Bittenbug’s Weblog

Toscana at Sherwood Hotel is one of Taipei’s higher end Italian restaurants and one of my dad’s favorite places for Sunday brunch. That’s where we went a few weeks ago, when I had a short business trip into the city. I didn’t think I would be back before my parents retired and returned home, but it’s a nice surprise.

The Sunday brunch here is exceptional. There is everything you want – variety, excellent food, great service, comfortable surroundings. What you get is an appetizer and dessert buffet, soup and eggs, smoothie and coffee or tea. You can have that on its own or add on a main dish, like lamb or beef, or order ala carte, like we did.

Perhaps the only downside is cost, but that doesn’t impede it from being crowded every weekend, as I’ve heard. My parents know to book ahead of time, or be turned away (as they have before).

Appetizer buffet

Let’s start with the appetizer buffet. It’s not a large spread, but there’s a variety of cheeses and hams and a good caesar salad are all that I need.There’s hot food as well which I didn’t take much of.

Unknown soup

We follow with soup. I can’t remember what soup it was, except that it was creamy and salty.

Omelet with truffles

I raided the appetizer buffet again, while waiting for my eggs. There were about five choices and all sounded appealing. Dad enthusiastically recommended the omelet with truffles, so I went with that, while he had poached eggs and mom had eggs with corned beef hash.

In all honesty, I’m not an omelet fan but this one is really good. I love the texture of cutting through and getting stringy cheese. The truffle imparts an earthy aroma, though it was only enough to hint rather than give flavour. But still, truffle is always good.

Lasagna

Dad wanted that share the lasagna there. He’s proclaimed it the best he’s ever had and so in spite of his diet, he wanted that. I haven’t had many restaurant-quality lasagna before, but this is right there on the top. The words that were running through my brain – rich, creamy, cheesy, fat – and then I stopped thinking altogether and just ate.

Dessert

To end off this horribly decadent meal, we had what else…dessert. The dessert corner isn’t large but there are quite a few choices. I passed on the cakes and went straight for the fruit mouses and creme brulee and some fruits (to assuage the guilt). The sweets were good, but not exceptional, but I was happy enough.

We went home and I just kicked back and watched tv at home. Close to 630, my mom excitedly told me to come see the sunset. I’ve seen it many times at this flat, but still, it’s quite a sight. I can’t capture the image well enough, but it’s just a serene sight of outskirts of Taipei, with rolling hills around us.

My parents are going home and that’s probably the last time I’ll see the place they’ve called home for 5 years. I’ll miss coming back to Ming De and Tianmu, and the peaceful community around here. At least I’ll still have this…

Another Sunday lunch, another Japanese restaurant. That day, we had our heart set on trying out Spoil Cafe near PP3 but alas when we went around 12pm, it was still closed. Having no luck there, we made a quick detour to 六角 Rokkaku on the next street.

Let me warn you it’s not particularly easy to find, we sorta stumbled upon it. When we arrived, it was just half full, which is thankful considering we were hungry and wet and desperately needed somewhere to sit and eat.

Rokkaku is a small restaurant, I counted just 18 seats in total. We were quickly seated at the corner and given hot tea. We made decisions quickly: C had minced tuna rice (yes, again!) and I had eel.

To be honest, I had serious expectations about Rokkaku but came away slightly disappointed. Perhaps it was an off day, but the food wasn’t exceptional, not the way that everyone else had raved around.

Minced tuna bowl

C’s set arrived first and she tucked in. Both sets come with appetizers, which I can’t remember much about anymore. I suspect it wasn’t much to rave about. C seemed to like it her tuna bowl but she wasn’t raving about it, so I reckon it was just average. I remember eating scoopfuls and thought it was ok. The rice seemed oddly warm and perhaps not as chewy and sticky as I would’ve liked.

Grilled eel set

I love eel and the one here is slightly above average. As you can see, the portions are substantial – three pieces of thick and juicy eel. The problem is the chef was stingy on the sauce and it left the eel dry. The best part about having grilled eel is smothering the excess sauce onto the rice, but here, the rice was dry. I ate just half of it, and all of the eel.

What can I say. I think the food here isn’t half bad, but the meal I had just don’t compare to the good ones I’ve been having recently. I’ll probably give it one more chance (after I exhaust all the great restaurants in town), but that isn’t high on my priorities right now.

While in Taiwan, mom excitedly told me about the handful of miracle fruits her friend passed to her.

Think of it like a minature plum. Once you bite through the reddish skin, there is a strange artificial sweetness and odd bitterness. I didn’t think about it too much, because I was more interested in trying out exactly how much of a “miracle” it is.

Miracle fruit

I ate half a lime. Yes, I actually sucked half a lime and it tasted sweet. I couldn’t believe it, and I sucked the other half of it. Yes, still sweet. I don’t know how it does it, but it completely distorts the taste buds. I was tempted to try it on chilli, but I chickened out in the end.

I wouldn’t recommend it on sweet stuff. I ate a cherry just for experiment’s sake, and it made the sweetness cloying and artificial.  I think I’ll stick to distorting bitter and sour flavours from now on.

For more info: http://flavortripping.wordpress.com/