Eating in bed is usually the preserve of the supine or the incapacitated, but a new establishment opened by five partners -- including Taiwan funny man Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) and Telly Liu (劉悟) -- aims to give the activity a more sophisticated slant. The bar/restaurant, open some three months, is not to be confused with a different establishment of the same name that is located behind the main shopping drag of Zhongxiao East Road.
Bed's decoration lies somewhere between opulent and exorbitant. Over three floors there are several seating arrangements decked out in a melange of Eastern styles and there is a lot of faux fur: VIP rooms with either sunken or raised seating, for which there is a minimum charge of NT$6,000 to NT$8,000, traditional dining tables and chairs and a small dining room that looks like an Indian safari camp.
On the first floor is a large sofa that is shaped like a plume of feathers and which wouldn't look out of place in an Ali Baba pantomime. Behind the stairs leading up to the second floor there is a selection of hookahs imported from Egypt. A range of aromatic tobacco is on offer ranging from the "special" at NT$1,500 to various fruit flavors, including strawberry at NT$500.
PHOTO: STEVE PRICE, TAIPEI TIMES
The mix-and-match decoration reflects the menu, which features dishes from Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. This is a fusion restaurant so many of the recipes have been augmented. The shrimp green curry was served with a thicker sauce than the Thai staple -- and the heat had been turned down considerably. Other Thai options include green papaya salad and tom yum soup. The Thai-style raw shrimp comes highly recommended. "Like angels dancing on my tongue," commented one diner.
Fusion cuisine has come in for some bad press over the last few years for being over the top and too contrived, but The Bed doesn't tinker too much with the formula. Seafood features on the menu, with steamed lemon fish, crab vermicelli pot and spicy stir-fried squid. The three-flavor fish served with a sweet and sour chilli sauce is deep fried until the flesh becomes slightly chewy.
As it serves food until 2am The Bed is a good option for combining dining with imbibing and late night revelry. There is a DJ booth and the manager plans to change the layout on the first floor to make space for a small dance floor.
A vaccine to fight dementia? It turns out there may already be one — shots that prevent painful shingles also appear to protect aging brains. A new study found shingles vaccination cut older adults’ risk of developing dementia over the next seven years by 20 percent. The research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is part of growing understanding about how many factors influence brain health as we age — and what we can do about it. “It’s a very robust finding,” said lead researcher Pascal Geldsetzer of Stanford University. And “women seem to benefit more,” important as they’re at higher risk of
Eric Finkelstein is a world record junkie. The American’s Guinness World Records include the largest flag mosaic made from table tennis balls, the longest table tennis serve and eating at the most Michelin-starred restaurants in 24 hours in New York. Many would probably share the opinion of Finkelstein’s sister when talking about his records: “You’re a lunatic.” But that’s not stopping him from his next big feat, and this time he is teaming up with his wife, Taiwanese native Jackie Cheng (鄭佳祺): visit and purchase a
April 7 to April 13 After spending over two years with the Republic of China (ROC) Army, A-Mei (阿美) boarded a ship in April 1947 bound for Taiwan. But instead of walking on board with his comrades, his roughly 5-tonne body was lifted using a cargo net. He wasn’t the only elephant; A-Lan (阿蘭) and A-Pei (阿沛) were also on board. The trio had been through hell since they’d been captured by the Japanese Army in Myanmar to transport supplies during World War II. The pachyderms were seized by the ROC New 1st Army’s 30th Division in January 1945, serving
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) last week offered us a glimpse of the violence it plans against Taiwan, with two days of blockade drills conducted around the nation and live-fire exercises not far away in the East China Sea. The PRC said it had practiced hitting “simulated targets of key ports and energy facilities.” Taiwan confirmed on Thursday that PRC Coast Guard ships were directed by the its Eastern Theater Command, meaning that they are assumed to be military assets in a confrontation. Because of this, the number of assets available to the PRC navy is far, far bigger
RSS