Waiting for nutrition

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Sometimes I do feel bad that, for all the trips that Foursheets has taken to Taiwan with me, we've only gone out of Taipei on four occasions. As our main purpose for this trip was celebrating mom's big birthday, it made sense that we spent our time in Taipei. But I still wanted to take her somewhere she hasn't been before, and I figured hitting the night market in Keelung City (基隆市) would be something interesting for her.

We didn't leave home as early as I had originally planned, and by the time we got off the train at the new train station in Keelung and walked to the Keelung Miaokou Night Market (基隆廟口夜市), the place was already packed. This being her first time, Foursheets decided to walk pretty much the whole stretch of the market to see what was available, before choosing the food she would allocate stomach space for. A smart move, for sure, but one that had detrimental consequence for me...

Hello from the other side

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After the banquet with family last night, the four of us are doing a more intimate dinner on mom's birthday. The original plan was to have a casual meal at the club in the neighborhood, but dad decided a couple of days ago that it wasn't gonna be good enough for such a big day. For the second time in about a month, I was forced to find a suitable restaurant on very short notice - this time with mom's dietary restrictions in mind.

And so it was that 33 days after our first visit, in spite of some unpleasantness that came to pass, we found ourselves back at the Ukai Taipei - this time on the side of the restaurant serving kappo (割烹) instead of teppanyaki (鉄板焼).

As usual, the chef came out to introduce the ingredients they would be using for the meal. I must applaud the Japanese chef and our server for their Mandarin abilities, and apologize for having difficulty understanding them not because of their accents, but my own unfamiliarity with ingredient names in Chinese...

The big birthday celebration

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The reason for our trip back to Taipei was to help mom celebrate her 80th birthday. Normally it would just be the four of us, but as it's a BIG birthday, we decided to invite all of the Parental Units' siblings for the occasion - much like dad's 80th celebrations which took place on the same night as our wedding. I would, naturally, play host to this dinner... so I dutifully called each of my uncles to invite them.

There were a couple of potential venues that I considered, on account of wanting a private room that could be booked for this weekend. Thanks to the Parental Units' indecision in terms of a date, my first choice became unavailable. After checking around for comments on the two remaining candidates, it was decided that we would gather at Ya Ge (雅閣) in the Mandarin Oriental Taipei.

I usually find set menus at Chinese restaurants unimaginative, but mom wasn't satisfied with my choice of dishes at our so-called wedding reception last year, so she insisted that I take the Ya Ge Classic Menu. I did manage to replace one of the dishes with something I felt was more interesting.

Black pork, honey, barbecued (雅閣叉燒皇) - decent marbling but there's more bite than expected.

Scratching the 7 year itch

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For a number of years, I have been wanting but unable to visit the crop of fine dining restaurants that have opened up in Taipei. My trips back home tend to be short and focused on spending time with the Parental Units. When it came time for those celebratory meals with them, I was limited to the small selection of restaurants which allowed mom to order à la carte as opposed to taking a full tasting menu she would be unable to finish. For this reason, many restaurants on my "hit list" have been off-limits.

Which is why, almost 7 years after the restaurant first opened, I am finally making my very first visit to Taïrroir. Amazingly, mom had decided during the pandemic that she needed to eat more, so she actually dined here before I did!

We were joined by Little Rabbit, who alerted chef Kai Ho (何順凱) and pastry chef Angela Lai (賴思瑩) to our presence. I would have preferred to remain incognito, but that doesn't seem to be possible with Little Rabbit...

Menu "Qiu Lu Cai" - this is spelled with Hanyu Pinyin (漢語拼音) but the it's actually "手路菜" in Minnan (閩南語). A little challenging for a little taro boy (芋仔) like me to figure this out...

First, a series of 3 amuses bouches to get us started:

Zhuangyuan cake (狀元糕) - with preserved radish (菜脯) and olives inside the soft and powdery sponge cake. Topped with crispy and smoky purple glutinous rice.

All crows are black, Taipei edition

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I'm back in Taiwan for a few days and decided to take the opportunity to catch up with old friends. I haven't seen Her Highness in a few years because, well, pandemic. I was looking forward to catching up with her and our mutual colleague when I got the news that our friend's entire family tested positive for Covid. I guess we'll have to catch up with her next time...

I refused to dictate a venue for our lunch, and eventually my friend settled on Mipon (米香) - one of the few restaurants with a Michelin star serving Taiwanese cuisine. It's frankly never been on my radar and I hadn't really heard of it, and it's housed in the Grand Mayfull Hotel Taipei (台北美福大飯店). None of us had been here before but I managed to do a little bit of research. I chose to avoid a couple of items that lots of people seem to have written about as the signature dishes of the restaurant, but which didn't really seem very interesting to me.

I was, honestly, a little disappointed by the service... but not surprised. Neither the kitchen nor the service staff cared about the serving order of the dishes. I guess it's true that Michelin stars are not about the service...

Stir-fried pork tail with three-cup sauce (三杯豬尾) - I don't often see pig's tail on the menu, so I was immediately triggered. Anything done with three cups (三杯) - which is a cup each of soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine - is bound to taste pretty strong. We almost always have Thai basil and ginger in the mix, too.