台北向来是一个不用太费劲就能吃得很好的城市：街边小吃的场面热闹非凡，堪比曼谷;餐厅中既有擅长台湾菜的，又有擅长大陆各地的地方菜的;价格亲民、气氛活跃的大排档成千上万，在这里可以用小菜和迅速上桌的炒菜搭配冰镇啤酒;还有大量寿司餐厅，体现了台湾被日本统治数十年的历史。
It’s easier than ever to enjoy those qualities, largely thanks to a crop of chefs drawing inspiration from homegrown ingredients: cured mullet roe, lily stems, purple taro, pork from local black pig. Taiwan offers possibilities for farm-to-table dining that don’t exist in Singapore and Hong Kong. Surrounded by clean waters and dotted with mountains and fertile plains, with more than 20 microclimates and a deeply embedded small farming tradition recently given new life by urbanites going back to the land, Taiwan places agricultural bounty within easy reach of diners in the capital.
现在，享受这些优质美食比以往任何时候都更容易。这主要归功于一批从本土食材中汲取灵感的厨师：经过腌制的乌鱼子、百合花茎、紫芋头和当地的黑猪肉。台湾为新加坡和香港所没有的“从农场到餐桌”餐饮提供了可能性。这里四周是干净的水域，岛上分布着山峦和肥沃的平原，有20多种局部小气候。最近，回归土地的城里人又给一种源远流长的小农耕种传统注入了新的生命。因此，台湾让台北就餐者轻轻松松便能享用到丰富的农产品。
“Now everyone is talking about local ingredients,” the Taiwanese chef André Chiang said. “We have everything here, and we should be proud of it.” Serving ingredient-focused contemporary Taiwanese cuisine, Chiang’s 2-year-old RAW is just one of a growing number of restaurants, ranging from casual to upscale, that are riding the wave of a growing “eat local” movement.
“现在，人人都在说起本地食材，”台湾主厨江振诚(André Chiang)说。“我们这里什么都有，我们应该感到骄傲。”他的RAW餐厅供应注重食材的当代台湾美食，开业已有两年。随着“吃在地”(指食用当地食材——译注)运动日渐发展，搭乘这股浪潮的餐厅也越来越多，从普通餐厅到高端餐厅，RAW只是其中之一。
RAW
RAW餐厅
Anchored by a sinuous cloud-shaped bar hand-carved from two colossal hunks of pine, the dining room at RAW is cavernous and murky, strikingly backlit by a semiopen kitchen. Instagram-friendly pin lights illuminate tables, which are set far apart and have hidden drawers for flatware.
在RAW餐厅，吧台在就餐大厅中占据中重要位置。吧台由两块大松木手工雕刻而成，形状起伏有致，像云彩一样。就餐大厅的环境幽深昏暗，灯光从背后的半开放式厨房发出，令人印象深刻。便于拍照的射灯照亮了餐桌。餐桌之间相距甚远，还设计了用于放置餐具的隐形抽屉。
The seasonal set menu of eight courses and a few smaller bites (with optional wine pairings), eschews dish names in favor of shortened ingredient lists (‘Taiwan’ Rice Pork Mushroom, no commas). Chiang, who worked in France before he opened Singapore’s acclaimed Restaurant André, where he spends most of his time, devises the menu at RAW with two Taiwanese chefs, Zor Tan and Alain Huang.
时令套餐菜单上有八道菜和一些小吃(以及可选择搭配的葡萄酒)。菜单上没有写菜名，而是简单列出了食材(如“台湾”米饭猪肉蘑菇，中间没有逗号)。江振诚曾在法国工作过一段时间，后来在新加坡开了备受称赞的安德烈餐厅(Restaurant André)。他大部分时间都在安德烈餐厅，同另外两名台湾厨师陈将停(Zor Tan)和黄以伦(Alain Huang)一起设计RAW餐厅的菜单。
Every dish on the menu is Taiwanese “in form, structure, color or flavor,” Chiang said. A skewered baby corn cob coated with kernels from a mature cob and slicked with deeply smoky barbecue sauce winked at the sort of fare you might find in Taipei’s night markets, while Beef Tongue Cracker, an oblong crisp with shavings of velvety ox tongue arranged atop a smear of caramelized onions, confit egg yolk with vinegar for dipping, was a sly nod to ox tongue crackers, a classic Taiwanese snack named for their shape. That Rice Pork Mushroom dish? Pure comfort food, served steaming and fragrant in a miniature clay pot, grains glistening with lard, infused with fungal earthiness and enhanced with chunks of tender meat.
江振诚说，菜单上的每一道菜“在形式、结构、颜色和味道上”都是台湾特色的。把小玉米芯串起来，在外面放上成熟的玉米粒，再刷上一层烟熏味厚重的烤肉调味酱，看上去像那种也许会在台湾夜市上发现的食物。而Beef Tongue Cracker则和得名于其形状的台湾经典小吃牛舌饼有关。在一个长方形的脆饼上，切碎的细嫩牛舌被放在一层焦糖洋葱上面，还配有油封蛋黄和可供蘸食的醋。那道米饭猪肉蘑菇呢?是一道能给人带来纯粹满足感的美食。盛放在小砂锅里端上桌时热气直冒，香味四溢，饭粒闪着油光，空气中弥漫着菌类的泥土气息，大块猪肉口感细嫩，进一步增强了食客的享受。
At a nearby table an elegantly dressed Taiwanese woman, obviously perplexed by a shallow bowl containing a single sheet of dried squid, laughed aloud as it separated into curly noodles when a server poured hot kombu broth over. She ate every bite.
在附近一张餐桌上，一名着装优雅的台湾女子明显对一个浅碗感到不解。碗里放着一片干鱿鱼。但当服务员倒进热海带汤，鱿鱼片溶进卷曲的面条中时，她大声笑了起来。最后，她吃得一口不剩。
RAW, No. 301 Le Qun Third Road; 886-2-8501-5800; raw.com.tw. Lunch and dinner tasting menu, 2,680 Taiwanese dollars (about $87) per person, plus 10 percent service charge.
RAW餐厅地址：乐群3路301号;电话：886-2-8501-5800;网址：raw.com.tw。午餐和晚餐品鉴菜单2680台币(约合600元人民币)一位，外加10%服务费。
Tairroir
态芮餐厅
Tairroir, which opened last May on the sixth floor of a building next to RAW, is, in appearance at least, its polar opposite: intimate (just eight tables) and elegant (white-on-white dining room, sleek copper bar). The French training of Kai Ho, the Taiwanese chef, is reflected in both his restaurant’s name (a mix of Taiwan and terroir) and in refined plating, with color and texture highlighted in smears, dabs, dots and drizzles.
去年5月开业的态芮(Tairroir)就在挨着RAW餐厅的那栋楼的六楼。它至少看上去和RAW餐厅截然相反：宁静怡人(只有八张餐桌)、优雅精致(在白底上装饰白色花样的就餐大厅，雅致的铜制吧台)。台湾主厨何顺凯(Kai Ho)接受的法式训练既反映在了餐厅的名字(Taiwan[台湾]和terroir[水土]两个词的结合)上，也体现在了精致的摆盘上。态芮的摆盘强调通过小细节突出食物的色泽和质感。
But Ho is quick to add: “I’m not French. I’m Taiwanese. And I do my own thing.” The result is a set menu (six or eight courses) that crosses Taiwanese ingredients with French technique.
但何顺凯很快补充说：“我不是法国人。我是台湾人。我做的是自己的东西。”成果便是一份让台湾食材和法国技巧相结合的套餐菜单(六或八道菜)。
During my lunch only one dish, warm pumpkin purée accompanied by buttery mushroom brioche, bowed toward the west; others were unequivocally Taiwanese in spirit if not form. In Ho’s hands taro cake, a Chinese New Year favorite, became a spoonable mash to be stirred together with a sous-vide egg, the combination’s richness cut by dried sakura shrimp and crispy shallots.
在我的午餐里，只有温润南瓜泥配黄油蘑菇甜面包这道菜是西式的，其他菜即便在形式上不是，也明显具有台湾菜的内在。在何顺凯手中，人们最喜欢的春节美食芋头糕成了糊状，需用勺子和一个用真空低温的方式制作的鸡蛋一起拌着吃。干樱花虾和鲜脆的青葱则让这道把芋头和鸡蛋合二为一的美食口感更加丰富。
A magnificent dessert combined moist purple cakes tasting of concentrated blueberries with a powerfully lemony mousseline, bracingly tart yogurt “snow” and honeycombed pong tang, a traditional Taiwanese hard candy.
蓝莓味道醇厚的紫色松软蛋糕与有着强烈柠檬味道的慕斯、令人心旷神怡的用酸奶做的“雪”和呈蜂巢状的碰糖融相结合，成就了一道华丽的甜品。碰糖是台湾的一种传统硬糖。
When it comes to sourcing ingredients, Ho said he’s “not as hard-core as some chefs. I’m not at the farm every day.” But he estimates that about 90 percent of what he uses in the kitchen is local; on the day we met he was excitedly planning a visit to a fish farmer in nearby Yilan county to investigate a tip about local caviar.
说到食材的采购，何顺凯自称“不像一些厨师那么固执。我不是每天都在农场”。但他估计，他在厨房里使用的食材大约90%产自当地。我们见面那一天，他正在兴奋地计划去邻近的宜兰县拜访一个养鱼人，为的是调查一个有关当地的鱼子酱的消息。
Tairroir, 6F, No. 299 Le Qun Third Road; 886-2-8501-5500; tairroir.com. Tasting menu (lunch) 1,650 or 2,350 Taiwanese dollars and (dinner) 3,200 or 5,000 dollars per person, plus 10 percent service charge.
态芮餐厅地址：乐群3路299号6楼;电话：886-2-8501-5500;网址：tairroir.com。品鉴菜单午餐1650或2350台币一位，晚餐3200台币或5000台币一位，外加10%服务费。
MUME
MUME
MUME, which opened around the same time as RAW and shares its capital-letters-only naming approach (mume is the botanical name for the plum blossom, Taiwan’s national flower), channels a Nordic sensibility, with a cozy dining room gently lit by the glow of a marble bar and Scandinavian-style bentwood chairs flanking tables lit by low-hanging pendant lights. “Modern European casual fine dining,” in the words of Richie Lin, an owner and one of three chefs, captures the spirit of the place — elegant and suitable for a special night out, welcoming and wallet-friendly enough to be your neighborhood hangout.
MUME和RAW餐厅大致同时开业，起名方式也一样，字母全部大写(mume是代表台湾的梅花的植物学名)。MUME带来了一种斯堪的纳维亚风情。就餐大厅环境舒适，大理石吧台发出柔和的光芒，斯堪的纳维亚风格的曲木椅子摆放在餐桌两侧，头顶是低悬的吊灯。用餐厅老板兼主厨林泉(Richie Lin)的话来说，这个地方体现的正是“现代的欧洲轻松高级餐厅”的精神：环境典雅，适合有特殊意义的晚餐，同时足够热情和经济实惠，适合你走出家门常去光顾。
After Mr. Lin experienced some frustration with the scarcity of local ingredients in Hong Kong, where he was born and had worked (he grew up in Canada), Taiwan appealed as fertile ground on which to pursue his goal of cooking with the seasons, alongside two other expat chefs: Kai Ward (Australian) and Long Xiong (American). MUME is “a chance to discover what is unique and special about Taiwan,” he said, “and to showcase it to the world.”
林泉在香港出生，并曾在那里工作过一段时间(他在加拿大长大)。在他因香港当地食材短缺而感到失望后，台湾这片沃土吸引了他。在这里，他同另外两名外籍主厨凯·沃德(Kai Ward，澳大利亚籍)和熊龙(Long Xiong，美籍)追求着用时令食材烹制美食的目标。MUME是“一个发现台湾独一无二的特别之处，”他说，“并展示给世人的机会。”
Nordic influence is on the menu, too, in a starter of warm country sourdough with beer butter and smoked beef fat butter, modeled after a popular bread course at Noma. After that, the menu divides into Snack, Smaller, Bigger, Sweeter. I would return in a heartbeat for baby potatoes, which are thickly dusted with dried shiitake crumbles. The mushroom crumbs bear a whiff of the forest floor and notes of coffee and bitter chocolate that deepen when mixed with the accompanying cultured butter.
斯堪的纳维亚地区的影响也体现在了菜单上的第一道菜上。它是一份热腾腾的乡村酵母面包，搭配啤酒黄油和熏牛油黄油，效仿的是Noma餐厅一款备受欢迎的面包。在这道菜之后，菜单分成了点心、小菜、大菜和甜品几部分。我可能会兴奋地再来这里吃撒了厚厚一层干蘑菇碎的小土豆。蘑菇碎带着一股森林里的泥土气息，还有一种咖啡和纯苦巧克力的感觉。和搭配的精品黄油一同入口时，这种感觉会有所加深。
The Taiwan salad is a stunner: 30 ingredients that change by the day (I identified nasturtium leaves, flower petals, tiny broccoli florets, pickled cherry tomatoes and roasted carrots), dressed not with vinegar or citrus but umami, in the form of salted black beans. There’s plenty of showmanship in crisp-tender blush prawns bathed in coral sauce made with prawn head fat and layered with jicama batons and wisps of fresh dill; frozen ricotta is dusted over the bowl, releasing a dry ice cloud. Each mouthful is a shock of brine and milk and grassiness, amplified by crunch and cold.
台湾沙拉格外令人震撼：它包含30种原料，每天都会有所变化(我尝出了旱金莲叶、花瓣，西兰花，腌制的樱桃番茄和烤胡萝卜)，它不是醋或柑橘的味道，而是盐渍黑豆所带来的鲜味。脆嫩的红虾浸泡在虾头脂肪制成的珊瑚色虾酱里，显得分外华丽，豆薯条和缕缕新鲜莳萝令口味更具层次感;冷冻乳清干酪末撒在碗里，散发出云雾般的白色冷气。每一口都是卤水、牛奶与清新味道的冲击，爽脆冰冷的口感更添刺激。
MUME, No. 28 Siwei Road; 886-2-2700-0901. Average dinner for two is 2,900 dollars, plus 10 percent service charge. MUME地址：四维路28号;电话：886-2-2700-0901。 两人晚餐平均价格为2900台币加10%服务费。
YEN 紫艳中餐厅
Before arriving at YEN (yet another all-caps venture), the Hong Kong-born Hoi Ming Wo cooked in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. In Osaka, he led the Xiang Tao restaurant to its first Michelin star. But he had never been to Taiwan, so before starting as executive chef he traveled the island to eat, and inspiration struck: “I realized that, hey, there are a lot of really great local ingredients,” he said, “and I knew that was where I wanted to focus at YEN.”
来紫艳中餐厅(YEN，又是一家字母全部大写的餐厅)之前，出生在香港的邬海明(Hoi Ming Wo)在泰国、新加坡和马来西亚当过厨师。在大阪，他带领香桃(Xiang Tao)获评米其林一星餐厅。但他一直没来过台湾，因此，在开始担任紫艳中餐厅的行政总厨之前，他在岛上四处游历，品尝美食。那时，他有了一个灵感：“我意识到，嘿，这里有很多真的很棒的本地食材，”他说，“我知道这正是我希望紫艳中餐厅注重的方面。”
Atop the W Hotel, YEN is as stylish as one would expect: bold colors (deep violet and pink), inventive artwork (wall sculptures incorporating kitchen tools), a wall of windows overlooking Taipei’s urban sprawl. Much of the long menu is composed of dishes one might find in a restaurant of similar caliber in Hong Kong: succulent roast meats and fowl, steamed fish priced by the pound, double-boiled soups. But you’ll also unearth gems, examples of what Wo describes as Taiwanese-Cantonese fusion.
位于W饭店顶层的紫艳中餐厅时尚至极：颜色大胆(深紫罗兰色和粉色)、艺术品极富创意(墙上以餐具为主题的雕塑)、多扇窗户可以俯瞰台北。长长的菜单上，很多都是人们也许会在水平类似的香港餐厅看到的菜肴：多汁烤肉和家禽、按磅计价的蒸鱼，以及老汤。但你也会发现珍宝，它们就是邬海明所说的台湾菜和粤菜相结合的范例。
Delicate cones filled with crispy green apple sticks and pan-fried slices of mullet roe are all crunch and tartness with a bracing hit of piscine saltiness. Mi tai mu, an iconic street dish of stubby rice flour noodles made like spaetzle and usually eaten in soup, are here served in a Cantonese-style lobster broth whose sumptuousness is bolstered by rafts of sweet loofah gourd.
精致的蛋筒中放入鲜脆的绿苹果条和用平底锅煎的乌鱼子薄片，咬上去嘎吱作响，酸味中带有一丝鱼的咸香，令人神清气爽。米苔目是台湾标志性的街头小吃，里面的米粉又短又粗，像德国的spaetzle。米苔目通常是带汤的，而在紫艳中餐厅，米苔目用的是一种粤式龙虾汤，大量甜丝瓜让其更显丰盛。
For a main dish Wo steams chunks of lobster from Penghu (islands in the Taiwan Strait) — very tender, unlike Boston lobster, he said — and sets them in a shallow bowl in the center of a creamy “ocean” of egg white; a tangle of bird’s nest adds crunch. There’s nothing Taiwanese about YEN’s custard buns, but order them anyway: Served warm, dusted with semi-bitter cacao and shaped like mushrooms, they ooze golden eggy custard.
为了一道主菜，邬海明会蒸几块来自澎湖(位于台湾海峡的多座岛屿)的龙虾——他说这种龙虾肉质非常嫩，不像波士顿龙虾——并把它们放在一个浅碗里，为一片奶白色的蛋清“海洋”所包围，燕窝则增加了这道佳肴的脆爽口感。紫艳中餐厅的奶黄包毫无台湾特色可言，但还是点一份吧：热乎乎的包子端上桌，形状像蘑菇，上面撒着微苦的可可粉，金色的奶黄从里面渗了出来。
YEN, 31F, W Hotel, No. 10 Zhongxiao East Road, Section 5; 886-2-7703-8768; yentaipei.com/en. An average meal for two is 3,500 dollars.
紫艳中餐厅地址：忠孝东路5段10号W饭店31层;电话：886-2-7703-8768;网址：yentaipei.com/en。普通两人餐3500台币。
Mr. Meat Hot Pot and Butchery 肉大人肉铺火锅
I’d never been a fan of hot pot until several years ago, when a friend in Taipei introduced me to fermented cabbage hot pot at a restaurant called Lao Zhou. Eighteen months ago Han Chen, a native of Taichung, on the country’s western coast, who managed Lau Zhou for his uncle, struck out on his own and opened Mr. Meat, where he melds a passion for fermentation and a reverence for Taiwan’s “grannies” (Mr. Chen’s term for small producers of traditional ingredients) with a pure love of meat.
我向来不喜欢火锅，直到几年前，台北的一个朋友给我介绍了一家叫“老舅的家乡味”的餐厅里的酸菜火锅。18个月前，替亲戚管理“老舅的家乡味”的陈冠翰自立门户，创办了肉大人。在这里，在台湾西海岸的台中出生和长大的陈冠翰把对酸菜的热爱和对台湾“阿嬷”(陈冠翰指的是小型传统食材供应商)的敬重，与对肉食的纯粹喜爱结合在了一起。
“Fermented ingredients have sourness without acidity and combine well with meat,” he said. “The fat smooths the ferment while the ferment brings out the meat’s sweetness.” Diners choose from a selection of broths made with seasonal ferments (cabbage in fall, garlic in winter, kimchi in spring, tomato in summer). The individually sized hot pots come preassembled, ready to cook at personal burners.
“酸菜有酸味，但没有酸性，能很好地和肉结合，”他说。“脂肪会去除酵素，酵素则会让肉释放出甜味儿。”食客有一系列锅底可选，它们都是用应季的酸菜(秋天是白菜、冬天是洋葱、春天是朝鲜泡菜、夏天是西红柿)制作的。大小不同的火锅可重新组合，个人可随时在自己的炉子上开煮。
Fermented garlic soup sounds stinkier than it tastes; on a cool December day it was salve for the soul, bracing, reviving, appetizing. Packed with vegetables (taro, bamboo, radish, white cabbage), bean curd three ways (skin, frozen, preserved), meatballs, dumplings and flavorings like red dates and wolfberries, it made a fine base for a selection of thinly sliced meats.
酸洋葱锅底吃上去没有听上去那么臭。在天气转凉的12月吃，简直就是对心灵的慰藉，让人神清气爽、满血复活、食欲大开。满满当当的蔬菜(芋头、竹笋、水萝卜、包心菜)、豆腐三样(豆皮、冻豆腐、腐乳)、肉丸、饺子以及红枣、枸杞等调味品，为精心挑选的薄肉片打下了美味的基础。
Taiwan produces little beef or lamb, so Mr. Chen imports some red meats from Europe, the United States and Australia. But there’s also gamy cherry duck (a Taiwanese breed), gui ding chicken (tastier than your average bird) and Taiwanese black pork. It would be unwise to pass on a side order of Granny’s Braised Carrot Minced Meat, an insanely luscious pork ragu made according to a recipe provided by Mr. Chen’s grandmother-in-law, served over rice.
台湾几乎不出产牛羊肉，因此陈冠翰的部分红肉是从欧洲、美国和澳大利亚进口的。但店里也有樱桃鸭(台湾的一个品种)、桂丁鸡(比普通的鸡好吃)和台湾黑猪肉。错过须单点的配菜“家传阿嬷的红萝卜肉燥”是很不明智的。这是一道非常美味的酱猪肉，是按照陈冠翰妻子的祖母提供的食谱制作的。上桌时，肉燥会被浇在米饭上。
Before opening his restaurant Mr. Chen traveled Taiwan in search of exceptional ingredients. In Meinong, a center of Hakka culture, he found a husband and wife making tofu skin with soy milk heated over a wood fire; in Tainan, a woman making fine fish dumplings filled with pork. Some are named on the menu, like Master Wu of Tainan, a classical painter-turned-fermentation specialist.
开餐厅之前，陈冠翰在台湾四处游历，寻找与众不同的食材。在客家文化的中心美浓，他看到一对夫妇用经过柴火加热的豆浆制作豆皮。在台南，一名女子在鱼饺中加入猪肉后，味道棒极了。其中一些人的名字出现在了肉大人的菜单上，比如台南的“酸菜老爷”。此人是一名传统的酸菜专家，转行前是一名画家。
“I see the restaurant as a platform. I love the ingredients and I want you to know who made them,” Mr. Chen said. “Make the grannies happy, make the grannies proud.”
“我把餐厅当成一个平台。我喜欢这些食材，我想让你们知道它们是谁做的，”陈冠翰说。“让阿嬷高兴，让阿嬷自豪。”
Mr. Meat Hot Pot and Butchery, rear entrance No. 85 Lane 31, Dunhua South Road Section 2; 886-2-2703-5522; www.mrmeat.co. Average meal for two is 1,800 dollars.
肉大人肉铺火锅地址：敦化南路2段81巷35号后门;电话：886-2-2703-5522;网址：www.mrmeat.co。两人餐平均价格为1800台币。
