La Petite Cuisine Brasserie by JQ at the Evergreen Laurel Hotel, 63 Songjiang Road, Taipei City (台北市松江路63) has rolled out a home and corporate catering service.
The brainchild of Justin Quek (郭文秀), a member of
the Confrerie de la Chaine
des Rotisseurs who runs
French restaurants in
Shanghai, Taipei and his native Singapore, La Petite has
garnered rave reviews.
His Just In Bistro & Wine Bar on Zhongxiao East Road offers French comfort food with a few upscale twists.
The new service is available in the Taipei area for parties of six or more. Two weeks to one month advance notice is required, depending on the scale of the event. A range of seasonal set menus, desserts and buffets are available. A typical set lunch menu costs NT$2,000 per person, for a minimum of six guests, and for dinner, it’s NT$2,500 per person. For further information, call (02) 2509-0332.
Starbucks is going local. Well, ever so slightly. Taiwanese teas have debuted on the coffee empire’s menu here.
Oriental Beauty Tea (東方美人茶), an oolong variety unique to Taiwan that relies on green leaf cicadas which suck the plant’s sap before it is picked and fermented to impart the dried product with honey notes, Bi Luo Chun (碧螺春), a naturally sweet green tea, and Fancy Black Tea (蜜香紅茶), are available by the cup (NT$105), or in a packet of a dozen tea bags (NT$280).
Last week, Viola Zhou published a marvelous deep dive into the culture clash between Taiwanese boss mentality and American labor practices at the Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) plant in Arizona in Rest of World. “The American engineers complained of rigid, counterproductive hierarchies at the company,” while the Taiwanese said American workers aren’t dedicated. The article is a delight, but what it is depicting is the clash between a work culture that offers employee autonomy and at least nods at work-life balance, and one that runs on hierarchical discipline enforced by chickenshit. And it runs on chickenshit because chickenshit is a cultural
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
When picturing Tainan, what typically comes to mind is charming alleyways, Japanese architecture and world-class cuisine. But look beyond the fray, through stained glass windows and sliding bookcases, and there exists a thriving speakeasy subculture, where innovative mixologists ply their trade, serving exquisite concoctions and unique flavor profiles to rival any city in Taiwan. Speakeasies hail from the prohibition era of 1920s America. When alcohol was outlawed, people took their business to hidden establishments; requiring patrons to use hushed tones — speak easy — to conceal their illegal activities. Nowadays legal, speakeasy bars are simply hidden bars, often found behind bookcases