IT'S hard to avoid the allusions to monumental ugliness conjured up by Taiwan's capital city. Taipei can best be described as the Slough of the Pacific Rim - Slough being the British town whose industrial toxins can be smelt on an Inter City 125 train five kilometres before you arrive at the station, and the Pacific Rim being a term that, rather topically, brings to mind the image of a giant toilet seat.
Eating in Taipei however, can bring unbridled joy to the Oriental gastronome armed with a Mandarin phrase book and an unlicensed appetite - or it can reduce the eater to bankruptcy if frequenting solely five-star brasseries; prices in Taipei are as high as the pollution levels.
The joy of Taiwan, as in its closest Asian neighbours, is variety. Despite the linguistic and cultural links with mainland Fujian province, the cuisine in Taipei is more representative of the whole of China and offers many authentic Hunan, Sichuan, Cantonese and Beijing dishes.
In the back streets behind The Sherwood Hotel and along either side of Dun Hua Road, one finds small home-style cafes sending out columns of steaming jiaozi and xiaolong bao (small dumplings) that arrive on enormous plates and cost about $25 a dozen.
At Eight Banners (Ba Qi Ju ) a simple bowl of hot noodles - covered with a colourful array of grated carrot, beansprouts and cucumber - accompanied by small cold sidedishes that you choose at the door (pickles, tofu, et al ) will barely reach $20.
They also serve Beijing delicacies such as fried beef crepe (xie bing ) and shallot pancakes (cong you bing ) enough to take one's cholesterol well into the danger zone. The decor is more tack than taste, but that's reserved for the food.