Opened just last month on a quiet stretch of Jinan Road (濟南路), Ducky Restaurant already promises to become a favorite among Taipei’s foodies.
The restaurant’s goal is to use produce and meat grown or raised locally in dishes inspired by French cuisine, thereby creating new flavors and combinations. Ingredients include seafood and meat purchased daily from local markets. Ducky Restaurant’s menu is also reasonably priced. The most expensive entree is the steak-fries at NT$580, while most dishes cost between NT$300 to NT$450. A set meal is also available each night with a different main course.
As soon as you walk into Ducky Restaurant, you can sense its attention to detail. The dining room is filled with long blonde-wood tables designed for large groups and families. Large windows allow plenty of sunlight to pour in during the day and give diners a panoramic view of the tree-lined street and nearby Japanese-style houses.
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
Dishes are also carefully designed. My dining companion and I ordered the grilled assorted seafood and tapenade with focaccia (NT$280) to split for our appetizer. Ducky’s menu of starters is very brief, and the only two other items are Caesar salad (NT$190) and potato fondant (NT$210), bamboo and grilled cabbage sprouts with truffle dressing, which our waitress suggested as a lighter alternative to the seafood.
We were very pleased with our choice, however — the dish featured a heap of juicy calamari and plump shrimp with cloves of grilled garlic, all tossed in the tapenade. It was simple, but delicious. The black olives in the tapenade provided a delicious contrast to the sweetness of the fresh calamari and shrimp.
My friend ordered the pan-fried chicken breast with Shaoxing cream sauce and seasonal vegetables (NT$380). The meat was very good — juicy and so tender that it could have been cut with a fork, but with a crispy, savory skin. The Shaoxing rice wine in the sauce, usually used in Chinese dishes like drunken chicken, added an unexpected flavor and depth to the dish.
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
The pesto risotto with pan-roasted daily fish (NT$380) is one of the most visually striking dishes on Ducky Restaurant’s current roster. The fish is cooked until the skin is crisp and then laid on a bed of the green risotto, which is garnished with cherry tomatoes for some pops of contrasting color The risotto’s basil-based sauce was delicious and the plump, short-grain rice was suitably al dente, but I would have preferred if the dish was thicker and creamier. The fish, on the other hand, was fantastic.
Judging by the items being carried out of the kitchen to a full dining room, another one of Ducky Restaurant’s most popular items is the aforementioned steak-fries. The beef is prepared in a black pepper and red wine sauce.
For dessert we enjoyed one of Ducky Restaurant’s signature dishes, the apple creme brulee (NT$150). The indulgent treat is flavored with bits of stewed apple and a hint of cinnamon, making it much more interesting than the run-of-the-mill vanilla version.
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
Despite being a newcomer, Ducky Restaurant is already enjoying brisk business, and reservations are highly recommended on weekends. The establishment’s menu is short, but it is clear that every dish has been created and prepared with care.
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless