Mei's Tea House is the latest place on popular Yongkang Street for students and bohemians to catch up with each other, take afternoon tea or enjoy dinner and a glass of wine. Atmosphere is everything in establishments of this kind and it's invariably the owner who sets the tone.
In this case we're in good hands because this is Mei Huang's (黃美瑛) second tea shop in the area and she has built a little oasis in the middle of Taipei central, where laptop owners can retreat with a pot of tea and wireless Internet access, lulled by the sounds of contemporary jazz and low-key conversations.
Mei's has a soothing decor. The wooden floors are complemented by whitewashed walls and red highlights, giving the tea house an ambiance that mixes Continental European and modern-day Chinese/Taiwanese influences. There are the essential comfy chairs and substantial wooden tables lit by orange lamps and spotlights. Modernist paintings adorn the walls and there are antique-style objects like tea urns dotted around. There's also a bar area and stools for those who fancy a drink and a chat.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
There is room, comfortably, for around 30 people. But on weekend evenings, when a live band turns up twice a month, it can get a little crowded and the emphasis is on fun rather than quiet reflection. A small deck area outside is popular and a great place to chat and watch the world drift by.
Apart from the atmosphere regulars come to sample an inventive but solid menu of drinks and food. There is an emphasis on Taiwanese black teas -- from Hualian, Sun Moon Lake and Hsinchu (NT$150) -- as Mei believes these are not appreciated as much as they should be.
"This is a not a place for just tea drinking," Mei says, "But a place where you can try tasting a lot of different things. We have various interesting kinds of coffees, wines and beers that are rotated. We do not have and will not have Corona or Heinekin."
Currently, Mei is stocking Italian beer (Peroni), Mexican Tecata, Dos Equis and a beer from Gavroche, France. Prices are under NT$150. Wines are from NT$800 for a Spanish reserve wine, up to NT$1,200 for QE Valvieso from Chile. Glasses of house white or red are NT$150.
As for the food, our meals were hearty rather than fancy. The beef curry (NT$200) came with corn chips or short grain rice. The beef was tender and an assortment of beans were smothered in a rich con carne sauce. The pasta fusilli dish (NT$180) was made with fresh vegetables and a sprinkling of herbs and a dash of white wine livened it up.
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
In our discussions of tourism in Taiwan we often criticize the government’s addiction to promoting food and shopping, while ignoring Taiwan’s underdeveloped trekking and adventure travel opportunities. This discussion, however, is decidedly land-focused. When was the last time a port entered into it? Last week I encountered journalist and travel writer Cameron Dueck, who had sailed to Taiwan in 2023-24, and was full of tales. Like everyone who visits, he and his partner Fiona Ching loved our island nation and had nothing but wonderful experiences on land. But he had little positive to say about the way Taiwan has organized its
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
RSS