Cafe Astoria Confectionary

Crispy Pig Knuckle

My aunt wanted to introduce this place to me. As soon as she mentioned a Russian restaurant I knew where she was talking about. Taipei as far as I know only has two russian restaurants. Salt & Bread which seems to have some negative reviews accusing it of being too compromised by the Taiwanese preference. Fortunately that's not the one my aunt was talking about. It was Astoria near the Taipei Main station. It has an awesome history dating back to the 50's. Here's Wikipedia's excerpt on it's history. Yeah, this place even has it's own wiki page! "In October 1949, 18 year old Archiybold Chien became business partners with six Russian immigrants who fled Shanghai to Taiwan. Together they opened Taipei's first western style pastry shop on Wuchang Street in downtown Taipei. They offered pasteries on the first floor and a cafe on the second floor. One month after the Astoria opened for business, Chiang Kai-shek resumed presidency of the Republic of China and relocated his government to Taiwan. After the Korean War broke out in 1950, the United States maintained a significant troop presence on Taiwan. During this time, the Astoria hosted many important guests from abroad, including Jane Fonda. The cafe was also a frequently visited by Chiang Ching-Kuo, who had studied in Moscow for many years and his Belarussian wife Chiang Fang-liang. In 1950, Astoria hosted a Russian New Year Celebration which was attended by Chiang Ching-Kuo and his family. Chiang Kai-shek's last birthday cake was also prepared by chef's from the Astoria. After World War II, the Cafe Astoria became a popular spot for many socialites and government officials. It was also a spot where many struggling writers and intellectuals met and composed their works."

Borscht

Their specialty is the borscht. It's a beetroot soup with a deep red color to it. I was expecting  something a little more hearty. But since I have no previous experience, I'll just say it was awesome. It'll be my benchmark until another russian (or eastern european) tells me otherwise. ha! However that was what my aunt had. I chose a pig knuckle plate. Fall off the bone pork with a crispy fried skin! The meal comes with some brown bread (also soft and very delicious) and a bowl of mushroom soup (i think) and a cup of Ronnefeldt tea. Expect your bill to be around $500+ a person. But they also have some afternoon tea for a cheaper price. The decor was very much matched with the eastern european or russian theme. The windows let a lot of light in and I saw several people there reading books and just relaxing over some tea and cookies. The restaurant doesn't mind. Or if your in the mood for something quick or sweet, head downstairs to street level and visit the confectionary. One of it's specialities include a soft Russian marshmallow candy called Mazurka walnut cakes. It was once only available to the Russian royal family, but can now be bought on the go. I highly recommend going to this cafe and confectionary as it's one of the rare, if not only Russian restaurant in Taipei. Let along a long illustrious six decade history that dates back to CKS.


Astoria 明星
台北市武昌街一段5號2樓
http://www.astoria.com.tw/
02-2381-5589

金色三麥 Leble'dor

The day for my one year anniversary with Yuki is coming up. However with the coming arrival of my parents next week, we thought this weekend would be a last time to celebrate it privately. So for dinner we decided to go to a Taiwanese german restaurant at the top floor of the Q Square mall. It's called Leble'dor. It's a famous Taiwanese beer brand that is heavily influenced by the german art of beer. It was first introduced to me at CitySuper market in Sogo Tianmu by a sales representative. It tasted awesome! I mean Taiwan beer (the brand) has it's merits, but not for it's superior taste. The beer brewers at Leble'dor really did their research. It's some great tasting beer similar to what you'd find with American microbrews like Blue Moon, Fat Tire, Longboard or Anchor Steam. So we were much anticipating our first experience to eat and drink there (on tap). Walking in, the interior design is reminiscent of a log cabin/wine cellar. With wood logs, iron fencing, stone, wood barrels and candle chandeliers, it really gives off a warm cozy atmosphere. first things first, two 40oz steins of seasonal beer please! The selections were Hefe-weizen, Honey, Dunkel, Seasonal Lager. Looking through the menu, it's' mainly a mish-mash of fusion asian, german and american fare. Pizza, salads, bratwursts, onion rings, steaks, fries, pasta, hot pot, soup and mexican. We ordered a mix of food + one recommended: the garlic beer-flavored shrimps (recommended), beef steak with sauce, onion rings. The food turned out pretty good. Well as far as onion rings, steak and fries goes. Perhaps because I've been an American for too long, I don't find a good set of fries, onion rings and steak as that special. But I'll give Leble'dor credit in that, those were one of the best fries and onion rings i've had so far in Taipei. Next time I really want to try out their pork knuckles, german sausage platter and grilled chicken leg cartilage. The only disappointing part is the most shocking to me. The beer! It still has the same great taste that I had at Sogo, but they served it mildly cold. Beer needs to be served ice cold! I asked the waiter if he could bring me back an ice cold one, but he said that's the temperature they keep their refrigerator at. So much research and development went into some great beer that the Taiwanese can call their own, and they shoot themselves in the foot by serving it under chilled :(. Their own bottle even says serve chilled at 5° C. I definitely want to revisit this restaurant in the future. I love the beer and the menu looks delicious (albeit more american than german), but please oh please put my beer in the freezer for 15 minutes before serving it to me. As a side note, You can go to the many other Lebre'dor locations around Taiwan and buy the liter bottles of any of the four varieties. The Sogo CitySuper in Tianmu seems to only sell the Lager and Dunkel.

金色三麥 Leble'dor
台北市承德路一段一號4樓
02-7737-0909
www.lebledor.com.tw

金色三麥 Leble'dor (XinYi Eslite Mall)
台北市信義區松高路11號B1
02-8789-5911

金色三麥 Leble'dor (Miramar Mall)
台北市內湖區敬業三路20號5F
02-2175-3739

金色三麥 Leble'dor (BanQiao)
新北市板橋區新站路28號9樓

Visitor Visa extension legwork

Today I had to head in to the Immigration office to extend my visitor visa. I underestimated the amount of time it would require to finish this task. I had the idea it was as simple as going in and asking for an extension. It was naive of me to think that. So for future reference, I need a copy of my US Passport (+ the visitor visa in it), proof of return flight, visa extension application (duh!), proof of a bank account with $100,000+ NT. Last time I also had to print something out, but didn't know of any place nearby that could do that. But This time, with some walking around, I found several shops that are setup specifically for copy/print work. I Fortunately, someone directed me to one nearby the Immigration office called Double A. It's right across the street on 愛國西路, facing the ancient west gate structure. Although I still got lost a bit, but I did discover a Taiwan pride shop (gift shop). If that's what you would call it. Basically, they sell gifts all with the Taiwanese flag on it. Towels, shirts, armbands, pins, flags, pens...etc. However they did not carry a large Taiwanese flag with the special 100 year anniversary label on it. I'm not sure if they carry that, but I want one. A patron at the store, kindly directed me to the City Hall store, as my chances of finding something like that may be more likely. In addition, I still had to walk to Taipei Main Station to visit the travel agency for a flight itinerary. Walking through the large main railroad station hall (the one with a 10 story high atrium), I passed by a temporary museum exhibit they had setup. They had several historic exhibits and artifacts about the Taiwan railway system. It seemed to be free of charge. Interesting! I'll have to try to visit this one day, perhaps during the afternoon so I can grab some lunch on the second floor food court at the same time. Well that was an exhausting day for such a simple task. I'll be more prepared next time and hopefully it won't take that long. See you next blog entry!

Taiwan's 100 year Anniversary

Monday 10/10 will be the 100 year Anniversary/Birthday of Taiwan. So through out the weekend will be celebrations. Yuki, our friend and I headed out to the Taipei Main station area in search of a Russian restaurant called Cafe Astoria. Little did we know, the celebrations had already started or what it involved. The big main streets around the Presidental Palace were all closed off for the parade. When we arrived, we saw rows and rows of military vehicles and military personnel. It looked liked the city declared martial law or something. It's the first time I've seen a line of so many military vehicles driving on the city streets. People were taking pictures, dancing and celebrating along side too. I didn't get any pictures of the main stage or performances though. I'll probably regret this years down the road as this is probably THE most significant celebration for Taiwan for decades to come. It's Taiwan's big 100 birthday! However in the spirit of discovering Taipei on it's birthday, we did the best thing you can do when exploring...get lost! As the tanks distracted us, we walked further along down the parade line to see more of what was going on. Then I discovered something. A big book store full of English technology books. Some used, some new. It's a goldmine! I was disappointed earlier when I found it difficult to find English technology books here in Taiwan compared to the relative ease in Hong Kong. I thought I had to ask my parents to buy it in the States and ship it over. I'm so thankful I found a English book store, and a rather large one at it. I now have no excuse to not pick up a book on Java or PHP. The store's name is Ten Long Computer Book Co. Further on, and with our stomaches growling, we hunted down the Russian restaurant and bakery. However once on arrival, we peeked at the menu and made a judgment that it was too expensive for our pocketbooks. Perhaps next time when I have more padding in my pockets. So we went exploring to another part of town and discovered an awesome little chinese restaurant specializing in spring roll wrapped cuisine. It's next to the 228 Memorial Park. It's chinese name is 種福園斤餅牛肉店. The waiter and possible the owner, helped us order. Since we acknowledged it was our first time there, he quickly recommended the three most popular dishes and a bowl of soup for each. The owner and his wife (I think), were very very friendly. The meal was spectacular! The mixed vegetable dish was tasty. The shredded meat was juicy and savory! The shrimp was fresh and QQ! You just take the meat/vegetables, wrap it a warm spring roll and dip it in what I think is chinese oyster sauce. It's very similar to the spring roll wrapped Beijing duck. It's absolutely delicious and a hidden gem of a restaurant. You'd never know this place existed even if you walked by the storefront. The cost came in at around $300 NT a person. But in my opinion it was well worth it! It's on my list of restaurants to revisit with friend's that want to experience more "Local" cuisine. The photos don't do it justice.

While exploring around the Presidental Palace, we discovered a natural history and bank museum. The building was the original site of the Land Bank Taiwan. The story goes, that a museum of natural history defaulted on a loan, so the bank seized the dinosaur bones and other items. It has since been erected into a small but packed natural history exhibit inside the old Land Bank building. Since today was the 100 year birthday of Taiwan, the museum allowed Free entrance to everyone. How kind! However my friend was deathly scared of dinosaur and shark bone recreations. So we quickly breezed through that. On the way out, towards the back of the building, was the historical display of the bank. According to the facts written on the walls, the building was once a large bank owned by the Japanese during the Japanese rule over Taiwan. After WWII, they kept parts of the bank vaults and storage facilities in tact to act as a historical display of what it once was. Most everything was original and was left where it originally was over 60 years ago.

This is Hong Kong style egg custard buns (奶黃包). They're a dim sum dish that has semi-melted lava of creamy sweetened egg yolk in the middle of a pure white soft bun. My foodie friend is infatuated with this dish and rightfully so, because it's absolutely warm watering! She's been trying to find a suitable replacement for this special HK dish here in Taiwan. And we finally found it in two places none the less. Both in the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi mall near Taipei Main Station (新光三越).

Ten Long Computer Book Co. (天瓏專業電腦書局)
100台灣台北市中正區重慶南路一段107號
http://www.tenlong.com.tw

種福園斤餅牛肉店
100台灣台北市中正區懷寧街106號

Old Land Bank

No. 25號, Xiāngyáng Road, Jhongjheng District

Taipei City, Taiwan 100

Cafe Astoria

2F, 5 Wuchang St Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市武昌街一段5號2樓)

http://www.astoria.com.tw

Indian lamb curry stir-fry

So today I'd like to share with you one of my favorite dishes at the Taipei Main Train Station 2nd floor food court. I did a quick search on my past posts, and I didn't seem to have mentioned this. I've had it several times, but have failed to mention it until now. But I believe I have mentioned my favorite red meat...Lamb! Succulent fragrant Lamb! And in the curry section of the food court, all the way on the left, you see a fake food display of stir fried lamb rice in a skillet. Thats the dish. I think it goes for $140NT +$10 for a cup of soda. They used to have unlimited refills, but it seems to have changed to a larger cup and no refills. Anyways, back to the lamb. Although this dish may be a far fetch from any real indian food, I still love the execution. Some fusion of Chinese and Indian. They also give you some naan and extra juices from the pan when they cook the lamb. I love adding the juices, it adds more fatty savoriness to it. I don't know where to begin to describe it, It's cheap and quite savory with tender lamb pieces. So if you like lamb and happen to be in the Taipei Main train station, two thumbs up recommendation to try this place out or at least the whole curry food court section!

Takashi Murakami exhibit

Yuki introduced me to an art gallery that was happening at Taipei main station. It's was in a small exhibition center next to the Z10 exit, so not really IN the main station, but in a similar underground area next door. I don't remember how she got wind of this exhibition but it turned out to be pretty cool. One of the exhibits were of famed Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. He is most famous for his "superflat" artwork. In another exhibition next door, it exhibited digital media art. The more memorable exhibits is a CG animation of an ancient japanese pictorial scroll. You know, those long chinese painted scrolls that usually depict a certain event in time. Well imagine that animated into a 5 minute movie. The second was a large black room projecting a 180 degree view of a CG sea. The waves gradually grow larger and higher as the environmental music (i don't know what to call it, more like an oscillating tone). The overall feeling was an electrifying tension with the waves. All the exhibits were free of charge. Thats just so cool. I'm still used to american culture trying to charge you whenever, wherever possible. I thoroughly enjoyed the digital art as well as some of the cute creative japanese art of Takashi Murakami. Click here,Google, to see more of his work.

Hui Lai Hot Springs 會來尖石

Today, Yuki and I got up pretty damn early...for hot springs day! We've been waiting for this day for quite some time. So we headed out straight for the Taipei main station (bus terminal). We grabbed a quick on-the-go 7-11 breakfast and jumped on the bus to Hsinchu. The buses are even cheaper than the train. We got a student fare of $105 NTD. And it takes just about the same time as the train (non HSR). Despite the signs, they let you eat and drink on the bus. Don't spill though, I'm pretty sure they'll get pissed. Leather seats and very cushy, but a little short on the leg room (I'm over 6' tall) compared to the train (non HSR). But you can't beat $105 NTD and 1.5 hours. After meeting up with Lucy and friends we took a taxi straight to the Hui-Lai hot springs (會來尖石). Although the location is a little further to get to, the place was great! The bathrooms are clean and the park was pretty large. They had several hot springs with varying temperatures, two children's play pools, two swimming pools, two water slides, sauna, massage house and doctor fish. Doctor fishes or nibble fish are those tiny fishes used in medical purposes that eat dead skin from your feet to expose the healthy skin underneath. It's good for people with psoriasis. Sounds nasty but it really tickles! Back to the hot springs, They also have scented springs too, like salt and lavender. The scenery is beautiful and the park wasn't that crowded, so it was peaceful and quiet. After 4 hours or so...you kind of lose track of time, we headed back down the mountain towards the city. We had an belated birthday dinner for Grace, Lucy's roommate at Kanpai Classic Hsingchu (乾杯日式燒肉). It's a much fancier and expensive version of the flagship store in Taipei. It's japanese Yakiniku. Highly expensive and exceptional meats. I'm glad I experienced it, but not again without a nice paying job. I chose to forget the price tag, but if i recall it was above $1300/person. Perhaps i'll try the Taipei location instead. Then we headed to a sports bar afterwards and drank beer from a beer tower. All Carlsberg. Beer Tower!!!

Kanpai Classic (http://www.kanpai.com.tw/)
Hui-Lai Hot Springs (http://www.hui-lai.com.tw)

Taipei Storyland (closed)

I'm going to make this short. Woke up, went to the Taipei Train Station food court (second level). The giant old building not the underground metro mall. Then headed over to the building across the way for Taipei Storyland, which was the main purpose of traveling there. Guess what? Taipei Storyland is permanently closed. It's now a World Gym fitness center. I'm really really sad that i procrastinated on this. I really missed out. It WAS "a nostalgic recreation of a yesteryear town, replete with shops, restaurants, a museum and more that take you back to the Taiwan of the 1960s". So disappointed, we headed to the Y13 market (Y13 exit outside). It's a street full of bulk sales stores for bags, gifts, containers. Basically for business that need to buy bulk product packaging. They also have a small street of food stalls and 1 very special gift shop called "beautiful gifts" (i think). Kinda generic, but it's like a cheap Spencer's Gifts in the states. It's special to me because it's the only place that sells knockoff camera lens mugs. If you don't know what that is, google "camera lens mug" and you'll know. I bought a Canon 70-200 F2.8 camera mug with functional buttons for $500 NTD. Afterwards I headed to Guanghua digital department store (光華商場). It's a six-story, indoor technological and electronics market. Across the street is old Guanghua where there are now many food stalls. We had some red oil dumplings (紅油水餃) among many other fried delicacies. I also found a shop at the end of a street selling old cameras (nikon, canon and Leitz) and oddly enough, Series 1 androids miniatures (the phone OS). There was also an underground antiques plaza but it was closed. Sneaking a peak it seems to be all high dollar vases and large sculptures. Not the antiques i'm interested in. But given the chance, I wouldn't mind giving it a browse through next time. Ok so today's entry didn't end up being short.

GuangHua Digital Plaza
No. 8號, Section 3, ShìMín Boulevard, Jhongjheng District
Taipei City, Taiwan 100

Sumi Sushi

My dear friend, Yuhki (different from Yuki), will be departing from Taiwan soon. So for brunch I joined him at NY Bagel in the Taipei Main station Q Squared mall today. He'll be leaving for Japan this coming Saturday. So we talked and had a nice brunch, possible our last one before he leaves. Yet another fellow student from Shida University MTC leaving :(. After saying our farewells, Yuki (not Yuhki) and I headed to the Huasan Creative Park 1914 because she has never been there. In fact I have never been there during the day. It was bustling with people and most of the stores were open. So this was my first opportunity to explore the book store and gift shops it offered. I really like the gift stores. They have a lot of unique and creative Taiwanese designed gifts. Afterward I headed to the Eslite bookstore on Zhongxiao East Road. They have a jewelry, clothing and gift shops on the basement and 1st floor. The second floor was the books. Pretty big, but not nearly as large as the Xinyi district one I visited yesterday. Yuki and I just went there to kill time before heading off to Sumi Sushi for dinner. They opened at 5:30 and we were running early. Sumi Sushi is just south of the S.Y.S Memorial MRT station. The owners are very nice. Not only are they friendly, but they can speak English too. They're Taiwanese but immigrated back to Taiwan from Vancouver, Canada. This place has some great Maki rolls and they're glad to recommend a roll or two for you. They even have a $1000 NT option to create a set menu for you with only the sushi you like. It was a little expensive for me on a student budget at the moment, so I passed. I stuck with a la cart. We had a braised salmon special, spider roll, Hokkaido raw scallop special and a special California roll. Yes, california roll. Yuki likes it because they don't have that in Japan, so it's a foreign oddity. A Japanese person that likes California rolls, go figure LOL? But this California roll was custom for us. I like Herring Roe and she likes California roll. So he combined the two, so awesome! How many sushi places do that? On the flip side though, the place was a bit tiny though. Maximum of approximately ~14 patrons. But that sort of makes for a more comfortable and quaint environment. No other patrons came in while we were there, probably because it was an early dinner, making it a nice private affair. I'll definitely try to make it out there again, and maybe try the $1000 set. Tomorrow, i'm heading to Tainan, there will be a lot to blog about there!

Playboy fashion!?

I took it pretty relaxed today. Well, at least it started slow and relaxed. After sleeping in until the afternoon, I woke up and immediately headed over to the Shipai market for a curry hot pot lunch. Then I went to the photography district to send in my first roll of 120mm film to be developed. This little Konica film developer place a few stores east of the KFC offered to convert it to digital for $150. Then I met up with Lucy and Hatuyen at the Taipei underground mall. We shopped around a little underground and outside in the Tong Lin shopping area. I tried on two leather jackets from the Playboy store. Yes, Playboy. Oddly enough the Playboy brand has a lot of nice and fashionable clothing. Unfortunately also very expensive. Nothing but high class for ol' Heff right? So skipping on the overpriced jacket, we had a quick dinner and did some new years shopping around Shilin. Shilin was slightly more busier than normal. Which means it went from shoulder to shoulder, to a push and shove stand still. It was close to 11 o'clock when we decided to call it quits for the evening because we had to take the Taiwan High Speed Rail train down to Hsingchu. We ended up getting on the last or second to last train out of Taipei. Next post is from Hsingchu!

Taiwanese Christmas party

Today I met up with my uncle (二伯伯). He is my second brother to my dad. We met up at the Taipei Main Station, but had some difficulties finding each other. I always thought of the Taipei main station underground mall, bus station, high speed station and train station as the "Taipei Main Station". But according to him, it's only the big outdoor train (火車) station. I'll definitely have to remember that for next time with him or with anyone else. I must specify the building/section too. This was my assumption and my mistake. I hope he does not think too negatively of me :(. After finding each other, we headed to the second floor of the Taipei Main Train Station. The second floor has many many food venders. The second floor is constructed like a square with an atrium in the center. So you can walk around in a circle deciding on what you want to eat. They have an eclectic selection of food venders catering to what you desire. So if it's too hot or too cold outside and you can't decide what to eat, definitely head to the second floor out of the intemperate weather. You'll find what you want there. I love my Indian spices, so I had some Indian food. MMmmm garlic naan and curry! Afterwards, we said our good byes and I headed over to my taiwanese friend's Christmas party. I think I already said this before, but Taiwanese parties are different. They run on a schedule and have organized activities. Since this was sort of a company Christmas party, there was presentations too. In addition there was also dancing, games/exercise, singing, pot luck and white elephant gift giving (and no alcohol!!). I'll give it to them, it gets everyone involved and there is a lot of participation. However this is a difference in culture that I can't adjust to too well. I feel too pressured to participate in something I'm not really comfortable with. So I still prefer the western culture of people+booze+chatting+loud music. I feel it's more relaxing. Of course if your not proactively social, it might get a little boring. So drink more booze :)

Suprise! creepy naked bird girl

Suprise!! creepy naked bird girl! at the Taipei MRT Main Station. It also leeks water from it's head. I don't get it? This piece of art is called Daydream.
Oh and the Rolleicord is fixed. Fresh 120 roll loaded ready for trials.

Photography district @ Taipei Main station

I got the time to visit the photography streets west of the Taipei Main MRT train station. I didn't bring my camera, but I'll snap a few next time. There are ALOT of shops. Some offering only high end name brand stuff. some offering cheaper offerings. I was looking for Benro (China brand), so i skipped the shops with Manfrotto and Gitzo. Also I was looking for colored flash gel packs. They didn't have anything close to that. Oh well, maybe i'll just make my own. In order to get there, I had to walk through the Taipei Main station underground metro mall. It's Huge! Excellent place to walk around, eat, shop, or watch the high schoolers killing time breakdancing and other sorts of group dancing.

Finally, I think i'm getting used to the heat. 100+ degree day with 90% humidity, sun is out and no breeze. Didn't have much of an issue. shorts would have helped though :(