Seasonal spread of Japanese flavors arrives in Taipei

日本當季風味盛行台北

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Garden Kitchen at Taipei Marriott Hotel is introducing a Japanese-themed summer buffet starting this Saturday, highlighting fresh local seafood, regional Japanese specialties, and matcha-based desserts.

Cuisine plays a central role in Japanese culture. With its distinct seasonal changes, Japan offers a wide variety of ingredients, such as fresh vegetables and seafood, that shape the character of each season’s dishes.

The seasonal buffet emphasizes light, refreshing flavors with five themed stations inspired by traditional Japanese cuisine. Highlights include a seafood bar featuring locally sourced catches from Taiwan, including flower crab, abalone, white shrimp, mussels, octopus chirashi sushi, and assorted sashimi.

Hot dishes showcase regional specialties from Kansai, Kanto, Kyushu, and more, such as izakaya-style simmered shishamo, grilled sweetfish, chilled pork with wasabi, pork shogayaki stir-fried in sweet ginger sauce, and Kyoto-style miso-grilled fish marinated in a blend of white and red miso with sake.

A live cooking station offers made-to-order shrimp tempura rice bowls, tonkatsu ramen, and Osaka-style okonomiyaki with shredded cabbage and white shrimp in yam batter, finished with teriyaki mayonnaise, bonito flakes, and seaweed powder. Japanese draft beer is available free-flow.

Signature mains include grilled US bone-in short ribs marinated with bonito flakes, kelp, sake, and soy sauce, glazed with house-made teriyaki, a seafood platter with yuzu-lemon dressing featuring Boston lobster, Hiroshima oysters, Hokkaido scallops, tiger prawns, and fresh Penghu fish and squid, and a 4-ounce F1 Wagyu New York strip steak served with beef jus, sea urchin, and caviar.

Dessert offerings include 10 limited-edition sweets made with Shizuoka matcha, such as matcha roll cake, matcha cheesecake, and a mille crepe layered with white chocolate chantilly.