Eateries in Taiwan: Saffron Fine Indian Cuisine

38-6, TianMu E Rd; (02) 2871-4842
Hours:11:30am-2 pm 5:30- 9:30

Thu & Fri 11:30 am-2 pm, 5:30-10 pm 
Fri & Sat11:30-2:00 5:30-10:00 
(closed on Mon lunch time)
Credit cards accepted. 10% service charge.

I've been craving Indian food for a while so last night, we finally had Indian for dinner. After reading several online reviews, we decided on Saffron Fine Indian Cuisine, which is actually owned by a native of India. 

To start out, we had vegetable samosa and lamb samosa; they were pretty good. 

Vegetable samosa

Lamb samosa

Following the appetizers, we had several dishes: 

Vegetable dish with potatoes and cauliflower

Lamb

Chicken tandoori

Of course, what would Indian food be without curry?

Lamb curry

Chicken curry

Shrimp curry

Naturally, we had a generous helping of naan to eat with the curry:

Concluding the dinner was a cup of Chai milk tea:

Overall, Saffron did not disappoint. I am not a big fan of lamb, so I am unable to offer my opinion on the lamb dishes. However, I thought the vegetable samosa was pretty good; essentially warm pastries filled with potatoes other spices. The chicken tandoori was well prepared: juicy and rich with flowers. Among the curry, I enjoyed shrimp curry the best. The chicken curry was a little too salty for me and lamb, well you already know. The naan was pretty good: soft and slightly sweet. I like the traditional naan better than the special homemade ones. Finally, the Chai milk tea is a must, definitely one of the best I've ever had. However, it took them a long time to make so perhaps you should order it in the beginning instead of at the end of the meal like we did. Make sure to inhale the rich smell of Chai before you taste it.

This restaurant is pretty expensive in Taiwan's standard, roughly $20-25 USD/person. While it did not disappoint, I still maintain that the best Indian food I had was in Tokyo (Shinjuku) at a small family restaurant. 

Grain-free diet

It's been two weeks since I tried going on a grain-free diet. That's right, the key word is tried. It's actually really difficult especially in Taiwan because you're constantly bombarded by delicious aromas of noodles, dumplings, bread, you name it. I realized several things:

a) I can totally live without rice. I don't crave it at all.

b) I crave noodles and dumplings sometimes since there are so many awesome noodle shops in Taipei. I've been limiting myself to eating mung bean vermicelli.

c) I love Asian bakeries. Every time I pass by one, I always inhale deeply; the smell of freshly baked pastries is intoxicating.  I crave bread practically every day. 

In any case, my grain-free diet has officially evolved to a low-grain diet. I avoid grain as much as possible but I do give in to my cravings at times. Trust me, it's really hard not to, especially when you're eating out...in Taiwan.

Yangmingsan National Park

I went to Yangmingsan National Park last month in time to catch the blooming of the calla lilies. There were literally fields of them! How beautiful.

Updates, finally

Wow. I haven't written an entry in 6 months. Perhaps the best way to get up to date is to recap what I've been up to since my last post back in....December. 

Let's see...

I spent a month and a half in Japan. Stayed mainly in Tokyo but also visited Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, as well as Hokkaido. 

Went back to t

he 

states for a month and a half. Then, sold everything and went to Vancouver, Canada, for about 2.5 weeks. Also visited Victoria, Tofino, and Whistler. 

Flew straight from Vancouver to Taipei, Taiwan, where I am currently residing. I'm planning to stay here for 1-2 years. Frankly, I think I need some international experience. If not now, then when? And so, Dennis and I h

ave been living here since mid-April. I'm currently taking Chinese at National Taiwan University (Tai Da). I'm still waiting for my ARC; I can't work until I get it. 

Okay, now that I'm up to date, I can start commenting on the various places that I've visited.  I figured since I'm living in Taiwan, I might as well start documenting my life here. 

The first weekend I arrived in Taiwan, we all drove down to Taichung to attend Andrea Bocelli's concert. The concert definitely exceeded my expectation. I was blown away by one of his guest singer, Heather Headley. As she was singing, my heart started to race; I could literally feel the music flowing through my

 body. It was unbelievable. 

After the concert, we went to a 

night market, Feng Jia, in Taichung. Feng Jia is suppose to be the largest night market in Taiwan. Needless to say, I had a lot of random Taiwanese snacks. Yummy!!! 

The next day, we visited the country side. It was really interesting to see small communities on top of the mountains. 

Haha, look at Dennis eating that Chinese sausage. But you know what? It's actually really delicious; definitely the best I've had in my life. It's nothing like the frozen sausage you buy in the states. Made fresh, it's super juicy and sweet when you bite into it. Double yum!

Ski time!

On Thursday, Dennis and I went skiing in Wisconsin with two other friends. The drive to the ski resort, Devils Head, took over three hours. It was my second time skiing (my first time was in PA two years ago) and I was anxious because I remembered falling a lot the first time. I started out warming up on the bunny slope and you know what, I didn't fall once. I guess my body retained some basic moves. Maybe it's like biking, once your body learns the skill, it doesn't forget easily. In any case, I definitely felt more comfortable skiing; it was time to move on. The rest of the day, I skied on the green, the blue, and yes the black slope (although only once). I can't claim I'm a good skier yet (I fell 3-4 times), but I am definitely getting better. Skiing on the black slope was really scary. I was hesitant at first, but then I thought, well what's the worst that can happen? Falling down isn't fun but at least it doesn't hurt. I knew I would regret it if I didn't try it, and so I did. Wow! What a rush! All I can say is, I can't wait to go skiing again. 

Food cost: up, up, and...up?

These days whenever I go grocery shopping, I always come out thinking about how things used to be cheaper. The first time I really started paying attention to my grocery bill was during my second year of college (four years ago). That is only because I was on a meal plan my first year, meaning I didn't need to cook (I couldn't even if I wanted to since I didn't have access to a proper kitchen). To further illustrate, look at how much the price of these food has gone up in the past year alone:

-eggs up 43.9%

-milk up 21.3%

-meat up 6.4%

-poultry up 7.2%

So, why? After deducting inflation from the equation, the rising food price phenomenon can be directly accounted for by the law of supple and demand. To illustrate, countries like China (whose economy has been growing at a ferocious rate) are competing for the same commodities in the global market as the U.S. These commodities include food and energy. The U.S. is a major supplier of food but not of energy. This translates to rising food cost and soaring energy price.  Did I mention how soaring energy price directly contribute to rising food cost since the cost of transporting food is increased? The saying that oil is king is not an understatement. 

What can the U.S. do to become more self-sufficient? In comes ethanol...made from corn that is. 

It seemed like the perfect solution.  Instead of paying other countries for oil, we can pay our own farmers to make ethanol from corn. Moreover, burning corn-derived ethanol is a lot better for the environment. What a perfect way to kill two birds with one stone!

If only that was the case. Since we are paying our farmers more to use corn for ethanol, we are left with less corn for our own consumption. Not to mention all the corn-derived products including corn syrup and corn oil. Moreover, farmers frequently use corn to feed their livestock...well they used to anyways. To further poke holes at the rosy picture, corn-derived ethanol is not as efficient as crude oil. Although I am certain the energy efficiency will continue to improve with further research, I really doubt we will reach the point where all of our oil will come from plant. 

For now, this is a lose-lose situation. With time, in the best case scenario, our farmers will plant more corn to boost supply and our corn-derived ethanol will be a lot more energy efficient. Otherwise, the exorbitant prices will be unbearable, people will protest and government will probably have to subsidize the cost of food or energy. 

Northern California trip/family reunion

Dennis and me in front of the Golden Gate Bridge

Crashing waves of the Pacific.

Night time view of bridge.

Left to right: Carol, Dad and Mom, Fang and Susan, me and Dennis.

Another picture of the extended family.

Liang's family shot.

Us again.

I spent the Thanksgiving holiday in the Sunshine state with friends and family, far away from Chicago's winter (thankfully). California is a huge state with so much to see and do, where do I begin? Luckily, our gracious hosts, Susan and Fang, packed the four-days trip with their favorite Northern California destinations.

Some highlights of our trip include the Golden Gate Bridge (a must see), touring the Napa Valley wine vineyards (fantastic wine tasting opportunity), and driving through the 17-miles drive in Carmel (beautiful, beautiful, and did I say beautiful?). Needless to say, I was very content with all the places; what's more beautiful than the arts of Mother Nature? 

Thank you again for a fantastic time Susan and Fang.