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TAIWAN FUN MAGAZINE, June 2003.

Cover Story :

DINING AROUND THE WORLD IN TAICHUNG

By Douglas Habecker

Exotic dining experiences are almost always near the top of the list when it comes to great global travel experiences. The act of sitting down to enjoy the flavors and atmosphere--from delicious to inedible and romantic to bizarre--of an eatery in a foreign land is usually an essential, unforgettable part of any good trip.

While it has become increasingly common to hear critics bemoaning the unstoppable spread of a homogenous, insipid global culture (usually attributed to the United States), internationalization has also brought many advantages for those who don't have the time or funds to globetrot to exotic destinations. As Taiwanese are increasingly discovering, you don't have to leave the island to experience the world; instead, it comes to you.

Such is the case in Taichung, where there has been an explosion of foreign-owned and foreign-managed restaurants over the past five years. These entrepeneurs and chefs have come from all sorts of backgrounds and corners of the world to make this city their home. In doing so, they have added to the richness, variety and depth of the local dining scene, injecting new tastes, techniques and styles. To help keep residents and visitors updated about this small-but-growing group, this month's COMPASS cover feature provides a brief series of profiles, coupled with a special dish from each establishment, to create an simulated, yet very real, culinary tour of the world.

Stefano Bono
Nationality: Italy
Years in Taiwan: 13
Restaurant Villabella Ristorante (open 4 and 1/2 years)
Cuisine: Italian
Selected Dish: Penne pasta with chili sausage and spinach in spinach cream and blue cheese sauce
Ingredients: Italian sausage, spinach, cream and blue cheese sauce, served on penne pasta
Comments: "I really like this dish. We used to make it with seafood and vegetables, shrimp with eggplant, or clams with mushrooms. We discovered a lot of people like it. It's much more a northern Italian dish because of the cream sauce."
Dereke Bruce
Nationality: New Zealand
Years in Taiwan: 14
Restaurants: Finga's Italian (open 10 years) and Finga's Base Camp
Cuisine: Italian/Western
Selected Dish: Chicken Liver Salad with chipotle chilis and raspberries (NT$240)
Ingredients: chicken liver, served cold with green vegetables, chipotle peppers, raspberries
Comments: "It's not very Italian but I kind of like it. I think no one in Taiwan is serviing offal and it's about time we did things like trip, kidneys and cock's combs."
John Chislett
Nationality: USA
Years in Taiwan: 16
Restaurant: Bonita Senorita (open 18 months)
Cuisine: Mexican
Selected Dish: Chicken Fajita (NT$180)
Ingredients: Boneless breast of chicken, marinated in honey, chipotle peppers, olive oil and garlic, grilled with red and green peppers. Served with guacamole, sour cream, salsa and three fresh flour tortillas.
Comments: "I like it because the chipotle and honey add real interesting flavors. The smoky and honey flavors are a nice combination."
Roberto Eccher
Nationality: Italy
Years in Taiwan: 7
Restaurant: La Fine Italian Restaurant (open 2 and 1/2 months)
Cuisine: Italian
Selected Dish: Tagliatelle alla salmone (NT$280)
Ingredients: Red onions, salmon, dry martini, garlic, a bit of tomato, with handmade pasta
Comments: "This dish is very simple, it tastes good and it's easy to digest. With this one, you can enjoy other dishes as well. I got this recipe from my family, in north Italy, but they make it in other parts of Italy with different ingredients."
Hendrick Frijling
Nationality: Netherlands
Years in Taiwan: 3
Restaurants: Fatty's Italian Restaurant (open 3 years) and Smooth Bar & Grill Restaurant (open 1 year)
Cuisine: Italian (Fatty's), Smooth (Continental/Western)
Selected Dish: Seafood Thai-style (NT$310)
Ingredients: Sauce (onions, garlic, fish stock, red Thai curry, "ching tsai" vegetable, shrimp, monkfish, scallops, crab meat); served with spaghetti, fettuccine, penne or fusili pastas
Comments: "This is our most popular dish because it meets the Asian palate. It's from Thailand and uses red Thai curry with a base cream sauce, so it's a little spicy but not too hot. It was [my wife] Jenny's idea."
Gordon Froese
Nationality: Canada
Years in Taiwan: 8
Restaurant: Salut (open since mid-March)
Cuisine: Italian
Selected Dish: Spicy "Ching Jiang" Chinese Cabbage Pizza (NT$280/12-inch)
Ingredients: Oil dressing, tomato base, garlic, olive oil, "ching jiang" Chinese cabbage, cheese, dough
Comments: "It combines a local vegetable with feta chesse, which is something foreigners like. The spicy vegetable and salty chesse combination is not as heavy as a tomato pizza. It's so simple and so good and goes well with a red wine."
Paul Gee
Nationality: England
Years in Taiwan: 7
Restaurant: The Londoner (open 1 month)
Cuisine: English/American/Thai/Greek/Italian
Selected Dish: Chicken Kebab in pita bread (NT$180)
Ingredients: Grilled chicken, taziki sauce, fresh chopped onions and lettuce, baked pita bread
Comments: "Every English person eats kebabs, but in Taiwan it's not easy to find them. This kebab is healthy and will fill you up. You can also eat it anywhere--inside, outside or for take-out."
Fred Harold
Nationality: USA
Years in Taiwan: 3
Restaurant: fM (open 1+ year)
Cuisine: Modern American
Selected Dish: Fillet Mignon with garlic crouton and brandy mushroom demi glace (NT$330)
Ingredients: Australian fillet marinated until tender with a little sherry, with sauce (a little cream, brandy, mushrooms, garlic, onions), served with bread, garlic, butter asparagus tips, cherry tomatoes
Comments: "I like this dish because I'm a meat-and-potatoes eater, a red-meat eater. I'll eat this dish three or four nights a week with mashed potatoes. One thing I really like about this dish is the sauce itself; it soaks into the meat and bread, which helps absorb the flavor."
Robin Hsu
Nationality: India
Years in Taiwan: 13+
Restaurant: The Spice Shop (open 9 years)
Cuisine: Indian
Selected Dish: Chicken Tandoori (NT$270)
Ingredients: Marinated chicken thighs grilled in imported, clay tandoor oven, with sauce made from cardamon, cloves and special tandoori mix
Comments: "In India, everyone has tandoori chicken. It's the most famous Indian food and it was influenced by the mughal muslim empire. It's from northern India and mildly spicy. Because it's red, a lot of people think it's real spicy, but it's not. That's just the sauce color."
Patrick John "PJ" McKenna
Nationality: USA
Years in Taiwan: 10+
Restaurant: PJ's Cafe (open 5+ years)
Cuisine: Mexican/American
Selected Dish: Philadelphia "Philly" Cheese Steak
Ingredients: Thin-sliced beef, mushrooms, onions with salsa (cilantro, three kinds of peppers, garlic, lemon), cheddar cheese, French bread
Comments: "I make it my way, with salsa, which blends West Coast and East Coast flavors. I have two slices of cheese on top and three on the roll, which is double what you normally get in Philly."
Vicky Mohammed
Nationality: Pakistan
Years in Taiwan: 2
Restaurant: Kebabish (open 4 months)
Cuisine: Indian
Selected Dish: Chicken Korma Karahi (NT$220)
Ingredients: Fried onions mixed with yogurt and korma spices, cooked with chicken and served with nan bread or rice
Comments: "In my country, when people get married or celebrate other happy things like birthdays they make this special dish. It's made in north and south India. Korma is a type of curry but has no tomatoes and the spiciness depends on the customer."
Simon Morton
Nationality: England
Years in Taiwan: 6
Restaurant: Chubby's (open 2 and 1/2 months)
Cuisine: Continental/American
Selected Dish: Grilled Fillet Steak (NT$390)
Ingredients: Marinated and grilled New Zealand beef (9 oz.), served with choice of 3 sauces, grilled vegetables, and mashed or baked potatoes or french fries
Comments: "This is my personal favorite, but the girls in the kitchen won't let me eat it too often. Sometimes I'll substitute a couple eggs for the vegetables. My favorite meal has always been steak."
Laurent "Lolo" Rubio
Nationality: France (born in Spain)
Years in Taiwan: 3
Restaurant: La Bodega (open 2 months)
Cuisine: Spanish
Selected Dish: Fideua
Ingredients: chicken, shrimp, squid, saffron with tomato sauce, served on pasta like spaghettini
Comments: "Legend says that this is a fishermen's dish. They had no rice for paella, so they added spaghetti. Some say it's from Valencia or from Barcelona and it's Catalonian. It's a good plate--you have everything in the same dish."
Terry Southcott
Nationality: Australia
Years in Taiwan: 16
Restaurant: La Terrasse (open 6 and 1/2 years)
Cuisine: Continental/Western
Selected Dish: BBQ Pork Ribs (NT$480)
Ingredients: Pork ribs, marinated 1-2 days in special BBQ sauce (rice wine, soy sauce, sugar), then basted and roasted
Comments: "I like to use local products when I can. I think pork is underused in Western restaurants and pork in Taiwan is great, some of the best in the world. So I like to push the pork. It's our own secret-recipe barbecue sauce, a hybrid Japanese-style, not American-style, which is too sweet."