Sumie Nouvelle - Japanese Fine Dining in Taipei

Our third day in Taipei, we were a little tired of Chinese banquet dinners (we had two 10-course meals with family the two previous nights. So after a day of checking out the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall and shopping in Ximen Ding, we decided to have dinner at the nice Japanese restaurant inside our hotel, San Want Hotel, called Sumie Nouvelle Cuisine Japonaise.

We went for the chef's tasting menu, a seven course dinner.

First course was this beautfully plated guava, crab, soy gelee, cucumber, and tomato salad with miso dressing.

 Second up was Sashimi on the Rocks—snapper, hamachi, salmon, grilled white fish, and blanched shrimp. It was served with a white-fish ceviche.

The sashimi was very fresh and tasty, and the ceviche knocked it out of the park. The only thing that really didn't work for me was the shrimp. Anytime I've had shrimp with sashimi it's been fully cooked. This one was was reddish, but still translucent, and the texture in the mouth reflected that. But I manned up and swallowed it.

Third course was a play on tempura. Puffed rice crusted prawn, fried kabocha squash, fried fish.

Fourth course was a filet that was still cooking on a bed of hot rocks. Mine was delicious, but ended up a bit more done then I would've preferred. But that's the price I pay for taking too long to snap photos of all the food.

Steak is really expensive in Taiwan, because there isn't much that is locally raised on the island. So it must be imported from Japan, Australia, or the U.S.

Fifth course was a small collection of sushi (not pictured) and an amuse-bouche of hamachi.

Sixth course was a ginger lobster soup. The soup was extra gingery but delicious because it stayed piping hot the entire time. The soup was served in a bowl but lined with a water-resistant paper; inside the bowl, underneath the paper was a hot tile of granite to keep the soup hot.

Finally, for dessert we had mochi and cantaloupe. But this was no ordinary mochi, for inside this beautifully shaped mochi pillow topped with cocoa powder was a tiramisu filling. A wonderful little surprise to end the night.

In fact we were so inspired by the tiramisu mochi, that when we came back to the states, we had a holiday party where we took part in a dessert competition. We took the idea, and made a pumpkin pie mochi, which wasn't as beautiful (my first time making mochi), but a winning dessert none-the-less.

Tuscan Kale Salad

When I was in Scottsdale, Arizona I tried this amazing kale salad at True Food Kitchen. I love the idea of eating raw kale over your typical romaine lettuce in a salad because it is much more nutritious. This recipe calls for dinosaur kale or a black Italian kale. This refreshing and spicy salad is perfect for a warm summer night.
Ingredients:

• Thoroughly wash 4-6 cups of dinosaur kale, midribs removed, chopped.
• juice of 1 lemon
• 3-4 T EVOO
• 2 cloves garlic, mashed
• salt and pepper to taste
• hot red pepper flakes to taste
• 2/3 cup of grated Pecorino Toscano cheese (I used Parmesan)
• 1/2 cup freshly made bread crumbs from lightly toasted bread (optional)

1. whisk together lemon juice, EVOO, garlic, salt, pepper and a generous pinch of hot red pepper flakes
2. pour over washed and chopped kale in serving bowl and toss well
3. add 2/3 of the cheese and toss again
4. let the kale sit for at least 5 minutes. Add bread crumbs, toss again, and top with remaining cheese.

Enjoy!