Taiwan in Food

Did I mention it was a business trip? This is purely a food review...even though my job has nothing to do with reviewing food, but apparently this is a global epidemic- our materials team members from around the world all love to talk about food.
The second day we went up to Taipei to meet with a supplier there, and went out to lunch with that supplier and another supplier. They took us to a very beautiful and elegant restaurant for lunch. I really do love Chinese food, and I tend to not have high opinions of "very fancy" restaurants, because I don't always believe they do as good a job as some of the smaller restaurants. But this one definitely changed my way of thinking in that aspect. Everything we had from the small appetizers to the very end, were unbelieveable.
The dishes were not served chinese style, rather we each received small individual portions. The first course was a chicken soup with a chrysanthemum doufu flower in it. It was beautiful, and mirrored the chrysanthemums in the center of the table.

One of the appetizers we had were these cherry tomatoes. They sure don't look like much here, but they were a little party in your mouth! They were skinned to absorb their marinade fully- and after having these at a second restaruant on Saturday, I found they were soaked in a local plum juice with a little sugar added. They were decadant- if there is one thing I would want to try to make from that meal, this would be it!
After the soup we had several other dishes, some fish and doufu, a noodle wrapped shrimp:And a few others- My only regret was that by the time they brought the Mapu doufu, I was too full to eat it! I tried a few small bites and it was gloriously tender and soft and spicy!