The opening of the Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant is something that beer lovers should applaud, as it features a new range of beers to be freshly made at a new brewery in Sindian, Taipei County. These beers will be naturally fermented and will contain only natural ingredients, in full accord with Germany’s “beer purity law” of 1516, which stands as the cornerstone of boutique brewing to this day.
“This is the first time we haven’t had a brewery right in the restaurant,” said Dan Gordon, who was in Taipei to oversee the opening of his first outlet outside the US. The beers tend to be on the light side. The Hefeweizen, a refreshing beer with a hint of yeast, and the Marzen, a dark amber larger with hints of burnt caramel, contrast nicely with what is generally available on the market. The dark Scharzbier may leave Guinness drinkers a tad underwhelmed, but is an excellent stepping-stone to the dark side for those who find stouts a little overpowering. A new seasonal beer will be brewed every quarter, providing variety to the lineup. “It also makes things interesting for the brewers,” said Gordon.
As to the food, Gordon described it as “anything that goes well with beer.” It’s a little more than that, with some good variations on diner favorites. The BBQ ribs (NT$830 for a rack; NT$490 for a half rack) are as good as you’ll get elsewhere, especially as they come with the joint’s signature garlic fries and a Thai-style salad. Not everything is as successful: the pulled pork sandwich (NT$350) is a bit of a disappointment for the price, even if you can handle the over-refined American fast-food style bun. But the warm apple bread pudding (NT$250) is gloriously stodgy, the perfect comfort food for late evenings when the munchies hit.
PHOTO COURTESY OF GORDON BIERSCH BREWERY RESTAURANT
Despite the beer, beef and fries atmosphere, there are plenty of dishes on the menu to tempt more delicate palates. The hummus and goat cheese salad (NT$360, and an extra NT$90 if you want it topped with char-grilled salmon) was highly praised by a vegetarian diner.
The food, while it has its own twist with hints of Asia and the American South West, is too similar to locations such as Dan Ryan’s, Outback Steakhouse or TGI Fridays to really get anyone too excited. Gordon Biersch will live or die by how well its beer is received. At NT$210 for a standard glass, it is reasonably priced, and if you are worried about finding yourself under the table before the end of the evening, a beer sampler (NT$230) is available to get you through the whole range of draft beers without ill effects.
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
Three big changes have transformed the landscape of Taiwan’s local patronage factions: Increasing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) involvement, rising new factions and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) significantly weakened control. GREEN FACTIONS It is said that “south of the Zhuoshui River (濁水溪), there is no blue-green divide,” meaning that from Yunlin County south there is no difference between KMT and DPP politicians. This is not always true, but there is more than a grain of truth to it. Traditionally, DPP factions are viewed as national entities, with their primary function to secure plum positions in the party and government. This is not unusual
US President Donald Trump’s bid to take back control of the Panama Canal has put his counterpart Jose Raul Mulino in a difficult position and revived fears in the Central American country that US military bases will return. After Trump vowed to reclaim the interoceanic waterway from Chinese influence, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an agreement with the Mulino administration last week for the US to deploy troops in areas adjacent to the canal. For more than two decades, after handing over control of the strategically vital waterway to Panama in 1999 and dismantling the bases that protected it, Washington has
RSS