doing tapas only, which I think is fitting given the positioning of this place.

Pa amb tomàquet - a.k.a pan con tomate, which we had with slivers of Cantabrian anchovies on top.  Perfect balance of flavors.

Déjà vu on Mother's Day

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So... it's Mother's Day, and I'm 500 miles away from my mom.  Since I'll be seeing her for the next two consecutive weekends, I figured I'll be forgiven for not spending today with her.  Maybe.  You just never know with Shanghainese moms...

I did spend a few hours with two moms today - one of whom is the lovely mother of my adorable godson.  Just a week after our last visit, we found ourselves back at Man Wah (文華廳) for some dim sum.

Vermicelli, garoupa, fish broth (魚湯斑粒米線) - the little tyke was having his usual noodle soup, so we decided to order extra and shared with him.  Very tasty, I must say… simple comfort food.

It's your birthday… It's your birthday...

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I was invited to a dinner tonight jointly celebrating the birthdays of a happy couple.  We gathered at Wagyu Kaiseki Den, one of my favorite places for kaiseki cuisine (懐石料理) in town.  There would of course be wine, and our thoughtful hosts had not only wines from their birth vintages, but also those of the attending guests.  The last time I had a similar theme at dinner was when Frédéric Engerer hosted us at Château Latour…

While the wines were being decanted and we waited for everyone to arrive, we had some snacks to nibble on… edamame (枝豆) was an obvious choice…

…as was grilled dried puffer fish.