In March, Taipei's two German restaurants called Schwarzwald -- one on Wenzhou Street, one on Yongkang Street -- parted ways and the Yongkang branch changed its name to Oma Ursel Cafe Restaurant and moved to Fuxing N Road, but retained its manager Chiu Dai-yu (邱岱玉) and the cooking staff, who have made it one of the few authentic German eateries in town over the past four years. The new name is a tribute to Chiu's German mother-in-law, whom she credits for teaching her everything she knows about German cuisine -- -- and one look at the menu will show that she's learned a huge amount.
Oma Ursel's tries to incorporate three elements of German food into its menu: home-style cooking of the kind taught by the restaurant's namesake, regional specialties and new flavors that have been incorporated into the national palette during recent decades. The result is a selection of dishes that is representative of current German cuisine without limiting itself to cliched Teutonic specialties.
Recently, Chiu has been enthusiastically promoting the restaurant's five choices of sausage, all of which are made on the premises. Less ambitious diners can choose two from among the bratwurst, cheese wurst, spicy wurst, white wurst and gyro wurst, or the brave can attempt all five. The stand-outs are the bratwurst and spicy wurst, while the gyro wurst in tatziki sauce is well worth a try to sample one of the flavors that Chiu said has become integral to German cuisine since the arrival of immigrants from Greece and Turkey.
PHOTO: MAX WOODWORTH, TAIPEI TIMES
Along with the sausages, diners eager for authentic fare should try the Wiener schnitzel, baked trout, or the chicken cordon bleu. This last dish is an absolute highlight, with plentiful cheese melted in the middle of the breaded, wrapped and fried chicken filet and pork. The cooks have deftly avoided over-breading to allow the flavors of the meat and cheese to come through while adding a pleasant crisp texture.
In the blazing summer months, when sausages and meats may be less appealing to some diners, the lighter fare on offer includes meal-size salads and a long list of vegetarian dishes, including the house's own vegetarian meatloaf, as well as light and low-priced lunch specials like spaetzle (fried homemade egg noodles) and seafood spaghetti. These go down especially well with a glass of Alsterwasser -- a half-and-half mix of beer and Sprite named for the lake in the center of Hamburg.
All of the restaurant's main dishes are served as set menus with decent portions of side orders that include sauerkraut, spaetzle, potato noodles or speck (braised potatoes, onions and bacon), salad, tomato and bacon soup, a slice of cake and coffee or tea. It's important to save space for the restaurant's homemade cakes, as no German meal would be complete without a slice, but you'll need the coffee (steer clear of the milk teas) or the remainder of your wheat beer to get down the apple tart, as it's quite dry.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
RSS