Cities are judged on such criteria as infrastructure, income and education levels. But how about whether or not you can get a lox and cream cheese bagel at 4am? In opening a second shop on Renai Road, that is 24-hour, NY Bagels Cafe has given Taipei a new place for nocturnal noshing and helped the city fit into its international-sized shoes.
Located a block from the 24-hour Eslite Bookstore and a short walk from the late-night lounges lining Anhe Road, the new bagel shop is already filling tables after having been open for only two weeks.
PHOTO: DAVID MOMPHARD, TAIPEI TIMES
It's no surprise. There is a lot more on offer in the 20-page menu than just bagels. Notably, a section of gigantic sandwiches, including a delicious sirloin steak sandwich on sourdough and a "homemade" hamburger, that will likely find favor even among those who aren't bagel fans.
Other non-bagel items unique to the new store are a selection of pastas, Jack's lasagna (NT$190) or a choice of chicken, bacon or seafood spaghetti in a creamy tomato sauce (each NT$170). Here, too, you can ante-up for an optional drink and fries.
The menu is a bit annoying. Rather than simply list what's on offer, it's unnecessarily promotional and filled with newspaper clippings and ads for cream cheese and olive oil. There's even a section titled "What's a bagel?" for locals that think bread should be steamed. If they want to get creative, they would do well to look at Japanese grill Kan Pai's menu, which doubles as a monthly newsletter, with articles on everything from proper grilling techniques to local alt-rock bands. Last month's menu had illustrated instructions on how to change an electrical switch -- quirky, but it moves the conversation away from the work day.
Other suggestions: First, tack up some no smoking signs. Nothing messes with your mish more than the cigarette smoke from the guy next to you. Next, add a couple of fondues to the menu.
By global standards, the traffic congestion that afflicts Taiwan’s urban areas isn’t horrific. But nor is it something the country can be proud of. According to TomTom, a Dutch developer of location and navigation technologies, last year Taiwan was the sixth most congested country in Asia. Of the 492 towns and cities included in its rankings last year, Taipei was the 74th most congested. Taoyuan ranked 105th, while Hsinchu County (121st), Taichung (142nd), Tainan (173rd), New Taipei City (227th), Kaohsiung (241st) and Keelung (302nd) also featured on the list. Four Japanese cities have slower traffic than Taipei. (Seoul, which has some
Michael slides a sequin glove over the pop star’s tarnished legacy, shrouding Michael Jackson’s complications with a conventional biopic that, if you cover your ears, sounds great. Antoine Fuqua’s movie is sanctioned by Jackson’s estate and its producers include the estate’s executors. So it is, by its nature, a narrow, authorized perspective on Jackson. The film ends before the flood of allegations of sexual abuse of children, or Jackson’s own acknowledgment of sleeping alongside kids. Jackson and his estate have long maintained his innocence. In his only criminal trial, in 2005, Jackson was acquitted. Michael doesn’t even subtly nod to these facts.
Writing of the finds at the ancient iron-working site of Shihsanhang (十 三行) in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里), archaeologist Tsang Cheng-hwa (臧振華) of the Academia Sinica’s Institute of History and Philology observes: “One bronze bowl gilded with gold, together with copper coins and fragments of Tang and Song ceramics, were also found. These provide evidence for early contact between Taiwan aborigines and Chinese.” The Shihsanhang Web site from the Ministry of Culture says of the finds: “They were evidence that the residents of the area had a close trading relation with Chinese civilians, as the coins can be
During her 2015 trip to Taiwan, Sophia J. Chang (張詠慧) got fewer answers than she’d hoped for, but more revelations than she could have imagined. “That was the year I last saw my grandmother. She was in hospice care in Tainan, and it was painful to see her in bed, barely able to open her eyes,” says Los Angeles-born Chang. “The grandma I’d known, a fantastic cook and incredibly kind, was already gone.” After their visit, Chang and her grandfather went back to his apartment. There she asked him how he’d met her grandmother. “He hesitated, then started talking a bit.
RSS