Nordcap

I've always wondered about this coffee shop and I finally tried it today. The shop is designed like a big gift box wrapped with flowy ribbons. It's actually a complex, called "Moving Box". There are a total of three different shops: in the corner occupies Nordcap, a coffee shop, to the east, a bakery shop, Moving Box and a steakhouse, 洛克牛排.

This is obviously an installation art trying to catch people's attention on 公益路 where every inch of the road stands a restaurant, a coffee shop, a patisserie or eatery of some sort.

I ordered my usual choice of coffee, Latte, which only cost me NTD$50. I wasn't exactly expecting espresso with that price, so as far as I was concerned, if it's got caffeine in it to wake me up, it'll do. With the coffee, we ordered a chocolate marble cake, which tasted really.. well, marble-like.

The good thing about this corner coffee shop is that the whole side of the shop is covered with a big pane of glass window, so it actually looks bigger than it does from a spatial prospective. It also allows coffee-shop hypocrites like me to look out the window pretending not to give a shit about the world (while the pedestrians can do the same thing to me).

Overall, I think this coffee shop is OKAY.. like, if you really can't find a Starbucks nearby and coffee is all you crave. Except for the deco that really was wroth writing about, I find the food just mediocre, and probably was manufactured from a factory in 三重 and distributed to 700 different coffee shops in Taiwan. (Okay, I'm sorry, I don't think there are actually that many coffee shops in Taiwan.. after subtracting the number of Starbux).

Anyways, nice to have tried it though.

Stumbling upon Las Vegas

I like Taichung, for its gourmet food, designer brand shops and mobbish people.

Last weekend, a casual sunbathing in Miaoli led me and Harry down to Taichung searching for food after two hours of frying on the beach. We were in a mood for American food, burgers, fries and sodas. Since we allowed ourselves in developing a taste for finer foods, the ol' Colonal and McDonald just simply wouldn't do. So in the spirit of exploration, we tried our luck in the vicinity of SOGO Department Store. And indeed, we stumbled upon Lusso Restaurant.

The whole restaurant's image is based on Las Vegas casino, it's not hard to see, cuz the restaurant logo gave it away.

It even says Nevada down at the bottom of the business card.
Not hard to miss the connection.

The bar, with music video of Moby and The Verve playing on the screen, I think it'd be cozy at night.

The velvet chairs, comfy.

The wallpaper, is this Victorian? Gothic? I've no idea.

The waitress was cute. She sat in the empty chair while taking orders from us. Really cool.

The stack of tissue paper was already present when we were seated. It wasn't till later that I realized why the whole stack.

The food was awesome! H ordered the beef patty burger, and I ordered the Jack Daniel Chicken burger. The beef patty wasn't actually really authentic, because it was actual a STEAK sandwiched in the buns! The fries tasted really good too. Hot and freshly fried, not greasy at all. Salty but not overwhelming. I didn't need any ketchup to finish the fries on its own.

My Jack Daniel burger was huge. I had a hard time finishing it on my own. The chicken was sauteed to exact tenderness, yet the skin was crispy.The sauce was sweet and it glazed nicely on the chicken. Both burgers were super juicy and that's why we needed the tissue paper, to wipe our hands and mouths.

This is H's order of beef burger.

This is my Jack Daniel chicken burger.

Lusso would definitely be much more relaxing and enjoyable at night. There was a section closed off when we were there. It probably will open up at night since on the door was a poster of party invitation scheduled on June 13.. hey, that's this Saturday.. HRRMMMMMMM...