大正浪漫 - Japanese

Address: No.1, Lane.30, Sec.1 Fuxing S. Road, Zhongshan District. 

Telephone: (02)2772-0680

Hours: Mon-Sat: 12-2:30PM; 6-9:30PM

(Again dear reader, I would just like you to know that until May of 2013, my posts will be few and far between due to the mandatory military service required of me in Taiwan.  If you like what you see however, please check back often and eventually I hope to not leave you disappointed.  Thanks!)

Heaven knows I love to eat my Japanese food (sushi/sashimi in particularly), but I'm beginning to dread writing about it almost as much.  That isn't to say I have nothing to say or opinions to form, it is just that it has become increasing difficult to say something NEW about these sorts of establishments.  I think I'm even repeating myself with this particular complaint.   But really, if I have to repeat myself in my description of a solidly crafted piece of fish... then so be it.  Although the quality and style may tend to blend together in some of these higher end Japanese restaurants, you never know what may surprise you and hit you from left field.  All it takes is one dish to smack you soundly to leave an impression.  Okay.. back to our regularly scheduled program of pictures and words.

Came to 大正浪漫 with the family in the hopes of reintroducing my taste buds to proper food after the beginning of basic training.  Was 大正浪漫 successful in that daunting goal? I answer with a resounding.. kind of.  I found things to be very hit or miss at 大正浪漫 and while our meal was dotted with many highs, there was also enough lows to make me reconsider coming back. I think I've wasted enough of your time with my usual nonsense... let's get to it.

Simple salad to start.

I found this particular combination to be a bit jumbled and disjointed in both taste and appearance.

Enjoyed this platter very much.  Some halibut, hamachi, scallop and other assorted fish brethren.

The first few courses of our omakase was a bit disjointed in my opinion.  The salad was entirely too plain without hardly a drop of flavor, and while I enjoyed many of the elements of the second platter, as a whole, I thought it didn't appeal to me visually and the textures were a mismatch in style and flavors.  

This seemed to be something that 大正浪漫 seemed to enjoy doing as opposed to many other sushi restaurants I've been to in Taiwan.  Instead of presenting each dish individually, many courses were brought out together on a plate.  I like the idea of this, but the execution can lead to mixed results.  The plate can sometimes seem too cluttered and if rushed, I feel like the end of the meal can arrive just a bit too soon.  Perhaps the same amount of food will have been consumed, but it just simply won't feel that way.  Its true.. our minds are bastards who constantly mess with us.

 Delicious

Steamed egg with fish.

Typically I focus on the sashimi and sushi portion of my meal when I choose to order from the omakase menu at Japanese restaurants, but really, the cooked portions are just as important in balancing out the palette and filling out your stomach.  Without the heartier cooked food, there would be no question that I could never be full from ordering omakase... or if I somehow did manage to achieve fullness, there would most likely be a crater sized dent in my wallet.  

I enjoyed the cooked food for the most part at 大正浪漫, and thought that the pacing of the dishes was good, as there was enough time in between courses to digest.  

 Simple Tempura with salt.

 The best things of the meal were located on this plate.  Yum (uni wrapped toro, amaebi)

The finisher... almost like a dessert chirashi of sorts.

Looking at the pictures and thinking again about each course at 大正浪漫, I might have been a bit off in my initial assessment of this restaurant.  Other than one or two dishes that weren't to my liking (albeit prepared well), I don't really have much of a gripe with 大正浪漫.  Perhaps it was the presentation of a few platters and some other internal matters that seemed to have swayed me from a clearer view of the food here, but whatever it is.. upon further review.. 大正浪漫 seems to be a real winner.

The tempura was nothing to write home about, but like i said, it was there to serve a purpose of rounding out the meal and it did that well.  The course with the sweet shrimp and uni wrapped with toro was clearly my favorite as apparently the price of the item correlates directly with my enjoyment of it.  As a group, we couldn't get enough of the uni and toro combo and proceeded to add a few extra a la carte.  They came out to about 400-500NT a piece and our omakase was 1800NT.  This is on the expensive end of their package options as omakase options range from 800 and up at 大正浪漫

I also thoroughly enjoyed the chirashi, as it was both a marvel to eat and look at.  My only complaint was that why the fact that I couldn't super size it.  

 A la carte uni/toro

 extra order of fish eggs over rice for the niece

simple dessert finish.

 大正浪漫 offers a nice modern atmosphere mixed in with some tradition Japanese art.  I enjoyed the lighting and the little entry way area.  We ate at a table instead of at the bar, so I am unable to relate the experience of engaging in banter with the chef (an enjoyable part of eating at these sort of restaurants, and they often offer specialties when eating at the bar).  The service staff was friendly, although perhaps not always present, as I occasionally had to hunt them down to put in an extra order or ask for more tea.  

As you can see, I changed my opinion about  大正浪漫 mid-post, and now think that it is definitely worthy of a return engagement to see which opinion I formed is the true one.  I'm not sure if  大正浪漫 does enough to differentiate itself from the myriad of high end Japanese restaurants, but that's perfectly fine.  The place was warm and inviting, and offered excellent food.. that's all I can really ask for.

Overall  大正浪漫 receives:

-Til Next Time-

Eddy's Cantina

Address: Lane.450, Alley.3, No.1 , Zhong shan Road (Tienmu), Taipei, Taiwan

Telephone: (02)2873-7612

Hours: Mon:11:30-9:00; Wed-Sun:11:30-9:00

So I guess the search will have to continue.  When asked about my move back to Taiwan from a life spent in America, I will always offer up what I miss most from the place I called home.  It begins with my friends of course, then takes a turn on the highway to longing for those private drives where your eyes can just stare down the road without the fear of a school of motorcycles descending upon you and acting like you're a stationary object.  

That's all well and good, but for the purposes of this blog and for you dear reader, what's important is what I miss next, and that is the otherworldly Mexican food that seems to exist in all corners of California.  I grew up in San Diego (where our Mexican brethren treated the border like an invisible line) where the Mexican food was just absolutely sublime.  Cheap, hearty, and full of flavors, the Mexican population of my adopted home really knew how to make a mean burrito.  

I guess I never truly appreciated the difficulty of making profound, soul shaking burritos and tacos until I ventured further and further away from San Diego.  Suffice to say that Taiwan is a long ways away from the beaches of Southern California, and while the food here is completely amazing in so many ways, the Mexican cuisine I've had up until now is utterly lacking.  Eddy's Cantina serves perfectly acceptable fare, but from what I heard from the mouths of others before venturing there myself, I had expected I had finally found my oasis in the barren landscape.  I was wrong, and like I said.. the search continues.   Let's get down to business.  

Nachos and little refreshment.  

Eddy's Cantina is located in Tien Mu (天母) where the streets are filled with the footsteps of foreigners.  I remember thinking when I was younger that Tien Mu is where most of the foreigners in Taiwan lived, and perhaps that was true at one point, but through the years, and with the proliferation of English teaching institutions, the population of foreigners seem to be more evenly distributed throughout the city and country.  I bring this up because the location of Eddy's now seems to be a bit out of the way, whereas once it would have made perfect sense.  For many people, hiking it out all the way to Tien Mu is quite the journey, so while there is a nice built in audience for their cuisine in Tien Mu, Eddy's is cutting itself from a new younger crowd by being where it is situated... just a thought.

Soft Tacos

Mexican food is beautiful in its simplicity.  I'm not sure whether to be critical in their lack of ingredients or to applaud because on occasion just those few ingredients are enough to make a dish sing.  Tortilla, Meat, cheese, tomatoes, beans, rice, lettuce, onions.. and really... that is about it.  Sure, I'm definitely making a point by exaggerating a little, but.. it really is only a slight exaggeration.

But you know what? It doesn't matter, because making simple food taste awesome is the highest complement that can really be achieved in cooking.  To be honest, I don't know what it is that separates the run of the mill Mexican food from the ones that make your mouth water and your taste buds rejoice, but there is definitely something.. and you'd figure it wouldn't be so hard to figure it out.  It is probably in the freshness of the ingredients, the way the colors work together, the smell.. basically you just want to be attacked by your senses all at once.  I apologize and am somewhat embarrassed to be waxing poetic about what amounts to a meat log... but that's how much I miss awesome Mexican food, and I long for it to exist here in Taiwan.

Burrito

Now let's get into some specifics about Eddy's and why is it that I find their particular creations to be perfectly tasty, but still altogether lacking in some crucial areas.  The simplest is in the presentation of the food itself.  I just thought that Eddy's food didn't look visually stunning, I realize we are talking about simple Mexican food here, and if I was getting it to go, there would be no such gripe, but when i'm dining in at a mexican restaurant... the cheese should be melting over the meats, and the colors should be vibrant and bright.  The food just looked slightly dead on arrival and somewhat bulky.. if that is the right choice of words.  There seemed to be a bad ratio between tortilla and ingredients that didn't made me go ooooh~ at first glance.

The nachos and quesadilla were pedestrian and this type of quality can easily be found in any sports bar or TGIFs.  But then again, nachos and quesadillas are just fillers and are almost always decent where ever you have them, the bigger problem I had was with Eddy's burrito, because to me.. a burrito is what makes or breaks your average Mexican restaurant.  First off, it was flat.. and not nearly spherical enough.  There was too much rice, and the meat was not grilled very well and was somehow simultaneously a bit too soggy yet dry (due to the heavy handedness of the beans and rice most likely).  To sum it up even quicker, I found the burrito at Eddy's the be the most singular disappointment of the night, and while I accept everything else was on a sliding scale from decent to good in taste, the burrito really left me feeling cold.

Hard shelled tacos (best thing we had) and quesadilla.

Even with all the negativity I spewed in Eddy's direction, the truth of the matter is that I would most certainly return, but that speaks to the current state of Mexican food in Taiwan, and not to the quality of their food.  The restaurant itself is decorated simply in colors that you associate with Mexico.  There is a nice little outside patio area where we sat for our meal, but really, I would've been much happier squatting in the corner holding a flash light to see what I was eating as long as the food was up to the quality that I yearn for.  

I am fully aware that oceans and miles separate me from my childhood, but somethings you cling onto because there is no point in forgoing them because it can easily be replicated if it was just done right.  So many cuisines have been brought here to Taiwan over the last decade or two, and they have been done with the excellence that they deserve.  So this is why I will keep looking and praying that under the next rock, I'll find a carne asada burrito that I can savor fully, because I refuse to believe that if other worldly fare can be done right.. then so can the simple burrito.  Sadly, today was not that day.

Overall Eddy's Cantina receives:

-Til Next Time-