Righto, back into action. After a week off I can hardly get started again, it’s a good thing I don’t take many br5eaks I think! We celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary ion Friday, so I drove the car home from school and managed to find a space on Ker Qiang Lu till we were ready to leave about 6 o’clock. Cass was resplendent in her new Italian high boots and her “new” short skirt, which was an older high quality one she rarely wore and was taken up by the lady round the corner. She looked great, as usual, and I wondered why she hadn’t tried this look before…The car drive down was smooth enough, but Taipei Friday night traffic meant that it took about an hour to get there, so I’m glad we left when we did as Lawry’s, the Prime Rib said they’d only hold our 7pm booking for 10 minutes. A U.S. restaurant chain which started in 1930 (which explains the waitresses and chefs attire: same as when it started) it only has a few outlets in the States and now a few more in Asia. It is on the 12th floor of the Core City Mall down in Hsin Yi that we frequented years ago as the then new and slick shopping plaza. The menu, décor, service is exactly modeled on the original and it was very classy. We had the famous Lawry’s spinning salad before our prime beef with creamed corn, spinach and Yorkshire pudding with a lobster tail on the side. Finishing with dessert (English trifle) and coffee, it was great celebration and exciting to be downtown on a weekend night in all the big city buzz.
On Saturday, I decided that enough was enough and we must find some pies! Jason’s supermarket has stopped importing Vili’s pies from South Australia for some reason, but I reasoned there just had to be a pie somewhere in a city this size trying to cater at the very least, for the expats increasingly loud voice in the culinary arena of the city. Sure enough, after some internet searching and some scouring of the local online versions of the English language newspapers, we found what we wanted. First stop way down south on the Nanshijiao line through Taipei Main then in a tunnel under the river to emerge in Yong He city. Can you believe we’d never made it to this interesting little offshoot of Taipei? Because of the natural barrier of the river, a lot of cool places are opening up as the locals seem to resent going “into town” for their restaurants and entertainment. This was all according to Frankie, of Frankie’s Pies ‘N More, an affable and interesting owner and manager from South Africa. We got his set menu of a salad and juice with a home made pie, Cass had the curry vegetable and I had the pepper steak. They were fantastic!! We had a great old chat with him and took a few cards and promised to spread the word back at school.
Next, back across the river, change trains to head east and find “Pie Boy” in a lane off Zhong Xiao East Rd. This place was set up by a young New Zealander called David (!) and his wife (a local girl). David wasn’t there, but his wife served us up a set of minced beef pie and salad and drink. Cass had the salad and drink and I managed to force down another very hearty and delicious meat pie. My head was really spinning: two different and excellent home made pies within an hour in Taipei? It was just too good. The verdict is still out as we have some takeaways to sample from each outlet over Chinese New Year (different flavours) and then we’ll decide. We did have an “apple crumble” pie for tea last night which was scrumptious, so that might be just tipping things in Pie Boy’s favour at the moment! Anyway, I’m sure the research will get all the Aussies, Kiwis and South Africans excited at school tomorrow…
Sunday and I was up, literally before the crack of dawn to drive over to the surf at 5.50am! I haven’t been for ages and didn’t expect much after reading the rather forlorn predictions of the swell charts but….you never know! Of course, it was flat as a tack, but the sunrise over the mountains and then the sea was a treat to behold and I drove back feeling very refreshed. After the two hour drive there and back, I got back just to get the start of the cricket and Cass and I settled in for the day, first with brekky, then with magazine (me) and marking (Cass, of course) to watch a great last gasp win by the Aussies. We streamed it over the internet, our new connection being outstanding. I’ll go into this more next week, but for techies out there, we now have a warp cable LAN of 10M! This tripled and more our previous speed which was a very fast 3M.
Photos: spinning salad and well dressed waitresses and chefs at Lawry’s, two old married folk, Cass posing outside our two new pie bar finds!