Allez Cuisine: Miyazaki 2, Taiwan

20 June 2010

No word could describe excitement when I reached Taipei. This was my first time to reach this city with full of meimeis (pretty young lady but we call them sisters in Chinese) and tasty cuisine. Taiwan is well known for its Chinese and Japanese cuisine. This was the golden opportunity for Mr Glutton to search for great cuisine and restaurant IF HE HAD THE TIME. Again I was in Taipei to commissioned a project. Hopefully I could end my project early so that I could taste the famous cuisine in Taipei.

The host for my trip was Mr Willy Huang, the manager director of a local engineering company. He was responsible for all my accommodation and MEALS (Mr Huang, please bring me to La Petite Cuisine Brasserie to taste the dishes from famous Chef Justin Quek, pray hard…..). However his son, Mr Huang junior, told me that day was Willy’s birthday. And we would be going to the Japanese restaurant below his office, Miyazaki 2, to celebrate his 60 year-old birthday with his family.

Folks, all of you are thinking why the restaurant is called Miyazaki 2. There is a sad story behind this. This restaurant was called Miyazaki originally and the owner is Miyazaki San who was a chef in Japan. The restaurant was well decorated with luxury Japanese ornaments from Japan. He set up a restaurant in Taipei where rents are the highest in Taiwan. Mrs Huang, who was also known as Dong Niang (Mrs CEO in Chinese) told me that the Japanese cuisine from this chef was marvelous. Even his restaurant was well received by the diners, the earnings was not sufficient to pay the monthly rent and installment to the banks. At the end Miyazaki San was stressful and he chose to end his life in his apartment. There was a Taiwanese diner who was a great fan of Miyazaki San thought that it was a waste to close down Miyazaki since the restaurant was gaining reputation for Japanese cuisine in Taipei. So he decided to buy over Miyazaki 2, in memorial to Miyazaki San. This young fine gentleman will continue the legacy of serving original and tasty Japanese cuisine from Miyazaki San.

The Japanese dishes from Miyazaki’s apprentices were marvelous. All the ingredients were fresh. I could taste the natural sweetness from sushi and sashimi. There were so great and appetizing. The fried fish was sprinkled a bit of salty but it enhanced the sweetness and the freshness of the fish. The fish stew was full of flavor too. The bonito broth and the fish were prefect for the stew. The broth was absorbed by the golden needle mushrooms enhanced the taste of the mushroom. The fish was melt-in-mouth tender. I guessed the fish stew showed me Miyazaki San taught his students well. I thought Miyazaki San was specialized in authentic Japanese cuisine, but there was two dishes show me that I am wrong. There were sushis wrapped with lettuce. I thought the dish was a fusion of South East Asia and Japanese cuisine. The sushi wrapped with lettuce reminded me home because my mother love to wrap grilled prawns with lettuce and tomato sauce and she just love the taste. The sushi tasted good but I thought if some sauces added to the sushi and lettuce, the dish would taste great. Since this dish was a fusion of South East Asia and Japanese cuisine, I suggested mayonnaise (replaced soya sauce) and mustard (replaced wasabi) should be added in the dish. And we called it “When East meets West”. How do you think, folks?

The Miyazaki beef fillet was awesome. The fillet was tender and the taste was great. From the picture you can see that the arrangement of the ingredient is more to French. I guess Miyazaki San is extremely creative and skillful.

Mr Huang’s birthday reminded me that the following day was Mrs Broke-her-promise’s birthday. I almost forgot about it. Thanks to Mr Huang for reminded me my mother’s birthday.

Folks, visit Miyazaki 2 you have a chance to go to Taipei. Show the your support!