I must confess that I broke a vow made a few years back never to step foot again into Alleycat’s. My last experience in the claustrophobic and crypt-like atmosphere of its branch located a stone’s throw from Yongkang Street (永康街) saw an angry chef repeatedly berating a server over some indiscretion — one that was perhaps deserved because the service was terrible (though the food was excellent).
Fast forward a few years and I happened past the chain’s recently opened location in Huashan 1914 Creative Park
(華山1914), where large calzone-shaped casement windows exuded soft light. Tempted by the ambiance and the deliciously pungent smell of baking, I broke my covenant.
The expansive interior, with its vaulted ceilings and open-spaced concept, consists of two rooms separated by a long bar. The walls are painted mustard yellow with patches of exposed brick, and the windows are ideal for watching the hustle and bustle of the open market (on weekends) outside.
Behind the bar, patrons can watch cooks roll, dress and bake pizzas and calzones. Two arches to the right of the long bar act as the gateway to the second dining room above, which sports a partial replica of Michelangelo’s fresco The Creation of Adam, rounding out the Mediterranean vibe that the restaurant does well to cultivate.
As I was losing myself in the architectural largesse, the caprese salad (NT$180) arrived. Sliced tomatoes and fresh mozzarella were alternately stacked on a small plate, and it was seasoned with lemon juice, olive oil and cracked pepper and sprinkled with slivers of fresh basil.
Like the Tower of Pisa it replicates in miniature form, however, it was slightly awry. More to the point, the salad was not so much daubed but drenched in olive oil, effectively drowning out the delicate flavors of the tomato, cheese and basil. Perhaps a little less oil and a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar would lighten up this heavy starter.
But everything fell into place with the vegetarian pizza (NT$330 for 10-inch; NT$360 for 12-inch). Alleycat’s takes its dough seriously. Made from scratch, it is assembled as ordered and cooked in a stone oven.
The mural of black olives, green peppers, tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms and artichoke hearts was evenly arranged on a thin crust with just the right amount of mozzarella cheese and marinara sauce. The crust was expertly cooked to a golden brown on the edges and remained soft and chewy toward the center.
The calzone (NT$350) was also a triumph. Served with a Caesar salad and marinara sauce on the side, the pastry’s innards were a gooey mixture of spinach and ricotta cheese infused with aromatic spices.
And the service? No angry chefs here, and my water glass was kept full even though the place was packed.
The restaurant also has a large outside patio that is perfect for slinging back a few ciders or glasses of Hoegaarden draught (both NT$120 for a half pint or NT$220 for a pint).
On the final approach to Lanshan Workstation (嵐山工作站), logging trains crossed one last gully over a dramatic double bridge, taking the left line to enter the locomotive shed or the right line to continue straight through, heading deeper into the Central Mountains. Today, hikers have to scramble down a steep slope into this gully and pass underneath the rails, still hanging eerily in the air even after the bridge’s supports collapsed long ago. It is the final — but not the most dangerous — challenge of a tough two-day hike in. Back when logging was still underway, it was a quick,
From censoring “poisonous books” to banning “poisonous languages,” the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) tried hard to stamp out anything that might conflict with its agenda during its almost 40 years of martial law. To mark 228 Peace Memorial Day, which commemorates the anti-government uprising in 1947, which was violently suppressed, I visited two exhibitions detailing censorship in Taiwan: “Silenced Pages” (禁書時代) at the National 228 Memorial Museum and “Mandarin Monopoly?!” (請說國語) at the National Human Rights Museum. In both cases, the authorities framed their targets as “evils that would threaten social mores, national stability and their anti-communist cause, justifying their actions
In the run-up to World War II, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of Abwehr, Nazi Germany’s military intelligence service, began to fear that Hitler would launch a war Germany could not win. Deeply disappointed by the sell-out of the Munich Agreement in 1938, Canaris conducted several clandestine operations that were aimed at getting the UK to wake up, invest in defense and actively support the nations Hitler planned to invade. For example, the “Dutch war scare” of January 1939 saw fake intelligence leaked to the British that suggested that Germany was planning to invade the Netherlands in February and acquire airfields
Taiwanese chip-making giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) plans to invest a whopping US$100 billion in the US, after US President Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on overseas-made chips. TSMC is the world’s biggest maker of the critical technology that has become the lifeblood of the global economy. This week’s announcement takes the total amount TSMC has pledged to invest in the US to US$165 billion, which the company says is the “largest single foreign direct investment in US history.” It follows Trump’s accusations that Taiwan stole the US chip industry and his threats to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent
RSS