Blanco’s staff members are perceptive — they know how to spot a restaurant reviewer. They show initiative and are shrewd operators. But resorting to bribery with a discounted bill should be verboten, especially as there’s no need in this instance.
The restaurant may not go in for the esoteric culinary pleasures of Italy’s regional cuisines, but its menu, which is reassuringly limited, features a decent selection of Italianesque dishes: risotto, pasta and pizza.
Made from rice grown in Taitung, which has a smaller carbon footprint than arborio rice imported from Italy, the lunch menu’s organic risotto with mushroom in cream (NT$270) can be ordered with the addition of black truffle sauce for an extra NT$40. And who wouldn’t? The fungus’ pungent, earthy, meaty flavor and musky aroma can rescue the most mundane fare and turn it into something verging on exquisite.
The organic risotto with shrimp and tomato (NT$290) brightened the table with its yellow/red glow, the result of adding saffron, and tasted sun-kissed.
Three sets are available. The lunch version (NT$220 to NT$320) is served from 11:30am to 2:30pm and includes a choice of soup or salad, a main course and, for the addition of NT$80, a drink or gelato.
The tea set (NT$160 to NT$260), available from 2:30pm to 5:30pm, features a choice of sandwiches, pizza, cake, waffles or, the most tantalizing option, egg with truffle and tomato with basil toast platter (NT$220), and a drink.
For dinner, options include lamb (NT$680), salmon fillet (NT$580) or chicken (NT$480), all with seven-year balsamic vinegar, a choice of salad or soup, gelato or cake, and a drink.
The soup on a recent visit was boring, but the salad, made with lollo rosso, cherry tomato, yellow pepper, olives, frisee, cucumber and romaine lettuce accompanied with a slightly sour cream dressing, while not quite a revelation, put many of Blanco’s peers to shame with their limp iceberg and thousand island dressing.
The gelato further sets the restaurant apart. Of particular note are the lemon, chocolate and blueberry flavors, the latter made with tomato, which deepens what can sometimes be a sickly sweet dessert.
Split into a main dining room — walls painted white and green with a dark charcoal ceiling, furnished with white wooden tables, cabinets filled with pottery and X-back wooden chairs upholstered in beige fabric — and the area adjoining the open-plan kitchen, which is completely done out in white, Blanco exudes a cool air of sophistication. A private room at the back of the restaurant seats 10 around a heavy undressed wooden table.
At the front, imported Italian produce is displayed in brightly lit cabinets, including wine (Torre A Cenaia, sangiovese 2006, NT$880; Tosc Torre Del Vajo 2005, NT$1,190), vinegar (Il Grande Vecchio 100 years balsamic vinegar, NT$18,500 for 68g), sauces (Villa Reale Sicilian pesto sauce, NT$290 for 180g), Giuliano Tartufi whole summer truffles (NT$455) and oil (Lorenzo No1 D.O.P. Valli Trapanesi Organic extra virgin olive oil, NT$1,380).
Blanco is located up the alley adjacent to Taishin International Bank Tower (台新金控大樓) on Renai Circle (仁愛圓環).
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and