This is a foodie pictures post. The meal was lunch at a Japanese fusion restaurant outside of Taipei last week.

The space inside was beautiful, just like their sign. I don't know the name of the restaurant but I think the first two characters mean "big mountain" - "da shan."

Everything about the presentation was beautiful. There were a dozen or so different courses with each one served on a platter decorated with flowers or other things from nature. Here is a sampling of the food that was served.

This course included, on the right, tofu and pine nuts and, on the left, a spoonful of sticky rice with ginger and fish roe.

The sashimi was served on a bed of salad. I'm not a big fan of shrimp sashimi, but the salmon and tuna were fabulous. The salad included flower bulbs that tasted a bit like delicate coconut.

To cleanse the palette after the fish we were served small glasses of sweet plum vinegar. 

There were three of us eating this meal together, which explains why there are three filleted shrimp (that look like creepy over-sized cockroaches), three green beans, three slices of sweet potato, and just out of the view on the right, three pieces of squash.

This is clam chowder, served in delicate little bowls with a tasty clam perched on top. There was more broth in the iron tea kettle.

Another soup dish was this green concoction. It tasted a bit like celery with a deep fried rice ball on top. The stone bowl had been preheated so the soup stayed nice and hot.

The last course was another soup but by the time it arrived we were too full to eat any of it. But the best part about that dish was that after the waitress put the serving bowl on the table she placed a dried flower on top of the soup and the flower slowly unfurled in the bowl. It was an amazing meal.