Buffet restaurants are a common part of the landscape in Taipei offering Japanese, Chinese and Western fare. Rarely does a restaurant incorporate food from so many different cultures into one gluttonous whole like Splendor Restaurant, which is conveniently located three minutes walk, or a longer waddle after dining, from Dapinglin (大坪林) MRT station.
The dining area is large with the buffet taking up one-quarter of the restaurant. The decor is minimalist with black marble walls, white marble tabletops and black rubber chairs that hug the body. The designers of the restaurant clearly understood the distraction that a wide variety of food causes diners, and as a result there is plenty of space to move about when going up for a fourth or fifth helping.
Hip hostess Tseng Yue-li (曾月裡) makes it clear that eating at Splendor should be a total dining experience, not just an excuse to expand your waistline. As such, she recommends trying a variety of dishes before gorging on any one dish from a particular region.
PHOTO COURTESY OF SPLENDOR RESTAURANT
If you are a lover of seafood, the Japanese section has many surprises. In addition to the usual suspects of sashimi, tempura and a variety of hot pot dishes, there are a variety of fresh seafood salads on offer. But what separates this Japanese-themed section from its counterparts is its large assortment of freshly caught fish laid out on a bed of ice or swimming in large tanks.
The wide range of Cantonese cuisine, especially the dim sum, is particularly worthy of mention. With such an array to choose from, it's best to tuck in when the place is busy as eating dumplings that have been sitting for 15 or more minutes is not recommended.
For those who are not afraid of a little protein, prime rib and cooked ham are available. Carved before your eyes, both are cooked to perfection and will be sliced thin or thick, according to your appetite. There is also bratwurst, barbecued mushrooms and a variety of other meats.
Rounding out the meal, if you can fit it in, are eight varieties of Haagen-Dazs ice cream and a staggering variety of desserts, though on this last score I cannot comment, as I was too busy with the ice cream. The restaurant offers bottomless beer and red and white wine. The Taipei Times reminds patrons to drink responsibly.
What was the population of Taiwan when the first Negritos arrived? In 500BC? The 1st century? The 18th? These questions are important, because they can contextualize the number of babies born last month, 6,523, to all the people on Taiwan, indigenous and colonial alike. That figure represents a year on year drop of 3,884 babies, prefiguring total births under 90,000 for the year. It also represents the 26th straight month of deaths exceeding births. Why isn’t this a bigger crisis? Because we don’t experience it. Instead, what we experience is a growing and more diverse population. POPULATION What is Taiwan’s actual population?
After Jurassic Park premiered in 1993, people began to ask if scientists could really bring long-lost species back from extinction, just like in the hit movie. The idea has triggered “de-extinction” debates in several countries, including Taiwan, where the focus has been on the Formosan clouded leopard (designated after 1917 as Neofelis nebulosa brachyura). National Taiwan Museum’s (NTM) Web site describes the Formosan clouded leopard as “a subspecies endemic to Taiwan…it reaches a body length of 0.6m to 1.2m and tail length of 0.7m to 0.9m and weighs between 15kg and 30kg. It is entirely covered with beautiful cloud-like spots
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