Even though Alleycat's is hidden in a small basement off bustling Yongkang Street, it would be hard to overlook this new pizzeria for the buzz it's been generating since it opened at the end of January. It's the brainchild of South African transplant Alan Pontes, who wanted to make a living without having a boss, and he could have done far worse than deciding upon opening this pleasant eatery.
The sign at the entrance promises thin-crust pizza and that's essentially all you're going to get here, though for variety Alan can fold the pizza in half and bake it into a calzone. Stepping into the crowded ring of pizza offerings in town is a bold undertaking, because discriminating palettes will rightly be on the lookout for every detail when a 12-inch pie with four toppings hits their wallets with a NT$425 punch. But, while Alleycat's stumbles in some areas, the pizza puts up an excellent fight.
PHOTO: MAX WOODWORTH, TAIPEI TIMES:
Alan's suggestion for a representative slice of Alleycat's pie was the 12-inch with feta cheese, onions, sausage and sun-dried tomatoes. He works on the build-it-yourself principle of pizza making, whereby diners select a size (10-inch for NT$175 or 12-inch for NT$225) and then add toppings of their choice from a list of about 20. Toppings add NT$50 to the basic pizza price. In this case, the selections were pretty tasty. The feta cheese, always prone to overpowering the other flavors on a pizza, was there but not overbearingly so. The plentiful sausage and onions added some zest, while the sprinkling of sun-dried tomatoes gave its distinct tang. Always the clincher in a pizza is the crust, and in this category Alleycat's does well, but it could have been just a tad crispier so that it hadn't become soggy by the last slice.
For a well-rounded meal, consider starting off with the chicken Caesar salad (NT$120), for its generous helping of chicken breast and the tasty homemade dressing. There are also a regular Caesar salad (NT$90) and a Greek salad (NT$120) to choose from, or garlic bread and pizza crust with olive oil for appetizers.
Wisely, Alan has picked from the best of available beers in Taiwan, putting Hoegaarden on tap at NT$100 for a half pint or NT$150 for a full pint. Try it with a slice of lemon (not lime) and you can almost feel it cutting through the pizza grease. For a similar digestive effect, try the coffee. It may be the most pipe-hitting brew in Taipei.
The Spartan decor is Alleycat's only downside. The soft-toned red walls are a start, but some flowers, perhaps a few pictures of Tuscany, a space divider and more attractive place mats would go a long way.
Many people noticed the flood of pro-China propaganda across a number of venues in recent weeks that looks like a coordinated assault on US Taiwan policy. It does look like an effort intended to influence the US before the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) over the weekend. Jennifer Kavanagh’s piece in the New York Times in September appears to be the opening strike of the current campaign. She followed up last week in the Lowy Interpreter, blaming the US for causing the PRC to escalate in the Philippines and Taiwan, saying that as
Nov. 3 to Nov. 9 In 1925, 18-year-old Huang Chin-chuan (黃金川) penned the following words: “When will the day of women’s equal rights arrive, so that my talents won’t drift away in the eastern stream?” These were the closing lines to her poem “Female Student” (女學生), which expressed her unwillingness to be confined to traditional female roles and her desire to study and explore the world. Born to a wealthy family on Nov. 5, 1907, Huang was able to study in Japan — a rare privilege for women in her time — and even made a name for herself in the
This year’s Miss Universe in Thailand has been marred by ugly drama, with allegations of an insult to a beauty queen’s intellect, a walkout by pageant contestants and a tearful tantrum by the host. More than 120 women from across the world have gathered in Thailand, vying to be crowned Miss Universe in a contest considered one of the “big four” of global beauty pageants. But the runup has been dominated by the off-stage antics of the coiffed contestants and their Thai hosts, escalating into a feminist firestorm drawing the attention of Mexico’s president. On Tuesday, Mexican delegate Fatima Bosch staged a
Would you eat lab-grown chocolate? I requested a sample from California Cultured, a Sacramento-based company. Its chocolate, not yet commercially available, is made with techniques that have previously been used to synthesize other bioactive products like certain plant-derived pharmaceuticals for commercial sale. A few days later, it arrives. The morsel, barely bigger than a coffee bean, is supposed to be the flavor equivalent of a 70 percent to 80 percent dark chocolate. I tear open its sealed packet and a chocolatey aroma escapes — so far, so good. I pop it in my mouth. Slightly waxy and distinctly bitter, it boasts those bright,
RSS