While Salt Peanuts Cafe (鹹花生) is famous for its cinnamon rolls, it is also said to serve up a mean brunch — and its Dihua St (迪化街) location made it an ideal place to get the day started before hitting the riverside bike paths from nearby Dadaocheng Wharf (大稻呈).
Mostly built in the late 1800s, the renovated buildings in the area have narrow facades that extend back an entire block with multiple courtyards in between, which is the best feature of this place. Our wooden table on the tiled walkway around the lush center pavilion was secluded and relaxing with no music, just chatter from a nearby table. Looking at the gray stone walls and wooden frames, we were transported 100 years back into our imaginations.
The courtyard also contains the entrance to Peacock, a bistro and bar that moved here with Salt Peanuts in late 2014 after both closed their Shida Road (師大路) area shops.
Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei Times
In contrast, the interior of Salt and Peanuts is dark, featuring smooth concrete floors, high ceilings and wooden furnishings in a retro-chic style common in repurposed old buildings of the sort. It’s pleasant, but not as unique as the courtyard. There are few seats and they don’t take reservations.
The cafe claims to not use any artificial flavorings, supports small farmers and uses non-genetically modified soybeans along with fair trade coffee and cocoa beans.
The brunch menu begins with a “Tuesday” set (NT$300), which is actually available every day of the week. It is sonamed because the remaining sets are not available on Tuesdays.
Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei Times
The Tuesday set contains a variety of homemade bread with butter and roselle jam, a nearly raw egg with truffle oil, a salad, three types of tubers, a passion fruit and a drink.
We ordered the Dadaocheng set (NT$350), which is practically identical to the Tuesday set, but with less bread and the addition of grilled Taiwanese sausage and salty mullet roe, which makes for sort of a fusion dish that seemed more intriguing.
The salad is a refreshing opener to start with, tender leaves with a light olive oil and vinaigrette dressing slightly on the sour side. The pickled bitter gourd gave it a sweet punch. Don’t eat the whole thing just yet — there are more textures and flavors to sample, mix and match.
Photo: Han Cheung, Taipei Times
The bread, served in generous proportions, is aromatic and flavorful — toasted on one side and soft and fluffy on the other — and came in walnut, raisin and sweet cream cheese varieties. The bread could be dipped into the runny egg, but is probably better on its own as the egg doesn’t improve the bread’s taste and takes away from the crispiness.
Instead, the egg pairs better with the sausage, as the rich but subtle flavors of the truffle oil draw out the savory taste of the meat. The mullet roe can be added to the bite for a salty kick.
Having Taiwanese sausages accompany otherwise Western-style items isn’t just a gimmick. Their distinct sweetness provides extra depth to the palette as a whole. The regular, sweet and purple potatoes drizzled in a mayonnaise-based sauce round out the set in both texture and flavor.
The quiche set (NT$260) has fewer items — tubers, salad and passion fruit. The quiche crust was baked well, not too flaky and not too brittle. With spinach, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms and cheese in the slightly runny filling, this also made for a texture explosion.
The place was consistently at full occupancy and service was slow at times. However, the staff were attentive and gave us homemade sugar cookies while we waited. It was a light yet filling meal, although I would have sampled the cinnamon roll if I weren’t biking afterward. This just means that I’ll have to come back.
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