Print

Mail

wiki links

Restaurant: Dimmer

By Yu Sen-lun
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Feb 28, 2003, Page 19

Everything at Dimmer is fusion. PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN, TAIPEI TIMES

Throwing together elements of interior design from the UK, Australia and Spain along with food from Italy, Mexico and France may sound like a recipe for disaster, but there is a method to this madness at Dimmer.

The restaurant-cum-bar is the brainchild of three advertising producers, led by Hsiao Wei-cheng. The establishment's concept was inspired by the device that is used to adjust the brightness of a light. According to Hsiao, dimmers alter the tone and atmosphere of a set, and this is what the proprietors feel they've done with their restaurant.

Hsiao says he decided to open a restaurant because he loves cooking and was always inviting people to his house for dinner parties. "I want people to see this place not as a restaurant but as the kitchen of a friend's house," he says. The result is an open kitchen that looks more like an elaborate bar where diners can see the food as it is being prepared.

The dining experience is also informal, and very fusion, as well. "I prefer that our guests enjoy our food the Chinese way," Hsiao said. "In other words, they order several dishes and share them with friends at their table."

The menu, as with the decor, is what Hsiao describes as "improvised."

Whenever he travels he brings back a cookbook with him so he can learn to cook something new, hence the unusually wide range of food on the menu.

One example of this is the Tuscan tripe he discovered on one of his jaunts to Italy. Hsiao's version is cooked in a tomato stew with rosemary, thyme, bay leaves and butter beans, which is certainly more elaborate than anything Taipei's street vendors have to offer.

Then there are the southern-style spicy clams, which are marinated in white wine, Thai chicken broth, ginger, garlic and basil, but which leave you guessing as to the southern part of which country they came from.

Another innovation is Dimmer's spicy Mexican grilled chicken wings (NT$180). After being marinaded in cumin and oregano, they are dipped in crushed tortilla chips so that, even though they are grilled, they taste like they've been fried.

Other dishes from around the world include the aromatic lamb kebabs cooked with juniper berries (NT$220), thick Spanish country beef stew with red wine, anchovy, black olives and capers (NT$250), and grilled peppers stuffed with tomato, anchovies and garlic (NT$160).
This story has been viewed 2849 times.