Too far East...

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I met up with a friend for lunch today.  I had foolishly forgotten to reserve a table at the venue we agreed upon, which left us scrambling to find a replacement on short notice.  Finding a suitable place for lunch/brunch in Taipei is a real challenge.  There are just so many places out there offering the same old stuff... totally generic, bland and uninspiring.  Of course, any place good enough to be interesting to me ends up being fully booked, and I'm left to continue the search.

It literally took us more than an hour of brain-wracking, combing through blogs, review sites...etc to finally decide on Joyce East.  I figured a place like that wouldn't be too busy on a Sunday, and sure enough, I got us a table.  Neither of us have ever eaten here, and it was a chance to see whether the reputation was well-deserved.

Once I sat down and looked at the menu, I realized there wasn't much on the menu that I wanted here, either...  Sigh...  I joked about getting up and going to N.Y. Bagels next door, but we didn't.  I wasn't in the mood to take the set lunch menu as I wanted to save some room for dinner, so I decided to order à la carte.

The green salad with crab meat was very pretty to look at, having been constructed with great care.  The flavors were light and fresh - slices of poached egg under the crab meat, garnished with mixed greens, tomato, fig, brunoise of red beet and a splash of balsamic vinaigrette.  The portion was somewhat smaller than I expected, but I did want a light lunch. 

The baked pigeon from Bresse was one of the specials, and I'm always happy to have pigeon or any kind of bird from Bresse.  However I did make one crucial mistake - I forgot that I wasn't dining in a restaurant with a French chef.  You see, no self-respecting French chef would ever send out a bird that was cooked beyond pink, and I had gotten used to having them like this - which I do prefer.  However, many Asians - especially in less-sophisticated cities - still have trouble accepting pink/bloody meat in birds.  Sure enough, my pigeon came well-done, and a little too heavy on the salt for my taste.  Otherwise the seasoning was fine, and the skin was crispy and nice.  I can almost imagine the chef pressing the meat into the pan to make sure the meat was thoroughly cooked... Sigh...

I didn't have any dessert, nor did we drink any wine, but I did manage to pick up a bottle.  I browsed through the wine list and told myself that the 1990 Haut-Brion Blanc was listed at a pretty reasonable price, especially for dining-in.  After spending some time confirming the retail price of the wine around the world, I asked the restaurant to sell me a bottle.  I'm sure I'll be able to find an occasion to open this baby, and soon...

Milk trouble

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I was looking for some place to have lunch at the last minute, and looked at a fellow blogger's site for inspiration.  The pictures looked pretty interesting, so I set off for Patrice (馬賽法式廚房) in search of something different, with the image of the bouillabaisse in my head and the promise of exotic flavors from Marseille...

My fantasy was shattered the instant I sat down and saw the menu.  There was pretty much nothing "French" on the set lunch menu, which offered a bunch of pastas and some sandwiches.  I knew instantly that there was nothing I wanted on that menu.  The "reserve menu" contained within the plastic stand looked a little more interesting - at least there was canard a l'orange, some crêpes...  But alas, these items need to be ordered in advance, so I couldn't have any of them today!

Just as I was about to give up and walk out the door, the waitress brought us the dinner menu.  This was again a set with no à la carte choices, but I could have it for lunch if I wanted.  I recalled that my fellow blogger had done the same, and I reluctantly agreed.

A small bread basket was laid in front of us, followed by a small dish of butter.  Curiously, some of the butter had liquified in the dish.  The waitress informed us that the kitchen had heated up the butter a little so that it wouldn't be too hard to spread on the bread.  I didn't know what to say to that... and decided not to touch it.

The soup was meant to be a vegetable soup (蔬菜湯), but in reality it was a light onion soup.  Unfortunately the chef had chosen to put in too much oregano and rosemary in the soup, and I found the taste too distracting.

The hot starter was mushroom crêpe in white wine sauce.  This was OK and I'm used to having crêpes with white wine sauce.  The addition of a basil sauce made things a little more interesting.

The Caesar salad was a little light in flavor, but I didn't mind.  I was starting to get full...

The bouillabaisse is what I came for, and it tasted pretty good.  There was plenty of seafood, with John Dory fillets, mussel, scallop, king crab leg...as well as some vegetables.  I'm no expert on the dish, but something tells me the broth is a little lighter than usual, and perhaps a tad on the sweet side.  Did I like it?  Oh yes!  Finally, there was something that made me happy about coming for lunch today.

I took one spoonful of the chocolate mousse and stopped.  There was a layer of cake at the bottom.  The problem, though, was that the taste was just off - really off.  It was that familiar taste of bad chocolate milk from my childhood - and I wonder whether they sourced some horrible-tasting milk, or it had gone bad.

We were one of only 2 tables they served, and chef Neil came to chat.  I told him how surprised I was at the way the menu was put together, and what I expected from a French/Marseillaise restaurant was totally different from the reality.  He talked about his philosphy of running the place, and that his Taiwanese partner had suggested ways to tweak the menu/dishes to suit the local tastes. 

While I appreciate the difficulty of running a restaurant, especially a "Western"/French place in Taipei, I thought he would be better off not listening to his partner.  If the menu becomes too localized, he runs the risk of losing your identity and competing with all the cheap, local joints at the bottom end of the price range... where I fear he'd lose out to the locals.

In the middle of the afternoon, I stopped by Pâtisserie Sadaharu Aoki Paris (パティスリー・サダハル・アオキ・パリ) again for a little something.  Verrine Bamboo caught my eye.  I wanted something refreshing on such a hot day, and this colorful combination of white, green, burgundy and brown looked like just what I needed.  Lots of different flavors here as well as textures, with macha ice cream, red beans, chocolate cream, crème Chantilly and crumble.  But once again, the macha here did me in.  I felt a little queasy as it was just a little too milky.  Sigh... I really should remember not to order anything with macha...

I left the place happy, though, as I picked up another dozen of the delicious macarons...

Nada, man...

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After a multi-year absence, I finally set foot inside Nadaman (なだ万) tonight for dinner with a couple of friends.  I never found the visits I made all those years ago very exciting, and consequently the restaurant just never showed up on my mental list of Japanese venues.  Tonight I had an agenda - I had been given a Island Shangri-La Gourmet Card at the beginning of the year, but somehow never found an occasion to use it.  I was determined to break in the card, and thought it'd be a good excuse to give Nadaman another try.

I brought a bottle of the 2004 Kistler Chardonnay Hudson Vineyard, since we were more likely to be having seafood.  It drank pretty much as I expected, with lots of toasty oak and popcorn on the nose.  Pretty heavily smoked, with some pipi de chat (surprisingly not unpleasant) and some sweet butter.  You could smell the ripeness in the nose, but the wine was actually tilted to the acidic side on the palate, with a hot finish.

It's been a while since I had a kaiseki meal, and I was kinda thinking about it, but as usual my friends threw the ball in my court and left me with the task of ordering.  I took it as a sign that they didn't want any set meals... oh well.  I decided to order the food in two separate rounds, treating the place like an izakaya. 

Deep-fried sliced crispy lotus root (蓮根煎餅) - this was a pretty nice way to start the evening, especially with a drink in hand.

Deep-fried sweet corn cake (玉蜀黍かき揚げ) - the corn was pretty sweet, and I always love any sort of corn frittata.  But one of my friends protested about the abundance of fried foods, as it was likely to put pimples on her face...

Sweet corn bean curd (玉蜀黍豆腐) - I could kinda taste the corn flour, but overall this was not a great dish.

Grilled goose liver sushi (フォアグラ寿司) - not exactly the same as the ones from San San Trois, but the piece of foie was pan-fried to a crisp and tasted pretty good.  Would have been better if the slice was a little thicker so that more moisture was retained.

Grilled salmon belly (鮭ハラスパリパリ焼) - not really what I expected, but turned out to be pretty yummy anyway.  There was definitely plenty of fat here to make these slices soft and succulent.

My other friend doesn't eat raw fish during the summer, so we avoided the usual sushi and sashimi, and had some California roll and soft shell crab roll (ソフトシェルクラブ巻) instead.  Both were pretty standard and nothing to write home about.

Simmered seasonal vegetable (野菜炊合せ) - I ordered this to balance out the deep-fried and grilled dishes, but the reality is that the Japanese can get pretty boring when it comes to veggies - and this was a prime example.

Broiled eel with soya sauce (鰻白焼) - pretty nicely done, with that caramelized outer surface.  Went perfectly with the grated mash (おろし).

Rice casserole with horse hair crab meat (毛蟹釜炊き) - honestly, this was a little disappointing.  Maybe my expectations were too high, after having had some really wonderful claypot rice at Wagyu Kaiseki Den.  The fragrance was OK, and I even thought I smelled a bit of uni (雲丹).  But it just wasn't that special...

Deep-fried japanese pork cutlet (黒豚とんかつ) - I was a little miffed that I had to chase up this final dish, as it arrived after the rice.  This should never have happened at a restaurant of this caliber, and reflects poorly on the kitchen.  Having said that, I really enjoyed the pork.  It was very well-executed, and the pork was extremely juicy and succulent on the inside.  My first piece was completely lean, and I was a little disappointed at the bland flavor of the meat.  My second piece did have that familiar strip of fat on the edge, and tasted much better.

I wanted something to finish the meal, but very few desserts looked appealing... so I took the seasonal fruits with Cointreau jelly served in grapefruit (グレープフルーツ釜コアントローゼリー).  This turned out to be a good choice, as the ice cold mix of fruit and the Cointreau jelly felt really refreshing at the end of a heavy meal. 

Honestly, the meal was nothing special.  There wasn't anything that was poorly done, but then again I didn't find anything to be exciting, either, since the regular menu is really uninspiring.  For the money that was paid for this meal, I could have done much better at any of my regular izakayas in town. 

The final insult - I didn't save as much money with my Gourmet Card as I expected, but I guess that's to be expected to many of these "discount cards".  I had ordered many of the dishes from the seasonal menu, only to be told at the end of the meal that anything offered "on promotion" was not entitled to the discount.  WTF?!  The booklet I received with the card stated that the card "may not be used in conjunction with other special offers", and the term "優惠" was used in Chinese.  I don't know about others, but I don't consider anything on the seasonal menu to be "special offer/discount"...  Anybody with half a brain knows that one should order the seasonal specialties at top restaurants since they are the freshest ingredients which are at their best.  At a place like Nadaman, the seasonal menu can contain up to 1/3 or 1/4 of the entire offering!  If I only order from the regular menu, I'd be reduced to having tempura, udon or California rolls... and for that I don't need to come to the Shangri-La...

I guess it'll take me another 10 years before my next visit...

The promotion

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I got my long-awaited promotion today, although it has nothing to do with work.  I became a father figure of sorts as I celebrated the birth of my godson together with his father Tigger.

I had been waiting for this day for some time now, ever since Tigger asked me to be the godfather to his son.  Among those of us close to him, there have been plenty of jokes regarding the baby's name.  But all kidding aside, I was looking forward to establishing a close bond with this child.  I never wanted to be a parent myself, so taking on the role of godfather would be as close as I'd get to the experiences of parenting.

I got to see my godson about 2 hours after he was born.  All 8.9 pounds of him.  Like many newborns, he was red and wrinkly, as if someone had been squishing his face real hard.  He had a ton of hair, and people were quick to crack jokes about the kid not taking after his balding father.  My first impressions tell me that he looks like his mother, which is not a bad thing...

The guys went off for a late dinner at Tasty Congee & Noodle (正斗粥麵) near the hospital, as we were all pretty hungry by then.  I inhaled a plate of stir-fried rice noodles with prawns and egg (滑蛋蝦仁炒河).  With my stomach full, I lit up the Romeo y Julieta Robusto Tigger passed out and smoked my first cigar in months as I wandered around my 'hood.  On this warm summer evening, as a godfather, the cigar tasted especially sweet.  The cigar itself was very well-made - I burned through about 40% before the ash finally dropped.  I was a happy man.

As Tigger said to me, I will have many adventures with my godson that I can look forward to.  And our journey together started today, even though the boy is sound asleep and doesn't know it yet...

Forty again

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I'm in Taipei today, spending my fortieth lunar birthday with the parental units.  The folks requested for a return to Paris 1930, our usual venue for these celebrations.  I, of course, had no complaints.

When we first arrived, the bottle I prepared was a little too warm, so Rolf arranged for it to be chilled.  Meanwhile he arranged for us to start with a glass of 2006 Schlumberger Riesling Les Princes Abbés.  This was not bad at all... Nose of minerals, plastic, a little ripe and slightly sweet on the nose, floral and fragrant, eventually some petrol came out, along with something sweet and tropical, and finally some orange blossom.  Very balanced on the palate.

The amuse bouche consisted of a piece of parma ham and a lump of melon gelée, along with a tiny slice of gherkin.  Somehow I thought the gelée tasted a little weird...almost artificial.

Foie gras torchon, apricot coulis, ginger, edible flower, served with a warm brioche - this was just about the thinnest slice of foie gras torchon or terrine I've ever had... but it was pretty tasty!  A sprinkle of salt really brought out the flavors.  Combining the foie with the apricot coulis or the pickled ginger made it very interesting.

Pan-fried Hokkaido scallop and sea urchin, tapioca pearls, wild mushrooms, chicken jus - I thought the scallop was a little dry, making it a little too springy on the bite.  The bahun uni (馬糞雲丹) had pretty strong flavors and kinda overpowered the scallop.  I thought the gold foil on top was totally unnecessary, though it seems like this stuff is back in fashion...  But the interesting part of the dish was not the prima donnas but the chorus!  The little tapioca pearls - I jokingly called them sago rice (西米露) - reminded me of Thomas Keller's famous oysters and pearls.  The chicken jus had just enough fragrant pepper to make it smell wonderful, but was totally undetectable on the palate.

Smoked halibut on a Jerusalem artichoke purée, avruga caviar cream, caper berry - this was also pretty yummy.  I do like halibut, even though it's not considered a "premium" fish.  The stuff that the fish sat on, though, was more interesting.  The capers provided the right amount of acidity to counter balance the cream, as well as the crunchy texture along with kidney beans, peas and pearls made from turnip.

Parmentier of confit duck leg, in truffle sauce, mixed greens - wow!  This was soooo delicious!  The perfume of the black truffle hits you immediately, and I took a spoon and mixed up the ingredients, letting the jus of the duck blend with the potato...  The duck was pretty tender, and very tasty.  I thought the combination was just perfect.

Roasted lamb tenderloin, mint jus, citrus and herbs couscous - this was probably the weakest course of the menu, although there was nothing wrong with the execution.  I like my lamb fatty and I could barely taste the real flavors here.  The pairing with couscous was nice, though.

The dessert was a passion fruit concoction, which I guess was right up dad's alley.  Mom got something different entirely - vanilla soufflé.  Rolf remembered that mom loves her soufflés so he took the liberty of changing her dessert.  Now that's what I call service, and this is why we keep coming back here!

In keeping with tradition, I opened a bottle of 1970 Dom Pérignon tonight.  What a beautiful wine this was!  Loads of caramel, marmalade, apricot, preserved salty plum (話梅), toasty and a little smoky, with even a hint of coffee.  Later on honey, preserved orange rind (陳皮), and mushrooms.  After 3 hours, the finish turned a little weird and almost tasted a little like bleach.  Hmmm...  But the nose was just fabulous, and kept on giving.

I ran into Jeremy, my old colleague, who was dining here for the first time with his wife.  I shared some of the Champagne with them on this happy occasion.  Hopefully they liked it...

I was a little full to take in the chocolate cake they made for me, so I had it packed up to go.  Guess that will be my breakfast tomorrow...

Mom was more than happy to recount the events on that fateful evening 40 years ago, and included details which I had never heard before.  I guess the manner of my arrival kinda surprised everyone, and I just couldn't wait to pop into this world!  After all the cool adventures of the last 40 years, I guess I can understand my eagerness back then.  Let's hope there are plenty more advntures coming my way...