Dad's Day 父親節

The third Sunday in June is Father's Day in many countries, including the U.S.A. and Japan 父の日, but not here in T'ái​wān 台灣, due to some annoying cultural reasons, the day is always observed on August 8. Fortunately for this dad, our household follows the American calendar in these matters, and so the three of us celebrated, um, me at a beer restaurant in T'ái​chūng 臺中. Located on the 10th floor of the MODE Mall (just a short walk from the South Exit of T'ái​chūng Station 臺中車站, though today we took the car, and had a hell of a time finding a place to park), Bravo Beer is a T'ái​pěi 臺北-based (the best always are in this country) bar/restaurant that specializes in beers from Heaven...I mean Belgium. Needless to say, the couple of brews I had this afternoon were divine, and the food wasn't bad, either - the Scotland Boneless Chicken Thigh I ordered was pretty tasty. Surprisingly, although the restaurant was busy, it appeared only a handful of diners other than ourselves were drinking beer with their meals. Perhaps this isn't surprising after all - taking into consideration both the dominance of the locally-produced, mass-market (and tasteless) T'ái​wān Beer 台灣啤酒, and the miniscule number of microbreweries on this island, the vast majority of Taiwanese are not all that familiar with the taste of good quality beer.

As for all you Westerners out there who claim to enjoy Taiwan Beer, you're just hopeless...wait, what I mean is you should know better. Shame on you all (but Happy Father's Day if it was applicable).

Here's what I had this afternoon. My wife made do with a large draft Hoegaarden (sorry Barbara!):

First up was a Westmalle Tripel, one of the best-known brews outside of Belgium. The 9% alcohol content did a lot to alleviate my sore throat.

I had hoped to try a De Koninck ale, but it wasn't in stock at Bravo. They did have Karmeliet, however, which my daughter insisted I order after I told her it was an amber ale. I'm glad I took her advice.