Ala-din Indian & Pakistani Kitchen (阿拉丁) is in the middle of the crowded Raohe Street night market, and if your stomach is growling it might be hard to resist the temptation to sate yourself on the rows and rows of finger food and fried desserts you pass as you wend your way to the restaurant. But if you hold out long enough, Ala-din’s roti rolls will satisfy your hungry belly and its spicy curries will have your forehead beading with sweat.
The restaurant’s grill is out in front to entice browsers with kebabs and vegetables cooking on skewers; a plain and narrow but neat dining room stretches behind. With the exception of a famous oamisua shop at 49 Raohe St (饒河街49號), you’d be hard-pressed to find a better snack (or light meal) in this night market than Ala-din’s roti rolls (NT$80): the chapatti is made right before your eyes from dough that’s twirled then heated on a dry tava, and the portions of meat and vegetables come hot off the grill and are not to be scoffed at.
Because of their extensive menu and customizable set meals, Ala-din’s ordering system for sit-down diners might seem somewhat Byzantine — but, to be honest, the only reason the process was complicated was the two waitresses who hovered around our table and recited a list of options several times despite our insistence that we wanted to take our time with the menu. Perhaps the staff is used to dealing with customers who lack basic familiarity with South Asian cuisine, in which case such over-attentive service might be a plus.
In the end, we picked a beef masala set meal (牛肉濃汁瑪沙拉, NT$650) for two, as well as a plate of beef kebab (牛肉巴比Q, NT$260). Another order for channa masala, or chickpeas cooked in curry, was never delivered, but that ended up being a good thing because of the amount of food in the set meal: the beef masala, a bountiful heap of basmati rice, naan, a plate of vegetables, bowls of tomato and vegetable soup, Indian tea and lemon honey juice.
Diners have the options of having their curries prepared slightly spicy, medium spicy or very spicy. Our beef masala was slightly spicy, but still hotter than curries at other popular Indian and Pakistani restaurants in Taipei, while the chunks of beef were reasonably tender. The vegetables, however, which included squash, peas and cabbage, were a tad overcooked and soggy and both drinks were forgettable, but the basmati rice, soup and naan were delicious. The latter, a flatbread baked in a tandoori oven, was particularly good: chewy and dense enough to scoop up plenty of curry with. The extra order of beef kebab outshone the beef masala. It was tender, savory and moist.
Address: 101 Raohe St, Taipei City (台北市饒河街101號)
Telephone: (02) 2765-9991
Open: Daily from 5pm to 1am
Average meal: NT$350 for sit-down dining; NT$80 for roti rolls from the grill
Details: English and Chinese menu; credit cards not accepted
African-American entertainer Dooley appeared on local television show Super Entourage (小明星大跟班) a few weeks ago and was told by the crew that they wanted to do a skit in blackface. Dooley, whose real name is Matthew Candler, tells the Taipei Times that Super Entourage wanted to perform a rendition of the wildly popular “Ghana Coffin Dance,” a meme that has taken the world by storm. Instead, he showed them videos about the racist origins of blackface and slavery in America, and they agreed to drop the makeup. “[I told them] about the history [behind blackface] and [said] you decide
June 1 to June 7 In February 1988, Robert Wu (吳清友) set aside NT$17.5 million to purchase two Henry Moore sculptures from London’s Marlborough Gallery. He never bought the pieces. Feeling slighted that the gallery manager initially looked down on him as a Taiwanese, he decided that night to use the money to open his own art space back home. “Without selling any art, that money could support the gallery for four years. If I feature one artist per month, that provides a stage for at least 100 artists,” Wu said in the book Eslite Time (誠品時光) by Lin Ching-yi (林靜宜).
With listicles of local attractions including Costco and numerous children’s playgrounds, I was not expecting much. Opened on Jan. 31, the Taipei MRT’s Circular Line, or Yellow Line, made life in the nation’s capital even more convenient. But judging from Internet search results, it hasn’t opened up many new tourism opportunities, unsurprising as the route mostly crosses densely populated areas and industrial parks. Places like a sports stadium with rainbow colored bleachers perfect for Instagram selfies wouldn’t do it for me either, and it’s pointless to list attractions at the connecting stops that have existed for years. As a history nerd, there
Captain Wynn Gale — a fifth-generation Georgia shrimper — is on the side of the road on an April morning, selling shrimp at the same street corner where his dad sold shrimp. “How’s the pandemic treating you?” I ask. “Sales have dropped off by about two-thirds. No out-of-towners coming through on the I-95. No local traffic.” He sighs. “I’m going to tough it out. I can survive with what I’m selling. But that’s all I’m doing. Most shrimpers don’t have 401k retirement plans, you know?” Gale would rather be out on his boat, a 1953 trawler he had for nine years but recently
RSS