Snow white blossoms at Taipei

My latest trip to Taipei, which happens to be the season of Tung blossom. Click here for full post.

At Suguo (舒果）, a vegetarian chain in Taiwan

On the last night in Taipei, I made my way to Suguo, a vegetarian chain restaurant. Dinner time was packed but fortunately, I could get a table after about 15 minutes wait.

A waitress came with a menu and left me alone for a few minutes to look through. The restuarant only provides an eight course meal and for most of the courses, you get a few dishes to select from. Although I made up my mind of what to have pretty fast, the waitress learning that it was my first time here, went through the menu and selection for different courses in rather great details. Click here for the menu. 

Food was served promptly despite it being a busy night for the restaurant.

 A very refreshing and creative appetiser

藍莓山藥+彩椒水蓮+蒟蒻蕃茄

It really looked as pretty as the photos in the menu!

 Rosemary bread with a dip

迷迭香火柴麵包

 fruit salad with yogurt dressing

優格水果沙拉

Burdock with cashew nut clear soup, with a natural, sweet taste

牛蒡腰果清湯 

 

By now, I'm actually starting to feel full, although the salad and soup I chose are supposed to be the lighter choices.

main course: mushroom with potato

花香杏鮑菇（佐洋芋盅）

Even the main course is displayed with such exquisity. Of special mention by the waitress is the little purple pear (on the right), infused with roselle.

These looked too cute to be eaten.

The waitress 'pre-warned' me that as the mushroom was cooked in an Italian floral sauce, it may be too flowery for some. Perhaps this being my favourite type of mushroom, I find the texture and flavour just right. 

Beneath the baked cheese is a mixture of mushroom, tomato and a special type of potato which I can't quite translate (佐洋芋盅). I found this to be very tasty, though I could barely squeeze in more food by now.

 

 Five-grained fried rice 

果香五穀炊飯

Sesame paste, walnuts and pudding

芝麻核桃奶酪

Finally, the last course, Camomile Citron tea
洋甘菊香柚花茶

Each course may looked like a small portion, but in totality, it was too much for me, or perhaps I had my lunch too late that day. The very attentive waitresses, who after every few courses, would ask how is the food, shared that generally Taiwanese find the portion, especially the items I chose, to be too small. I thought, Taiwanese must have great appetite. Nevertheless, from appetiser to drink and dessert, the food was generally good in terms of quality, taste, display and often, creativity, and I would say that this is an almost perfect meal. And inexpensively priced at TWD 398 (less than SGD 20), I don't think I can find something similar in Singapore.

 

Click here for the branches of Suguo.

2014 Update: As mentioned by one of the commenters, Suguo has opened in Singapore, at Raffles City. I've tried almost all the items that are vegan. Will update with another post.

Starbucks

This morning, I ordered Starbucks as take away from the 'open concept cafe' at the link mall. Nothing special, but its nice to have a cup of latte on a cold rainy day.

When overseas, I try to pop by Starbucks too, not so much as to drink the coffee, but to see if the Starbucks feel any different.

a 5-storey Starbucks in Taipei

by Danshui River

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to go into any of these two cafes for a cup of coffee. But came across a Starbucks that looks even better at Wolaramirez's blog. Could you believe this is Starbucks? Note: Below photos all via Wolaramirez.

A Chinese menu that looks so much like that of a local Hong Kong cafe.

This is cute, translated into English, it means, "please shoot as you please".

Will certainly try to drop by this Starbucks at Hong Kong Central if I go Hong Kong again.

A Taipei cafe

Several years ago, I went down Wenzhou Street at Taipei to have a sip of coffee at Norweigian Wood Cafe. It was an unforgetable afternoon, sitting at a corner of the cafe flipping through a local magazine, surrounded by locals drinking coffee. Some were engrossed with a book in their hand, while others were chatting with friends in between sips. There were also those who were simply drinking coffee and smoking at the time. It was a very different culture.

Norweigian Wood has closed down some years ago. The only reason that I suddenly thought of the cafe experience at Taipei was because I came across this blog, set up by the owner of Nido. Running through the lovely pics really make a cafe lover drool. It features not only cafes in Taiwan but also Hong Kong and Japan.

image by Nido

image by Nido

Am feeling the urge to fly down to Taipei, even if it is just to stay all day long in cafes.