Anniversary in Taipei

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When we planned this trip to Taipei for dad's birthday, we knew that Foursheets' birthday and our anniversary would fall in the same week, so we made a conscious decision to spend more time with the Parental Units and, for the first time, celebrate our anniversary with them. This means we weren't going to be at our beloved Caprice on this special day, and would have to choose a place in Taipei instead.

I was busy planning my trip to France, and when I returned I dithered a little about where to go... It would appear that the fine dining scene in Taipei is doing pretty well, perhaps thanks to the booming stock market over the last few years, as a number of places I wanted to book were all unavailable. So in the end I chose Ephernité - a name that's been in the back of my mind for a few years.

Since it's our special day, I opted for the Chef's Tasting Menu for us, preferring to have ingredients that are meant to be more premium and interesting.

Salmon tart - made with diced smoked salmon and a fie roe sauce.

A grateful celebration

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I try to spend each birthday with the Parental Units, but this particular birthday has extra meaning for dad. Having started chemo right after mom's birthday this year, and having some through some tough times during the latter rounds, we have been told that the Big C is now in remission. So... in a sense, we are celebrating dad's re-birth at the ripe old age of 86. For this occasion, I decided to take us back to trusty Tutto Bello, whose cuisine has long been to mom's liking.

We are back in the familiar, dimly-lit dining room. One thing I am confident about this place is their wine service. I've opened a few old bottles here, and they've always done a good job. Meanwhile there was a group of wine lovers near us drinking up Henri Jayer and the like... and I thought I recognized one of them. They were a little loud, but that happens when you ply a group of people with lots of good wine...

The beauty of this place is the ability to order à la carte. However, one needs to read the menu a little more carefully than I did tonight... or end up getting more food than one would want.

One small annoyance was that our starters took about half an hour to arrive... leaving us with just a few pieces of bread to begin with. Oh well... I guess they were catering to the table of big spenders near us.

Cappe sante alla pancia / granchio / zuppetta d'aragosta bianca - I hadn't read the menu carefully enough, so I didn't realize there was also crab meat in the lobster bisque. Very nice.

Deep-fried peony

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We're in Taipei for a few days while we do some celebrating, and first up is Foursheets' birthday. When I asked her if there was anywhere she'd like to go, I was glad she chose Mudan Tempura (牡丹 • 極上 天ぷら). On our first visit 3 years ago, we were absolutely floored by the quality of our lunch. The technique was very, very good, and the execution on some of the items was nothing short of perfection. In the back of my mind, I had always wanted to find an excuse to return, as it is clearly the best tempura restaurant I have dined at outside Japan. Well, here was my chance!

As usual, the chefs presented the ingredients to be used for our meal before we started. We noticed immediately that there was something on the menu that we don't eat, and we asked for a substitution. We were also offered an extra course of matsutake (松茸), but once I was told they come from Vancouver, I turned this down. We were the only cheapskates who said "NO"...

Another trip to Spain... in Taipei

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It is, once again, time to commemorate the day when Mom suffered terrible tummy pains all those years ago. After staying in Hong Kong for the last couple of years, this year I've resumed the old habit of flying home and spending the day with the Parental Units. Choosing a venue became easier this time, as many restaurants are closed on Mondays, and I decided to return to Molino de Urdániz. Since my happy first visit more than 3 years ago, this Taipei outpost have gotten themselves a second macaron, so I was really looking forward to more modern Spanish cuisine.

The current menu is called "Clásicos y Evolución", which features classic dishes created by Chef David Yárnoz at the home based in Spain as well as creations using locally-sourced ingredients.

I was a little annoyed with the restaurant's service at the very beginning, as they seemed intent on having us start our meal right away after we sat down. It should have been obvious that I was setting up my cameras to take pictures at the beginning, before the mayhem was about to start, but the staff completely ignored this and insisted on putting food on the table before I was remotely ready...

Pine spring: mushroom consommé - poetically named "pine spring (松泉)" in Chinese, this was not officially on the menu but offered as an extra treat. We were asked to first taste the mushroom consommé - made with 4 different types of mushrooms - on its own. Then we were to mix in the paste on the cup's rim - made with ground, dried mushrooms that was infused with pine needles - and taste the mixture. This helped to warm up the stomach to prepare for the meal, and Mom loves mushroom soup so she was pretty happy.

No MSG

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A couple of days ago mom mentioned that, on a radio program she tunes in to regularly, the host had interviewed the chef of the Golden Dragon Restaurant (金龍餐廳) in The Grand Hotel (圓山大飯店). The chef claimed on the program that they make their dim sum items fresh everyday (shouldn't all decent restaurants do this?!) and that they don't use MSG. The latter was what piqued mom's interest. As a long-time sufferer of adverse reactions to chemical additives in food, she doesn't visit Chinese restaurants often when dining out. So she wanted to see whether these guys really live up to their claim.

I made a booking for lunch, and of course Last Minute Uncles does what he does best... join us and insists he won't come unless he gets to pay. Well, he is a member at the hotel's club so he knows this place better than any of us.

It's the first time I stepped foot in this restaurant, and as I look at the dim sum section of the menu, I got a little ambitious and wanted to try as many items as possible. I did remember to order in rounds, though...

Steamed rice rolls with mixed sauce (混醬腸粉) - this is a street food staple in Hong Kong, and I've had it many, many times for breakfast. Unfortunately the sauces just tasted off... although neither Foursheets nor I could pintpoint why.

Beefy anniversary

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I'm back in Taipei for a few days as we celebrate the Parental Units' anniversary. The last time we were together for a celebratory meal, the mood was pretty different... there was a lot of trepidation about what was to come for our family. Seven weeks have passed, and while the future remains uncertain, we are more optimistic than where we were the last time out.

In a break with the past where I chose restaurants that would appeal to mom, this time around dad was the focus. A recommendation was needed for another restaurant with a sommelier capable of handling an old bottle, and A Cut was what came up. As famous as the restaurant has been over the years, I had simply overlooked this hotel steakhouse when searching for dining options in the past, and never got around to checking it out. Well, it was time to hit this steakhouse with a Michelin star.

My first impression upon entering was one of disappointment. I chose not to return to Tutto Bello tonight because I felt the dining room was too dimly lit, and that wasn't good for mom. Well... this dining room was practically like a dungeon, and we could barely read the menus even with the help of these tiny lamps on the table. I didn't evem bother taking out my 360 camera for the usual group shot. Sigh...

We decided to make it easy on ourselves and chose the set menu rather than trying to order à la carte. I took time to explain all the available options to mom, while making sure dad ordered enough beef for himself.

The bread selection was pretty decent.

Aus. wagyu beef tongues: kale • red wine sauce • piri piri • wasabi - I was pretty surprised by how thick cut the tongue came. Interesting that it came topped with a marinated kale condiment. We've got a nice dose of acidity thanks to pickled radish on the side.

One last feast

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We're back in Taipei again, this time primarily to celebrate - a few days belatedly - mom's birthday. It had been a more casual affair last year, but I was determined to take the Parental Units out for a nice meal this time. Coincidentally, this would also be the last fancy meal they would have before some major changes in their lives, so this meal would be more significant than usual. In retrospect, had I known earlier, I probably should have chosen a nice sushi restaurant for the occasion... but I already had my heart set on opening a bottle of red this year.

And I needed a competent sommelier to handle this delicate bottle - someone who could do a better job than the person who broke the cork from dad's wine last year. I immediately thought of Kevin Lu from logy, who is a Master Sommelier and received the Asia's Best Sommelier Award at Asia's 50 Best Restaurants in 2024 - after receiving the Sommelier Award from Michelin Guide Taiwan the previous year. I asked Little Rabbit to help pass a message about the bottle I was bringing, and booked us a table at the restaurant. Now that they have moved to new digs and done away with counter seating, the four of us would have a much easier time engaging in conversation while dining.

But there was a downside to the new location. The lighting now was much, much dimmer. Not only did it make it tough to take any decent pictures without jacking up the ISO, it also meant mom had a difficult time seeing her food. This was a real bummer.

As was the case on our first visit, there was no menu presented before service started. We didn't know how many courses were coming our way.

Soymilk / lactic acid / pine nut - this amuse bouche was apparently a signature, although it was new to me. We had a cold soymilk custard topped with a layer of tomato water and acid whey leftover from yogurt, garnished with pine nuts. The acidity from the whey helped to whet one's appetite.

The best dishes I had in 2025

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This is the 10th edition of my "best dishes of the year", and once again I go through my meals to pick out the dishes that were the most memorable, brought me the most pleasure, or evoked the strongest emotions. Needless to say I have had many, many delicious dishes this past year - many happy moments which brought smiles to my face. These were just the ones that made me exclaim "FUCKING GOOD!", "YEAH, BABY!", "PUTAIN!"... you get the drift.

I didn't travel as much this year, and I also dined out less. Maybe that's why the list got shorter this year. But truth be told, some of these dishes were incredibly emotional for me, and were perhaps the best I've ever had.

Luncheon meat and egg sandwiches with peanut butter and condensed milk (炒蛋午餐肉奶醬多士), from Yue Hing (裕興) in Hong Kong - this is my favorite sandwich in the world, and I thought I would never have the chance to taste it again when Dan passed away in 2021. Some 68 months after I last tasted one, Elaine reopened the stall and I made 2 visits within the first week. I was so emotional I almost cried.

Birthday on the mountain

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We're back in Taipei because, among other things, it's Dad's 85th birthday. I wasn't able to celebrate with him last year, so I was determined to do something nice this year. I had read about Noma's pop-up in Taipei at YMS by onefifteen, which had opened this year on Yangmingshan (陽明山), just next to the Parental Units' home. I figured the location made perfect sense for the Parental Units.

But YMS by onefifteen had been touted as a members-only club, with price of membership reported to be TWD 600,000. Well, I wouldn't use the membership often enough to warrant shelling out that kind of money, so I put that idea aside.

Then I saw Hairy Legs and Victor post about the place, and mentioned to Hairy Legs about the proximity of the restaurant to the Parental Units' home. I did not realize until then that onefifteen (初衣食午) is the group behind 1929 by Guillaume Galliot in Shanghai, so he offered to make a booking at YMS for me. I also didn't realize until recently that a good friend from high school was the interior designer behind both YMS and 1929 by Guillaume Galliot - which would explain why my long-lost friend has been posting pictures about both restaurants on his social media account.

I received an email from the group's F and B manager about my booking, and since he asked about dietary restrictions and preferences, I sent back a list of what we prefer to do without. I also mentioned that mom is sensitive to many chemical additives, which include MSG but much, much more. While fine dining restaurants serving western cuisine are generally less of a risk in this area, but one can never be too careful.

It's been raining on and off today, and although we left the Parental Units' home under a very light drizzle, it wasn't a surprise that the higher up we got on the mountain, the wetter it became. When we arrived at the entrace to the compound, there were staff with umbrellas on hand to escort us inside. But we had just reached Lab 10 - the casual dining / tea salon within the compound. We would need to trek a few more steps next door to Restaurant 12, where the fine dining restaurant is located.

Our table was right next to the wine cellar, and I had a good view of the open kitchen from my seat. Chef Jonatan Motos Ferrán came to greet us, and since Hairy Legs had recommended his cuisine, I felt assured we would be in good hands tonight. The menu is long with 14 courses - 17 if you count the 4 mignardises individually - and it's been a while since mom sat through a long, fine dining dinner... but I hoped she would still enjoy it.

We started with a series of four canapés:

Tomato ⁃ burrata ⁃ olive - not surprisingly, the meringue made with tomato water was a little sweet. The filling in the middle was made of burrata along with diced tomatoes and olives.

Turks in Taipei

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We're back in Taipei for a few days, and the Parental Units were very understanding about us spending some time away from them. This gave us the opportunity to catch up with Little Rabbit, which we needed to do in order to exchange some gifts. I asked her to suggest a place for us to meet, with the overarching criterion that it shouldn't be fine dining. To my surprise, most of the places she suggested weren't actually Taiwanese - or Chinese, for that matter...

Eventually Foursheets decided that she wanted to have Turkish cuisine, so we ended up all the way across town at Izmir Turk Kitchen. They had literally just re-opened a few days ago, so Little Rabbit was kinda excited.

There is a selection of mezze to choose from, so I let the ladies go and pick them out...

Days of chewing carefully: why so complicated?

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Nowadays I don't get to see The Compatriot often, as neither of us are in Taiwan much. But he happened to be in Taipei this week so we made last-minute plans to meet up for dinner. I didn't have any place I needed to try, especially given my current condition, so I happily went along with his suggestion of Hosu (好嶼).

I had never heard of the place, but these guys apparently have themselves a Michelin Green Star. They do seem to use exclusively locally-sourced ingredients, with dishes inspired by Taiwanese banquets (辦桌). Well... I'm not really "local" enough and left Taiwan very young, so I don't think I've ever been to a proper 辦桌... So the ingredients and the flavors are gonna be pretty unfamiliar to me.

Our welcome drink was a cup of tea from Yilan (宜蘭) with some plum from last year.

Days of chewing carefully: two beef noodles

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It's not surprising that whenever we are back in Taiwan, one of Foursheets' favorite things to eat is beef noodle soup. Ever since I first introduced her to Lin Dong Fang Beef Noodles (林東芳牛肉麵) back in 2015, it has been a mainstay on her itinerary. She wanted to explore a couple of other places this week, so I let her pick...

We had tried to check out Lao Shan Dong Homemade Noodles (老山東牛肉家常麵店) a few months ago, but it was during the holiday season and there was an impossibly long line to get in. This time around, though, we went on a week night and had no trouble getting in. The place was still buzzing on a Monday night.

Pork and chives dumplings (豬肉韭菜水餃) - thick, hand-rolled wrappers with plenty of bite. Very nice.

Days of chewing carefully: Don't Go

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We have a visitor staying with us for a few days, and this was her very first trip to Taiwan. Naturally, we were eager to introduce her to some good, authentic Taiwanese cuisine. We were sitting in a taxi en route to our go-to casual Taiwanese when I suddenly thought of the delicious braised pork rice (滷肉飯) at My灶. It's a very popular place and normally not easy to book on short notice, but I picked up the phone to call them anyway. Much to my surprise, they had a spare table available. I immediately asked the taxi driver to turn around.

Stir-fried white water snowflake (炒水蓮) - this is always a good idea in Taiwan. I love this fibrous and crunchy veg, and pretty nice stir-fried with some mushrooms.

Days of chewing carefully: lost and found

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We're meeting up with the Parental Units tonight, and we chose to check out a place not far from their home. I may or may not have dined at A Gan Bistro (阿甘小館) before, but if I did it would have been close to 20 years ago. This was yet another recommendation from Little Rabbit, and I was looking forward to finding a place suitable for mom.

The place was busy on a Sunday night, and while the boss lady was too busy to stay and chit chat, she nevertheless was patient enough and entertained our request for the kitchen to dispense with MSG during cooking.

Coldcut chicken in Taiwanese style (鹽焗雞) - UMMMM, NO, this is NOT salt-baked chicken. It was, however, a very, very good steamed chicken (白斬雞). It was so, soooo tender, with that beautiful layer of jelly between the skin and the meat. The fact that it was a whole leg including the upper thigh was a plus, and seasoning it with some sesame oil made it even better. This is something I'd like to buy and take back to Hong Kong.

Days of chewing carefully: a homey lunch

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I'm back home in Taiwan for a week for my long-postponed dental surgery, and I would get just one meal between arrival last night and the dreaded procedure. Little Rabbit had recommended a place to eat chicken to Foursheets, so we trekked across town to have ourselves a quick lunch at Warm Home (溫暖好家).

Oyster mushroom three-cup sauce (三杯杏鮑菇) - pretty happy with this vegetarian version.

Beefy and porky

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It's the last day of my trip to spend some time with the Parental Units in Taipei, and I've pretty much eaten every meal at home so far. I would never complain about eating too much of mom's cooking, but I still want to have an occasional nibble outside. So I decided I should visit somewhere I haven't been for way, waaaay too long.

Fu Ba Wang (富霸王) is one of my favorite places in town for braised pork trotters, but it's been more than 12 years since my last bite. I knew that in the old days, they used to sell out of the choice part of the trotter pretty early, so I told myself I needed to get there soon after they open at 11 a.m. Well... I left home late, took the MRT, and arrived at noon. There was already a line of people waiting outside, so I dutifully waited my turn.

Thankfully everything was still available. Since it's been much too long since I was last here, I got a little greedy and ordered more than I should have.

Top section of trotter (霸王腿扣) - I'm really happy to have been able to get this. There is actually plenty of meat here, and they've cut it away from the bone and into slices, but still surrounded by a thick layer of fat and skin. You get the whole experience, which is how I like to eat trotters... thanks to growing up with mom's braised trotters at home. They don't braise it as much as mom does, so the skin and the fat still have a little more springiness.

Hisashiburi Taiwan sushi

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It's the day after mom's birthday, and she decided that she wanted to relax and dine out for dinner. Japanese is her preferred cuisine, so I scrambled to find a place for sushi that doesn't break the bank. I seem to remember hearing people mention Yo Sushi (游壽司), and a quick check shows that the pricing seems "reasonable", so I quickly booked seats at their Zhongshan branch (中山店) this afternoon while meeting up with a friend for coffee late (second) lunch...

We arrived and waited a few minutes before being seated at the 12-seat main counter for the second seating. Our chef quickly explained how things worked, but I turns out I didn't understand what he was telling me. I did tell him, though, that I didn't want any tuna.

Our appetizer was a small bowl with bigfin reef squid and wakame (アオリイカ 若布), with cucumber and topped with some chiffonade of breakfast radish.

More girlie drinks in Taipei

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We're back in Taiwan again to spend more time with the Parental Units, and after running around shopping for ingredients and some cooking prep, Foursheets needed a place to unwind and meet up with Little Rabbit. During our last trip home, Foursheets took a liking to the girlie izakaya we discovered, so she decided that's where we should have our first dinner on this trip, before most of Taiwan shuts down for the Chinese New Year break.

We were once again seated in the Old Town West (老城西。酒食製作所) part of the space, but not at the bar counter this time. With an additional mouth to feed, Foursheets's secret plan was to order up a storm so that we could try more dishes. Alas, someone had already stuffed down a bowl of Taiwanese shaved ice and a softserve ice cream just before meeting up with us, so... not at full capacity, then.

But before we get started with the food, girlie drinks are in order. I asked for something that caught my eye on our last visit, and it turned out just as girlie as what I ordered before.

The nocturnal scent of riesling (麗絲玲的夜香氛) - with late-harvest riesling and vodka as the base, this had the scent of morning-harvest jasmine tea, along with white champaca (玉蘭花) essence and the sweetness of white grapes. Very fruity and refreshing. Of course, it's the decor on the stem that caught my attention when the drink arrived...

Girlie drinks in a girlie izakaya

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We are back in Taiwan to spend the holiday season with the Parental Units, but have alternating days off when we are on our own. I had planned exactly zero meals out for this trip, so as tonight was our first night off, we didn't have any idea of where to eat. Foursheets asked to go to an izakaya (居酒屋), and after doing brief research online, I decided we should try a place literally just across the river from our apartment. In fact, I could hypothetically hit it with a Stinger from my living room window if I could get one...

As my research was very brief, I thought Tokyo Skewer (東京串燒。酒場) would just be some old school izakaya since the words I remembered were "old mansion (老宅)". The key words I missed were actually "hipster (文青)"... And while we entered through the door of Tokyo Skewer, we were actually led to seats inside the connecting space next door at Old Town West (老城西。酒食製作所), with a feminine, farmhouse charm.

We were seated at the bar lined with potted plants and flowers, and watched the two mixologists work their magic all night. The drinks here were pretty elaborate, which took us completely by surprise. Since the house rules impose a minimum spend with the added condition that customers must order at least one drink, we started with an alcohol order...

Rose in lychee garden - as Foursheets exclaimed... "IT DOESN'T GET MORE GIRLIE THAN THIS!" With Glendalough Wild Rose Irish Gin as the base together with lime juice, garnished with both canned lychees and dried rosebuds... and finally finished with a blooming red rose plus baby's breath on the stem of the martini glass.

Peachy fishies

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It's time to celebrate mom's birthday with her once again, and this year due to scheduling conflicts, I had to take her out to dinner on a day that is neither her birthday according to the lunar calendar nor the Gregorian calendar - which is unusual for us. Nevertheless I made the trip back home with Foursheets to spend time with the Parental Units, because all of these memories with them are precious to me.

During the last few months, mom hasn't been as excited about going out to fine dining establishments as she had been, and even though she had told us that there is no need to go somewhere nice, I decided to take her out for a sushi dinner. Knowing that she is likely to balk at the prices charged by the top places in town, I chose to book us seats at Sushi Momo (すし桃) in the Sheraton Grand Taipei - a collaboration between the hotel's Japanese ryotei (料亭) Momoyama (桃山) and Sushi Akira (あきら鮨), which holds one Michelin star. It can't command the high prices as it doesn't have the accolades, yet I felt there would be a certain minimum standard in terms of the cuisine given its pedigree.

One of the rituals for these celebrations with the Parental Units would be the opening of birth vintage wines. I'm not inclined to pop open a claret to go with sushi, which meant the only thing I have available is a bottle of very old Sauternes. How well would they pair? I had an inkling that the sweetness in the wine would work well with some of the neta (ネタ), while the acidity would integrate well with the vinegar in the shari (シャリ), but one never knows until one tries...