1995 mercurey

Since the 1994 mercurey was so good, I decided to try the 1995.  The bottle cost a bit more-- NT$1250.  It was a bit more tannic, and I think would be better in about 5 years.  Nevertheless, still worth the price.  If only I had a wine fridge to store it for the next 5 years....

oversized sushi @ 三味食堂日式料理

三味食堂日式料理 (San-wei, three flavors) is an old Japanese restaurant in one of the oldest Taipei districts.  The line for this place is about 45 minutes long, even at 8:30pm.  Which is amazing when you consider that this is a city where most people dine at 6pm.  And there's a reason for the line.  The value you get for the low prices are incredible.  What you don't get is presentation.  The plate of sashimi below is only NT$200 (~US$6), whereas it would cost 3 times that for 1/2 the amount, anywhere else in the city.

typical taiwanese midnight snack

i love going for midnight snacks.  after the milonga/birthday party on sunday, we decided to go for some food.  the place, whose name translates to "anonymous", serves all types of taiwanese cuisine, and is open all night.  you pick a bunch of plates (they're very tapas-like), and everyone shares them.   the base fee is NT$25 (less than US$1) for all you can eat yam porridge and the total came out to NT$150 (US$5) per person

アカヤガラ (aka-yagara/red-arrow) fish

In the states, you get very generic fish-- tuna, salmon, yellowtail, red snapper.  well, not generic, but.. common.  in a place like taiwan, the varieties of fish are amazing.  so sometimes you go to a restaurant and they tell you that they have some fresh fish, and they can make it 2 (or 3) ways-- sashimi, grilled, and soup, you go for it.  at the end of august, we tried a white fish that turned out to be quite tasty.  so we didn't hesitate this time around when the yakitoriya suggested the yakara (chinese: ma-bien) fish (despite never having heard of it).  the fish is quite unique, with an elongated beak, and a small mouth at the end.  the body is thin and long.  and it can only be line-caught, because it can break through nets.  the sashimi came from the mid-section.  while fresh, the meat was a bit coarse and rough.  the grilled portion came from the tail.  its texture became like that of swordfish.  perfect when drizzled with lemon, salt, pepper.  the soup can from the head.  they chopped the beak into small pieces and cooked it in a ginger seaweed soup.  trying to eat the meat off of the pieces of beak was very similar to eating snake meat.  would i order this fish again?  probably not, as it's not suited for either soup or sashimi.  but it was a great experience (and not a bad deal either, at NT780 (~US$26)).




update: The fish is a fistularia, or cornetfish.  (wikipedia, youtube)

Sashimi presentation (with both head and tail)

Closeup of head

Grilled tail

Soup (with chopped pieces of beak)