Last Day of Freedom

I spent my “last day of weekday freedom” with a trip to a new pizzeria restaurant in Central which was still in their initial "soft opening" period. Kytaly is an "indirect import" from Italy, conceived by a famous Italian pizzaiolo Franco Pepe, born in Geneva and now made its way to this part of the world, and is said to serve the world’s best pizza. Well, of course there’s no lack of places that boasted the "best of (something) in the world", but with many who tried said the same thing after trying, I was curious to see if there’s any merit to that claim myself.

Not So Little Anymore

We went on an impromptu dinner date on a Monday evening at Chef May Chow’s Little Bao at its new branch at Causeway Bay (their flagship restaurant, I was told). They have been hosting their friends and families for trials before they officially opened later this month, and we were glad they considered us as such so we could get a sneak preview of the new venue and the new menu before the crowd sets in to this ever popular joint.

Catch up at The Neighborhood

We thought it was a great idea when our friend B and H suggested to meet up over dinner at The Neighborhood on a Friday evening. It’s a been a while since we last visited Chef David at his restaurant, and we always love to come back here to eat at any time. The place has become even more popular than it was, now that it’s ranked one of the Asia’s Top 50, but at least we finally got our table confirmed a couple of days before.

Return of Lobsters

We were pretty excited about the comeback of the “Lobsters and Bubbles” menu at Café Causette at MO Hong Kong. They have run the same menu during summer time a few years back and we loved it so much that we went there a number of times in quick succession, and glad they decided to bring it back this year for the month of August.

Breakfast Upper West Side Style

"What? You lived in New York City for a year and never heard of Sarabeth’s?"

When we got up too late for the traditional Taiwanese breakfast of youtiao, jianbing and soy milk on our last day in Taipei, I ditched our original plan and suggested to check out the Taipei branch of this rather famous New York institution known for its pastries and breakfast dishes. That’s when I realized CYY - an one-time New York resident - has never heard of the restaurant, let alone stepping foot into one (how could that even possible is beyond me - but then she lived in Queen's so that's perhaps why). Guess that’s the extra reason to go check it out just before we were to catch the ride to the airport for our afternoon flight home.

Nostalgic Taiwanese Lunch

We didn’t make specific plan for our first lunch in Taipei, but decided just to try a luck to get a table at a place recommended by one of our friends. From outside, Mao Yuan looks just like any other casual, old-school Chinese restaurant with simple (dated) décor and well-lit interior, but we were told the place serves some of the best Taiwanese family-style cuisine in town.

Late Night Fine Dining

Eager to explore more of the rising Taipei restaurant scene, we made a reservation to eat at Longtail, helmed by the young Chef Kin Lam. We have long heard good things about the restaurant and the chef and we regrettably missed out last year when he returned to his hometown Hong Kong for a brief pop-up to much acclaim, so this is how we made amend to that.

First visit to an old restaurant

I got "frowned upon" when I confided to some foodie friends that I have never been to Hoi King Heen at Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hotel before. Well in my defense TST East is not exactly the area we visit often so it never came to my mind to check it out even after hearing so many good things about the restaurant. But then the other day we were figuring about what to eat when we met our friends C and A on the Kowloon side, I thought "hey, let’s just try somewhere all of us have never been!" and booked a table for our dinner there.

Belon Encore

When a local restaurant group in town launched a week-long promotion called “Black Series” in early August, “featuring iconic dishes and signature menus at exception value” in all of its restaurants, we thought we should take advantage of the discount and checked out a few places during that week.

Chinese Italian Crossover

Some may argue there’s some sort of intricate relationship between the history of Italian and Chinese cuisines going way back – so it was an interesting idea when Chef Gianni Caprioli (of Gia and Giando) and the father-son team of Kin-wai and Chun Lau (of Kin’s Kitchen) collaborated to create two sets of special menu at their respective Italian and Chinese restaurant, each using ingredients from the other country and I was curious to see how they turned out.

Spicy Hotpot

While I thought it’s strange to spend time at a hot spring resort in the middle of summer, I have no problem eating at a hotpot restaurant in August – yes, talk about double standard. And this time in Taipei, we decided to visit one of the more popular hotpot restaurant chains for dinner.

New sushi place in Taipei

We managed to make a booking at Chef Yonglong Yang’s Sushi Ryu (鮨隆) restaurant in Taipei this time. The restaurant was just over one-year-old but already got quite a reputation, including the first Michelin star within 6 months of its opening – that was part of the reason why I was curious to give it a try.

Hot spring getaway in the summer

Seems like it’s a silly idea to go on a hot spring holiday in the middle of summer when it’s 30-degree plus out there in Taiwan, but it is what it is - let's just say it's not exactly my idea. The hot spring resort town of Beitou turned out to be much closer to the city than I thought – in fact technically it’s still within Taipei city limit and is easily reachable by MRT, their metro train system. While many opted for a day trip to Beitou from Taipei, we decided to stay there on our first night of our vacation at one of the newer resort hotels built in the mountains, with a car arranged as we landed in late morning which took us into Beitou right on time for check-in at the resort.

Tried and True

We pushed back our lunch reservation at Caprice by a month to early August (to make room for our another visit to the restaurant in July) and turned out it’s right on time as we kicked off a week of mini-vacation of sorts in the middle of summer. The restaurant seems to be catching a bit of a breather with a lighter crowd because half the people in town were travelling somewhere at this time of the year, and it’s the time for us to catch a breather too over a relaxing meal looking over the harbor from our window-side table on a sunny afternoon.