A Taste of Russia in Taipei

Since coming to Taiwan I have definitely picked up the Taiwanese love of good food. Part of that has been making a point of trying new restaurants whenever I can, partly to have a new experience and partly to avoid going to the same places too much. This past weekend Connie and I set off to the Salt and Bread Russian restaurant/cafe/bakery located on DunHua South Road. I'd never really had much Russian food, so I thought this might be a cool new taste to try. As it turns out, I actually had had many of the things on the menu at various times, it had just never registered that I was eating Russian food when I had it.

Connie ordered some Glazed Salmon with Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp and I ordered some excellent Chicken Kiev. While we were eating a Russian man carrying an accordian came out in a traditional Russian folk costume accompanied by a similarly dressed woman and the two of them launched into various Russian songs. I have to say it really perked up what had seemed like a stuffy atmosphere at first, and before long we were smiling and tapping our fingers to the music.

Then came dessert... 

Dessert!

For dessert, Connie and I decided to order one of the house specialities. Shortly after that a chef pushed a cart up to our table with a bowl covered in the silver bell you can see in the background of this picture. He removed the bell to reveal this chocolate bubble, and I really wasn't sure what was going to happen next so I quickly whipped out my camera and snapped a picture. (I didn't feel too bad, the tourists at the next table were taking pictures every 15 seconds, I think the guy had bought a new camera!) 

Chocolate Flambe!

The chef pours alcohol (Vodka, I believe) onto the chocolate bubble and lights it on fire! 

Boiling Point

The Chocolate liquifies under the heat from the burning alcohol and collapses onto what turns out to be three scoops of ice cream hidden under the chocolate, instantly coating the hard ice cream with it's hot chocolate goodness. 

Voila!

Add a few walnuts and voila! A hard-chocolate sundae, with scoops of rum-raisin, chocolate fudge and coffee ice cream. I couldn't wait to dig in! 

The Finished Product!

Connie: "I can tell you're really full, so don't worry about eating this. Just leave it to me, dear. I'll take care of it and you don't have to worry about it being wasted."

Samurai and Tanks!

I was walking by the local movie theatre and saw this poster for an upcoming film that looks to be a time-travel story involving tanks, apache gunship helicopters and samurai. How can you go wrong with that combination, I ask you? Having never quite seen anything like it before, I took a picture, and who knows, I might even see the movie someday! (On DVD, if it has English subtitles...)