In 2004 I visited Maui, Hawaii for the first time. Almost 10 years ago, the only good japanese food I'd eaten was in London. Experiencing the sea of good sushi counters across the island I was blown away. I was naive too; "what history do the Japanese have with Hawaii?" I asked our local contact. "It's because they like golf" was his reply.
I'm not so Naive these days. Japanese food has followed the global spread of Japan's three blades competencies. In raw seafood prowess they are yet to be surpassed and in Taipei I'll stick my head on the line to say they're ahead of the rest, including local gastronomy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/triplefivechina/9898892756/
Addiction Aquatic Development is, in it's constituent parts, a familiar offering. It's a wet-seafood market, a sushi counter, a terrace BBQ and a Muji store all rolled into one... with a sprinkling of Japanese magic.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/triplefivechina/9898834925/
The magic comes in the form of high-grade slabs of sashimi and sushi meticulously chosen and presented to knock your socks off. They're wrapped in an environment which will lead you alongside the bubbling tanks of dormant prehistoric crustacean and into a dining area surrounded by kitchenware to purchase.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/triplefivechina/9898817756/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/triplefivechina/9898790515/
It has a fresh, hip, market feeling despite being clearly engineered to a tee. The food is excellent and expensive and exactly what you deserve after traipsing through Taipei's other food markets looking for something good in the fried food haystacks.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/triplefivechina/9898815275/