Yishang Yuan has 22 years of history behind it, and in its new Tienmu location, it has taken on a new and sophisticated look. Fortunately this has not been done at the expense of the food, which if anything is better than ever. The addition of a number of dishes that are now hard to come by makes a visit even more of an adventure.
"Because this is an old family restaurant, we are able to make dishes that have been passed down from generation to generation," manager Li Yuan-hao (
The menu at Yishang Garden is very extensive, incorporating Shanghai-style dim sim, banquet dishes, delicacies such as pickled crab, stir-fries and traditional Chinese sweets. The appetizers go far beyond the bean curd and seaweed, and some could almost be a meal in themselves. These can supplement the afternoon tea package (NT$220) made up of five different kinds of dim sum.
PHOTO: IAN BARTHOLOMEW, TAIPEI TIMES
For something hearty, the Tonpo-style stewed pork (
"Every month or so we will also have a special `old recipe dish' -- things that you can only now rarely find in restaurants," Li said. For the Chinese New Year season, the dish is Hangzhou Duck Stew (
The decor, which might be described as oriental minimalism, as well as the elegant presentation of the dishes, offers up an atmosphere of sophistication which is not reflected in the price, with generous main dishes priced between NT$250 and NT$350.
Although the main kitchen closes at 9pm, Yishang Garden continues to offer a selection of simple dishes on through to midnight -- many of these designed to go particularly well with wines or spirits (the latter available in shots or by the bottle). It is also nice not to be thrown out of a place at 9:30pm as is so often the case with family-run Chinese restaurants.
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
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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
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located