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Cherry-popping 2025, episode 3
While I was having my worst meal of 2025 a few months ago, I found out that Sporty Cousin had never dined at The Chairman (大班樓) and really wanted to. I wasted no time in grabbing a table so that Sporty...
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Venezuelans in Peru
I've been a fan of Virgilio Martinez's and Pia Leon's for a number of years now, ever since Virgilio took up Richard Ekkebus' invitation for a collaboration at Amber. I have, sadly, never made my way...
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Days of chewing carefully: a homey lunch
I'm back home in Taiwan for a week for my long-postponed dental surgery, and I would get just one meal between arrival last night and the dreaded procedure. Little Rabbit had recommended a place to eat...
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Days of chewing carefully: lost and found
We're meeting up with the Parental Units tonight, and we chose to check out a place not far from their home. I may or may not have dined at A Gan Bistro (阿甘小館) before, but if I did it would have been...
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Days of chewing carefully: Don't Go
We have a visitor staying with us for a few days, and this was her very first trip to Taiwan. Naturally, we were eager to introduce her to some good, authentic Taiwanese cuisine. We were sitting in a...
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Days of chewing carefully: two beef noodles
It's not surprising that whenever we are back in Taiwan, one of Foursheets' favorite things to eat is beef noodle soup. Ever since I first introduced her to Lin Dong Fang Beef Noodles (林東芳牛肉麵) back in...
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Days of chewing carefully: why so complicated?
Nowadays I don't get to see The Compatriot often, as neither of us are in Taiwan much. But he happened to be in Taipei this week so we made last-minute plans to meet up for dinner. I didn't have any...
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Days of chewing carefully: TV chef in da 'hood
I've been keeping my schedule light this month to make it easier on myself, but I had given Mr. Chichi the finger a few times too many lately, so I agreed to join him at Neighborhood tonight to meet a...
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Occupy Amber: balls, coins, and acidity
Five years ago Fish Ball left us, and since then we have taken to keeping a vegetarian diet on this day each year. And every single year at dinner time, we have stepped through the doors of Amber to...
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Metropol memories
I'm overcome with sadness. After 35 years, our friend's family has made the difficult decision to close down Metropol Restaurant (名都酒樓). While business has recovered from the tough years of 2019...
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Don't let them decant your wine
The Compatriot is making a rare overnight stop in town so he could have dinner with me, and asked for Cantonese food. We could hit one of our regular haunts for that, but I decided to try something...
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The preview
I had been helping Ms. Hurricane plan her big party, as she needed an "in" with Restaurant Petrus. Well... The Chef Who Tries to Kill Me always whines that I don't love him, that I only love Hairy...
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Different kind of Night Vibes
Monsieur Jamin has been talking about doing a massive Champagne night, which he decided to call 夜檳紛 after the laughable campaign Night Vibes Hong Kong (香港夜繽紛) by the Hong Kong government. Our friend...
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A Cristal clear evening
It has been months since that relaxing Friday lunch at Cristal Room by Anne-Sophie Pic, and once again an invitation came from B Bestie - for dinner this time. The vibe would be totally different at...
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Health check for wines
I had long heard about the re-corking events held by Penfolds, where customers bring in older bottles of wine to be checked and re-corked, but I guess I never thought I needed to do something like...
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Casual Friday
It has been a LONG time since the Specialist and I last dined together, and since we would be at the Penfolds Re-corking Clinic tonight, we figured we should catch up over dinner. We would also crack...
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Louise et maman
I've been dining out a lot this week, with a total of 4 big dinners out, and I have a brutal schedule starting the latter half of next week, so I was kinda looking forward to having a quiet night at...
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Ro ro e vino
We took advantage of DaRC being back in town for a few weeks to catch up with him and Ro Ro over dinner, and this time I proposed going somewhere that Foursheets has wanted to try for some time - Carna...
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One last dinner at Metropol
When my friend announced the impending closure of his family's Metropol Restaurant (名都酒樓) after 35 years, one of the first things that popped into my mind was to organize a dinner for a group of our...
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Avant voyage
I must admit to being a little surprised when I received an invitation to a "6-hands collaboration" in Shenzhen. Chef Alessio Durante of Opus 388 at the Mandarin Oriental Shenzhen and Chef Jerry Tian...
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When a billion people know your face
H-man is back in town for a few days, his first trip here since 10 years ago. As Rice and I took him to Neighborhood on that visit, we figured it only made sense to do the same this time around. Little...
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Sine Qua Non toast, part 10
It's been more than 2 years since this gang sat around a table and guzzled bottles of a beloved cult wine. I guess we were just all busy with our own stuff and no one got around to organize something....
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Korea wedding trip day 1: lost and found, again
We're off to Seoul for a few days - the first trip for Foursheets in 8 years - so that we can attend Mikacina's wedding. Naturally, we are taking on a few extra days so that we could sample more Korean...
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Korea wedding trip day 2: Sung Si-kyung's favorite
After a late night of working from our hotel room, I woke up to find the city wet from light rain. The first order of business was to recover my lost wallet, so we rode the same Airport Limousine back...
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Korea wedding trip day 2: not quite heaven
For those of us who don't frequent Korea, Dan Kim first came on my radar screen when Toc Toc was named "One to Watch" by Asia's 50 Best Restaurants. Mikacina's been singing his praises for a few years,...
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