Hear in Taiwan

“The Restaurant” (yes that’s the name) in Villa 32 has to be one of my favorite restaurants in Taipei. Recently my husband and I again paid a visit to the restaurant, where menus are regularly updated, and we had a really wonderful lunch.

Lunch menus, starting at NT$780 (10% service charge and mineral water not included), are especially good value. You get an amuse-bouche, an appetizer (which is always great), a main course, a dessert, and a choice of coffee or tea.

The amuse-bouche I had that day is a jelly-like drink with a Taiwanese twist. It’s a ginger flavored drink with unsweetened cocoa power on top. Perfect for winter.

Next, the appetizer. A piece of extremely tender rib eye steak with salad. The salad was crisp and the parsnip (the little whitish balls) were interesting. The Brussels sprouts would challenge the commony held idea that the vegetable is boring and tasteless.

I also had a peak (and taste) of my husband’s appetizer, a  juicy scallop and prawn with black truffle juice. The seafood was divine! So sweet and full of flavor. It nearly made me cry.

My main course was garoupa and prawns. The seafood was, again, extremely fresh and naturally sweet. The pesto risotto’s savoriness was a great contrast to the sweetness of prawns. I also liked the aubergine. All in all, it was a dish with many layers of flavors.

The dessert I had was a cheese cake with a tinge of Earl Grey tea flavor. Nice note to end the meal. I guess I was so busy attacking the cake that I forgot to take a photo. Well, I shall leave it to your imagination…