Fujin Street (富錦街) in Taipei’s quiet, tree-lined Minsheng Community (民生社區) is known by a different name nowadays. People call it Fujin Tree Street (富錦樹街), and the reason is pretty self-explanatory. Take a stroll along the short lane dotted with boutiques, posh cafes and design shops, and you will find a string of stylish establishments all belonging to the Fujin Tree Group (富錦樹).
You have the Fujin Tree coffee shop, two lifestyle stores aimed at men and women as well as a home decor boutique. And there is Beams, a Japanese fashion store, in addition to a few other Japanese and European brands, which were introduced to Taiwan by the same group.
The group’s latest invention, At Fujin Tree — Taiwanese Cuisine & Champagne, offers a contemporary rendering of traditional Taiwanese dishes and matches them with, yes, you guessed it, champagne. Located on Dunhua North Road, the restaurant opened in December last year and has quickly become a much talked about spot.
Photo: Ho Yi, Taipei Times
Everything spells elegance and refinement here. Adorned with a garden seating area, the space lets in ample sunlight through the spotless floor-to-ceiling glass windows and doors. Against the simple backdrop of cement floors and white walls, several huge flower bouquets, twigs and plants are hung from the ceiling, lending the interior a sense of playfulness and creative vigor.
As for the food, it is properly prepared, fine to look at and good to eat. The attempt to pair it with the French sparkling wine, however, somehow misses out what it aims to accomplish: a culinary spark.
Catering to a contemporary palate, dishes on the compact menu go easy on the spices. The stinky tofu with kimchi (泡菜臭豆腐, NT$450), for example, consists of comparatively mellow-tasting tofu and sweetly seasoned pickled cabbage. Also lighter in taste, Formosa vermicelli (寶島米粉, NT$400) is an up-scale version of the quasi-essential Taiwanese street food, mixing crisp cabbage, shrimp, pork and mushroom with rice vermicelli and cooked al dente.
Photo: Ho Yi, Taipei Times
For something heavier, the oysters with cut up dough sticks and garlic sauce (油條蒜蓉鮮蚵, NT$550) deserves a special mention for maintaining the crispy texture of the deep-fried dough sticks, or youtiao (油條).
And fennel and egg make a remarkably delicious combination in the fennel omelet (茴香烘蛋, NT$450).
Other orthodox Taiwanese dishes include ginger intestine with soy sauce (醬味薑絲大腸, NT$450), pork ribs and taro (芋香排骨, NT$590) and squid and sea snail soup (魷魚螺肉蒜, NT$850).
Photo: Ho Yi, Taipei Times
Since wine is an integral part of the dining experience, our party chose the Bernard Tornay Carte d’Or Brut Champagne (NT$450 per glass, NT$2,500 per bottle) to go with our meal. But nothing sparkled. The aroma of the wine was largely eclipsed by the food, leaving us wondering if the kitchen should spend time fine-tuning the menu to make the pairing work.
The restaurant’s champagne collection features bottles from popular producers such as Perrier-Jouet and Krug, which can cost up to NT$20,000. There is also a selection of sparkling, red and white wine priced between NT$800 and NT$4,600.
Service is as friendly as can be expected in a chic place like Fujin Street, but the wait staff were slow to respond to our requests on the not-so-busy Sunday night we visited. Another thing to keep in mind is that pairing the fancier version of Taiwanese cuisine with champagne doesn’t come cheaply. It is a good idea to come in groups to share the food and the bill as well.
Photo: Ho Yi, Taipei Times
Photo: Ho Yi, Taipei Times
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