Open until 2am at weekends and filled with moodily lit nooks, Insomnia’s (睡不著) name is fitting in more ways than one. Digital 3D art hung in the front gives the eerie feeling that the glassy-eyed mannequins within are going to jump out at you; a gigantic wooden rocking horse, soft jazz music and a sleek black dog who slinks quietly among the tables adds to the cafe’s sleepy and dream-like ambiance.
Insomnia’s meals are distinctly more down to earth, however. The homey selection of international comfort foods includes kong-pao chicken (宮保雞丁, NT$250), Silician meatballs (西西里丸子, NT$230), Chinese beef stew (紅燒牛腩, NT$250) and Java curry chicken (爪哇咖哩雞, NT$230). The portions are slender for the relatively steep price tags, but Insomnia takes great care with the presentation of each meal. Carrot, cucumber and celery crudites are arranged like flowers among cubes of ice in a small glass tumbler and served alongside a dish filled with smooth, sweet honey mustard dipping sauce. Rice is molded into a round pat and topped with black sesame seeds, while the main course is contained in a separate bowl.
The piquant, tender kong-pao chicken is the best of the bunch and stir-fried with plenty of chili peppers and crunchy peanuts. Other dishes are less memorable. The tomato sauce coating the Sicilian meatballs was satisfyingly savory and chunky, but the meatballs themselves were filled with chewy bits of gristle, which added some unexpected texture. The quality of the meat in the Chinese beef stew was much better and complemented by tender cubes of daikon. My dining companion had the Java curry chicken and thought the quality of the dish was mediocre, though I did not mind the sweetness of the sauce.
Sandwiches for NT$150 to NT$160 are also available for more budget-conscious diners. The black pepper beef sandwich (黑胡椒牛肉, NT$150) consists of meat, lettuce, tomato, cucumber and slices of American cheese on soft white baguette slices. The black pepper beef added enough kick to the sandwich to keep it from being bland, despite the presence of the American cheese. Sandwiches are served with a large mound of nacho cheese chips, an unhealthy but welcome touch.
Insomnia has an extensive drink menu, including Glenfiddich, Macallan and Glenmorangie whiskeys, as well as classic staples Jim Bean and Jack Daniels (prices range from NT$180 to NT$950 per glass, or NT$1,500 to NT$11,000 per bottle, with the most expensive being Glenfiddich 30Y). Cocktails, imported beers, liqueurs, coffee drinks and a very good, non-alcoholic iced peppermint chocolate (薄荷可可, NT$180) are also available.
Insomnia’s food and drink may be on the pricey side, but the ambiance and wide tables make it an excellent study location for students or out-of-office workers. Bookshelves filled with Chinese, English and Japanese titles provide excellent procrastination tools, as does playtime with the cafe’s friendly Formosan mountain dog, Hei Hei (黑黑).
Before the recall election drowned out other news, CNN last month became the latest in a long line of media organs to report on abuses of migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing fleet. After a brief flare of interest, the news media moved on. The migrant worker issues, however, did not. CNN’s stinging title, “Taiwan is held up as a bastion of liberal values. But migrant workers report abuse, injury and death in its fishing industry,” was widely quoted, including by the Fisheries Agency in its response. It obviously hurt. The Fisheries Agency was not slow to convey a classic government
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
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 turns out many Americans aren’t great at identifying which personal decisions contribute most to climate change. A study recently published by the National Academy of Sciences found that when asked to rank actions, such as swapping a car that uses gasoline for an electric one, carpooling or reducing food waste, participants weren’t very accurate when assessing how much those actions contributed to climate change, which is caused mostly by the release of greenhouse gases that happen when fuels like gasoline, oil and coal are burned. “People over-assign impact to actually pretty low-impact actions such as recycling, and underestimate the actual carbon