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Restaurant: Kiss Pizza (吉士披薩)

Kiss Pizza's Calzone. PHOTO: BY YU SEN-LUN

Situated in the Shihta area, on Yunho Street, Kiss Pizza has been serving foreign students and English teachers for 10 years. The main attraction lies in its coziness, inexpensive prices and chef/owner Jane Huang's hospitality.

For the past 10 years the red-checker-cloth adorned tables have remained the same, but the menu has been expanded and has become more sophisticated. From a dozen or so different kinds of pizzas to nearly 100 types of Italian dishes, Kiss Pizza presents itself as a standard Italian restaurant.

Its decor may not quite live up to its ambitious menu, but Kiss is now opening a second store at Shinkuan Mitsukoshi department store in the Shinyi district.

Originally Jane Huang learned to make pizzas for her own pleasure, from her brother, who 10 years ago opened a pizza house called Kookies in Tienmu.

"I wanted an easy-listening name and an eye-catching logo, so I called it Kiss," Huang said, adding she first planned to open the place for a year and then go to China. Having made so many foreign friends, Huang said she is now ready to spend another 10 years at Kiss.

Address: 63, Yun-ho Street, Taipei (台北市雲和街63號) Telephone:(02) 2365 7792 and (02) 23658102 Open: Tuesday to Friday: 5pm to 10pm, Saturday and Sunday: 11am to 3pm, 5pm to 10pm. Closed Mondays Average meal: NT$250 per person Details: Credit cards accepted, menu in both Chinese and English

"I have some American friends who went back to the US some years ago. But whenever they come back, they always bring their wives to visit me, as Kiss is where they dated when they were studying in Taiwan," Huang said.

Thanks to those foreign friends, who have discussed recipes with Huang, and thanks to Huang's annual pilgrimage to Italy to polish her cooking skills, Kiss has added some new and popular dishes. They include Calzone, a pizza dough wrapping like a giant dumpling, with choices of fillings such as pesto, vegetable and meat (pepperoni, ham or salami). Pasta lovers should also try the gnocchi with mushroom or tomato sauce, squid ink sauce spaghetti, and spaghetti with anchovies and spicy tomato sauce.

As for drinks, Kiss offers a variety of Belgian beers, including Kriek, Trappist Chimay and Duvel.
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