If you're looking for a delicious, moderately-priced Indian restaurant where you can fill the table with a bumper crop of masalas, chick peas, curries and nan (Indian style unleavened bread), Kunming is one of the best in Taipei. The restaurant offers classic recipes from India, the Middle East and parts of Southeast Asia, giving stiff competition to the best dishes at any of Taipei's other Indian restaurants.
The prices at Kunming are an extra bonus. Vegetable plates, salads and hummus begin at NT$120, with more expensive dishes like Tandoori chicken topping out the menu at NT$250. Even the biggest feasts (it's best to go with a few people) seldom produce a bill that exceeds NT$350 a person, which is a bargain compared to the NT$600 or more one would have to pay for a similar meal elsewhere.
The musakka (NT$240) is exceptionally good. A Turkish recipe, the dish consists primarily of finely-ground beef that is seasoned and cooked with eggplant. The platter is then topped with green peppers, tomatoes and a trace of yogurt sauce. Samosas (NT$120), an appetizer of fried pastries stuffed with vegetables and served with sauce, are likewise delicious. Indian milk tea (NT$50) serves as a perfect cap to any meal.
PHOTO: DAVID FRAZIER, TAIPEI TIMES
Kunming is run by Yacoob Mah (馬雲昌) whose family originally hails from Yunnan, but was forced to flee to Burma in World War II and eventually made it to Taiwan 20 years ago. The family then opened its restaurant using a mix of recipes acquired over the years.
The only area in which Kunming could be said to be lacking is in its decor. The carved-wood furniture, the odd lamps and other elements associated with Indian dining rooms are not to be found. Instead, the interior lends itself more to the slightly drab non-style of mid-range Taiwanese eateries, with the addition of minor touches, like a large picture of the Taj Mahal on one of the concrete walls.
Even so, the general atmosphere is comfortable, and the owner is apt to play the genial host. Repeat customers are often greeted with a smile and sometimes rewarded for their patronage.
The canonical shot of an East Asian city is a night skyline studded with towering apartment and office buildings, bright with neon and plastic signage, a landscape of energy and modernity. Another classic image is the same city seen from above, in which identical apartment towers march across the city, spilling out over nearby geography, like stylized soldiers colonizing new territory in a board game. Densely populated dynamic conurbations of money, technological innovation and convenience, it is hard to see the cities of East Asia as what they truly are: necropolises. Why is this? The East Asian development model, with
June 16 to June 22 The following flyer appeared on the streets of Hsinchu on June 12, 1895: “Taipei has already fallen to the Japanese barbarians, who have brought great misery to our land and people. We heard that the Japanese occupiers will tax our gardens, our houses, our bodies, and even our chickens, dogs, cows and pigs. They wear their hair wild, carve their teeth, tattoo their foreheads, wear strange clothes and speak a strange language. How can we be ruled by such people?” Posted by civilian militia leader Wu Tang-hsing (吳湯興), it was a call to arms to retake
This is a deeply unsettling period in Taiwan. Uncertainties are everywhere while everyone waits for a small army of other shoes to drop on nearly every front. During challenging times, interesting political changes can happen, yet all three major political parties are beset with scandals, strife and self-inflicted wounds. As the ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is held accountable for not only the challenges to the party, but also the nation. Taiwan is geopolitically and economically under threat. Domestically, the administration is under siege by the opposition-controlled legislature and growing discontent with what opponents characterize as arrogant, autocratic
When Lisa, 20, laces into her ultra-high heels for her shift at a strip club in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, she knows that aside from dancing, she will have to comfort traumatized soldiers. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, exhausted troops are the main clientele of the Flash Dancers club in the center of the northeastern city, just 20 kilometers from Russian forces. For some customers, it provides an “escape” from the war, said Valerya Zavatska — a 25-year-old law graduate who runs the club with her mother, an ex-dancer. But many are not there just for the show. They “want to talk about what hurts,” she
RSS