For Taipei's foreign population, Grandma Nitti's Kitchen is one of the few places to find food that reminds them of home.
Contrary to popular musings, there was neither a grandma nor someone named Nitti in its kitchen, only Rainbow Lin (林虹慧), the founder and owner of the restaurant. With strong interest in cooking and encouragement from her American friends, Lin started a humble five-table eatery, where she doubled as its chef, near National Taiwan University 14 years ago to cater to the needs of homesick foreigners in Taipei. That was before the deluge of customers forced Grandma to expand to a three-story building in an alley off Shita Rd.
PHOTO: DAVID VAN DER VEEN, TAIPEI TIMES
Although targeting Western appetites, Lin never promises to provide the "authentic" flavor. "The name of the restaurant tries to tell people that we offer dishes that taste like their mother's cooking in a home environment. We wouldn't brag that what we offer is 100 percent authentic, because every mother cooks in her own way," Lin said.
Starting with only 10 simple items like omelets and sandwiches, Grandma's heavy-volume menu is the result of years of trials on Lin's many foreign friends to make sure that the items satisfy Western tastes.
Grandma prides itself on breakfast items, which helped it establish its popularity in its early years.
The vegetarian Greek veggie and feta cheese omelet (NT$250) is a must-try even for non-vegetarians. The omelet's rich filling of vegetables and cheese flows out at the slit of the knife.
Later this month, several new items will be added to the menu, including the veal with red wine sauce and sauteed mushroom (NT$350) and chicken tequila fettuccine (NT$350). The latter combines pasta with lightly cooked chicken and sweet peppers, creating a delightful color scheme. The otherwise bland dish is prepared with tequila to give it an unique aroma.
The menu also includes a mix-and-match section of lunch items so that for between NT$150 and NT$200, diners can pick a combination from the list of fillings like chili beef patty and Tex-Mex veggie and breads like pita and focaccia.
Refillable coffee and tea (NT$100) is an important attraction for many of Grandma Nitti's customers. On weekends, groups of friends can be seen whiling away the afternoon drinking coffee and chatting in its laid-back environment.
For food of the mind, Grandma hosts a second-hand English-language store that is open every Sunday afternoon.
Being a popular meeting point between foreigners in Taipei, Grandma has a useful whiteboard at its front door for people to post housing or language-learning information.
June 9 to June 15 A photo of two men riding trendy high-wheel Penny-Farthing bicycles past a Qing Dynasty gate aptly captures the essence of Taipei in 1897 — a newly colonized city on the cusp of great change. The Japanese began making significant modifications to the cityscape in 1899, tearing down Qing-era structures, widening boulevards and installing Western-style infrastructure and buildings. The photographer, Minosuke Imamura, only spent a year in Taiwan as a cartographer for the governor-general’s office, but he left behind a treasure trove of 130 images showing life at the onset of Japanese rule, spanning July 1897 to
One of the most important gripes that Taiwanese have about the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is that it has failed to deliver concretely on higher wages, housing prices and other bread-and-butter issues. The parallel complaint is that the DPP cares only about glamor issues, such as removing markers of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) colonialism by renaming them, or what the KMT codes as “de-Sinification.” Once again, as a critical election looms, the DPP is presenting evidence for that charge. The KMT was quick to jump on the recent proposal of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to rename roads that symbolize
On the evening of June 1, Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) apologized and resigned in disgrace. His crime was instructing his driver to use a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon. The Control Yuan is the government branch that investigates, audits and impeaches government officials for, among other things, misuse of government funds, so his misuse of a government vehicle was highly inappropriate. If this story were told to anyone living in the golden era of swaggering gangsters, flashy nouveau riche businessmen, and corrupt “black gold” politics of the 1980s and 1990s, they would have laughed.
In an interview posted online by United Daily News (UDN) on May 26, current Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) was asked about Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) replacing him as party chair. Though not yet officially running, by the customs of Taiwan politics, Lu has been signalling she is both running for party chair and to be the party’s 2028 presidential candidate. She told an international media outlet that she was considering a run. She also gave a speech in Keelung on national priorities and foreign affairs. For details, see the May 23 edition of this column,