Cava Sparkling Wine Tasting Diner

Kimi called to inform me about this event. Spanish wines have improved a lot this recent decade and

I've never tried the house chef David Gaveau's cuisine, so this was a chance to satisfy my curiosity.

Lables are quite interesting.

Amuse Bouche:

Gillardeau Oyster

Smaller than usual but was fresh and had a more intense flavor than those big fat ones.

Chilled Oscietra Caviar, Sea Urchin and Cauliflower "Soufflé"

Served with Créme Fraiche and Blinis

Not a bad dish but I couldn't taste the sea urchin at all.

The pairing wine was PAGO DE THARSYS BRUT NATURE

80% Macabeo and 20% CHARDONNAY

Golden colored, flora, orange and dried fruit aroma, fine bubbles, creamy finish.

My favorite tonight.

Lawry's The Prime Rib

Got a bit more brave to try steak houses after the nice experience at Prime 168, since I'm around Xin Yi area (信義區) a lot, and there's one newly opened in the Song Ren(松仁)105 building, decided to give it a try.

Although it's located in B1, there's a very nice outdoor area, indoor part has very high ceiling. They could have make the whole place splendid, but unfortunately, the colors they used were all wrongly matched and the way tables were arranged were quilte wierd, too.

Dining experience? A lot of performing but the food wasn't good. And honestly, I've nener tasted any steak which was worse than this. The wines in the list were all the cheapest you can find to buy(although sometime it's great to do this if you can find good value wines and sell them at reasonable prices, then it's good for both the restaurant and the clients, but this was certainly not the case) and they weren't that good. Overall, the diner wasn't worth the price at all.

Le Blé D'or

This was one of the two Taiwanese brewery restaurants I've tried. Using imported ingredients to make the beer, they actually did a pretty good job, especially the honey flavor one.Quite interesting decorations in the restaurant, too.

Eslite bookstore B1

Outside view of the restaurant

Korean Barbecue and roast chicken

This is an old family favorite we've been going to for more than 40 years, a korean barbecue restaurant which is among the first ones existing in Taipei. Back then, during some period of time there were a lot of them here, just like beer houses 20 years ago, Japanese style barbecue nowadays and so on, sort of a Taiwanese fashion, everything's hot for a while and then it's finished, unlike in Europe, you can find the same things you like even centuries later, food, drinks, clothings, etc,......

This was considered a chic place to go when we were little, and ladies who served there were always pretty and elegant, probably this was one of the reasons my dad loved to take us there, so he could have the pleasure to chat with them.

When we were older, my siblings and classmates went all over the world to study and work, some of them even settled down outside of the country, but this restaurant remained a "must go" for all of us when we were back here visiting, although it was never an authentique Korean style.

Today it's changed a bit, no more beauties to flirt with, service became a little careless, and the price remained almost the same as several decades ago, but food here is still very good, along with so many year's memories during the time when we were growing up.

"Tea Room" and "Library"

Dan had a rehearsal at BS, dropped me off at Eslite. Wanted to get a new French dictionary and check out some "new arrivals"(books, magazines etc...)

Often forgot about the time until my legs started to feel something. They do have nice sitting benches and the like but I'm usually more used to just walking about and reading whatever there is in sight before choosing anything. Plus the music is pretty interesting most of the time. It was some very perfectly performed piccolo trumpet music that afternoon.

Stopped at the 3rd Floor Tea Room 2 hours after to rest and have a before dinner drink.

Always nice to have a view.

It was a rather cold afternoon,

so I ordered a "Matured Beer" from Austria.

It had a sweet aroma but didn't taste sweet.

They offered me a piece of dark orange chocolate to pair with it,

but it wasn't quite a good match because they were both kind of sweet.

It was tempting to get some appetizers to go with the beer,

but they only serve sandwiches which were too filling,

or otherwise desserts.

The alcohol percentage was quite high,

(Although the strongest one I've tried was 18%)

ABU's Brasserie

This was our "Spring Wine Celebration"(春酒) for the Tuesday lunch meeting, happy to see each other after the Chinese New Year vacation, but the restaurant didn't really fit my expectation.

The table they gave us in the corner was one of the two which were separated by a long counter, convenient for putting several bottles, ice buckets, wine glasses and so on, and that was exactly what we were doing. (Our Champagne comme l'habitude, and the big group next to us were kind of doing a wine tasting.) This part was quite nice. But the area we were sitting was also just next to the kitchen separated by a wall, which made it really noisy, almost hard to talk.

Other than that, several dishes which we were interested in were all sold out, so we got some other ones instead, but honestly, they sounded much better on the menu than when you actually tasted them, they weren't authentic at all, just like the experience of ordering some Taiwanese snacks in New York or somewhere in  the States, the names looked quite right but when they were served,  they were usually not what you were imagining.

The chef is from Hongkong, His first restaurant got pretty famous (ABU Authentic Cuisine), supposed to be more of a fine dinning thing, hopefully it's really more authentic, but with the shark fin on the menu, I'm not sure about it. Of course you could be creative, but if you name your dishes certain ways, you should prepare them according to certain rules, otherwise it's a bit like announcing Bach on the program and playing Chopin instead, quite confusing for your audience.

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.