2016-11-30

TK Seafood & Steak @ A Taipei Alternative Steakhouse

 Fine dining in Taipei may not be everyone’s priority when comes to eating out, as the street vendor food scene is the main focus for the local and visitor alike. But, once a while, we need to be served and pampered in a restaurant with nice ambience, and some carefully tailor-made meals or cuisine for a change. The TK Seafood & Steak restaurant in this boutique design Hotel PROVERBS Taipei in Da'an district is the recent real find for steak, even for the locals. mylifestylenews writes.


Located on the Ground level (1st floor for Taipei), TK Seafood & Steak is created by Culinary Director Fudy Chen who brings agriculture and aquaculture into play at his newest seafood & steak restaurant, using prime wagyu beef and also his own delectable house dry-aged beef. Besides, steaks is not only the "must order" when you dine in TK Seafood & Steak restaurant as their daily harvested vegetables and seafood from his very own farm and local fishing wharf delivers to his kitchen daily and is readily transformed into an exquisite meals at your table when your order is placed.


We love the idea of reducing carbon footprint and yet supporting the local farmers, fishermen and other fresh local suppliers. Most importantly, it is cost effective. Hence, with such sustainable and fresh produce on offer, TK Seafood & Steak restaurant has become one of Taipei’s hippest restaurants recently.


When you enter the restaurant, the semi-open kitchen your draws attention where young chefs are busily preparing for the evening diners. A floor to ceiling wine cellar on the left divides the concierge counter and creates a cozy yet dining atmosphere. Proceeding further into the main dining area, three-storey chandeliers illuminates the entire area with the reflection of wall glass wall creating a more romantic dining experience.


Do not expect the traditional old Chester lounge chairs or dim lights with classic gueridon table service here as this modern contemporary Seafood & Steak restaurant is a much more casual yet elegant, eatery for you to enjoy and relax in for the planned evening.

  
<Uni Bruschestta with Guanciale and Burratta>
First of all, you got to love Uni – the sea urchin before you could enjoy this starter as many may not find it too fishy and yet if you are into it, the mashy texture with a hint of sweetness in taste is divine, especially it was served on a hot and light greased bruschetta as well as the thinly sliced Italian Guanciale cured meat (almost a bacon) from the pork jowl or cheeks together with the buratta cheese to balance the entire complexity mouth full palate.


<Luffa Soup with Clams and Market Fish> 
It is quite rare to find Luffa soup in a western restaurant especially for this region, Luffa is quite commonly used in everyday’s comfort food. The thick soup mixed with seafood broth creates a light yet creamy texture, almost a pumpkin soup delight. Clams are fresh and juicy yet the only downside was only two clams are served, such a teaser! The daily catch market fish skin was grilled to a light crispiness without destroying the firm body and texture of the fish. Quite an impressive dish by maximizing the sustainability use of local produce.


<Josper Roasted Abalone, Semi-Dry Tomato, Shiso, Green Olive Lemon Oil> 
Here comes the South African abalone and perhaps this is one of the very least produce that is not from local supply. Abalone is never our priority when comes to dining out, yet Chef insisted us to savor this creation. The combination of all ingredients used is to offer you a more satisfying palate of the sauce spread over the abalone where the remaining gummy chewy texture of the flesh, which is always the case. It is also a challenging dish as it is more like the fame that you are eating when an abalone is served.


<Steam Market Fish, Fennel Cream with Braised Radish>
And again, steam fish is rare to find in western cuisine as the closest is to poach. This light & cheerful delight is something best for a diet meal plans yet it is still very tasty. Well marinated fillet of fish with the skin remain served with the Japanese braised radish that brings out the hint sugar sweetness and the combination of the fennel cream balance out the palate while the water cress salad acts as a mouth cleanser to end the dish.



<U.S.A. “Snake River Farms” Golden Label Short Ribs>
The highlight of the evening has arrived. Steaks selection is wide here, from the house-aged Porterhouse to A5 Wagyu Striploin (which is limited serving per day), Wagyu Bone in Ribeye, Rossini, Chateaubriand Steak, short ribs and etc. You can’t just ignore them here. Chef had prepared the medium rare grilled U.S.A. “Snake River Farms” golden label short ribs for us which was a divine choice of the evening. Say no words but the meat and preparation speak by itself and not to mention that their Mangalica Pork Chop with Whisky Rhuburb is another dish that already has your eye on it for next visit.


<Chocolate Cake>
Not really having much room for dessert and yet the meal has to round up with the sweet ending.  Rich and firm, not too sweet and thank goodness it was a mouth full size. All wells ends well.


TK Seafood & Steak restaurant is the place to go for premium steaks and seasonal seafood cuisine, where fine food with a creative thought mingled into an intimate and indulgent pleasure in its three-story-high and radiantly-lit space. Taipei surely has another best alternative steak house to dine for.

Tried & Tested:
Location: 4/5
Design & Decor: 4/5
Food & Beverage: 4.5/5
Service: 4.5/5
Value For Money: 4.5/5
Experience: 4.5/5

56, Section 1, Da'an Road,
Da'an District,
Taipei, Taiwan
Tel: +886 2 2711 1118


Reviews are based on actual day of visit and experience. mylifestylenews reserves the right of final decision in case of any disputes. All images are photographed by mylifestylenews team without any photoshop enhancement and are the property owned by mylifestylenews unless otherwise stated. 

PRADA PAST FORWARD

  Miuccia Prada is a designer who, through her work, investigates feminine identity. Her collections depict women as the site of complex intersections of subjectivity. Every woman, she has stated, carries on her body fragments of her own history, her experiences, her loves, her dramas. To this end, the designer has joined in a unique collaboration with American writer/director David O. Russell involving the development of PAST FORWARD, a multi-platform film project.


Acclaimed for his work with exuberant ensembles of actors in films such as American Hustle, The Fighter, and Silver Linings Playbook, Russell imagined PAST FORWARD as a surreal, silent dreamscape with multiple actors replaying scenes in shifting combinations. The result is an unreliable story, a parallax view wherein the scenes, characters, costumes, genres, and even the multiple endings, repeat and morph, refusing the logic of conventional narrative. In so doing Russell represents his characters as elements of a complex collage, the viewer is left to decode what is experience, what is memory, what is dream, and discern the overlap and differences between them.


Starring Allison Williams, Freida Pinto, Kuoth Wiel, John Krasinski, Jack Huston, Sinqua Walls, Paula Patton, Connie Britton, and Sacha Baron Cohen, PAST FORWARD is a singular collaboration between two creative minds. “Miuccia Prada challenged me to make a work of cinema, like a dream, fuelledby strange mystery, suspense, fear, danger, beauty, conflict, romance, love, identity, and time,” Russell remarks. “Here was the opportunity to make a journey guided by layers of movie memories, life images and emotions, with no aim except to create art as if it were a painting or a sculpture free from normal narrative or audience expectations. The cast and I worked simply for the joy of making art.” PAST FORWARD is designed for display in multiple environments: cinema, gallery installation, social media, and online distribution.


Fragments of the film were incorporated into the set of the fashion show space during the SS2017 collection presentation this past month. That installation was glimpsed in real time on Instagram Stories. Prada revealed PAST FORWARD at the new Hauser Wirth & Schimmel Gallery in Los Angeles on November 15th. The following day the film wassimultaneously screened for select audiences in Tokyo, London, Beijing, Moscow, Istanbul, Berlin, Milan, Paris, New York, and Sydney (the latter on Nov. 17).


MAYAYUEN’s Delta Menswear Collection

MAYAYUEN JEWELLERY (“MAYAYUEN”) and CUFFS unveiled the limited made-to-order MAYAYUEN JEWELLERY x CUFFS Delta Pocket Square collection as well as the brand new MAYAYUEN’s Delta Menswear Collection in Hong Kong recently. The “Gentlemanly Discovery” evening showcased the sophisticated bespoke tailoring of CUFFS while introducing MAYAYUEN’s new line of men’s jewellery in diamond and silver, including her signature range of made-to-order Signet Rings.


The event also saw the launch of the limited collaboration project, the MAYAYUEN JEWELLERY x CUFFS Delta Pocket Square collection, between the two local and trendy brands. “The Delta Menswear Collection includes two types of Signet Rings, both made to order.


The first - the Delta Initial Signet Ring allows you to choose their own personalized initials, then cast into the surface and supported by natural diamonds; while the second - the Delta Star Signet Ring - uses their signature Delta shape in a hexagonal arrangement, creating a dramatic star, encrusted in diamonds.


Both Signet Rings are available in black or polished silver finish and may be set with Black or White Diamonds,” Maya Yuen, the co-founder and designer of MAYAYUEN JEWELLERY, introduced. The collection also covers a simplified unisex sized version of the Star Signet ring, together with pendants, studs and other rings.


Richard Quinn The Winner Of The H&M Design Award 2017

Richard Quinn was announced as the winner of the H&M Design Award 2017 recently. Quinn, a graduate from Central Saint Martins, was selected from eight international finalists by a jury of fashion experts chaired by H&M’s creative advisor Ann-Sofie Johansson. Quinn wins €50,000, one-year’s mentorship from H&M, and the chance to develop pieces from the winning collection to be sold in selected H&M stores in Autumn 2017.  26 year-old Richard Quinn impressed the jury with his unique vision for the future of fashion. The London-born graduate from the Central Saint Martins MA course not only cuts womenswear pieces that are both striking and desirable. He also prints all of his own fabrics using ethical processes, and plans to open a print studio that will become a creative hub for other young designers in London. It's a holistic approach that runs through all of Quinn’s work, which he hopes will prove to be a new model for the fashion industry in the 21st century.


Quinn was selected by an international jury of fashion experts led by H&M’s creative advisor Ann-Sofie Johansson. Other jury members were, Imran Amed, editor in chief of Business of Fashion, Pernille Teisbaek, founder and creative director of Social Zoo, Zanita Whittington, creative director of Azalle and Zanita Studio, Yasmin Sewell, fashion director of Style.com, Hannah Jinkins, winner of the H&M Design Award 2016 and Margareta van den Bosch, creative advisor to H&M. The jury spent time with each of the eight finalists, taking the opportunity to look through their collections. After deliberating in private, the winner was announced to an audience of international fashion editors and stylists.


“We all fell in love with Richard. He has a clear vision for his brand, and a real wow factor in his collections. Richard is deeply creative, with a very holistic view of the environment, and he’s a worthy winner of the H&M Design Award 2017,” says Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M’s creative advisor. “It means so much to win the H&M Design Award. I want to create my own collection, as well as offer my generation a creative hub, supporting real craft in London,” say Quinn, winner of the H&M Design Award. “Richard Quinn has the makings of something really great. There is a depth of creativity, with so many different ideas, a real commercial potential and also the sustainable thinking that will help him build a real values-based brand,” says Imran Amed, editor in chief of Business of Fashion.


2016-11-29

Hotel Éclat Taipei Eclectic & Opulent

Being one of the Small Luxury Hotels of The World, Hotel Éclat Taipei has certainly made a grand entrance to Taipei’s boutique art Hotel category. Perhaps, the one and only 60 rooms quirky boutique art hotel in the region, with a specific modern art collection and striking sculptures including Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and other unique amenities offers. mylifestylenews writes.


Sometimes when you check in to a hotel, all you need is the basic facilities and amenities like a comfortable bed, a decent room size with superior amenities, a welcoming lobby and a good breakfast and not even a gym and swimming pool where location is the main key for the entire trip. The quirky Hotel Éclat in the heart of Da-An district where trees are lined along Dunhua Avenue, enlightening the entire business and finance surroundings. Besides, numerous shopping and entertainment complexes including chic fashion boutiques, stylist lounges & bars and just minutes away from the Taipei 101.


This eclectic boutique hotel stores quite a few priceless sculptures and artworks, as the hotel is designed to appeal to connoisseurs from all over the world, so this hip urban retreat is loud and clear with the message they deliver to their unique guests. The hotel façade will strike your eyes right away with two fierce looking wolves watching the arrival of all guests by artist Liu Ruowang themed <Wolves Are Coming>. This larger-life-wolves sculpture arranges itself around a three-tone warrior. The pack comprises 10 models, each moulded in clay before being cast in iron, a painstaking labor of love that took three years to complete.


When you enter the hotel, the busy ambience is reflected in the lavish velvet furnishing and the <Bubble In Space > installation at the lounge area by Jitka Kamencova Skuhrava is almost hypnotic, and reminiscent of levitating bubbles of champagne in hues of light pink to deep purple.


Not too drunk yet, another horizontal painting entitled <Your Night Is More Beautiful Than My Day> by local artist Jia Gang, a rising star of contemporary Chinese art hang across the lounge above the bar, subtly expressing a combination of sorrow, gloom and sarcasm as an allegory for our times.


The million US dollars worth of Salvador Dali’s sculptures <Mercurio SW K 1/8 & Alma Del Quijote SW K 3/8> are the center piece of the hotel lobby, standing on both left and right at the hotel lift welcoming you to the guest rooms.


Others sculptures like <City Dreams No. 6> by Chinese artist Gao Xiaowu are displayed across the elevators. Angle-like figures shows the signature smiling face but they also have small wings on their overweight bodies. They look heavy but they can fly like balloons as City Dreams outlines the conflict between dreams and the reality.



The <Luxuriant Violence> by artist Yang Tao is also on display. The physical form and style of work has already shaken off the restrained pursuit for ideologies and overused entities of the traditional context, and has turned to a seemingly random while rigorous play with wondrous forms. Both Gao Xiaowu and Yang Tao’s work are placed on the solid marble bench top where the morning buffet breakfast are served.



The art pieces have to make way to the buffet and being moved and scattered on the floor below Dali’s sculptures next to the guest lift. We find it rather awkward for such priceless pieces being treated in this manner daily. Quite avant-garde indeed.


The Deluxe room glass closet


For so many magnificent modern art pieces and installation being exhibited live throughout the hotel, sometimes less is more. The opulent touches extended to our 24sqm deluxe room is rather stylish and contemporary. Ultra-luxurious room amenities including a Bang & Olufsen CD player, a MontBlanc stationery set, Philippe Starck designed Ghost chair, wall-mounted 42-inch LCD TV accompany with a cable free keyboard serves a personal computer and Aesop bathroom amenities.


A unique glass wall divides the wall in rainforest shower from the living area and can be frosted or defrosted at the touch of a switch. Every room features an original work by Chinese contemporary artist Tang Yuen Hei.


Sometimes, we say Money can’t buy taste but Hotel Éclat Taipei mesmerizes you with many breathtaking artworks from both eastern to western contemporary artists, as it says, the state-of-the-art collection appeals to connoisseurs from around the globe.


Setting the benchmark in terms of style and inspiration, staying in Hotel Éclat Taipei is no ordinary experience. With such charismatic interior design and art pieces collection is nothing short of leading-edge.


The <Bubble In Space > installation by Jitka Kamencova Skuhrava.


A hearty breakfast



Tried & Tested:
Location: 4/5
Design & Decor: 3.5/5
Room Amenities: 4/5
Food & Beverages: 3/5
Housekeeping: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Value For Money: 4/5
Experience: 3.5/5


370, Section 1,
Dunhua South Road,Da'an District, 
Taipei, Taiwan
Tel: +886 2 2784 8888

*Hotel Eclat Taipei is a member of Small Luxury Hotel Of The World

Reviews are based on actual day of visit and experience. mylifestylenews reserves the right of final decision in case of any disputes. All images are photographed by mylifestylenews team without any photoshop enhancement and are the property owned by mylifestylenews unless otherwise stated. 

TOD’S Limited Edition Alphabet Letter Keychains

 TOD's limited edition alphabet letter keychains designed to express your unique style and personality. Each of the alphabet is crafted in different vivid colors to add personalized touch to celebrate Christmas with joy.


PORTS AW2016 Women Collection

PORTS AW2016 Women Collection with a lot of substance particularly a couple of coats with roomy shoulder lines and a glamorous swagger, and a beautiful white double-breasted trouser suit.


Inspiration came from Damiel's statement “Instead of forever hovering above I'd like to feel a weight grow in me to end the infinity and to tie me to earth. I'd like, at each step, each gust of wind, to be able to say "Now.“ Now and now” and no longer “forever” and "for eternity." 


The Silhouette
Cut. Paste. Layer. Frame. Encase. Slice. Slash. Fold. Hang. Pack.


Remove. Add. Organza. Cotton. Silk. Wool. Repeat. Re-evaluate. Real.


According to Creative Director Natasa Cagalj, the wearer can use the ribbon to tie pieces whichever way she feels.