Honda Japanese Cuisine: Taipei, TAIWAN

Date:  26 juillet 2011
Location:  1 Alley 7, Lane 303
NanJing East Road Section 3 #1
Taipei, Taiwan
Tel:  886 02-2545-8828

There is excellent sushi in Taipei, if you know where to go.  The sushi here made made me shed a tear (or two!) of happiness, you know, when you are masticating that piece of soft, melting, flesh and your eyes roll back in delight and you think to yourself - "wow, I am so lucky I am here - and experiencing this ridiculous food and wine that which most people could never even fathom."  My good friend Henry of Henry's Gourmet Guide (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Henrys-Gourmet-Guide/176072308343) arranged three of four nights of thoroughly planned wine paired dinners for my Taipei visit.  I could not have asked for a better friend and host to be my guide and food and wine eating buddy.

Very hard to get a reservation here - every night is a full house.  The Chef hails from Japan of course, and it certainly helped that Henry speaks fluent Japanese (even though he is Taiwanese) and is also friends with the Chef.

Henry also brought some very special champagne to celebrate and enjoy with our dishes.  To start, a Delamotte blanc de blanc of dry, acidic, aromatic, bubbly, perfectly slightly steely effervescent bubbles popping in my mouth.  Wonderful!!

Fried chicken and salad starter.  The chicken juicy and tender and salty sweet, the outside is crispy with just a tad of white pepper.  Great way to tantalize our taste buds for the upcoming hedonistic slices of sushi to come...

Henry's blanc de blanc Delamotte champagne.  Thank you, friend! 

This is where I first shed a tear.  The best fatty toro I ever had.  DO NOT CHEW.  Only let it rest on your tongue, and the warmth from your tongue will quickly melt the fat in this hedonistic, soft yet perfectly tense piece of fish.  Wow.

Of course, we had to have Cha-blissss with our raw fish.  1er Cru 2008 Les Lys Domaine William Fevre.  

IKURA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Perfectly balanced saltiness and slightly crunchy individual Ikura eggs.  Each one popped gently in my mouth and my tongue savored each tiny bite.  

Tear number two.  Hands down the BEST UNI I have ever had in the world.  I was beside myself... we ate in silence... each one of us appreciating these ridiculously fine pieces of sushi...  so fortunate.  

Vegetable tempura! Not usually a fan of tempura but guess whaaatttt.....  Honda's tempura will make you want more helpings of their lightly batter fried tempura, with very fresh and sweet vegetables.  Great quality of ingredients for all their dishes.

Mmmmm....  dried fish egg.  This is the perfect with Japanese beer!

Roasted salted fish...  so good.  Ridiculous.  Also perfect pairing with Japanese beer.