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

A Cut

Taipei:

The entrance, walk down to the B1.

Not yet dinner time, so stopped at the café next to the lobby to have an apperitif.

A small garden area outside of the café.

Breakfasts in CA

When we are visiting CA, there are several nice places to have breakfast, well, for us, you'd say brunch, because we like to finish our Yoga, swimming sessions first, and it often takes two to three hours. Fortunately, you can have your breakfast almost any time you want. In Taipei, the latest you can find is about two O'clock in the afternoon.

Outdoor patio of Brent's.

Cheese blintz and fried potato cakes.

Best breakfast ever!

Breakfast is important, everyone knows that. For someone as gourmet as I am, this first meal signifies whether I'm going to be in a good mood or not the rest of the day.

Parisian breakfast is good when you are in a hurry or not too hungry. But don't take it wrong, it may sound simple, but definitely not easy to achieve your satisfaction. You need fresh baked baguette or pain au chocolat or chausson au pomme or brioche from a good boulangerie, some creamy yogurt with berries, melons, etc., and of course, une tasse de steamy black coffee, chocolate or tea. Then you are en forme, ready to go to metro and start your boulot.

And it's also good when you are not in a hurry, say, a nice lazy morning. You can also enjoy it in any of the cafés, in a grand boulevard, by the lake in the Bois de Vincent, or in the jardin of any museum, chatting with some waiters, reading your journal, or simply just watching people.

In Taiwan, breakfast is great. A lot of variety from different parts of China. Cantonese Ding Sum thing with tea, sesame galette with fried flour stick, baked sesame bun with meat or red bean inside, with a bowl of sweet or salty soy milk. The typical Taiwanese one is sweet potato porridge with pickles, vegetables and egg or meat dishes.

But the kind which impressed me the most is American breakfast, among them, my favourite is Dan's breakfast with my coffee, and at the same time enjoy the view of tropical hill just outside of our balcony.

My favorite fruit salad:

strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cherry, banana, homemade yogurt and flax seed powder on top.

Served with multi-grain bread, avocado and my house blend coffee.

Mexican food

The very first time I tried Mexican food was also in Paris. Thinking back, I've experienced a lot of new things in this city. Movable feast, isn't it! There was one in the Latin Quarter, and another one near Bastille which I went to more often. We liked to dine there sometimes when Dan visited me from Spain. The place was nicely decorated with colourful Mexican style tiles, vases and stuff, with very high ceiling and lofted second floor, a quite good choice when you miss Mexican food while living in Europe, but it's not so good compared to the ones in southern California. There are a lot of Mexican immigrants in CA and it's much easier to obtain the right ingredients to make the dishes. I'm not sure if it's much more authentic because I've only been in Mexico once, stayed one afternoon to visit the Pyramid, and never got to try any local cuisine there, but one thing is for sure, Mexican food in CA is quite good!

For us Taiwanese, Mexican food and Couscous(millet, serve with chic peas, white raisins, Cinnamon powder, vegetable soup and assorted grilled meat, especially good with Moroccan spicy lamb sausages or lamb) are kind of not easy to get used to. Most of my relatives and friends from Taiwan didn't like it when they first tried it. One of the reasons is probably because they cook the same ingredients very differently. For example, the red beans, the Asian way like Japanese or Taiwanese make them sweet as desserts, and the Mexican way is slightly salty, serving with main course. Each time when my sister saw the red beans in a Mexican dish, she made a face. And Dan, although he lived in Asia for almost two decades, he still can't stand any dessert with red bean in it. You see, even for something like food, it seems so hard to drop your prejudice, no wonder there's so many wars going on. Actually, if we just open our mind and try someone else's "strange" stuff, we might find a whole wonderland in front of us!!!

Near Dan's mom's place, there are also two Mexican restaurants which we like the most. One is El Torito, it's like a big chain thing, they have lots of restaurants in every area. The food here is slightly saltier and greasier, but quite good and good value, especially the happy hour, you can have a nice dinner for two including Margaritas for just 10 or 12 dollars. Their blended Margarita is also our favourite, because other places, fancy or not, tend to make them too sweet which suits the usual local palates.

The other one is Cantina, known for healthier, finer food, but also a bit pricier. They have a pretty impressive Tequila list and a very nice outdoor patio. This is the best choice for a nice sunny day, you can have an early dinner with a chilled Margarita or a shot of fine Tequila, and enjoy the evening breeze and a nice sunset.

There's also one just opened a while ago in the nearby wine country Santa Ynez, not far from Solvang. Their food was not too impressive, but the Tequila flyer tasting is quite interesting, you can try from younger, lighter ones to finer, aged ones.

The patio of Cantina

"Deli"s

This is a traditional Chinese new year ceremony:

Birthday of Sky God(天公生)

Happy Chinese New Year!

Nate'n Al

There's a very nice outdoor area,

the original one is in Beverly Hills.

Happy New Year!

Been lazy for quite a long while.

First day of 2012, decided to write something since I am on line. Really miss the days we were "writing" with a real pen sometimes,  feel the surface of different kinds of paper, sniff the aroma and so on.....