Location: Hsinchu Yashiki Italian Cuisine
Travel note summary: Yesterday, my friend Jill had an interview at UMC in Hsinchu Science Park and asked me to have dinner with her after work. So, I randomly picked this newly opened restaurant on Jinshan Street and had a meal there with Jill and her boyfriend Jing-Kui. The chef, Kevin Calvin, is from Singapore and has lived in South Africa, Europe, the US, etc. He's also an interesting person with over 24 years of culinary experience. Now he's come to Taiwan. A notable feature of this restaurant is that it offers S.PELLEGRINO water, a natural sparkling mineral water from the Alps, which can be seen in some Italian restaurants. Usually, a cup sells for NT$100 in department stores, but the chef personally negotiated with the Taiwanese distributor, so they provide S.PELLEGRINO at a low price in the shop—a 1000c.c. bottle for NT$100. However, there's a contract stipulating that no other water can be served in the restaurant. Without prior explanation to customers, this can easily lead to dissatisfaction and misunderstandings (it's rare in Taiwan for casual dining or Western restaurants not to provide free water on the table). Kevin Calvin sai…