Everyone loves chickpeas whether they know it or not, and the newly opened Sababa is spreading the love with its pita bar, serving up authentic falafel and hummus dishes "with a twist."
The Middle East-themed restaurant in the student area of town near Heping East Road had its opening party last month and there are already plans to expand the concept to other outlets in Taipei and beyond.
Freshly baked pita is the starting point of the operation and the wheat flatbread made with yeast appears on most of the menu items.
It wraps the crispy, herb and chickpea falafel balls that go with hummus, tahini and chopped salad in the falafel pita. It also goes with the best-selling chicken souvlaki, which is set off by a refreshing yogurt sauce. All pita sandwiches cost NT$88.
The "platas" for NT$158 also have pita slices and include hummus with Moroccan beef and pine nuts; baked chicken, chips and Lebanese salad; and eggplant salads with homemade yogurt cheese or hummus and falafel balls.
Moroccan cigars (NT$58) are a Sababa innovation, wrapping cheddar cheese or beef in a spring roll envelope. Drinks include mint tea, "wobbly pop" and the must-try sangria (NT$88), which is a mix of red and white wines, tropical fruit juice and spices.
"This is the beginning of something special," says owner Greg Walsh, who's from Canada and started the dining bar Citizen Cain four years ago. "Sababa is not just a restaurant, it's a trend, a place to eat, drink and socialize with friends."
Behind the scenes and in the kitchen, business partner and pop musician Tomer Feldman says he makes "the best Middle-Eastern food in town. It's authentic with a twist." The Israeli worked as a chef in New York and becomes lyrical when he talks about converting the humble chickpea into hummus by blending it with his homemade tahini paste made from ground sesame seeds, olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. He brings out a big bowl of the dark paste and insists we try some. It's still frothy fresh and has an intensely rich flavor.
"We have a love and passion for our food that you can taste," Feldman says. "We brought the kitchen to the front of the restaurant, so you can see us making it. There's nothing to hide. We also encourage people to eat with their hands because it makes the experience more sociable."
As for the ambiance, attention to detail and some tasteful touches — such as mosaic lights, Middle Eastern pictures and rugs — make Sababa a pleasant venue to hang out in. The service is efficient and comes with a smile. The prices are hard to beat.
In Taiwan there are two economies: the shiny high tech export economy epitomized by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and its outsized effect on global supply chains, and the domestic economy, driven by construction and powered by flows of gravel, sand and government contracts. The latter supports the former: we can have an economy without TSMC, but we can’t have one without construction. The labor shortage has heavily impacted public construction in Taiwan. For example, the first phase of the MRT Wanda Line in Taipei, originally slated for next year, has been pushed back to 2027. The government
July 22 to July 28 The Love River’s (愛河) four-decade run as the host of Kaohsiung’s annual dragon boat races came to an abrupt end in 1971 — the once pristine waterway had become too polluted. The 1970 event was infamous for the putrid stench permeating the air, exacerbated by contestants splashing water and sludge onto the shore and even the onlookers. The relocation of the festivities officially marked the “death” of the river, whose condition had rapidly deteriorated during the previous decade. The myriad factories upstream were only partly to blame; as Kaohsiung’s population boomed in the 1960s, all household
Allegations of corruption against three heavyweight politicians from the three major parties are big in the news now. On Wednesday, prosecutors indicted Hsinchu County Commissioner Yang Wen-ke (楊文科) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), a judgment is expected this week in the case involving Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and former deputy premier and Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is being held incommunicado in prison. Unlike the other two cases, Cheng’s case has generated considerable speculation, rumors, suspicions and conspiracy theories from both the pan-blue and pan-green camps.
Stepping inside Waley Art (水谷藝術) in Taipei’s historic Wanhua District (萬華區) one leaves the motorcycle growl and air-conditioner purr of the street and enters a very different sonic realm. Speakers hiss, machines whir and objects chime from all five floors of the shophouse-turned- contemporary art gallery (including the basement). “It’s a bit of a metaphor, the stacking of gallery floors is like the layering of sounds,” observes Australian conceptual artist Samuel Beilby, whose audio installation HZ & Machinic Paragenesis occupies the ground floor of the gallery space. He’s not wrong. Put ‘em in a Box (我們把它都裝在一個盒子裡), which runs until Aug. 18, invites