Recently I had a work lunch at Living One (地中海幸福料理), a Mediterranean restaurant set in a former canteen on the edge of the National Taiwan University campus. But despite its former existence dishing out cheap and cheerful student food, Living One is much more upmarket. Set in a pretty brick building on the edge of campus near Keelung Road, once you find the entrance (it is not obvious, especially not from the street), the spacious, modern interior welcomes.
On arrival (and once requested), waitresses provided us with warmed bread that you can dip in the provided olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Being hungry, I quickly devoured this before requesting another serving. There was a certain amount of dithering and fussing with the process of the waitresses bringing the bread: I wished they had just left a basket on the middle of the table. But it was nice to have it served warm!
The menu choice features mainly pasta and risotto dishes, although they do have some non-carbohydrate based choices such as an oven baked duck leg with roselle and apricot, stewed pork and two fish dishes. The prices range from NT$280 for a chicken based pasta, to NT$900 for Angus rib-eye steak. All lunch meals come as a set meal with bread, salad, soup, main, dessert and tea or coffee.
Entree salad
Entree salad was a dressed green salad, with lots of crunchy cos lettuce. It included some Taiwanese-style tropical fruits, as well as a piece of caramalised apple. While a little unusual to have fruit in a simple green salad, the colourful combination worked.
Not quite minestrone tomato and vegetable soup
Then followed the routine soup course. This was a flavoursome tomato-based soup concentrate, fresh although condensed a-la canned Campbells style, with cubed winter vegetables. I didn’t expect to like this soup, but it was actually quite good. I suspect it was an attempt at minestrone, but once I accepted that it was not the same thing I quite liked it.
Risotto with the intriguingly named miccthys miiuy and clams
For my main dish, I chose the unusually named risotto with fresh miccthys miiuy and clams in white wine sauce. I could tell from the Chinese description that miccthys miiuy was some type of seafood, but until it arrived it was all a bit of a mystery. Miccthys miiuy, I subsequently learned, is a type of deep sea fish caught off in the Taiwan Straits near the Penghu Islands. It is white-fleshed and similar to, but slightly sweeter than, swordfish. Served atop of the piping hot risotto with juicy fresh clams, the miccthys miiuy fish was a perfect match to the tender rice. Oh, and the entire dish served in Western-style oversized plates was more generously proportioned than my photo indicates. I chose to have my risotto cooked Italian style (i.e. al dente, slightly chewy), but the restaurant will also cook it softer to cater for Taiwanese tastes.
While I didn’t sample this dish, I loved the presentation of the pan-fried sea bass with clams and vegetable sauce. It was so bright, and just seemed to mirror the colours of the mediterranean. I also wonder where they found the beetroot for the mash, or perhaps it was a dark-purple taro.
Strawberry swiss roll
The set menu included a choice of one of two dessert plates. The overwhelming majority of people in the restaurant ordered the tiramisu, which was served with coffee ice-cream and a sliver of gold-leaf sprinkled chocolate. It looked spectacular. But instead I took advantage of the Taiwan strawberry season and ordered the strawberry roulade. It was delicious: the soft sponge roll was filled with a rich custard cream and large, yet still sweet, strawberries. It was perfectly complemented by a scoop of slightly-tart strawberry ice-cream that had a creamy yet sorbet-style tang. And I loved the chocolate crumbs, which were a perfect match for the smooth texture of the ice-cream. Although I was already full from my large plate of risotto, I savoured every bite.
Japanese style green tea
The green tea is, well, green. It is Japanese matcha tea style, which is obvious when ordering in Chinese but less so for native English speakers. My dining companion was expecting something a little different. But if you like authentic Japanese matcha tea, you will enjoy it.
Living One is situated on the 1st floor of the Mingda building within the Taiwan National University main campus (near Keelung Road). They also have another restaurant in Hsinchu, which I have not tried. For reservations for the NTU venue, call (02) 2364 9691.
That’s not beetroot or taro, that’s purple yam (山藥), or “ube” in the Philippines. It’s like a yam but, well, purple, with an earthier, less sweet flavor and a LOT more gluten (making it very sticky and almost mochi-like when prepared in certain ways) but packed with healthy stuff.
Thanks for clarifying. I didn’t try the purple yam so I don’t know whether it tasted sticky or not.