chinese/dim sum: i recommend SWEET DYNASTY

SWEET DYNASTY 糖朝
No. 201, ZhongXiao E. Road, Sec. 4, Da'an District
台北市忠孝東路四段201號
(02) 2772-2889 

MRT: ZhongXiao/DunHua

hours: 24 hours

$$ (average NT$400+/person)

Kid friendliness: restaurant is on second floor with lots of stairs, though upstairs roomy with room for large parties

Visit reviewed: 12/29/2014
Last review reviewed: 8/2005

I haven't been to Sweet Dynasty in years, and I've always gone with people from out of town, so this was the first time I've been since they moved to their new location near Luxy and Starbucks on ZhongXiao, at the former Shin Yeh Table location. It's definitely amusing reading my old review in 2005 and seeing how much I've improved at taking photos (and how much better our cameras/iphones/easy photo editing tools are now)! I used to just say whatever I wanted, not worrying about the readers or the haters and letting my thoughts just flow. So being a new year, I hope to be able to do the same in 2015- not overthink things, share photos and places sooner than later and hopefully still help you guys find some good places to eat in Taipei.

Sweet Dynasty is a Cantonese restaurant known for its desserts and dim sum and its new digs are roomier, more stylish and perfect for a night of modern Chinese dining. If you have room and enough people, order the soy tofu in the bucket that you can scoop out yourself. Unfortunately, we didn't have room that night for it, so I don't have pictures of it, but maybe another night.

The menu is thick with pages of noodles, congee, dim sum, seafood, rice and stir-fried family style dishes, but if you only have two people like we did that night, you can still find some options. Large photos highlight popular menu items and the menu is in both English and Chinese.

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The wonton & beef brisket noodle soup (NT$200) comes with four rotund pork and vegetable wontons, beef brisket and egg noodles- perfect if you want to have a taste of both wontons and beef, though remember that the noodles and broth are Cantonese style and not Taiwanese beef noodle soup style. Pretty decent sized bowl and amount of wontons and noodles and we finished the bowl.

The shrimp rice noodle (NT$180) came at the same time as the noodle soup and I was slightly surprised to see that it wasn't drowned in sauce.

I always have to order the xian shui jiao or deep fried crispy glutinous rice shrimp dumpling (NT$100) when I see it on the menu, and I'm glad I did. Perfect crisp on the outside, sticky and sweet on the inside of the shell and plenty of filling on the inside. So good, but so bad for you.

I pretty much forgot that the truffle shu mai was coming as it came much much later after we had finished our food. We were pretty much ready for the bill when it finally came.

And it wasn't until we had left the restaurant that I realized we didn't even get the matcha dessert that Clarissa had ordered. It's too bad since I did want to try it, but I was pretty full by the time the shu mai came, so it ended up not being a big deal to us. Trip Advisor has overwhelmingly negative reviews for Sweet Dynasty, but besides the ordering issue, the service was fine for me that night.

With the opening of two Taipei branches of Michelin starred Tim Ho Wan (review coming soon!), all the dim sum joints in Taipei have some fierce competition and should step up their game. But not everyone wants to wait one hour plus for food, so if you're looking for a chill place for some noodle soup and dim sum in the East District (Dong Qu) then you could give Sweet Dynasty a try (even at 4AM since they are open 24 hours, and then you can wander over to 24 hour Eslite bookstore down the street). Thanks Clarissa for dinner and conversation- it's always great to meet other food lovers/writers and I look forward to following your adventures this year.

snapshot/pizza: i still strongly recommend CHICAGO PIZZA FACTORY

Pizza isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you think Taipei, but finding good pizza is pretty important to those of us who live here. Yesterday Taipei had such beautiful sunny weather that we had a picnic at DaAn park and my friend brought a couple of boxes of from Chicago Pizza Factory, which I haven't had in probably over a year (and last wrote about in 2009)  One slice of the combo pizza and it kickstarted my appreciation for their delicious pizza- the pliable chewy yet crispy crust, the plentiful toppings and the proportion of sauce to cheese to toppings to crust. Note to Chicago Pizza Factory fans, they are moving to a new location in March of this year-- hope they will let us know where.

Then I ended up making a collage of all the pizzas I instagrammed and ate and made a new tag (#taipeipizza)...

And I know I have lots more places I've yet to try. Where is your favorite pizza in Taipei? Check out all my past pizza reviews here!

PS. OMG! It's 2015! SO weird. I just looked at the date on blogger and thought it was wrong for a brief moment when it said 1/5/15.

HAPPY 2015 NEW YEAR!

snapshot/exploreTaipei: FAB CAFE at HUASHAN 1914 CULTURAL CREATIVE PARK

FAB CAFE
at HUASHAN 1914 CREATIVE PARK 
華山1914文創園區中三館
 No. 1 Bade Rd, Sec. 1
台北市八德路一段1號
(02)3322-4749

MRT: Shandao Temple or Zhongxiao/Xinsheng

Hours: Sun – Thu: 11AM – 10PM; Fri – Sat: 11AM – 12midnight

$$

website: fabcafe.com/taipei 

kid friendliness: probably more suited for older kids

visit reviewed: 12/28/2014

There's always something to explore at Huashan 1914 and today was the first time I wandered into Fab Cafe. Besides the cafe itself, which was full of diners, there's a space next to it that displayed Art Project 365 by different artists.

Fab Cafe originated in Japan as a creative cafe space, not only equipped with new technologies such as 3D printers and laser cutters for people to use, but also as gathering spot for events, workshops and Fab meetups. With other branches in Tokyo, Barcelona, Bangkok and Sitges, it's such a cool concept that I'm sure will make its way to the states someday. Taipei actually has a lot of creativity sprouting up in places like Huashan 1914 and central places like these will foster even more opportunities for people to be inspired. 

 

This was one of my favorite art pieces- a giant circular board covered in individual drawings cut out and fit together like a puzzle. Could be a fun thing to do at home... cover a wall with a drawing a day.

This was rotating images on a transparent glass... pretty mesmerizing to watch. Maybe one day there will be photo frames like this for homes.

Next post will be more about Huashan 1914 in general and some of the exhibits going on right now! Just thought Fab Cafe was so cool, it should have its own post. So if you've been itching to make your own fantastic 3D printed creations but don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on a machine, you know now where to go.

Other posts about Huashan 1914
VVG Thinking 

happy holidays!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Happy holidays! Happy new year! Wishing everyone a happy and delicious holiday season and lots of good eats throughout 2015! Stay warm and see you at the night market!