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Mo-Mo Paradise (Taipei)

December 11, 2011 in Best Of, Food, Reviews, Taiwan, Travel

Inside the Mo-Mo Paradise at Bistro 98

Hot pots have started to grow on me recently, and after my latest experience at Mo-Mo Paradise, a popular Japanese shabu shabu chain, I must say I’m falling in love.

There are a couple of things that make Mo-Mo Paradise special.

First of all, they offer what is referred to in Japanese as “tabeihodai” (食べ放題), which means “all you can eat.”  Here, you can order as much meat and vegetables as you want within the 90 minute time limit they set you.  There’s a large variety of meats (beef and pork) and an even larger variety of vegetables and mushrooms, which mitigates the fact that they offer no chicken or seafood.

Secondly, Mo-Mo Paradise offers four types of hot pots.  There is the original shabu shabu soup (clear), which comes with two different condiments — a sweet sesame sauce and a sour vinegary sauce.  There is the sukiyaki type, which is a thicker, sweet soy soup that works almost like a marinade.  There’s also the tonkotsu (pork bone) type, a flavoursome soup which some fans of ramen might be familiar with (and comes with an chilli olive oil dipping sauce).  And finally there is the spicy miso type, for those who like a bit of spice (and comes with a special sauce).

A placemat detailing the types of soups on offer and how to enjoy them

[For winter there is also apparently a curry soup!]

The best part is that you can choose up to three of the four soup bases to cook your unlimited meats and vegetables (of course, the more soup bases you choose, the more expensive it will be, but I’ll get to prices later).  The catch is that every person in the same party has to pay the same amount (which is fair, considering people share).  They have split pots, which allows you to put two types of soups in one pot, making choosing multiple soups very easy.

You can split the pot in two!

Most people are happy with one, but on this occasion we chose two, the original shabu shabu and the sukiyaki.

I’ll get straight to it.  Both were sublime.  The meats were sliced incredibly thin so you didn’t feel like you were eating too much with each bite.  The vegetables were fresh and there were so many — my favourites were the cabbage, the abalone mushrooms and the broccoli, and I also enjoyed adding rice cakes.

The shabu shabu soup is lighter so the cooked meat and vegetables don’t have a lot of taste, but that’s why they have the two dipping sauces which you can mix yourself with additional spring onions, garlic, radish and chilli oil.  The sukiyaki soup acts like a sweet soy marinade which makes the meat and vegetables nice and flavoursome, and if the taste gets too strong you can always add more water to dilute it.

Everyone starts with this plate, but you can top it up with whatever you want as often as you want

With a split pot, we were able to eat from one side while allowing the other side to cook, and then switch back and forth, enjoying one soup type at a time.

The waiters would keep coming around to ask if you wanted more meat, which they would promptly top up, and they also pushed these trolleys around with stacks of vegetables which they can stack onto a plate on demand.  Other luxuries included white or brown Japanese rice and tea and coffee, all of which are unlimited refill.  It was indeed paradise.

The vegetable carts!

Mmm...brown rice...

I can’t wait to try the other two soup bases next time!

9 out of 10!

Details:

Mo-Mo Paradise

Website: http://www.humaxasia.com.tw/momo/index.html

Price/Hours:

Lunch Monday to Friday — 90 minutes all you can eat — enter between 11:30am and 4pm — per person: NT$329 (one soup type), NT$379 (two soup types), NT$429 (three soup times)

Dinner and Weekends/Holidays — 90 minutes all you can eat — per person: NT$399 (one soup type), NT$449 (two soup types), NT$499 (three soup types)

(Special late night rates apply at certain stores)

Locations (Taipei only):

Fuxing Store: No. 42, Section 1, Fùxīng South Rd, Zhongshan District, Taipei (across from Breeze Center)
Nearest MRT: Zhongxiao Fuxing
(02)2772-1577

Bistro 98 Store: Level 5, No. 98, Section 4, Zhōngxiào East Rd, Daan District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Zhongxiao Fuxing
(02)2752-6609

KMall Store: Level 5, No. 50, Section 1, Zhōngxiào West Rd, Zhongzheng District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Taipei Main Station
(02)2382-2668

National Taiwan University Store: Level 3, No. 68, Section 4, Roosevelt Rd, Zhongzheng District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Gongguan
(02)2363-8998

Neo 19 Store: Level 2, No. 22, Sōngshòu Rd, Xinyi District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Taipei City Hall
(02)8786-1128

Zhongshan Store: No. 6, Nánjīng West Rd, Zhongshan District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Zhongshan
(02)2562-2328

Q Square Store: Level 4, No. 1, Section 1, Chéngdé Rd, Datong District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Taipei Main Station
(02)2550-0889

Global Mall Store: Level 4, No. 122, Section 3, Zhōngshān Rd, Zhonghe District, Taipei
Nearest MRT: Fuzhong
(02) 8228-7191

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Movie Review: Seeking Justice (2011)

December 9, 2011 in Movie Reviews, Reviews

Nicholas Cage is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get.  Whenever he makes a movie, it (and he) could be fantastic, or it (and he) could be complete garbage.

Considering his recent history and his well-publicised financial troubles, I would have bet that his latest film, Seeking Justice, falls in the latter category.  The film had little promotion and had generated less buzz, but on the other hand it did have an A-list cast featuring Cage, January Jones and Australia’s most underappreciated Hollywood star (now that Joel Edgerton seems to have finally broken through), Guy Pearce.  It also has a couple of TV stars, Harold Perrineau (from Lost) and Jennifer Carpenter (from Dexter), is co-produced by Tobey Maguire, and is directed Roger Donaldson (not exactly a slouch with films such as The Bank Job, Thirteen Days, Dante’s Peak, Species, The Getaway, Cadillac Mac, Cocktail, No Way Out and Bounty under his belt).  I was intrigued.

As it turned out, Seeking Justice is somewhere in the middle — neither great nor trash.  It tells the story of Will Gerard (Cage), who, after a violent crime, becomes unwittingly involved with a sinister underground organisation that is into dishing out vigilante justice — with a hefty personal price.  Jones plays his wife and Pearce is one of the leaders of the association.

It’s the type of film that probably would have gone straight to DVD had the big names not been attached to it (perhaps some might still think it probably should have gone straight to DVD).  It is aptly handled, with decent performances (with the exception of Jones, whom for some reason keeps getting these ‘young wife to middle aged dudes’ roles — she can’t act) and some genuine tension stemming from a cleverly crafted illusion that there is more of a mystery than there actually is.  It also avoids (and I think this was the right decision) any real intellectual debate on the merits of vigilante justice, which helps prevent viewers from being misled into thinking that Seeking Justice is anything more than light entertainment.

And ultimately, that’s exactly what Seeking Justice is — a passable action-thriller that is occasionally entertaining but nothing special and, when it’s all said and done, extremely forgettable.  Sad that’s considered pretty good for Nicholas Cage these days.

3 out of 5

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Eat Eat Pasta (Taipei)

December 8, 2011 in Food, Reviews, Taiwan, Travel

Italian restaurants are a dime a dozen in Taipei, and to be honest, most of them look fairly alike, making it difficult to tell the good from the bad and the great from the good.

Eat Eat Pasta is a ‘healthy’ Italian restaurant about a 10-minute walk from the Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station.  Tucked away in a small lane off one of the busier streets behind the old Sogo (next to a Rabbit Rabbit burger chain), it is a fairly new joint that has menu with an emphasis on fresh vegetables and seafood, and is part owned by some local celebrity.

The layout is pretty nice — simple but chic, with an outside courtyard and a bar on the inside where they make fresh coffees and icy beverages.  The menu is varied but the selection is limited — there are a couple of soups, three salads, and a handful of appetizers, pizzas and risottos, with a wider selection of pastas.  They also have an afternoon tea section, which is only available between 14:30 and 17:00, and a ‘Tea Time’, which allows you to order a small cake or biscuit for NT$60 when you purchase a beverage.

The prices are not overly expensive, but perhaps slightly on the dearer side compared to some of the less authentic Italian joints scattered all over Taipei.  You’re looking at around NT$90-120 for soups and salads,  NT$120-160 for appetizers, and about NT$160-250 for pizzas, risottos and pastas.  For three people you could easily top NT$1000.

In terms of value sets, Eat Eat Pasta offers two: the ‘A’ set, which allows you to add a soup or salad and a drink for NT$90, and the ‘B’ set, which offers a soup AND a salad and drink for NT$140.  We got an ‘A’ set with a salad.

The salad was good — lots of lettuce, alfalfa, corn, tomato, corn and cucumber, topped off with a creamy yoghurty sauce.

For the mains we ordered a risotto, a pasta and a pizza.

The risotto was a tomato chicken risotto with lots of vegetables.  The flavour was just right — not too strong and not too weak, with a touch of spice — but the texture of the rice was a little on the mushy side.  The serving didn’t look particularly big, especially at NT$240, but it’s deceptively filling.

For the pasta we got the pesto seafood fettucine (NT$250) — it was very green and packed with vegetables, which I love, but perhaps there might have been too much cream.

As for the pizza, we also got a seafood one (NT$250), and it was quite different to what I expected.  The pizza was quite small and very thin, but packed with loads and loads of cheese, covering the seafood and broccoli toppings underneath.  The flavour was agreeable but the thin crust was not as crispy as I expected and the cheese made it quite heavy.

The verdict?  Eat Eat Pasta is a nice place to try, especially for group meals, but it’s not the type of place I’d personally go back for repeat visits.  The flavours are good but nothing extraordinary; the menu is interesting but not necessarily for everyone.  And while the food is supposed to be healthier, it actually struck me as kind of heavy in cream and cheese.  Accordingly, taking into account the price and location, Eat Eat Pasta probably lies somewhere in the middle in the Italian restaurant hierarchy in Taipei.

7 out of 10!

Details

Eat Eat Pasta

Address: No. 37, Lane 31, Section 1, Da An Road, Taipei

Phone: (02) 2721-1636

Price: approx. NT$250-400 per person

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Movie Review: The Ides of March (2011)

December 4, 2011 in Movie Reviews, Reviews

I really need to get a move on.  It’s almost the end of 2011 and there are too many potentially good movies to be watched before 2012.  And so I began my (hopeful) end-of-year movie blitz with a 2012 Oscar frontrunner, The Ides of March, directed by, co-written by and starring George Clooney.

I’m a sucker for political dramas (I thought the 1998 John Travolta film Primary Colors was fantastic), and so I had high hopes for this film, which also stars some of my favourite actors, including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti and Marisa Tomei.  However, The Ides of March really belongs to Ryan Gosling, who continues to impress with a controlled, Oscar-worthy performance as Stephen Meyers, a junior campaign manager for Clooney’s (potential) Democratic presidential candidate, Mike Morris.

Without giving away too much, the film follows the young, bright and extremely capable Meyers as he tries to assist Pennsylvania Governor Morris in securing the state of Ohio in the Democrat’s presidential candidate race against an Arkansas Senator.  Securing Ohio effectively clinches the nomination (and essentially the White House), so it’s a big deal, but both Meyers and Morris are idealists who want to run the race with integrity and without compromising their values.  However, as they both find out throughout the course of the film, politics is a dirty game where the lines and boundaries and continually being pushed and blurred.  To what extremes will they go in order to get what they want?

I won’t divulge more than that except to say that The Ides of March is, at its core, a somewhat cynical political tale about the loss of innocence.  It begins slowly and is what some would call a slow burner, so it won’t be for everyone.  But I enjoyed every minute of it.  Apart from giving viewers a fascinating behind-the-scenes look into the shady deals, compromises and grey areas in these political processes — daily battles with competitors, internal power struggles, schmoozing journalists and smoothing out scandals — the stylish intensity that underlies the film from start to finish really elevates this otherwise unremarkable story (if you think about it)  to one of the best dramas of the year.

The perfect performances from the awesome cast must receive a significant chunk of the credit.  Gosling has already been nominated once (for Half Nelson in 2006), and this could be the year he takes out Best Actor at the Oscars.  Clooney (Syriana), Hoffman (Capote) and Tomei (My Cousin Vinny) are all Oscar winners and Giamatti is a multiple nominee, and each brings a touch of class to their character — all of whom possess a different side to what is originally presented.  And Evan Rachel Wood, who has a key role as a Morris campaign intern, is surprisingly good and steals a lot of scenes (no mean feat considering the company).

The Ides of March is a clever, well-executed drama with impeccable performances.  It’s probably not for the casual filmgoer looking for light, fast-paced thrills, but I think lovers of (American) politics and serious dramas will thoroughly enjoy it.

4.5 stars out of 5

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Pepper Pastry at Longshan Temple (Taipei)

December 3, 2011 in Food, Reviews, Taiwan, Travel

One of my favourite snacks in the world is the Pepper Pastry (胡椒餅), otherwise known as the ‘Pepper Biscuit’ or ‘Pepper Cake’ (which are both so wrong because it in no way resembles a biscuit or a cake).  It is a savoury flour-based, thick-skinned bun pastry stuffed with pork meat and lots and lots of shallots (spring onions) and black pepper, sprinkled with sesame seeds on top.  The raw buns are stuck on the inside of a cylindrical oven until cooked to perfection.

On the first bite, your teeth with crush through the thin, crispy pastry layered on the outside, the thick, doughy skin beneath, before hitting the hot, spicy, juicy explosion awaiting on the inside.  At the good places, the marinated is tender, fiery and slightly sweet, and the shallots and pepper give it a real kick.  I simply love ‘em.

There used to be lots of these stalls around Taipei, but for some reason they are harder to find now.  I last wrote about them in my post about the Raohe Night Markets, which has a particularly famous Pepper Pastry stall.

Another very famous one is located in a tiny side alley near Exit 1 of the Longshan Temple MRT station called ‘Fuzhou Original Pepper Pastry’ (福州元祖椒餅).  It is actually a proper store as opposed to a stall, but considering how inconspicuous the place is, it’s a minor miracle that they not only have very good business, they often have extremely long lines that go all the way out of the alley.

The pepper pastries are created in batches.  If you get there before a batch is done, you can place your order first and grab a number.  A certain portion of a new batch is reserved for pre-orders, and the remainder are for those who rock up on the spot and line up.  It’s a bit of a gamble sometimes because some people might order 10-20 each, meaning the batch can disappear in a hurry.  I got there in between batches and had to wait 20 minutes.

But trust me, it’s worth it.  Of all the pepper pastries I have tried, the ones here must be either number one or two.  The sesame on the outside is roasted and extremely fragrant.  The skin is not overly thick and you can taste the layers as you bite into it.  The meat is succulent and bursting with flavour.  They are particularly generous with the ingredients so you don’t feel like you’re being short changed (at NT$45 each, it’s hard to feel short changed anyway).

In Taiwan, lots of places have long lines for no good reason, but at this tiny little store near Longshan Temple, a place tucked away in an alley so narrow that you’d never even know it existed, it makes perfect sense.  The pepper pastries are that good.

Details

Fuzhou Original Pepper Pastry (福州元祖椒餅)

No. 5, Alley 2, Lane 89, Section 3 Heping West Road, Wanhua District, Taipei

Nearest MRT Station: Longshan Temple (Exit 1)

(02) 2308-3075

Open 9am-7pm

Directions: Take the MRT blue line to Longshan Temple station and come out of Exit 1.  Turn left and you should be able to see a tiny alley.  If you can see lots of people inside then it’s probably the right one.

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