There have been a flood of imports from Singapore recently, not least the Page One book store and Jason's supermarket, which are purportedly taking Taipei to new levels of consumer sophistication. On a smaller scale, there is now BreadTalk, which opened in Taipei two weeks ago in a newly refurbished building off Renai Road that goes by the name "Departures."
The BreadTalk has an air of simplicity and elegance. From the street, one can look through the spacious white interior into the well-ordered kitchen out back. Inside, the place reeks of concept rather than being perfumed by freshly baked bread. Lets say it's all a tad antiseptic.
According to Tiffany Wang (
PHOTO COURTESY OF BREAD TALK
The Happy Hiam, a soft bread horseshoe filled with spicy shrimp, or the tomyam pao, which has a Thai-style sweet-and-sour paste filling that carries a real kick are there to tempt the truly adventurous, and in their own terms are remarkably successful creations. At a less terrifying level of creativity, there is the sweet potato and cinnamon role or the chillied whitebait triangle flavored with pandan leaf, which offers considerable gastronomic titillation. If this array of Southeast Asian flavors all seems a bit too much, the curried naan or the moshi mushroom (a chicken and mushroom pie in a sweet puff pastry) are more conventional. There are also many other breads that will be familiar to anyone who has visited a local bakery.
For those who see bread in exclusively European terms, it must be noted that BreadTalk also offers a really quite outstanding baguette that has not, at least yet, succumbed to the local preference of a soft, pasty and sweet character.
While the bread and sweet bun lineup has been pretty much established, its offering of cakes is still undergoing revision, but currently does not have anything that cannot be obtained from any of the major bakery chains. There are also plans to offer sandwiches at a later stage.
While the arrival of BreadTalk will not be a revelation in the Taipei bakery scene, its unique Southeast Asian flavors are a welcome addition to what is currently on offer.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
Mongolian influencer Anudari Daarya looks effortlessly glamorous and carefree in her social media posts — but the classically trained pianist’s road to acceptance as a transgender artist has been anything but easy. She is one of a growing number of Mongolian LGBTQ youth challenging stereotypes and fighting for acceptance through media representation in the socially conservative country. LGBTQ Mongolians often hide their identities from their employers and colleagues for fear of discrimination, with a survey by the non-profit LGBT Centre Mongolia showing that only 20 percent of people felt comfortable coming out at work. Daarya, 25, said she has faced discrimination since she
RSS