Brunch at La Cocotte

Now let's walk around the little lanes in Taipei, there's one small cozy place which is quiet, elegantly decorated and has good food. Weekend brunch time is quite long, starts from eleven in the morning and lasts until three in the afternoon, suitable to meet a good old friend (or young friend)  and chat away the whole afternoon. Best of all, with healthy tasty food and a glass of  chilled nice bubbly.

 

Flowers, spring 2013

By myself some flowers:

 

Adjust their pose carefully.

 

Brunch at Toscana, Sherwood Hotel

"Brunch" didn't even exist in Taiwan long time ago, hard-working Taiwanese people were so used to waking up early to make a living, even on the weekend. But just these recent years, it suddenly became a popular  social event, just like in the States.

My days are usually lazy, so my first meal of the day is a very late brunch anyway, sometimes it's almost between lunch and dinner time. Although my dear chef at home makes the best breakfast, I'm still happy to have a lot more choices at some restaurants, just for something different.

There are several places which are not bad at all, let's start from the Toscana, the classic.

 

This area is like a green house,

 

suitable for a sunny sunday morning.

 

The Gallery

Walking along 中山北路(Jong Shan N. Rd.) one afternoon, happened to glance in some alley, and there it is, an interesting white building with a gate which leads to a small yard, surrounded by lots of street trees.

It was built during the Japanese occupied époque. 

Summer Break 2012

July, scorching hot.

Went to about twenty some thirty movies because there was a movie festival.

Cicadas sang, ceased.

Injured my ankle stupidly in Marco Polo lounge after reading for two hours without moving and suddenly standing up and started walking without noticing my right leg was totally numb.

Stayed home for more than two weeks doing nothing but reading.

Then suddenly, it feels like autumn already, it's only mid August.

Probably because there's tons of Typhoons this year, 15 already.

Cooling down much earlier than usual, although according to Chinese calendar, it's only mid July now.

So, it's good for my wallet but bad for my palate, didn't find too many new places, only a couple of small French bistros in some small lanes.

But some favorite old places changed chefs, or had a wine party before remodelling,

and some good films to chat about, too.

Continue later.......

Portland

I felt so bad that I accidentally deleted a lot of pictures from the Oregon trip, like the vineyards in Willamette Valley, Oregon coast and so on. But fortunately I still have some of the Portland ones to share.

Didn't want to go out after the long train ride,

decided to have our first dinner at the hotel.

86F, 101 Building

For mother's day, dad invited everybody to this famousTaiwanese restaurant which is situated at the 86F and of 101 Building, considered the highest restaurant in Taipei.

The restaurant actually took the 86th and 87th floor,

so the ceiling is pretty high,

therefore, it's brighter and has a much nicer view than the two restaurants in 85th floor.

The rain just stopped.

It was rainning really hard so the air was clean and clear.

So, we were lucky to be able to see the sunset of 觀音山(Guan Yin Mountain).

Coast starlight train trip: Simi Valley, CA to Portland, Oregon

Always love to travel by train. Not hurried, you can see more scenery, walk around, meet people. It's a total different feeling from traveling by car or plane.

The station is very remote.

You can't even find anybody to inform you of anything or even a restroom.

These tickets took us a long long time to print out.

There were simply two machines on the platform,

you're supposed to figure out how to operate them by yourself,

that was quite confusing.

Other passengers seem to have the same problem as well. 

La Festa

Italian chefs are invading Taipei! Antonio Tardi at Marco Polo, chef owner at Osteria by Angie, ect....,  even the famous French restaurants like Rebouchon (Angelo), S.T.A.Y.(their former chef is Italian, since they change chefs constantly, I don't know who or where the chef is from now.)

The newest and the hottest topic among the gourmets is this: La Festa. Under the surveillance of chef Igor, the food here is creative, nicely presented, very artistic and tasty, if not authentic.(That's not what the  chef is focused on anyway.)

The place is not so big but cosy, has a very inviting ambiance. The service is quite professional. The only thing that's not so perfect is the "private room" area, which is located in the very back of the restaurant, past the open kitchen counter. With some sliding doors and curtains, they can adjust how big or small the private room should be according to request, but the whole area has only one window and looks a bit messy.

Gala dinner:

We arrived late according to the Taiwanese standard and got the last table. (But of course I made a reservation in advance.) It was fully booked, which I think was partly because it was a so called "Gaja" wine dinner. But eventually, although the wines are indeed from the same famous pristine winery, they were not the "Gaja" top wines you expected. Therefore, the NT$4000+10% per person price range was "just right", not what you thought a "real great deal".

Nice setting.

You got a detailed menu with every dish and pairing wines on it.

Carpaccio di aragosta(lobster), beef carpaccio.

Lady Face Brewery Restaurant

Brewery restaurants seem to be popular everywhere now, even in the LA suburbs. The weather here should be one of the best in the world to have a pint of  chilled beer out doors, anyway. I don't see why it didn't get popular and focus on the variety and quality earlier than England, Germany or Belgium, because these places are much colder most of the time.

Ladyface brewery restaurant

Outdoor patio