In March, Taipei's two German restaurants called Schwarzwald -- one on Wenzhou Street, one on Yongkang Street -- parted ways and the Yongkang branch changed its name to Oma Ursel Cafe Restaurant and moved to Fuxing N Road, but retained its manager Chiu Dai-yu (邱岱玉) and the cooking staff, who have made it one of the few authentic German eateries in town over the past four years. The new name is a tribute to Chiu's German mother-in-law, whom she credits for teaching her everything she knows about German cuisine -- -- and one look at the menu will show that she's learned a huge amount.
Oma Ursel's tries to incorporate three elements of German food into its menu: home-style cooking of the kind taught by the restaurant's namesake, regional specialties and new flavors that have been incorporated into the national palette during recent decades. The result is a selection of dishes that is representative of current German cuisine without limiting itself to cliched Teutonic specialties.
Recently, Chiu has been enthusiastically promoting the restaurant's five choices of sausage, all of which are made on the premises. Less ambitious diners can choose two from among the bratwurst, cheese wurst, spicy wurst, white wurst and gyro wurst, or the brave can attempt all five. The stand-outs are the bratwurst and spicy wurst, while the gyro wurst in tatziki sauce is well worth a try to sample one of the flavors that Chiu said has become integral to German cuisine since the arrival of immigrants from Greece and Turkey.
PHOTO: MAX WOODWORTH, TAIPEI TIMES
Along with the sausages, diners eager for authentic fare should try the Wiener schnitzel, baked trout, or the chicken cordon bleu. This last dish is an absolute highlight, with plentiful cheese melted in the middle of the breaded, wrapped and fried chicken filet and pork. The cooks have deftly avoided over-breading to allow the flavors of the meat and cheese to come through while adding a pleasant crisp texture.
In the blazing summer months, when sausages and meats may be less appealing to some diners, the lighter fare on offer includes meal-size salads and a long list of vegetarian dishes, including the house's own vegetarian meatloaf, as well as light and low-priced lunch specials like spaetzle (fried homemade egg noodles) and seafood spaghetti. These go down especially well with a glass of Alsterwasser -- a half-and-half mix of beer and Sprite named for the lake in the center of Hamburg.
All of the restaurant's main dishes are served as set menus with decent portions of side orders that include sauerkraut, spaetzle, potato noodles or speck (braised potatoes, onions and bacon), salad, tomato and bacon soup, a slice of cake and coffee or tea. It's important to save space for the restaurant's homemade cakes, as no German meal would be complete without a slice, but you'll need the coffee (steer clear of the milk teas) or the remainder of your wheat beer to get down the apple tart, as it's quite dry.
In Taiwan there are two economies: the shiny high tech export economy epitomized by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and its outsized effect on global supply chains, and the domestic economy, driven by construction and powered by flows of gravel, sand and government contracts. The latter supports the former: we can have an economy without TSMC, but we can’t have one without construction. The labor shortage has heavily impacted public construction in Taiwan. For example, the first phase of the MRT Wanda Line in Taipei, originally slated for next year, has been pushed back to 2027. The government
July 22 to July 28 The Love River’s (愛河) four-decade run as the host of Kaohsiung’s annual dragon boat races came to an abrupt end in 1971 — the once pristine waterway had become too polluted. The 1970 event was infamous for the putrid stench permeating the air, exacerbated by contestants splashing water and sludge onto the shore and even the onlookers. The relocation of the festivities officially marked the “death” of the river, whose condition had rapidly deteriorated during the previous decade. The myriad factories upstream were only partly to blame; as Kaohsiung’s population boomed in the 1960s, all household
Allegations of corruption against three heavyweight politicians from the three major parties are big in the news now. On Wednesday, prosecutors indicted Hsinchu County Commissioner Yang Wen-ke (楊文科) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), a judgment is expected this week in the case involving Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and former deputy premier and Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is being held incommunicado in prison. Unlike the other two cases, Cheng’s case has generated considerable speculation, rumors, suspicions and conspiracy theories from both the pan-blue and pan-green camps.
Stepping inside Waley Art (水谷藝術) in Taipei’s historic Wanhua District (萬華區) one leaves the motorcycle growl and air-conditioner purr of the street and enters a very different sonic realm. Speakers hiss, machines whir and objects chime from all five floors of the shophouse-turned- contemporary art gallery (including the basement). “It’s a bit of a metaphor, the stacking of gallery floors is like the layering of sounds,” observes Australian conceptual artist Samuel Beilby, whose audio installation HZ & Machinic Paragenesis occupies the ground floor of the gallery space. He’s not wrong. Put ‘em in a Box (我們把它都裝在一個盒子裡), which runs until Aug. 18, invites