The friendly manager of Bon Bon Gourmet, Christina Su, reminds one of one's mother. She greets customers with a sincere smile and looks after their every need throughout the meal. Su takes her time understanding what the diners prefer. "If there's anything you want in your food, just tell me," she says.
Customers aren't likely to find themselves among crowds of noisy diners as Bon Bon provides a comfortably large space. "We would rather there were not crowds of customers," Su says. "I believe more in the quality of the service, which is only possible with an appropriate number of customers."
Apart from the cozy and no-frills surroundings, diners will find dishes that fit their tastes and are healthy to boot. Thanks to Su's patient communication with customers about their specific needs, she and her cook are able to take into account each customers' age and background in preparing their meals.
PHOTO:VICO LEE, TAIPEI TIMES
The previous restaurant to occupy Bon Bon's space was Ching Liou, the first restaurant in Taipei to specialize in huai shi (懷式) Japanese cuisine, and it was preceded by Taipei's first European buffet. After its chef and owner reluctantly retired in June at the age of 80, Su, a good friend of hers, decided to take over and carry on in her friend's tradition of innovative cooking.
Having studied the cooking techniques of various Chinese provinces and European countries, Su has invented her own recipes, which she calls "cuisine without nationality." She has a way of reinventing even the most common dishes. Her latest idea is a series of hybrid dishes in which popular Western fare is arranged in a way so that it can be eaten with chopsticks instead of knives and forks.
Su has revealed some of her cooking secrets in newspaper columns which are published in China and Taiwan.
Another of Bon Bon's strengths is the price. For NT$320, diners can enjoy a French-style chicken leg set meal, which includes an appetizer, salad and soup of the diners' own choosing. In her Italian pumpkin soup Su replaces the usual white cream sauce with rice sauce for health concerns, but it tastes just as creamy, making the soup one of the most popular items at the restaurant. Romaine salad with spicy dressing is another healthy item that has proved popular with diners.
The chicken leg, like many of Bon Bon's meat dishes, is first prepared with vegetables to get rid of its extra fat and give it a refreshing tinge. Sauteed to just the right degree, the chicken is nicely soft and fragrant with a vegetable flavor.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
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
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist