I have no idea why it’s called Rabbit Rabbit (as far as I am aware, there are no rabbit burgers), but what I do know is that the place is famous for its gourmet beef and chicken burgers, as well as its Western-style brunch, especially amongst the younger crowd.

There are currently three stores in Taipei.  On this particular night, we went to the one near the Shida Night Markets, and it was jam packed with youngsters.  The store itself is bright and colourful, with lots of soft colours such as baby pink, cyan and light purple and green.  Kind of looks like a hip nursery.

Thanks to a semi-reservation, we didn’t have to wait too long (20 minutes).  Seeing how busy they were, we ordered quickly.  Their menu is quite varied and interesting.

For the beef burgers there are the usual plain patties with different cheeses, but they also have unique combinations such as peanut butter, gravy and fried beef, shrimp and salmon burgers.  The peanut butter was apparently very popular but it was a bit too risky for my liking, so I went with another ‘recommended’ burger (ones with a crown next to it), the Chilli Sauce Beef Burger (NT$250), which came with a hand-made beef patty, chilli sauce and jalapenos.

The chicken burgers are also quite special, also with a peanut butter version, a thai-style burger (with spicy peanut sauce), teriyaki burger, honey mustard, cajun and so forth.  We went with Chicken Burger with Creamy Pesto Sauce (NT$250).

Note that the burgers come with lettuce, onions and tomato, a side of either fries, wedges or cooked vegetables, and include an unlimited refill beverage of your choice (limited to teas and soft drinks).

They also have an all-day brunch menu with stuff like sausages and eggs, appetizers, soups and salads, sandwiches, fajitas and even pastas.  But from what I could see, most people were there for the burgers or the brunch food.

It was quite a long wait for the burgers, but the wait was worth it.  The Chilli Burger was full of spicy goodness and gave a real kick to my taste buds.  Thankfully, they were not stingy on the chilli sauce or the jalapenos.  The side fries we ordered were also surprisingly nice — crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

The chicken burger was good as well.  The pesto sauce was thick and creamy and the chicken was tender.  The biggest surprise were the cooked vegetables, which sounded like a strange thing to have but it was super tasty and took the edge off the heaviness of the burgers.

From what we had, I’d say the burgers at Rabbit Rabbit were pretty good but not exceptional.  The flavours were great but they did feel a little heavy and oily because of the thickness of the sauces, so it’s not the type of place you would visit regularly.  It’s perfect for group gatherings and when you feel up for a big meal.

7.5 out of 10!

Details

Rabbit Rabbit

Website: http://rabbitrabbit-burger.blogspot.com/

Opening Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11am-10pm; Friday-Saturday 11am-10:30pm

Price: around NT$300 per head (note includes 10% service charge)

Stores:

East Store 1: No. 32, Lane 160, Section 1, Dūnhuà South Rd, Daan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106; (02) 8771-4073; Nearest MRT: Zhongxiao Fuxing/Zhongxiao Dunhua

East Store 2: No. 31, Lane 31, Section 1, Dà’ān Rd, Daan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106; (02) 2778-3445; Nearest MRT: Zhongxiao Fuxing/Zhongxiao Dunhua

Shida Store: No. 1, Lane 4, Pǔchéng St, Daan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106; (02) 2368-2338; Nearest MRT: Guting/Taipower Building

At first glance, Dream House appears like your run-of-the-mill haunted house movie.  A young couple moves into a new house, spooky stuff happens, yada yada yada, you know the rest.  But while Dream House is not a particularly good horror film (in some ways it’s not even a proper horror), I do have to say that it is different to what you would ordinarily expect from a movie of this kind.

Daniel Craig is Will Atenton, a successful book publisher who leaves his profession to move from New York to New England with his wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and his two little girls.  Everything is fine until weird stuff starts happening and Will starts to believe that their dream house has a past that will come back to haunt them.  Someone who knows more than they are letting on is their neighbour, played by Naomi Watts.

Up until this point it’s all pretty cookie-cutter stuff, but Dream House breaks away from the expected trajectory by throwing a curve ball midway through.  It’s not an unexpected twist, but the timing of the twist is curious as it’s usually reserved for the final act.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t really do a whole lot for the film, which is, for the most part, plodding and lacking in both scares or thrills.  It takes the wind out of the sails too early and shifts the focus to melodrama, which simply doesn’t work without the character foundations required.  I guess the only benefit is that it keeps you interested in how they are going to fill up the remainder of the 92-minute running time.

I really wanted to like Dream House because I’m a fan of the genre and all three leads (in fact, it’s where Craig and Weisz fell in love and ended up getting married — which explains their solid chemistry), and despite not expecting very much out of it I still came away disappointed by the stale pace and dearth of scares.  The negatives could have been somewhat mitigated had the drama been more moving but it failed in that regard too.  Strangely, the film has a pretty awesome soundtrack, but when that’s the most redeeming thing about a film you know it can’t be good.

2 stars out of 5

It’s hard enough to find a decent 90 to 120-minute horror movie these days, which is why I was highly sceptical about American Horror Story, an entire 13-episode TV supernatural horror-themed series dedicated to a single, continuous storyline.

There’s a very good reason why we haven’t seen anything like this show before — because it’s bloody hard to do well.  For starters, it needs to be genuinely scary and “realistic” within the confines of its own universe, an almost impossible task in itself.  It also needs to sustain the interest of the audience for the entire season, which is difficult without the luxury of having a different story with different characters each week.

This is probably why I can’t think of any such US shows in recent years off the top of my head.  The Walking Dead is horror with a single arc but it’s not supernatural.  Supernatural has a core story arc but most weeks it’s a different story. The Ghost Whisperer is similar and hardly qualifies as horror.  From my memory bank at least, I think I have to go as far as American Gothic (1995) to find something with a vaguely similar concept — and as I recall that disintegrated into pure crap just a few episodes in and was cancelled after a short-lived season.  It’s just too difficult.

Amazingly, American Horror Story delivers.  It’s without a doubt the scariest TV show around and is right up there as one of the most intriguing.  And no, it does not even try to rely on cheap “boo” scares like most horror movies these days.  The show succeeds with tight scripts, an A-list cast and a genuinely twisted plot with even more twisted characters, delivering a continued, insidious sense of dread and regularly leaving a nasty taste in your mouth.

I would also call it quite a daring show, in the sense that it doesn’t hold back.  It’s mean and dirty and highly sexual (though not at all explicit or gratuitous).  There’s plenty of rage, jealously, lust and an unquenchable thirst for revenge threaded throughout the series and every episode is filled with murder and brutal violence.  It doesn’t shy away from things such as rape, murdering babies, horrifying deformities, dismemberment, disembowelment and macabre experiments — on both the living and the dead.  Because of its willingness to push the limits, there are lots of excellent surprises, none of which are easily guessable.

The characters are also incredibly juicy and memorable — every one of them has stories to tell and secrets to hide, but the mysteries are not frustratingly concealed all the way until the end — instead, they are slowly revealed as the layers are gradually peeled back, rewarding audiences for sticking with it.

The clever thing about this series is that each season is dedicated to a single ghost story.  Season 1 is all about the Harmon family, who move from Boston to LA into the “Murder House”, which is, of course, haunted.  The story begins and ends in Season 1, meaning that there is little risk of it dragging on unnecessarily or spiralling into inevitable crappiness.  Season 2, which has already been picked up, will be about an entirely different family and location, though certain members of the cast may return in different roles.

Speaking of cast members, American Horror Story boasts an impressive ensemble.  The Harmon couple is played by Dylan McDermott (best known as Bobby Donnell from The Practice) and Connie Britton (whom I am less familiar with but has been in Spin City and Friday Night Lights), with young Taissa Farmiga (Vera Farmiga’s significantly younger sister) as their teenage daughter.  Other regulars include Jessica Lange, Evan Peters (almost didn’t recognise him — he’s the nerdy kid with the camera from Never Back Down and its sequel), Denis O’Hare (True Blood), Kate Mara (Rooney’s older sister — who coincidentally starred with Britton in the 2010 Nightmare on Elm Street remake) and Zachary Pinto (Sylar from Heroes).

Everyone, human or ghost, does their job well, with the standouts being the youngsters Evans and Farmiga, though the one that steals just about every scene is Jessica Lange, who deservedly won a Golden Globe for her performance as the  mysterious and always-present neighbour.  She’s just such a fantastically twisted and tragic character and it was a thrill watching Lange play it to perfection.

Of course, as a supernatural horror, it is also much easier to find problems with the show.  It will obviously be harder for “sceptics” to appreciate it (some “believers” might also be turned off  as it flouts conventional “ghost” wisdom), and it’s not hard to poke holes and point out believability issues here and there.  But if you can keep an open mind and just go along for the ride, chances are you’ll find it as engrossing and captivating as I did.  I’ll definitely be looking out for Season 2.

Rating: B+

PS: Interestingly, American Horror Story is the brainchild of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, the creators of Glee.  But I guess in a way it makes perfect sense — only people who could come up with a show as sickening as Glee could have come up with something as twisted as this show.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0ssM6vtz_c

Today was a great day.  My one-month-old son and I watched our first NBA game together — a satisfying 98-96 win for the Indiana Pacers over the LA Lakers.  Well, I guess I was the only one that really watched it, but sitting him on my lap as we stared at the TV was the only way to stop him from screaming his head off.  Continuously.

That’s pretty much what it’s been like in my first month as a father.  Being without breasts (though that’s debatable), I have essentially been relegated to errand boy, nappy changer and occasional bottle feeder.  As hard as it’s been, I know I have it 10 times easier than my wife, who has battled even worse sleep deprivation, breast engorgement and even a bout of mastitis (which led to a short fever and a quick visit to the doctor).  All I can do is to continue being as supportive as I can by helping out wherever possible to lighten the burden and be a cheerleader when necessary.

To be honest, as rough as it’s been, it hasn’t been as rough as I expected it to be, probably because of the plethora of horror stories I’ve heard from other young parents.  The worst part of it is actually figuring out what the heck to do.  No matter how many classes you attend or how many books you read, rolling up your sleeves and actually doing the real deal is always a different story.  Temporary amnesia always hits me whenever I need to recall some key passage in a book I read months ago.

Right now I am trying to learn as much as I can.  We’ve been recommended a lot of books and given a couple as gifts.  Up to this point the most useful book has been Robin Barker’s Baby Love, which is apparently the Bible for Aussie mums and dads.  We’ve also been looking at Raising a Bilingual Child by Barbara Zurer Pearson and recently started the book I think will save our lives, Save Our Sleep by Tizzie Hall.  I’ll report on whether these books are any good in the near future.

The problem is, everyone has a different philosophy and different strategies to looking after the baby.  You ask 10 relatives and you’ll get 10 different answers.  You read 10 books and it’ll be the same thing.  We’ve been convinced, however, that starting a sleep and feed routine as early as possible is the best long-term solution, especially if you want to get some sleep a few months down the track.

But starting a routine has plenty of challenges, one of which is teaching your baby to “self-settle” — in other words, allow them to fall asleep on their own.  Sounds easy (just let them cry, right?) but it’s so heart-breaking listening to his frantic wails while holding yourself back so you won’t rush to pick him up.  I think he has already developed some bad habits (he loves to be held and hates being put down) so it’s going to be an uphill climb, but as we keep hearing and reading, persistence and patience are the keys.

It’s been an amazing feeling watching my son grow.  He’s already gained a full kilo since birth and he is noticeably bigger (and his lungs fuller!).  A lot of the love comes naturally from within, but a lot of it also comes from our time bonding.  I find him looking a little more gorgeous every day, and even when he shoots projectile poop all over the place (and perilously close to my face) I can’t help but love him more.

We were walking around the Yong Kang Street area a couple of months ago on a rainy evening when we stumbled across a fine looking French patisserie called La Douceur.  Even though we only just had dinner, the uber enticing cakes on display lured us in.

Judging from the diplomas on the wall I assume the chef learned his or craft in France, where the big shots of pastry making are.  They certainly looked as good as anything I’ve seen in Europe.

I’ll stop typing now and just let the photos speak for themselves.

This is the "Tahiti" -- looks like a chocolate macaron but it's actually berry flavoured with vanilla mousse!

Of course, the chestnut flavoured Mont Blanc

A big cup of light, frothy coffee!

We didn't get these chocolate goodies as some bastard pre-ordered them all, but damn they look good

The coffee was good and the cakes were sensational.  The Mont Blanc was up there amongst the best I’ve had (and I’m not even much of a chestnut guy) and the Tahiti was refreshingly different.  I loved the sourness of the berries and the light sweetness of the vanilla mousse.  A perfect combo.

Can’t wait to go back there and test out the rest of their delicious cakes and macarons (you can check them out here).

Details

Patisserie La Douceur

Address: No. 223 JinHua St, Daan District, Taipei

Nearest MRT Station: Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall or Guting (a bit of a walk though).

Phone: (02) 33222833

Opening Hours: 1pm-9pm (Fridays and Saturdays till 10pm)

(Thanks to Adam from Frugal Dad for sending this through)

The website also has some very interesting and very bitter comments.

Source: frugaldad.com

Don’t ask me why I watched Chalet Girl, the British answer to American teen rom-coms.  I can assure you, it has nothing to do with the fact that I also watch(ed) Gossip Girl, even though this film also stars Ed Westwick (Chuck Bass).

Chalet Girl tells the story of tomboy Kim Matthews (played by a very likeable Felicity Jones), who used to be a champion skateboarder but a turn of events has her working at fast food joint to support her deadbeat father.  A catering opportunity in the Alps sees Kim discover the joys of a similar sport (or so I’ve told, from a technical perspective) — snowboarding.  Meanwhile, she befriends fellow chalet girl Georgie (Tasmin Edgerton) and finds herself getting close to her boss (Westwick), who, of course, already has a girlfriend.

If I sound less than enthusiastic, I don’t mean to be.  Chalet Girl actually isn’t all that bad compared to its US counterparts.  It’s mildly amusing, contains some exciting sports action and the plot is…well, at least there is a plot.  The film is anchored by Felicity Jones, who does a fantastic job as Kim, and it’s also quite interesting (and bizarre) to see Westwick speak in his natural British accent.

Ultimately, Chalet Girl is light, frothy, forgettable fun that’s a little more charming that it ought to be for a film of this kind.  But it still doesn’t mean that it’s particularly good.

2.75 stars out of 5

The website of Alleycat’s Pizza says that it is the best pizza in Taiwan.  I figured it must be true so we decided to check it out.

On a rainy evening we went to the store near Taipei’s Yong Kang Street (on Li Shui Street), which is supposedly the original store and the origin of the entire franchise.  The small front door led us down a long set of stairs and into a surprisingly spacious, dimly lit restaurant with a bar and predominantly black and red decor.

We thought we were the only ones there, but we were wrong.  Lying around on the seat opposite us was a cat.  A real cat.  It was staring at me with his big green eyes…and I’ll admit, it freaked me out!  It wasn’t the only one there either.  Lying in a couple of other booths were more cats, staring silently at us.  I thought Alleycat’s was just a name but as it turned out it was actually the home of several real cats.

Look, I’m not a cat person (more of a dog guy), but even if I were, and even though they’re supposed to be clean and all, I wouldn’t want cats hanging around my table when I’m eating.  Especially not when they’re staring at me with those freaky eyes.

One of the cats at Alleycat's

As I would discover later, Taiwan apparently has a lot of cat lovers/store owners who keep their pets at their restaurants and especially cafes.  And there are apparently also a lot of cat lovers/restaurant goers who don’t have a problem with it.  In fact, they love playing with the cats as they eat their food and drink their coffees.  I’m sorry, and no offense to people who do it, but I think it’s gross.

Anyway, where was I?  Oh yes, the food.  Alleycat’s is known for their stone-oven-baked pizzas.  They don’t have pastas but they do have a wide variety of pizzas (with all your regular stuff like spinach, chicken, seafood,  four cheeses, sausage, salami, mushroom, capsicum, onion, etc) and an assortment of calzones, salads and appetizers.  On the back page of the menu is a “Top 10″, but we went with the waitress’s recommendations instead (though both may have been on the list anyway): the Pescatora seafood pizza (NT$459) and the Capriccioca calzone (NT$420), which is filled with sausage, peppers, onion, mushrooms, etc.

For some reason, even though we were the only customers in the restaurant, the food took an inexplicably long time to arrive.  I understand the pizzas and calzones are freshly made, but 30 minutes feels like an eternity when you have cats staring you down.

At last the food arrived.  The calzone was half-moon shaped, fluffy, and with hot melted cheese in the middle as advertised.  The filling (sausage, mushrooms, vegetables, etc) was good but light on flavour, though there is chunky marinara sauce on the side which more than makes up for it.  Together with some fresh salad on the side, I’d say the calzone was a moderate success.  Nowhere near the best I’ve had but nowhere near the worst either.

Inside the calzone (+ some marinara sauce)

The seafood pizza was a disappointment.  It looked pretty good but the crust was average and the toppings were rubbery and did not taste fresh at all.  Maybe it was an off night or maybe it was the wrong pizza, but to be honest I don’t get the Alleycat’s hype at all.

To top it off, it was actually quite difficult to get the waitresses’ attention, which was a minor miracle in itself considering we were the only customers in the restaurant.  The 10% service charge is automatically included, so it wasn’t like I could refuse to tip.  Plus the restaurant is cash only, which was a surprise considering the 2-person meal set us back in excess of NT$1000, quite costly even for pizza.

The cats, the service and the food — unfortunately none of them (with the exception of a decent but not spectacular calzone) made my experience at Alleycat’s Pizza an enjoyable one.  Given the restaurant’s lofty reputation, I wish I could say I’d give it another chance, but with so many other pizza joints around (some of which I will review later), I simply can’t see it happening for now.

5.5 out of 10!

Details

Alleycat’s Pizza

Website: http://www.alleycatspizza.com

Locations: Taipei has 9 locations in total — you can find them all here: http://alleycatspizza.com/Location2_AC1.aspx?Branch_ID=003

PS: Just as a warning, according to their Facebook page, the Li Shui, Nei Hu and Hua Shan stores all have cats.

First up, the most recent comedy I’ve seen, 30 Minutes or Less.  The film was better than expected and featured a couple of great scenes involving Michael Pena.  This is my favourite one of him meeting Jesse Eisenberg’s character to pick up the cash payment for killing Danny McBride’s dad.  In exchange, Eisenberg is expecting a secret code which will disarm the bomb strapped to his body.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKjwq24Y9d0

Next up, my favourite scene from Pulp Fiction, where Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta head to Quentin Tarantino’s house after accidentally shooting Marvin in the head in the back of their car.  As bad of an actor Tarantino is, this is by far his best performance.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-7f7vVCqvI

While we’re on Tarantino, here’s my favourite scene (the tipping scene) from his debut classic, Reservoir Dogs. Naturally, it features Mr Pink, Steve Buscemi.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-qV9wVGb38

Speaking of the great Buscemi, two of my favourite scenes from one of my favourite movies of all time, Fargo.  The first features Buscemi and Peter Stromare’s characters driving in a car on the way to kidnap William H Macy’s wife.  The second is Buscemi trying to get out of paying $4 at a parking lot.  There’s actually another scene I really like, the one where Buscemi confronts Stromare after getting shot in the face, but I can’t seem to find it in English!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5QdGULci60

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCCyll3Psbg

Last but not least, a scene from Hot Rod, which is really quite an awful film, but I had a good time with it, especially this tribute to Footloose.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RalDsFionzU

What a waste of my time…

I haven’t seen John Carpenter’s 1982 original and went into the new version of The Thing believing that it was a remake.  Interestingly, while the premise is somewhat similar, the 2011 version is not a remake and not a sequel, but a prequel.  Apparently those who have seen the 1982 film will understand why some things in the 2011 version turn out the way they do.

Anyway, I digress.  Either as a prequel or a standalone film, The Thing works on some levels as a sci-fi horror but fails to be nearly as effective as it could have been.  It contains a solid performance from Mary Elizabeth Winstead (the object of Michael Cera’s affection in Scott Pilgrim vs the World), who channels her inner Ellen Ripley, some freaky special effects and a whole lotta paranoia, but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that I had seen it all before (and this is without seeing the original).

The Thing (2011) tells the story of a group of researchers who head to a Norwegian base camp to examine a “discovery” from Antarctica.  As it turns out, the discovery is not quite as dead as they thought it was, and soon the base is turned upside down, with people dying gruesome deaths and the survivors not knowing who they can trust.  There’s tension and there’s paranoia and there’s chills (it is, after all, based in the ice).  As far as freaky scares go, The Thing delivers.  The titular character is a nasty, “WTF is that?” piece of work and kudos must go out to the special effects team that created it.

As I said, I haven’t seen the 1982 film, so I cannot comment on whether the 2011 film compares favourably (though from most accounts it doesn’t).  What I can say is that it is certainly better than the vast majority of films in recent years that have been reboots, remakes, sequels, prequels or spin-offs of other popular/famous horror  films or franchises (eg, those Alien, Predator, Alien vs Predator, Nightmare on Elm Street, Freddie vs Jason, Saw, Final Destination films, etc).  That said, there wasn’t anything particularly clever or special about this film either, and it’s highly unlikely that it will have the longevity of the original, which is still often brought up as a horror classic.

At the end of the day, The Thing (2011) is what it is — a solid prequel that doesn’t nearly live up to the highly touted original but doesn’t crap all over its legacy either.

3 stars out of 5!