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RESTAURANTS : GinzaCha-Ya (銀座茶屋)

GinzaCha-Ya (銀座茶屋) Address: B2, 300, Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路3段300號B2樓) Telephone: (02) 8772-6150 Open: 11pm to 9:30pm Average meal: NT$200 Details: Chinese menu; credit cards accepted

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Like Korean barbeque and hot-pot restaurants, GinzaCha-Ya (銀座茶屋), located in the food court of Sogo’s Fuxing branch, gives diners the satisfying feeling of having a hand in the creation of their own meal. The do-it-yourself process at GinzaCha-Ya is much more simple, however, and does not require grills or open flames — perfect if you want a fairly quick meal or are dining with a pyromaniac who you do not want to expose to temptation. Most dishes on the menu come in sets called huai shi cha shan (懷石茶膳), a poetic phrase that literally translates into “tea-bowl meal.”

GinzaCha-Ya’s tea-bowl sets are served in pretty Japanese-style ceramic dishware neatly laid out on a wooden tray. Each bowl is filled with an elegantly presented assortment of rice, meat or fish, veggies and other ingredients, and accompanied by a teapot filled with a savory broth that has a very delicate tea aroma, a small dish of seasonal pickled fruit or vegetables, and a slice of silky tofu in a tangy sesame oil and vinegar sauce.

Your server will instruct you to pour as much broth into the bowl as you like, add slices of scallion and bits of wasabi paste for seasoning, and then gently mix the contents with a small wooden stirring spoon. The result resembles Taiwanese congee, or zhou (粥), which is thinner than its porridge-like Cantonese cousin. The difference between congee and GinzaCha-Ya’s tea bowl sets, however, is the novelty and the quality of the ingredients.

My dining companion ordered the chicken and wild greens set (雞野菜茶膳, NT$180), which comes with lightly-seasoned white rice, chicken stuffed with imitation crab and carrots, a slice of soft, sweet fish tempura, a small piece of egg omelet and an assortment of green vegetables and mushrooms. After the broth was poured in, the mixture resembled (as one would expect) chicken soup. The flavor was richer and more savory than my selection, the mentaiko set (明太子水茶膳, NT$190) — two seasoned rice balls, slightly browned so that the outsides are crispy; several spoonfuls of coral-colored mentaiko, the paste-like marinated roe of pollock fish; vegetables; and seafood-flavored broth. I emptied my entire teapot into the bowl and was sorry because the delightfully salty little eggs of the mentaiko were cast adrift in the broth and therefore hard to taste. Aside from that culinary tragedy, I enjoyed the crisped rice, which became satisfyingly firm to the bite when soaked. Seafood lovers should also try the grilled salmon set (燒鮭魚肚茶膳), which at NT$280 is GinzaCha-Ya’s most expensive tea-bowl set, but comes with generous helpings of fish and salmon roe.

For an extra NT$70, we got a pot of oolong tea and a creme brulee-like custard at the end of our meal. The very rich and very creamy custard was delicious, but if you have a less-pronounced sweet tooth, you might find it too heavy a finish to the delicate flavors in GinzaCha-Ya’s tea bowls. Meal portions are relatively light and diners should not expect to emerge stuffed — which is a plus if you plan to go shopping in Sogo’s boutiques.

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