Large portions at restaurants are often a cause for distress. Calories? Maybe. High cholesterol? Probably. Excessive fat? Definitely. When the waitress at Forkers’ spacious second location, which opened in May in an alley located less than five minutes by foot from the Zhongshan MRT Station (中山捷運站), brought the burger I ordered to my table, I began to wonder if North American-style excess had arrived in Taiwan. Breaking the old adage that we get what we pay for, the meal consisted of a humongous amount of delicious food: I didn’t eat for the rest of the day.
Forkers has earned a reputation for its creative play on the burger theme. With almost 50 varieties to choose from in four sections — “Forkers favorites,” “Western classics,” “Asian flavors,” and “the Forkers” (so-named because you need a knife and fork to eat them) — one could spend every day over the course of several weeks going through this part of the menu.
Some of the more eye-catching offerings include the eggs Benny burger (NT$290), the poutine burger (NT$250), artichoke gratin burger (NT$260) and a wasabi burger (NT$220).
Ordering is as simple as following the menu’s “five-step program.” After selecting a burger flavor, patrons choose from one of five patties: beef, chicken breast, fish, pork sausage or veggie. Step three, the “sides,” consists of choosing one of four types of fresh-cut fries (regular, Cajun, curry or garlic) and a salad (wild green, Dijon and dill potato, Hawaiian pasta or salad of the day). The process ends with ordering a (bottomless) drink and attempting to eat the mountainous meal.
The English burger (NT$230) that I ordered came open-faced and served on grain bread smeared with a moderate amount of garlic butter. Generously topped with sauteed onion and mushroom, the thick spice-infused beef patty underneath only became visible after using the serrated steak knife to cut it up. Each bite delivered a delicious medley of distinct flavors. The fries, hand cut from fresh potatoes, were crispy brown and lightly salted.
The salad of wild greens is no garden-variety iceberg lettuce afterthought. A variety of lettuce leaves were mixed together and artfully topped with cherry tomato, cucumber and baby corn. It came served with ranch dressing.
Forkers isn’t just about burgers. An extensive appetizer menu and large space make it ideal for a gathering with friends or office parties. Along with the usual offerings of nachos, tortilla wraps and chicken wings, it also has some harder-to-find fare such as pierogi rolls and warm artichoke and spinach dip.
Before heading to Forkers, I checked out several reviews of the original location on Chinese and English-language blogs. Two opinions stood out: the food was good but the service was mixed. I agree with the former, but found the service at the new location excellent — which is perhaps why the tip jar below the cash register was mostly full.
The original Forkers is at 8, Alley 10, Ln 223, Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路四段223巷10弄8號).
By global standards, the traffic congestion that afflicts Taiwan’s urban areas isn’t horrific. But nor is it something the country can be proud of. According to TomTom, a Dutch developer of location and navigation technologies, last year Taiwan was the sixth most congested country in Asia. Of the 492 towns and cities included in its rankings last year, Taipei was the 74th most congested. Taoyuan ranked 105th, while Hsinchu County (121st), Taichung (142nd), Tainan (173rd), New Taipei City (227th), Kaohsiung (241st) and Keelung (302nd) also featured on the list. Four Japanese cities have slower traffic than Taipei. (Seoul, which has some
Michael slides a sequin glove over the pop star’s tarnished legacy, shrouding Michael Jackson’s complications with a conventional biopic that, if you cover your ears, sounds great. Antoine Fuqua’s movie is sanctioned by Jackson’s estate and its producers include the estate’s executors. So it is, by its nature, a narrow, authorized perspective on Jackson. The film ends before the flood of allegations of sexual abuse of children, or Jackson’s own acknowledgment of sleeping alongside kids. Jackson and his estate have long maintained his innocence. In his only criminal trial, in 2005, Jackson was acquitted. Michael doesn’t even subtly nod to these facts.
Writing of the finds at the ancient iron-working site of Shihsanhang (十 三行) in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里), archaeologist Tsang Cheng-hwa (臧振華) of the Academia Sinica’s Institute of History and Philology observes: “One bronze bowl gilded with gold, together with copper coins and fragments of Tang and Song ceramics, were also found. These provide evidence for early contact between Taiwan aborigines and Chinese.” The Shihsanhang Web site from the Ministry of Culture says of the finds: “They were evidence that the residents of the area had a close trading relation with Chinese civilians, as the coins can be
The March/April volume of Foreign Affairs, long a purveyor of pro-China pablum, offered up another irksome Beijing-speak on the issues and solutions for the problems vexing the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the US: “America and China at the Edge of Ruin: A Last Chance to Step Back From the Brink” rang the provocative title, by David M. Lampton and Wang Jisi (王緝思). If one ever wants to describe what went wrong with US-PRC relations, the career of Wang Jisi is a good place to start. Wang has extensive experience in the US and the West. He was a visiting
RSS