The boss took our whole department there for lunch today so I don’t know how much it cost, though I’m sure it wasn’t cheap, but it was excellent. Extremely gracious and talented host, the owner, a Taiwanese guy who as I understand it has been traveling to France, Italy and elsewhere in Europe over the past 9 years for training, including at the Cordon Bleu Academie.
I believe you can order off a menu, but we had it planned in advance due to our huge group. Here’s what I had:
Bread with olive oil/vinegar for dipping
Very nice creamed dill and some other green vegie soup, with nice tangy flavor
Small tasty pasta dish of some kind (others had salad)
Salmon in puff pastry with wonderful sauce (others had nice looking shrimp)
1/4 of a small roast chicken hand rubbed with rosemary
Alsace style German pig knuckle with mustard and kraut (others had great looking steak)
Very rich tiramiso (others had a caramel pudding)
Too many glasses of an excellent red table wine
I believe the place has existed for 4.5 years but moved a year ago to its odd location, on a street just off of Ruey Kuang Rd in Neihu. Although the location seemed odd, the atmosphere was great, the food superb, and the owner terrific, entertaining us with stories and sleight of hand tricks involving wine bottles and corks and the like. I’ll be back.
Sounds very nice, MT. I’m thankful, though, but not a little perturbed, by your reference to “hand-rubbed” chicken. Leads me to wonder what OTHER body part gets used for chicken-rubbing in the Theresa household.
Sounds very nice, MT. I’m thankful, though, but not a little perturbed, by your reference to “hand-rubbed” chicken. Leads me to wonder what OTHER body part gets used for chicken-rubbing in the Theresa household.[/quote]
Another outstanding meal at Chez Alain last night.
As before, a huge part of the draw is the outstanding chef/proprietor, an extremely friendly Taiwanese man who has paid huge sums to travel to Europe every year for a decade to attend cooking schools in France and Italy, because he loves food and is obsessed with learning about fine cooking and culture. For most of the meal he stands or sits beside your table entertaining with magic tricks with wine bottles and corks, or explanations of how the dishes were prepared or how special the ingredients are, or how to enjoy the wine properly, or how to eat the shrimp without making a mess, etc. He’s a fountain of interesting fine dining conversation, he’s thrilled to share it, and I can’t imagine anyone being bothered by his presence.
Not only that, but the food’s outstanding. We started with . . .
bread to dip in olive oil/vinegar
followed by a good creamed corn soup (not like your standard Taiwan fare though)
a savory salmon fillet in olive oil and olive sauce
then a morsel of grapes and cream cheese rolled in almonds that the proprietor gave us to help appreciate the nice Riesling that he’d picked to accompany our meal (we also had a couple of other fine wines)
then a small fettucine dish with truffles, which was superb
and the main course of tender french-style duck that fell off the bones as it had been lovingly slow cooked for 36 hours
I was a fool to pass on the great deserts, but I did cap it off with a cappucino
The service is impeccable, with the chef’s lovely wife clearing all plates and silverware between each course and replacing them with clean ones, and filling water and wine glasses exactly when needed.
Fred Smith, please check it out soon; I’d love to hear your comments (let me know first, and maybe I’ll join you). I’m sure it would make an outstanding location for hte next FredFest.
But I’d be happy to hear from anyone else who has the opportunity to enjoy this outstanding place, located just off Ruey Kuang Rd, in Neihu.
:lick: :lick: :lick:
Incidentally, the boss treated a few of us from work again, to show his appreciation for saving his ass.
