Restaurant: Shihfang (食方)

Scallops with horseradish and cabbage salad, calabash in pork gravy, caviar on celery with tuna tartar and lavender, and steamed egg with roe and seaweed PHOTO: DAVID FRAZIER, TAIPEI TIMES

It may sound corny, but Shihfang really is the marriage of a design concept and a cooking philosophy. It is also the site of some of the most avant-garde flower arranging in Taipei. The small four table restaurant opened a little more than two months ago through the combined efforts of Hsieh Chun-teh (謝春德), a locally famous photographer and aesthete, and Chuang Yue-chiao (莊月嬌) -- or A-chiao as everyone calls her -- who, for the last four years, has run a famous kitchen in Peitou drawing a Taipei art crowd clientele.

Shihfang's first impression is of isometrically arranged bamboo shoots, square stone table settings, a rock suspended from the wall and the custom made tableware and silver. Though very obviously designed by Hsieh to be unique, the environment is not overbearing. After a while it can even become cozy.

The cooking concept is a Taiwanese interpretation of kaiseiki, an elaborate Japanese style of dining, in which small courses are served in succession and every bite is meant to be savored. A-chiao's adaptation is not so rigid and contemplative as the original zen template, favoring instead Taiwanese values of a brimming table and lively conversation. Portions are not miniscule; sometimes they are even bountiful.

Address: Chungshan N Rd, Sec 1, Lane 33, No. 23 (台北市中山北路一段33巷23號) Telephone: (02) 2531 6408 Open: 11:30am to 2pm and 5:30 to 10:30pm, closed Mondays Average meal: NT$1,200 Details: Reservations necessary one day in advance. No menu. Credit cards accepted

And while the dining is elaborate and the service is attentive and quick, A-chiao will occasionally step out of the kitchen to say hello or introduce one of the waiters, then play music by his rock band on the restaurant's sound system. Since the restaurant is small, there is more leeway to sway the mood toward whatever party happens to be dining that night.

As in traditional kaiseiki however, there is no menu. The meal consists of eight dishes and one soup, and price is fixed at NT$1,200 per person. Currently that includes several rare and marvelous combinations. The meal begins with a single herb leaf in a small bowl. Hot water is added and it becomes a delicate tea. Then the dishes begin to proceed from the kitchen. The first carries caviar on celery sticks and tuna sashimi cooked around the edges and spiced with lavender. The plate is arranged sculpturally, as is each and every course: scallops with horseradish surrounding a mound of cabbage salad, a marbelized dish of steamed egg with delicate seaweed threads and a translucent layer of roe and a halved calabash glazed tenderly under a ham hock broth. Reservations must generally be made a day in advance.