If you've passed by any of Cafe Onion's four locations around the dinner hour, you've likely seen a gaggle of gawkers outside looking through the large windows at the lucky ones already inside eating. The gawkers aren't simply waiting, they're hovering at the door like a choir of drooling carolers. Curious to know if it was worth the wait, I joined this group outside the Onion's Fuxing store this past week. Suffice to say, I'll be joining it again.
Onion is a steak house and the line outside is kept in rapt anticipation because of the aroma. It's the smell of a well-seasoned grill hard at work and each time the door is opened, the smell rushes onto the street, stopping traffic and pulling more people into the queue.
PHOTO CREDIT: DAVID MOMPHARD, TAIPEI TIMES
The inside is made up to look like the boarding house saloons of the young American West and, combined with the smell, helps build your anticipation. The letdown comes -- however briefly -- when you're handed the menu. It's the kind that carries an unappetizing picture of each item with its name and a price below. It's a letdown because it hardly looks like what you imagined you've been smelling all along.
What's more, at my 7pm visit, the menu I was handed had two steaks -- the top sirloin and their New York strip -- taped over with a sign that read "sold out." But it wasn't newly taped over. Rather, it looked as though they'd stopped serving these cuts a long time ago and were lying on their menu.
Turns out it wasn't a lie.
They sell out of the sirloin and New York every night, my waiter explained. "So we have two sets of menus and hand out these when those steaks are gone. It's more efficient that way."
I understood what she meant about efficiency after I'd ordered a filet mignon set meal. Each course came promptly after finishing the previous item and was freshly prepared. The exception was the French onion soup, which seemed to have withered under a heat lamp. The filet itself, though, was excellent. It came with steamed okra and a delicious caramelized sweet potato that could have passed as dessert.
It's Onion's steaks that cause the queue out front. They're also the reason I'll be returning (though I may arrive earlier to see why that sirloin and New York strip always sell out).
April 14 to April 20 In March 1947, Sising Katadrepan urged the government to drop the “high mountain people” (高山族) designation for Indigenous Taiwanese and refer to them as “Taiwan people” (台灣族). He considered the term derogatory, arguing that it made them sound like animals. The Taiwan Provincial Government agreed to stop using the term, stating that Indigenous Taiwanese suffered all sorts of discrimination and oppression under the Japanese and were forced to live in the mountains as outsiders to society. Now, under the new regime, they would be seen as equals, thus they should be henceforth
Last week, the the National Immigration Agency (NIA) told the legislature that more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) risked having their citizenship revoked if they failed to provide proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration within the next three months. Renunciation is required under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), as amended in 2004, though it was only a legal requirement after 2000. Prior to that, it had been only an administrative requirement since the Nationality Act (國籍法) was established in
With over 80 works on display, this is Louise Bourgeois’ first solo show in Taiwan. Visitors are invited to traverse her world of love and hate, vengeance and acceptance, trauma and reconciliation. Dominating the entrance, the nine-foot-tall Crouching Spider (2003) greets visitors. The creature looms behind the glass facade, symbolic protector and gatekeeper to the intimate journey ahead. Bourgeois, best known for her giant spider sculptures, is one of the most influential artist of the twentieth century. Blending vulnerability and defiance through themes of sexuality, trauma and identity, her work reshaped the landscape of contemporary art with fearless honesty. “People are influenced by
The remains of this Japanese-era trail designed to protect the camphor industry make for a scenic day-hike, a fascinating overnight hike or a challenging multi-day adventure Maolin District (茂林) in Kaohsiung is well known for beautiful roadside scenery, waterfalls, the annual butterfly migration and indigenous culture. A lesser known but worthwhile destination here lies along the very top of the valley: the Liugui Security Path (六龜警備道). This relic of the Japanese era once isolated the Maolin valley from the outside world but now serves to draw tourists in. The path originally ran for about 50km, but not all of this trail is still easily walkable. The nicest section for a simple day hike is the heavily trafficked southern section above Maolin and Wanshan (萬山) villages. Remains of
RSS