Among the dazzling array of up-market restaurants offering exotic cuisines in Tienmu, Chili Chili, located in a quiet alley a homerun away from the new baseball stadium, offers something simple and special -- a place to sit back and enjoy a nice meal.
The Mexican restaurant has recently relocated from a neighboring alley to its new location, its third move in 11 years of operation. Each move has reduced its size and brought it farther away from downtown, but has put more emphasis on providing a friendly atmosphere. A faithful clientele from a number of nationalities gather at Chili Chili's five tables for the original Mexican cuisine.
PHOTO: DAVID VAN DER VEEN, TAIPEI TIMES
To ensure an authentic flavor, all the spices and ingredients are imported from Mexico. However, the cuisine is somewhat milder than that found in Mexico, as Tracy Chen (鄭翠荻), Chili Chili's chef and owner, was taught Tex-Mex cuisine, which is a less spicy strictly Mexican cuisine.
"As we mainly serve regular customers, whom we have known for a long time and whose appetites we are familiar with, new customers have to tell us how they like their dishes," she said. "Customers can make themselves at home."
To adjust to the taste buds of the increasing number of Taiwanese customers, Chili Chili usually goes easy on the condiment that lends the place its name.
The most popular dish is enchiladas (NT$260) which combines black bean-paste, seafood, onions and chicken or beef, wrapped in flour and topped with a nice layer of cheese. Tracy adds cloves to give it a special touch.
Burritos (NT$150) are a favorite among foreign customers. Using chopped pork or chicken on bean sauce and sour cream, it is an appetizing and hearty dish, while the vegetables make it refreshing as well. When fried, burritos become chimichangas, another popular dish that brings out the taste of the cheese.
Apart from these more common Mexican dishes, the restaurant also offers several dishes of their own invention. BBQ chicken wings (NT$200) have a special sweet and spicy taste, which comes from the special lemon sauce and other secret ingredients.
Lamb steak (NT$260) uses fresh lamb marinated in a vegetable sauce and is briefly fried before being baked. The juiciness makes it a favorite among Taiwanese customers.
And what better to wash down the dishes than a bottle of Corona or a margarita, which Chili Chili is more than happy to serve.
And if you feel like decking out your home in a Mexican theme, Chili Chili sells not only ingredients but its decorations, imported from Mexico, as well.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s