Restaurant DN Innovacion is now accepting reservations for a special dinner on Feb. 29 that will pair wine from venerable French winery Chateau Margaux with dishes created by chef Daniel Negreira. This is the first time that Chateau Margaux has officially participated in a wine pairing dinner in Taiwan. Established as an estate in the 12th century, Chateau Margaux’s Bordeaux was one of four wines to achieve premier cru (first growth) ranking in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855.
Chateau Margaux’s brand ambassador in Asia, Thibault Pontallier, has selected each vintage that will be served on Feb. 29 at DN Innovacion. The wine list represents the best the estate has to offer and includes Chateau Margaux from 1990, 1995 and 2000, and a 2009 Pavillon de Margaux Blanc (a dry white wine). Dishes by Negreira will be designed to complement the flavor of each wine.
The menu, which blends traditional Spanish cuisine and molecular gastronomy cooking techniques, includes dishes like Boston lobster ceviche with “jewelry,” French white asparagus with Iberico bellota ham and extra virgin olive oil caviar and Kobe beef short rib with eggplant truffle puree and baby peas.
Photo: Bloomberg
The price of the dinner is NT$18,888 per diner, plus a 10 percent service charge. For reservations call (02) 8780-1155 or visit www.dn-asia.com.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not