With virtually no advertising outside of what looks more like the back of a pub than a restaurant, it's understandable why most people pass by Antonio's Pizzeria -- oblivious to the basement restaurant serving some of the best pizza in Taiwan.
Accountant Antonio Hsu traded in his calculator for an apron 17 years ago and learned how to prepare European cuisine from his Italian and German friends living in Tienmu. One of the first western restaurants in the area, Antonio's Italian eatery was an instant hit with the foreign community, and with the help of his ex-pat patrons, the restaurant began to attract locals.
"Local people weren't familiar with our food in the beginning, but our customers would bring their [Chinese] friends here to eat. Now we are very popular with the Chinese," Hsu's wife and assistant chief, Patricia Chang said.
PHOTO: DIANA FREUNDL
There are two menus: one offering appetizers, pasta, steak, chicken and seafood, and another one for pizza. Since it's called a pizzeria one is tempted to order the pizza. If none of the 24 pizzas appeal, you can always create your own from a selection of vegetables, meats and seafood toppings.
As an appetizer, the garden salad (NT$120) is simple and is served with a zesty Italian dressing. The al melanzane with black olives, aubergine, and mozzarella (NT$320) is loaded with taste and cheese, so it can be a bit heavy. The thin pan crust is light and crispy, but it is the home-made sauce with lots of oregano that gives the pizza its satisfying flavor.
Choosing a drink is far easier than choosing a pizza with a short list of soft drinks and bottled beers (NT$150) or wine (NT$400). Customers can also bring their own drinks, but must pay a NT$300 corkage charge.
Prices are comparable with other Western restaurants in the city and range from NT$250 to NT$400 per pizza for pasta dishes, and NT$500 for steak or seafood dinners. Appetizers, which include a selection of soups and salads, average around NT$200.
One of the best things about eating at Antonio's is the decor, which according to Chang, looks the same as it did 17 years ago. In addition to offering cooking lessons, the European customers gave advice on the establishment's interior decorating, she said. This may explain why it feels as though you are being served Italian food in a German restaurant at Christmas time. The white stucco, wood paneling and low lighting give it a cozy 1970s American family-room feel.
The restaurant gets busy in the evenings and especially on the weekends, so to avoid queues reservations are recommended.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and