Tucked into a corner of Neo19’s first floor, Ton Sushi (同壽司) features a thoughtful and interesting menu with delicacies like foie gras sushi, while the restaurant’s decor, replete with ambient lighting, orchid arrangements and tiny curtained private dining areas, makes the most of its relatively small space.
Ton Sushi’s service is friendly and efficient (though we had some trouble flagging down a waitress from our back table). Dishes were brought out in the prescribed order from appetizer to main course, one after the other. Our first dish was Ton’s version of the rainbow roll (NT$420). Despite its name, the roll was topped only with salmon sashimi and thin slices of avocado; the inside was stuffed with tempura flakes, crabmeat mixed with mayonnaise and ikura roe. The sushi was surprisingly light in taste, despite the mayo, but I could have done without the very sweet teriyaki sauce dabbed on top of each roll.
Our toro (NT$700 for two pieces) and salmon stomach nigiri sushi (NT$240 for two), both lightly grilled with a butane torch, were served next with instructions from our waitress to eat the salmon before the more flavorsome toro. Our waitress also explained that grilling made each slice of fatty fish juicier, which was true. The final dish of the night was broiled sea bream (price depends on season), which had been roasted with heap of salt, but the melt-in-your-mouth meat’s flavor was nonetheless delicate (if a little bit oily).
On a previous visit, we ordered the soft-shell crab roll (NT$300), which distinguished itself by having a higher crabmeat to tempura batter ratio than variants of the dish we’ve tried in other sushi restaurants. We also ordered oysters on the half shell (prices vary), which were also good but pricey (we paid NT$250 per oyster). Ton Sushi has an ever-revolving off-menu selection of fresh seafood; if you are feeling adventurous, make sure to sit at the sushi bar and give one of the chefs there free reign over your order. On one visit, the couple next to us did just that and were served a sashimi platter that included two different fish heads, which they seemed to enjoy.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located