It was a Sunday afternoon in Kenting (墾丁) and tourists were fleeing the Pingtung County (屏東縣) hotspot to avoid getting trapped by the approaching typhoon.
A perfect opportunity, it seemed, had presented itself to check out Warung Didi. On several previous visits the Taipei Times had been rebuffed by the famed purveyor of “a world of exotic cuisines,” as it was fully booked.
So this time around we did as we were told and called promptly at 4pm for reservations that night. The phone was constantly engaged and the restaurant was reserved by the time we got through an hour later.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
Fortunately (to cut a long review short) there had been a cancellation at 11:20pm. Last orders would be ours. And that is how we eventually came to review the culinary landmark founded by Di Di Yi (易迪迪) some 14 years ago.
The drinks list was a good start, with a thoughtful range of cocktails, beers, wines and nonalcoholic beverages. Though our mojito and mai tai (dubbed “my tai tai,”) were served up quickly, at full strength and with fresh ingredients, their arrival in Boddingtons and Coca-Cola glasses was a little surprising.
The menu was conveniently divided into sections, such as “the chicken coop” for poultry dishes, “soup pot,” “ok corral” for beef, seafood was “the waterfront.”
We plumped for Thai boneless chicken in basil sauce and Patpong chicken salad with shrimp dressing. They were zesty affairs but a degree too hot for our taste.
Most of the main dishes were priced from NT$250 to NT$340 and the cheesecake (NT$100), made daily, was wickedly rich, piqued by lemon and caramelized on top. Clearly, fresh food served in fair-sized portions, at a reasonable cost is one of the reasons for Warung Didi's popularity.
Atmosphere is also essential. If a place feels good you want to go back. Located off the high street and near the beach, Warung Didi was bathed in fairy lights, miniature red lanterns and ambient music. The interior was tastefully decorated in wood, with Indian/Aboriginal designs and an eclectic mix of old prints and batik paintings.
The slashing of the government’s proposed budget by the two China-aligned parties in the legislature, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), has apparently resulted in blowback from the US. On the recent junket to US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, KMT legislators reported that they were confronted by US officials and congressmen angered at the cuts to the defense budget. The United Daily News (UDN), the longtime KMT party paper, now KMT-aligned media, responded to US anger by blaming the foreign media. Its regular column, the Cold Eye Collection (冷眼集), attacked the international media last month in
On a misty evening in August 1990, two men hiking on the moors surrounding Calvine, a pretty hamlet in Perth and Kinross, claimed to have seen a giant diamond-shaped aircraft flying above them. It apparently had no clear means of propulsion and left no smoke plume; it was silent and static, as if frozen in time. Terrified, they hit the ground and scrambled for cover behind a tree. Then a Harrier fighter jet roared into view, circling the diamond as if sizing it up for a scuffle. One of the men snapped a series of photographs just before the bizarre
Power struggles are never pretty. Fortunately, Taiwan is a democracy so there is no blood in the streets, but there are volunteers collecting signatures to recall nearly half of the legislature. With the exceptions of the “September Strife” in 2013 and the Sunflower movement occupation of the Legislative Yuan and the aftermath in 2014, for 16 years the legislative and executive branches of government were relatively at peace because the ruling party also controlled the legislature. Now they are at war. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds the presidency and the Executive Yuan and the pan-blue coalition led by the
For decades, Taiwan Railway trains were built and serviced at the Taipei Railway Workshop, originally built on a flat piece of land far from the city center. As the city grew up around it, however, space became limited, flooding became more commonplace and the noise and air pollution from the workshop started to affect more and more people. Between 2011 and 2013, the workshop was moved to Taoyuan and the Taipei location was retired. Work on preserving this cultural asset began immediately and we now have a unique opportunity to see the birth of a museum. The Preparatory Office of National