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.