One of the perks in working for a prestigious bank — dining in a fine French restaurant (arguably the best in Taipei) and sipping uber-expensive Burgundy wine.

Total cost of the meal per head: NT$6,000 (Php 9,000)

That’s approximately the cost of my month’s rent, gone in just 4 hours and less.

Last night, our team used up the rest of our welfare money by splurging it in a terrific yet overpriced meal at La Petite Cuisine (No. 45 Shuang Cheng Street, Tel: (02) 2597 3838) near the Linsen Red Light District.

The decor was okay and reminded me a lot of the coziness of home. If it wasn’t for exorbitant prices, you’d think that I’m dining at a friend’s renovated basement back in the Philippines. Homes back in Manila look really great compared to the stifled decor in Taipei.

Anyway, since we came late (traffic on a Friday evening), all we had to do in the next 20 minutes was to munch on the bread, which admittedly was delish though reminded me of warm airline loaves. For a restaurant so small, they took their sweet time in serving us so at 9:00 pm, we were still on the appetizers and were so terribly hungry!

They finally figured out we were hungry so they served us with a super-thin peanut-like biscuit dipped in sesame seeds, which did little to alleviate our hunger.

The starter seemed to look like fried scallops with three pieces of egg roe. SMALL, and I was like, that’s it?! Maybe am more American than I thought. 🙁

Then there was the salad with three pieces of seared tuna, and a dash of squid. Delicate and good. the food was getting better and better… though still small and unfilling.

But hey, we’re just getting started!

The mushroom soup with truffle was especially good — served frothy in a small capuccino cup, it was extremely tasteful and the thin slice of truffle (which our friend said cost NT$300,000 a kilo) was the perfect touch.

Finally, the main course —