Jean-Paul Hévin - Taiwan, Taipei 101 Branch

Taiwan is famous for its local food, let it be shaved ice, stinky tofu, pork chop rice, beef noodles, and the list goes on. But that's not just it. Visitors around the world flocked into Taiwan not only for its traditional charm, but also for its growing international vibe.

Taipei 101, the fairly new landmark of Taiwan since 2004 sits in the heart of Taiwan's capital Taipei. Besides offices and financial institutions, a big portion of Taipei 101 is designed as shopping area, food court, and restaurants.

Well-known fashion brands flocked into this building including Louise Vuitton and Burberry. Fancy restaurants spread across the floors. Even renowned French chocolatier Jean-Paul Hévin has set an oversea branch here on the 4th floor.

In fact, this is the 2nd store here in Taiwan, which shows the market potential of this little island.

Cold drinks menu -

Hot chocolate and tea menu -

High tea set menu -

How much I wish we have one here in California, not just the Jean-Paul Hévin store, but also its quality dessert selections.

Salad and sandwiches -

Other savory items and hot chocolate selections  -

I only tried a few sweet desserts this time and would like to test out their savory dishes next time. The aroma of baked crust and creamy cheese lingered around our table a couple times, and it surely smelled tempting. Their mini pizza with crunchy crust will be on the to-eat-list during my next visit to Taiwan.

Small dessert set menu -

Macaron menu -

My raspberry flavored hot chocolate -

Jean-Paul Hévin has a series of hot chocolate - matcha, raspberry, and original. The menu states that its hot chocolate was rewarded the first place under the hot chocolate category in Paris by "Le Figaro" in France.

Dense chocolate aroma with a slight touch of bitterness. The only thing I would pick on would be its tiny portion plus hefty price. But oh well, it was so good! 

Mazaltov set -

White cheese cake and chantilly two flavors (chocolate and raspberry).

The cheese cake is light and fluffy. However, if you're looking for stronger cheese flavor then this might not be your best option.

In the other hand, chantilly, or whipped cream, is very flavorful. I can be careless about the extra flavor added on top, just the whipped cream along goes a long way. The chantilly compliments the cake by providing that creaminess to the slightly sourish scent from the cheese.

Epicure set -

Vanilla flavored dark chocolate ganache with almond biscuit and matcha flavored chantilly.

Supposedly this set comes with one macaron. However, since it's around Chinese New Year so they substituted the macaron with a chocolate decorated with a Chinese letter "fu," meaning good things and happiness.

Overall experience wasn't too bad. The hot chocolate and chantilly are both delicious and worth coming for again. Atmosphere-wise, this open spaced branch is located in the center of the floor, which means little privacy for the customers. Some people do like this type of vibe, enjoying a few bites of luscious treats while people-watching at the same time.

One other note, this place can get pretty pricey, the high tea set is about $56 U.S. for 2 people. The dessert set I had there was about $15 U.S. not including the hot chocolate.

Official website (France, French):
http://www.jeanpaulhevin.com

Official website (Taiwan, Chinese):
http://www.jphevin.com.tw/

Jean-Paul Hévin (Taiwan, Taipei 101)
Number 45, Shi Fu Road, Xin-Yi Area, Taipei, Taiwan
(Shopping Center, 4th Floor)

台北市信義區市府路45號(購物中心4樓)
011-886-(02)-8101-8152

Taipei 101 Official Website:
http://www.taipei-101.com.tw/

Worldly Plated Ice Cream Experience - Haagen Dazs Taiwan, Taipei DunNan Store

I've been to Haagen Dazs stores many times in Taiwan ever since I was little. Unlike the ones in the states, which only sells limited items such as scoops of ice cream, cakes, and drinks; Haagen Dazs in Asia really kicks it up a notch. Let me show you how.

This is the DunNan store in Taipei, Taiwan. The entire Haagen Dazs takes up a three-story building located in a busy area where young people like to hang out for entertainments.

The first floor is mainly the display area, the second and the third floor are spacious seats for customers who want to dine indoor. Outdoor seats are also available.

Now that's what I'm talking about. You can actually get plated desserts here, and it's more than a pretty looking treats. Those fancy ice cream plates were actually created by three renown pastry chefs in the world - Jean Francois Arnaud, Anil Rohira, and Hiroshi Igarashi.

These three chefs specially created a series of eight different plated desserts using Haagen Dazs ice creams. Check out Haagen Dazs Taiwan's website for a list of these charming creations.

Before getting into details about the two plated desserts I devoured, let me briefly tell you what other items we have here for Haagen Dazs Asian stores. A good assortment of coffee and tea selections ranging from traditional Chinese tea to western herbal tea.

Other staple dine-in creations such as banana split, Belgian waffle, Lost in Manhattan (chocolate based ice cream selections served with warm brownie cake), Joyful Party (vanilla, green tea, strawberry ice cream, raspberry, mango sorbet, together with crispy almond meringue), and the list goes on.

Sounds delicious? These are merely the "regular" stuff we have in Taiwan. During winter months, Haagen Dazs even came up with Ice Cream Magic Fondue and ice cream teppanyaki style so that we can still devour these cold treats without freezing to death!

Back to my precious plated dessert,
Below is called Charlotte Kiss by chef Hiroshi Igarashi -

Main ingredients include all sorts of berries and berry flavored ice creams, vanilla ice cream, raspberry sorbet, ladyfingers, chocolate swirls, and almond brittle.

Cologne Light -

Main ingredients include chocolate ice cream, cappuccino chocolate truffle ice cream, vanilla ice cream, caramel cream cookies, and black forest cake.

Each specially plated desserts costs around $13 U.S. If you know the price for one scoop of Haagen Dazs ice cream, you'll feel that these $13 for a well plated treats and a relaxing time with friends in such a cozy environment is totally worth it.

Come give it a try if you ever travel to Asia/Taiwan, then you'll understand why I keep saying Haagen Dazs in Asia is so much better than the ones back in the states.


Haagen-Dazs Taiwan (Taipei DunNan Store)
台北市大安區敦化南路一段173號
No. 173, Section 1, DunHua South Road, Daan District, Taipei, Taiwan 106
+011 886 (02) 2776-9553

Taiwan official website: http://haagen-dazs.com.tw/
U.S. office website: http://www.haagendazs.com/

Best Honey Cake from Micasa Dolci Patisserie - Taiwan, Taipei

Wanna see lava cake-liked honey dessert?
Look at this pretty thing -

This is by far my favorite, FAVORITE honey cake I ever ate in my life,
It looked just like all other ordinary honey cake on the outside, well, besides its round instead of common rectangle shape,
Who would have know that it has such a soft and moist inside that just melt in your mouth -

Where did I find this beauty?
At Micasa Dolci Patisserie in Taipei, Taiwan.

Katena Keichi, the Japanese head pastry chef is the creator behind this lava-liked honey cake,
He is also my new found top favorite pastry chefs in Taiwan.

Much dedicated work were put into this tiny 5 inch cake,
First is the mixing of egg yolks and sugar for nearly 40 minutes,
With a little bit of flour, honey, and all other yummy ingredients,
Chef baked the cake for just 10 minutes in order to create that fluffy and moist center.

Unlike all other honey cakes I've ever had,
Micasa's version gives you that moist bite from the beginning till the end,
Highly recommended if you ever visit Taiwan.

Micasa locates next to one of Taiwan's landmark - National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall,
This little eatery has a cozy outdoor seating area which is hard to come by in the crowded city of Taipei,
Big trees provide natural shades for customers,
However, the intolerable heat during summer time keeps me away from enjoying Micasa's creation outside,
But it's ok, the cheerful indoor area with lovely air conditioning aint bad at all -

Perfect match for a sweet treat?
Hot tea it is - 

I have to admit that I didn't come with any positive expectations because of my stereotypical thoughts,
Thinking that Japanese pastry chef usually equals to light flavored dessert,
But I was wrong, so wrong!

Mille-feuille with lychee and fresh fruit filling -

That naturally fruity aroma came right through my nose after the first bite,
It's not overwhelmingly sweet since the chef balanced the flavor out with the pastry and slightly sour-ish fruits.

The whole plate resembles a carefully orchestrated art work,
Or maybe a treasure box for my palate,
I can eat this everyday and will never get sick of it.

Micasa also provide a small selection of savory items such as salads and sandwiches,
Below is meat pastry with stewed mushrooms and salad -

In the beginning, I didn't expect that their desserts can be so delicious,
And now Micasa's savory items just blew me away again - 

Especially the salad,
Usually this type of greens is on the bottom of my list while enjoying a salad dish,
But they match it with quality shredded Parmesan that balance out the grassy taste from the greens, marvelous.

I haven't had any restaurant reviews published for quite some time, especially restaurant overseas,
This shows how much I'm in love with Micasa.

Reservation is recommended, however, this place usually won't get very busy till after lunch hours,
But don't take me seriously on that,
Who knows? If more people found out this place, I don't even know if there will be a seat for me in the future,
Maybe publishing this post is a bad idea...

You should feel lucky I'm in a "sharing" mood today,
Again, highly recommended,
Please do swing by when visiting Taiwan.

Cindy's Rating: Whopping 9!

*Average price is about $10 to $20 per person.

Micasa Dolci Patisserie

First Floor, #426, Section 4, Ren-Ai Road, Shin-Yi Area
Taipei, Taiwan
台北市信義區仁愛路4段426號1樓
(02) 2345-7669
http://www.micasadolci.com.tw/

SALON DE THE de Joel Robuchon - Taiwan

It's afternoon tea time!

Seriously, today is officially the 9th day since I arrived in Taiwan,
And I'm still having jet lag,
Somebody help please!

Anyways, it's been raining in Taiwan, making it hard to do outdoor activities,
So to make up my lost fun times, why not enjoy a nice, elegant afternoon tea, indoor?

SALON DE THE de Joel Robuchon @ BELLAVITA -

I tried L'atelier when I was in Vegas,
(L'atelier..How can I describe it, let's just say it's the cheaper "branch" of Joel Robuchon).
It was Christmas eve I think,
Of course, the price was jacked up during holiday season,
And I wasn't too "surprised" with the food based on the $$ spent.

But everything deserves a second chance yep?
So here I am again, similar restaurant; different place,
Let's give it a try!

The entire place is mainly designed by two color tones: black and red, just like all other Joel Robuchon restaurants.
You think he likes red??

Sidetrack, I do like the carpet -

There's a bread and dessert section outside the dining area,
Sadly I couldn't put up all my courage and step outside with my gigantic camera,
Not kidding you, but it's hard to be a paparazzi!
So all I got is this sneak peak picture of the "back" of the beautiful bread/dessert section,
I really tried! -

So me and my friend ordered afternoon tea set, without sandwiches,
The set comes with 1 coffee macaron, 1 mango macaron, 2 citrus flavored madeleine, your choice of 2 cakes, and 2 beverages (mostly tea of course).

The set costs $1,200 NT, around $40 U.S., trust me, I don't eat like this all the time.
Here it comes our tea pots -

Super heavy tea pots, must be hard to be the waiters/waitresses there,
Muscle is a must.
I picked Minty flower tea, nothing too spectacular.

Mango macaron -

I'm never a big fan of macaron, just not really into the texture,
Saves me $$ in a way because most of the famous macarons are so pricey, lucky me.

Close up of papillotte (hazelnut chocolate cake) and coffee flavored macaron -

Papillotte was too sweet for my taste,
I can eat very sweet stuff, but I think this cake's sweetness level was a wee bit too over.

However, the coffee flavored macaron was a success,
Probably the best dessert of all the ones I tried that day.

Close up of mille-feuille a la framboise (raspberry flavor) -

The pastry is light, fluffy, and crunchy, not bad.
But not THAT good that'll make me wanna come back once again.

My friend was hungry so she also ordered this simple and classic spaghetti with red sauce,
Pardon me that I can't remember the exact name,
The place does not allow taking pictures of the menu, unless for the covers only,
Unfortunately, that's how I keep track of all the names of the food I ate...so yeah...
Let me present you with....spaghetti with red meat sauce! -

Probably the best classic spaghetti dish I've ever had,
It was flavorful and yet not too heavy,
You can taste a slight aroma from the red wine, not bad, highly recommended.

I had highs and lows experiences with Joel Robuchon's creations,
As a result, it's hard to give this place a set rating,
Dessert was ok, however, the spaghetti was wonderful,
Mmmmm.....

Cindy's Rating: 7 (fair grade I think, at least for now)


SALON DE THE Joel Robuchon - Taiwan
台北市信義區松仁路28號3樓 (BELLAVITA 3rd Floor)
(02) 8729-2626

Joel Robuchon office website
http://www.joel-robuchon.com/

Afternoon Tea Addict - Taiwan, Taipei

While most of the people are having fun drinking during traveling,
I'm sipping my cup of tea with accompanying snacks,
Call me a weirdo, maybe an aged person...
Somehow tea interests me more than alcohol...
(P.S. I do drink liquor occasionally..either with food or...being forced in some ways...)

So I figured I'd better put up a small post with some of the tea places I've went to during my one month trip to Taiwan, Taipei,
Therefore, my afternoon tea journey begins~

Coffee Alley 咖啡弄-

Pretty popular place in east area,

I guess location-wise is one of its biggest advantages,

Besides that, Coffee Alley also serves some snack items such as waffles and brownie,

However, the waffles only taste mediocre.
In addition to that, Coffee Alley can get very crowded during busy hours, especially during weekends.

http://www.coffee-alley.com.tw/Home/Welcome.html
Locations and store numbers are listed on the bottom of their homepage.

Frog Coffee 蛙咖啡-

Unlike Coffee Alley, Frog Coffee is quite and spacious,
Free wireless service is also provided in the store so you can spend the whole afternoon sipping tea and surfing the web.

Frog Coffee also provides a special "parking area" for bicycles outside the restaurant,
You can hang the bikes on the wooden wall, neato.

http://cafe.frogfree.com/index.html
Locations and store numbers are listed on the website.

Smith & Hsu-

This is the hardcore place for afternoon tea,
Smith & Hsu has a wide selection of tea ranging from Asian oolong tea to European herbal tea.

Before selecting tea flavors, you even get a sample of nearly all the selections they have,
The purpose is for you to "smell" the tea leaves first before making the final decision-

One special note here,
Their scone is superb! After one bite and you'll know what I'm talking about-

It is so buttery, if pairing up with honey, imported butter, and mint tea,
Man....that's heaven...wait...!...that should be a food paradise!

http://www.smithandhsu.com/en/intro.php
Locations and store numbers are listed on the website.
Reservation highly recommended since they only have few tables inside the store.

Room for Dessert-

Cute tea pot-

Most of their dessert plates are decorated with cocoa powder,
I think the quality is pretty good for the price they charge, which is about $7 U.S. for a combination of dessert and tea.

Room for Dessert

Number 15, Alley 187, Section 1, Dun Hua South Road, Taipei, Taiwan

敦化南路一段187巷15號

02-2711-2465

Paul-

An expensive place with growing popularity despite the current economic downturn,

Probably a look into an interesting financial status among the customers dining at Paul.
I guess the rich people are not as hard hitted by the crisis compared to the majority of the residents in Taipei.

Tea-

Quiche-

Paul sells expensive bread and pastries,

When it first opened in Taipei, the place was famous for its imported bread loaves,

Yes you heard me, imported, all the way from France,

The most expensive loaf can costs up to $18 or more.

Strawberry millefeuille-

So does the taste worth the price?

I seriously think it's overrated,

Some bloggers have been to the stores in France and said the flavor is slightly different compared to the ones in Taiwan,

Can't blame Paul for that...after all, some ingredients, even the weather can be a factor of the taste,

However, their price really is not so wallet-friendly.

http://www.paul.fr/index.php

After comparing a few tea places, which one is my favorite?

I'll have to give it to Smith & Hsu,

The service was good, the scone was wonderful,

And most importantly, their wide selection of tea plus pairing notes,

Highly recommended.

One drawback though, they limit your tea sipping time to 2 hours,
Well, don't know about you, but 2 hours is good enough for me.