More Taipei 101 today. For lunch, I tried a different stall.
This time I got fried pork with miscellaneous vegetables, came with a side of
rice and soup, and inexplicably, a fried egg. The presentation was pretty
awesome, especially for a fast-food stand – the meal came out on a metal plate,
still actively sizzling, and that was set into a wooden frame placed on the
meal tray. Unfortunately, the food a bit of a let-down, especially considering
the presentation and now good the other meals I’ve had here were. It reminded
me of airline food. The vegetables looked (and tasted) like the cubed carrots
and green peas that you get out of the freezer bag, and the pork was bland and
dry. However, on the way out of the food court for lunch, we had a few minutes
to kill, so we wandered into the toy store.
While I was there, I saw things
both creepy and awesome (and every combination of the two). Along with every
Gundam and Pokemon type of thing ever, they had a great selection of Legos, R/C
cars, plus a healthy dose of Japanese “kawaii” toys (think Hello Kitty and
other cutesy things).
The creepy stuff was this doll called Blythe which has
a disproportionately large head and big anime-style eyes. Now that might make
you think of the Bratz dolls, but apparently in that case, the creepy is overpowered
by the slutty. This doll isn’t tarted up, so basically it ends up being something
that kinda belongs in a knock-off Chucky movie – you know, you hear a noise
from the closet, open the closet door and the doll is silently staring at you,
so you throw it away, and the next day it shows up on your doorstep, staring at
you through the window, and when you turn your back, it turns out to be
hell-bent on your death and dismemberment? Yeah, kinda like that...
Also, they had these very weird knock-off Mickey and Minnie Mouse dolls that kind of looked like they cross-bred those characters with a robotic clown. Apparently they’re called “cubic mouth” and
they may not actually be a knock-off:
And last but not least… Manchhichi’s still exist! This store had an entire wall
of them, all in different costumes.
Dinner tonight had a benefactor, so while it was still at Taipei
101, this one went a good bit more upscale. We went to a place called DiamondTony’s, which is on the 85th floor. This is one of the destination
restaurants in Taipei, owing to the view and to the high-quality ingredients
featured. The meal choices were all “sets” where you would choose from a list
of soup, cold appetizer, hot appetizer, entrée, and dessert. They started at
NT$3500 ($100US) and went up from there. My set had Lobster Bisque, a sashimi plate,
quail with truffle, and the entrée was an Australian Waygu beef ribeye. Waygu
beef is beef made in the style of Kobe beef, but not actually from the Kobe
region of Japan, so like Kobe beef, it’s supposed to be the best beef you’ll
ever have – extremely tender and flavorful. You’d think that with the
combination of a view of Taipei from the 85th floor and a meal like
that, I’d be listing this among the top 5 dinners I’d ever had and raving about
it for a long time to come. I feel almost guilty to say that actually, it was a
bit disappointing. The quail was good, but mostly tasted like chicken, and the
beef was very tender, but it was also quite under-seasoned even after I used
the provided pink sea salt, and was not particularly well-seared. So generally,
you might say that this is a restaurant known for its atmosphere and its view
than for its food. As far as the view goes… This time of year, it’s very Seattle-like
in Taipei. While the weather is warm, in the 70s, this week it has been almost
constantly drizzling, interrupted with brief periods of actual rain. As a
result, most days, we haven’t even been able to see the top of Taipei 101 from
the street. It was similarly clouded-in during dinner, so the view was mostly
like eating inside of a cloud. You could see some of the city if you walked
right over to the window, but otherwise not so much. The folks I ate with are
good friends, so we had a great time either way.
One thing that was of note at
this restaurant – it had without a doubt the coolest bathroom I’ve ever had the
pleasure of using. The bathroom itself is quite modern and clean in design, but
that’s not the interesting part. It is in a corner of the building, probably
where an executive corner office would be if this was a corporate space, so it,
like the rest of the space, is lined with windows.
The urinals are on a
half-wall facing the windows, so, you get a fantastic view whilst availing
yourself of the facilities, especially on the one side, where there are windows
to your left as well. I can’t imagine what it’s like when the building isn’t
fogged in...
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