Simplicity comes first at Faust Pizza Lounge (明月光). Opened last month on Renai Road (仁愛路), across from Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館), the pizzeria sells only two things: pizza and beer. The restaurant’s laid-back, charming ambiance and its reasonable prices stand in stark contrast to its competition in the upscale Xinyi neighborhood, where ritzy shopping complexes loom nearby.
Between an indoor dining area and outdoor seating lies an open kitchen where the chef tosses circles of dough up in the air and into the large brick oven, allowing the aroma of baking pies to emanate throughout the establishment.
The interior design is casual and minimalist. Who needs fancy cutlery and hip design with unpretentious, hearty fare that’s this good?
At Faust Pizza Lounge, meals come in the form of nine types of thin-crust, 12 inch pizzas and four flavors of German brew Faust.
My dining group has already visited the establishment a few times and tried almost every available option on the menu.
“Light” and “grease-free” are the words that pop up in conversations about the restaurant’s pizza. Those hoping for a heart-attack inducing
grease-pit of a pizza may be disappointed.
But fans of stone-oven baked pizza will be pleased to know that the thin crust of the pizza is always done just right — satisfyingly crispy on the sides and slightly charred on the bottom.
Diners looking for something more savory can try the Roma (salami, onion, mushroom and olives, NT$220) or the Frankfurter Sausage (sausage, bacon and basil, NT$220). Pizza staples such as the Margarita (NT$180) and Hawaiian (NT$220) are popular items
as well, while vegetarian
options include the Funghi
(king oyster mushrooms, tomato, Italian capers and chilies, NT$260) and the Veggie (tomato, mushroom, olives and green pepper, NT$220).
The three fresh-out-of-college proprietors act as the restaurant’s chefs and handle their business with aplomb.
Any review of Faust Pizza Lounge would be remiss not to mention the public relation work carried out by the owners’ five-year-old poodle, impeccably groomed and well-mannered, who never fails to elicit remarks of admiration from patrons.
Faust offers takeaway but no delivery service. Make sure to give the chef plenty of time to make your pies since the pizzeria is usually packed on both weekends and weekday evenings.
Next week, candidates will officially register to run for chair of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). By the end of Friday, we will know who has registered for the Oct. 18 election. The number of declared candidates has been fluctuating daily. Some candidates registering may be disqualified, so the final list may be in flux for weeks. The list of likely candidates ranges from deep blue to deeper blue to deepest blue, bordering on red (pro-Chinese Communist Party, CCP). Unless current Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) can be convinced to run for re-election, the party looks likely to shift towards more hardline
Sept. 15 to Sept. 21 A Bhutanese princess caught at Taoyuan Airport with 22 rhino horns — worth about NT$31 million today — might have been just another curious front-page story. But the Sept. 17, 1993 incident came at a sensitive moment. Taiwan, dubbed “Die-wan” by the British conservationist group Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), was under international fire for being a major hub for rhino horn. Just 10 days earlier, US secretary of the interior Bruce Babbitt had recommended sanctions against Taiwan for its “failure to end its participation in rhinoceros horn trade.” Even though Taiwan had restricted imports since 1985 and enacted
Enter the Dragon 13 will bring Taiwan’s first taste of Dirty Boxing Sunday at Taipei Gymnasium, one highlight of a mixed-rules card blending new formats with traditional MMA. The undercard starts at 10:30am, with the main card beginning at 4pm. Tickets are NT$1,200. Dirty Boxing is a US-born ruleset popularized by fighters Mike Perry and Jon Jones as an alternative to boxing. The format has gained traction overseas, with its inaugural championship streamed free to millions on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Taiwan’s version allows punches and elbows with clinch striking, but bans kicks, knees and takedowns. The rules are stricter than the
“Far from being a rock or island … it turns out that the best metaphor to describe the human body is ‘sponge.’ We’re permeable,” write Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie in their book Slow Death By Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things. While the permeability of our cells is key to being alive, it also means we absorb more potentially harmful substances than we realize. Studies have found a number of chemical residues in human breast milk, urine and water systems. Many of them are endocrine disruptors, which can interfere with the body’s natural hormones. “They can mimic, block
RSS