Paradox Blog

One of the reasons on the list of many to visit Taipei is the variety of food it offers, be it "Shao Bin Yio Tiau" for breakfast or a buffet feast at a fancy five-star hotel. Especially for those of us who grew up there, there hasn't been a place that can reproduce the exact flavors of the dishes and delicacies in our memories. To be honest, after so many years, very few restaurants and food stands from our times would remain in business. But once you were in Taipei, even its newest inventions tasted like something you remembered and Taipei does reinvent itself over and over again over the years as far as food trends are concerned. There was never a dull taste for as much as we could stomach in the two weeks we were there. Every morning, the neighborhood started bustling at around seven o'clock, students getting ready to go to school and adults getting ready to work. Breakfast shops were ready for them, along the alleys, by the bus stops or at, the corner convenient stores, with choices of deep fried dough wrapped in sesame flat bun, omelet and scallion pancakes, pan fried dumplings, pastries and baked goods, egg and ham sandwiches, porridges with salty dishes, or even a bowl of hot noodles. We could have had something different each morning if we chose to. On the elaborated side, we had breakfast buffets at the Agora Hotel, which offers many dishes including eggs cooked to your choice of style, bacon and sausages, steamed dim sum, porridges and stir-fried fresh greens, pastries, cereals, fresh fruits, fresh juices and coffee. But my favorite of all styles of breakfast is vermicelli soup with side dishes of fried tofu and pork intestines.

For lunches, we once had two lunch boxes, one with port chop, one with a leg quarter of chicken, at the City Zoo. We were hungry and they simply tasted delicious. Many times, we had lunch at the underground food alleys of department stores. They offer so many choices from noodles to "tepanyaki", from Southeastern Asian flavors to Italian. And we don't have to agree on which cuisine to choose. We each can get our own favorites and still eat at the same table. One time, my husband went to a steak house for lunch and was very impressed with the salad bar it offered. Along side the usual raw vegetables, there were pickled clams and stir-fried greens. In his words, it was better than any of the salad bars he had had in the states.

How many ways can you cook fresh water fish? On a tour to the Shi Men Reservoir, we had the famous fresh fish banquet. We had steamed fish filets, deep-fried filets with sweet and sour sauce and fish in soup. To accompany the fish dishes, there were sticky rice steamed in sections of bamboo, stir-fried greens, a whole chicken steamed with ginger and scallion and soy sauce stewed fatty pork.

Ever so often, a brand new five-star hotel became the talk of the town and long lines formed outside the new restaurants of the hotel. The Regency Hotel was the recent favorite for the citizens of Taipei when we were there. Treated by a friend, we got to indulge in the elaborated lunch fare. Anything you can think of, they have a section for it, prim ribs, rack of lamb, seafood, sushi, pastas, fried chickens, "Dan Dan" Noodles, dazzling desserts and "Haagen Dazs" ice creams. I believed we all came out of the buffet five pounds heavier. As we were finishing up our lunch, a line had already formed for the afternoon tea at the hotel.

Sometimes I wonder how can people have so much leisure time in Taipei as to go for afternoon tea. We had all the time in the world since we were tourists but what about the locals. Several tea places we went to were all crowed. One of them we cannot even get into. All the tables were filled up the minute it opened its door. The afternoon tea can be as simple as a cup of coffee and a slice of cake. Or it can be a buffet of dim sums, light dishes, pastries and cakes. According to my brother, it was a sign of recession instead of prosperity that the afternoon tea places were crowded. First of all too many people had the free time. Secondly, afternoon tea is like brunch for lunch and dinner so you get two meals in one.

Coffee shops and bakeries were already popular twenty years ago. The coffee shops and bakeries around Taipei today have stylish deco and sell trendy drinks and fancy pastries. Along the streets of the east side shopping centers, every few blocks, you can find a Starbucks coffee shop. The best coffee we had while in Taipei came as a surprise from a tiny cafe on the Shore of Dan Suei River at the end of the Dan Suei rapid transit line. Their blue mountain brew reminded my husband of the good old days when we were young and drinks like latte, mocha and cappuccino were not in our vocabularies.

Dinners are family fares. We had my mother-in-law's home cooking several nights. When I had dinner with my brother, who does not cook, it was a much more adventurous event. We often went to nearby night markets as we used to do growing up. At Hu Lin Night Market, the woman that made pork liver and kidney soup and stewed fatty pork over rice was the same one twenty years ago. I missed the night markets. The steams rose up from the roadside stands one next to another. The banging of the spatulas on the big iron woks, with a slight tip, the fire crept up and shot up to the sky. Omelets stuffed with oysters, thick squid soup, slow-roasted corns coated with layers and layers of spice, dumplings, noodles, fried stinky tofu and shaved ice, those were only part of the adventure. At Tung Hwa Night Market, we found a snake shop, among the endless display of bargain clothes, shoes and accessories, and went treasure hunt at the "dollar shop".

When we visited my uncle, my late mother's younger brother, he treated us to his favorite, Japanese cuisine. It was nothing like what we would usually have, the sushi or the teriyaki "bentos". My uncle is very much into Japanese food and he knows what to order. His favorite restaurant changes from time to time. Taipei does have many Japanese restaurants for him to choose. Sorry to say I don't remember the name of the restaurant that we went to but I remember the food. We started with a fancy tray of sashimi, different cuts of raw fish, followed by deliciously cooked crab and other delicacies from the sea that I cannot name. Lobster was a must for my uncle and shark meat sautéed with leek. Toward the end, a steaming clam and chicken soup in individual clay pots smoothed out the wrinkles in our stomach.

On my last visit, quite a few years ago, my brother treated me to this restaurant that had all you can eat dishes made to your order at a set price. I was impressed with it and asked him to take me there again. He took me to a different one, as the one we went to was no longer in business. Anyhow, I was impressed with the idea so the location was not really important. The idea is, you can order anything and as many as you want from the menu of say fifty plus dishes and the kitchen will make them on the fly. They do make smaller dishes but you get to sample many dishes. These are not buffet dishes that can sit on a big tray for a long while. These are dishes that are served right out of the wok to your table.

On the flight back to Bay Area, we lamented on the prospect of leaving all those delicious meals behind. For quite a while after, we found nothing to our liking when we went out to eat, until gradually our taste settled in on the duller and tamer choices offered here.