Taipei gastronomes will have a rare opportunity to enjoy renowned Spanish chef Xabier Gutierrez’s creations next month at DN Innovacion in Taipei’s Xinyi District.
Gutierrez is the creative director of the three-star Michelin restaurant Arzak in San Sebastian, the Spanish town famous for being home to several of the best dining establishments in the world. (Gutierrez’s dinners at DN Innovacion are being created independently of Arzak).
Known for his creative but methodical approach to molecular gastronomy, Gutierrez spends up to a year carefully working on recipes before his dishes finally make it to the table. Gutierrez’s trademarks include surprising and innovative combinations of textures, flavors and colors, presented with eye-catching and colorful platings.
Photo courtesy of Xabier Gutierrez
Gutierrez’s menu for his Taipei dinners will focus on seafood in its opening courses, with offerings including Atlantic mackerel fish “amber,” Boston lobster “on the reef” and French line-caught bass with leek “ashes.” For their main course, diners can choose between Kobe beef or black pork cheekbones with “pineapple.”
The dinners are on June 22, June 23 and June 26 and cost NT$5,500 per person, plus a 10 percent service charge. Seats are going fast; prospective diners can make reservations by calling (02) 8780-1155. DN Innovacion has set aside 10 seats for Taipei Times readers, who will receive a special gift. To secure a place, mention that you read this week’s Tidbits column when making a reservation.
Photo courtesy of Xabier Gutierrez
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 the aftermath of the 2020 general elections the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was demoralized. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had crushed them in a second landslide in a row, with their presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) winning more votes than any in Taiwan’s history. The KMT did pick up three legislative seats, but the DPP retained an outright majority. To take responsibility for that catastrophic loss, as is customary, party chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) resigned. This would mark the end of an era of how the party operated and the beginning of a new effort at reform, first under