Zebra

While pasta/risotto/pizza places seem to be found on every corner, one occasionally encounters an establishment that truly expands and redefines the local boundaries of Italian cuisine. Such a place is Zebra, where Executive Chef Ren Ren Huang combines two decades of cooking experience at Taipei’s Westin and W hotels with his personal creative vision and skills to come up with a delightful collection of entrees, available in an upscale ambiance for decent mid-range prices.
Just after Zebra’s opening, I was wowed by Chef Huang’s east-meets-west inventions like the Beef Short Rib Donburi Risotto, served in a Japanese-style lidded lacquer box, or the Oyster Omelette Pizza, inspired by Taiwan’s famed night market omelettes. However, things are getting even better this month, when he will be premiering a couple new 6-7 course “sharing menu” meals recommended for 3-4 diners, plus a series of outstanding new dishes made with wholesome local ingredients, with a 70/30 division between more traditional and creative Italian fare.
Equally striking for the eyes and tongue, this fresh line-up starts with Insalata 21+9 (NT$480), a colorful arrangement of 21+ local seasonal vegetables and edible flowers prepared in at least nine ways–roasted, dried, boiled, stewed, etc.–served with a warm, savory Bagna Cauda Piedmont-style dipping sauce of pureed anchovies, garlic, chicken stock, rosemary and thyme. A very traditional, northern-Italian Lombardy regional dish, Nice Combination (NT$480) is a pumpkin risotto topped with an exquisite flavor combination of creamy, slightly sweet homemade burrata cheese and 30-year-aged Iberian Bellota Ham, topped with edible flowers and balsamic vinegar. Snail in the Field features salsa verde risotto, topped with braised escargots, black garlic puree, and summer black truffle paste.
Chef Ren-ren Signature Bolognaise (NT$380) is a personal twist on the traditional beef/pork meat sauce that uses local Jinhua ham and Maqaw mountain pepper, served with pappardelle pasta, local arugula, sundried tomatoes and chicken liver mousse. Pizza Pescadora (NT$580) is liberally covered with seven seasonal seafood toppings such as clams, squid, mussels, salmon and sea bass. Finally, famed local Gui Ding chickens are marinated in garlic, rosemary and olive oil and oven roasted to create the Roasted Half Chicken (NT$780).

Zebra
西區英才路601號1樓 (台中大毅老爺行旅) (04) 2376-6732
601, YingCai Rd, 1F, West Dist (The Place Taichung)
6:30-10:30 am, 11:30 am-2 pm, 5:30-9:30 pm