A few of Taipei's locally run restaurants can produce a reasonable curry without using ingredients from India, however, the better curries will always be those prepared by a native chef.
Out of India is the latest Indian fare to hit the Taipei market. With less than two months on the scene, people are already queuing up for its homemade curries and tandoori meats. Compared with the other six authentic Indian restaurants in the city, however, there is some question as to how long Out of India will still be in Taipei.
PHOTO: DIANA FREUNDL, TAIPEI TIMES
He has studied Chinese at Shida for the past five years, but the restaurant's owner and chef, Andy, worked in a kitchen in northern India before bringing his Punjabi cuisine to Taiwan. The New Delhi native said he wanted to target the student market by offering reasonably priced Indian meals. His prices are slightly cheaper than those at other eateries and include a lunch time set meal with veggie curry, rice, salad and a drink for NT$150. A large set meal with soup, chicken tikka, curry, rice, butter nan and masala milk tea is also available at lunch and dinner for NT$350.
The most popular items, he said, are those from the clay oven. There is a mixed grill combination of tandoori chicken, mutton, fish and prawns (NT$450). In addition to the usual selection of chicken, mutton and fish curries, masalas and vindaloos are a few specialty dishes such as mutton kadaise (cooked with onion, tomatoes and herbs in a kadai Indian wok) and a Goa style fish curry.
When asked, the waitress said all ingredients were from India, except a local brand of butter used to make the daal. It had such a poignant taste that after eating only a few spoon fulls it was difficult to tell whether or not the others dishes had also used it.
The nan was good, as was the basmati rice, which is used to make the biryani and pulao. Dessert is inexpensive at NT$50 and includes a choice between gulab jamun and Indian sweet yogurt.
There is seating for 24 on the main floor and a basement party room that holds 20 and can be rented out for private functions. Given how fast the restaurant filled up last Sunday (30 minutes after opening and every one arriving around the same time) the service was fast and friendly.
Out of India might not have the best tasting vegetarian curries in Taipei but it definitely has the best decor. The red painted trim and tasteful collection of tapestries on the wall give it a warm ethnic look, but don't quite make up for the substandard daal.
Oct. 21 to Oct. 27 Sanbanqiao Cemetery (三板橋) was once reserved for prominent Japanese residents of Taipei, including former governor-general Motojiro Akashi, who died in Japan in 1919 but requested to be buried in Taiwan. Akashi may have reconsidered his decision if he had known that by the 1980s, his grave had been overrun by the city’s largest illegal settlement, which contained more than 1,000 households and a bustling market with around 170 stalls. Fans of Taiwan New Cinema would recognize the slum, as it was featured in several of director Wan Jen’s (萬仁) films about Taipei’s disadvantaged, including The Sandwich
“Wish You Luck is not just a culinary experience, it’s a continuation of our cultural tradition,” says James Vuong (王豪豐), owner of the Daan District (大安) Hong Kong diner. On every corner of Kowloon, diners pack shoulder-to-shoulder over strong brews of Hong-Kong-style milk tea, chowing down on French Toast and Cantonese noodles. Hong Kong’s ubiquitous diner-style teahouses, known as chachaanteng (茶餐廳), have been a cultural staple of the city since the 1950s. “They play an essential role in the daily lives of Hongkongers,” says Vuong. Wish You Luck (祝您行運) offers that same vibrant melting pot of culture and cuisine. In
Much noise has been made lately on X (Twitter), where posters both famed and not have contended that Taiwan is stupid for eliminating nuclear power, which, the comments imply, is necessary to provide the nation with power in the event of a blockade. This widely circulated claim, typically made by nuclear power proponents, is rank nonsense. In 2021, Ian Easton, an expert on Taiwan’s defenses and the plans of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to break them, discussed the targeting of nuclear power plants in wartime (“Ian Easton On Taiwan: Are Taiwan’s nuclear plants safe from Beijing?”, April 12, 2021). The
Artificial intelligence could help reduce some of the most contentious culture war divisions through a mediation process, researchers say. Experts say a system that can create group statements that reflect majority and minority views is able to help people find common ground. Chris Summerfield, a co-author of the research from the University of Oxford, who worked at Google DeepMind at the time the study was conducted, said the AI tool could have multiple purposes. “What I would like to see it used for is to give political leaders ... a better sense of what people ... really think,” he said, noting surveys gave