For the last three years, Maryjane Pizza off Shida Road (師大路) has been serving satisfying thin-crust pizzas at extremely reasonable prices. So it's somewhat surprising how little attention the place has received from English-language media, blogs and other Web sites included.
This hasn't stopped the cozy little restaurant four lanes north of Grandma Nitti's from building a sizeable reputation among expats and foreign students as a good place to go for a couple of reasons.
It's a great place for lunch, when a 10-inch pepperoni or veggie pizza, a glass of iced tea and a salad will set you back a mere NT$180. It's also a great place for an inexpensive date. The atmosphere is welcoming and casual with good lighting and tasteful artwork hanging from the walls. A carafe of house wine is only NT$230 and beers are buy-one-get-one free in summer. There's even a shady deck.
PHOTO: RON BROWNLOW, TAIPEI TIMES
So how was the pizza? I visited Maryjane's four times over the past two months, ordering the pepperoni (NT$160), the artichoke (NT$180) and the Greek (NT$200) pizzas. Of these, my favorite was the pepperoni. As with most Taipei restaurants that serve good pizzas, the crust is slightly dry. This is not necessarily a bad thing, and it balances well with a topping like pepperoni.
Likewise with Maryjane's pesto chicken pizza (NT$250), which I have not tried — yet — but which several of my friends recommend. It's topped with chicken breast, feta cheese, sliced tomatoes and a homemade pesto sauce.
Another example of a good balance was the Greek pizza, with feta cheese, onions, black olives, mushrooms, green peppers and cherry tomatoes over the standard tomato and mozzarella crust. I would have preferred more than one variety of mushroom and more feta cheese, but otherwise was pleased with the vegetables, which were fresh and came in just the right quantity.
If you like artichokes, I recommend ordering them with another topping, as for me, a mozzarella and tomato pizza with just artichokes tastes a bit dry. Maryjane lets customers build their own pizza for NT$140, plus NT$20 or NT$30 for each of two-dozen toppings.
Note: Maryjane is popular and its pizzas are hand-made and baked in a stone-base oven, so customers visiting during peak dinner hours sometimes have to wait for seats. Check the Web site for free soup and desert coupons.
Not long into Mistress Dispeller, a quietly jaw-dropping new documentary from director Elizabeth Lo, the film’s eponymous character lays out her thesis for ridding marriages of troublesome extra lovers. “When someone becomes a mistress,” she says, “it’s because they feel they don’t deserve complete love. She’s the one who needs our help the most.” Wang Zhenxi, a mistress dispeller based in north-central China’s Henan province, is one of a growing number of self-styled professionals who earn a living by intervening in people’s marriages — to “dispel” them of intruders. “I was looking for a love story set in China,” says Lo,
It was on his honeymoon in Kuala Lumpur, looking out of his hotel window at the silvery points of the world’s tallest twin skyscrapers, that Frank decided it was time to become taller. He had recently confessed to his new wife how much his height had bothered him since he was a teenager. As a man dedicated to self-improvement, Frank wanted to take action. He picked up the phone, called a clinic in Turkey that specializes in leg lengthening surgery — and made a booking. “I had a lot of second thoughts — at the end of the day, someone’s going
In the next few months tough decisions will need to be made by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and their pan-blue allies in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It will reveal just how real their alliance is with actual power at stake. Party founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) faced these tough questions, which we explored in part one of this series, “Ko Wen-je, the KMT’s prickly ally,” (Aug. 16, page 12). Ko was open to cooperation, but on his terms. He openly fretted about being “swallowed up” by the KMT, and was keenly aware of the experience of the People’s First Party
Standing on top of a small mountain, Kim Seung-ho gazes out over an expanse of paddy fields glowing in their autumn gold, the ripening grains swaying gently in the wind. In the distance, North Korea stretches beyond the horizon. “It’s so peaceful,” says the director of the DMZ Ecology Research Institute. “Over there, it used to be an artillery range, but since they stopped firing, the nature has become so beautiful.” The land before him is the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, a strip of land that runs across the Korean peninsula, dividing North and South Korea roughly along the 38th parallel north. This
RSS