Gauguin Expo, Taipei Story House and Flora Expo

Used to go to museums a lot when we were in Paris, but rarely after we came back to Taipei. Of course there was a lot more choice there in Paris, but also when you are an étranger, you always have much more intention to explore. I had a French girl friend who's been all over the world but never been to Versaille until she was 32.

Seems like they didn't get very many of Gauguin's works this time, it only took us about an hour and half to go through the whole thing in detail. In Paris, this kind of expo usually will take a couple days or more to roughly see everything, you need time to rest and take some refreshment every 1 or 2 hours in the nice gardens of the museums. But it was still a pretty interesting expo about Gauguin's life and works in Martinique and Tahiti.

It was about dinner time when we walked out of the gallery. There's a nice café with picture windows all around next to the nearby historical building "Taipei History House", although it was already dark, you can still see the colorful lights on the plants of the Flora Expo, so we decided to stay and have a simple supper.

Easy House Vegetarian Restaurant

Went with my mom(She's vegetarian) and my brother's family to dinner before my nephew's concert at TAS. Pretty nice settings and atmosphere, the presentation of food was good, too.

三井Mitsui Cuisine M

Went out with 2 of my old friends from university. I only see them once or twice a year, so we need to find a place which serves good food and wine, and is quiet enough so we can have a nice long talk. One of my friends was in the mood for some sushi, so I decided to take them here. Although this was my first time here too, I tried 2 other ones under the same name, the food and service were usually pretty good.

This one is located in Xinyi area (信義區) , right across the street from Eslite bookstore. They serve Japanese style sushi, raw and cooked seafood , beef, and their signature dish: Taiwanese and Japanese crabs. (Really big ones.) Have a good selection of wines and Sakes as well. The restaurant is on the first floor of City Bank building, the entrance is very private, behind a curtain, almost hard to find, but there's always someone waiting there to take you to your table.  As soon as you walk in, there's a glassed wine cellar hanging above, crystal chandelier, and soft jazz music. We got a table right by the picture window overlooking the outdoor garden. Although it's a bit dark inside,  the colorful lights of the garden and modern buildings make a pretty good contrast.

Starter: Fugu skin salad

(Fugu is a kind of poisonous fish, you need a special license to serve it.) 

168 Prime steak house, Victoria Hotel, 2011, Jan.

Haven't gone to any steak house in Taipei for more than probably 10 years. Most of them used to be expensive and not good at all. Recently, it seems like enjoying top quality beef is becoming a new Taiwanese fashion, and there are suddenly a lot of them imported from US, Japan and Australia, so I decided to give it a try again.

Dan was performing in the Victoria Hotel for an end of the year dancer's party, so I went with him to try the recently very hot "168 Prime" in the same hotel. Turned out to be pretty nice.