I was really hungry and dehydrated when I headed out for breakfast. This time, breakfast is at 9am Taiwan time. I believe I ate six hours prior in flight but was still famished. Chasing the darkness from the U.S. to Asia for 16 hours tends to be dis-orienting. As such, the first meal is usually a mistake as I succumbed to my hunger and jet lag.
Apple203 is a breakfast restaurant and is right around the corner from where I’m staying. The cafe owner called out to me from across the street and that was how I made my poor decision.
My daughter was clear on what she wanted. She wanted the Japanese charcoal grilled pork, ham, eggs, veggies and rice. She pointed to the picture on the wall. She was wise.
In contrast, I read the dense, multi-page menu the owner handed me. Let me let you into a big secret now… Even if I consider myself fluent in the language, menu reading is more cultural than language. In Taiwan, menus are structured like a matrix- each action taken will contribute to creating an unique final dish. So I chose this item that roughly translated as “Spicy chicken leg meat with egg on toast.”
Shame on me for forgetting that toast is always white and thin in Taiwan, unless otherwise indicated. I ended up getting a Taiwanese version of “Wendy’s chicken patty sandwich” in very thin bread and placed inside a paper bag!
Her dish was much better than mine. But both items suffered from the chef being too zealous about black pepper. The traditional breakfast place is much much better, especially because they are equally hot inside!
The entire meal plus a glass of milk and a large black tea was around $6USD.
This experience took place at
Apple203咖啡館(全日餐)
地址：台北市和平東路三段207巷8號1樓
電話：(02)8732-1739
營業時間：週一至週日 06:30~21:30
最晚預約或點餐時間：21:00
Peilin Corbanese 