台灣人有多愛喝手搖飲料，市場競爭就有多激烈，現在飲料店原料有的主打用牧場直送鮮奶，有的強調現泡水果茶、用蔗糖取代砂糖...反正隨時都有新的飲料品牌出現，曾經紅過的也可能一兩年後就消失在市場。那最近就有網友討論到，不知道大家還記不記得，10幾年前稱霸台灣市場的手搖飲料品牌「快可立」？
網友opengaydoor最近就在批踢踢發文說：「相信不少人都喝過快可立的手搖杯，甚至可能是第一杯手搖杯，早期手搖杯還不盛行的時候 還曾經是手搖杯的代名詞，這樣知名的手搖杯品牌，如今卻已經幾乎消失了，google一下 最新一則新聞是2006年和葵可利爭商標...」很好奇這家飲料店為什麼消失在台灣市場咧？
最早出現的連鎖飲料店原料霸主之一，帶起500cc手搖杯的風潮
「人生第一杯珍奶就是20年前的快可立」
「懷念快可利的綠豆沙牛奶」
「名字由來是快速、可口、立即享用」
「快可立、葵可利、休閒小站，飲料始祖三本柱」
「記得還有賣雞排，超級罪惡」
「記得珍奶700cc才25元而已，而且喝起來不像現在手搖店死甜的膩味，反而有一種清甜的奶香味」
「以前小時候三色豆花必買 才25」
「綠豆冰沙20便宜好喝」
快可立由黃普光、楊勵媛夫婦在90年代創立，第一家分店是台北市的大安店，在1998到1999年間快速擴張，以每天平均開兩家加盟店的速度成長，也讓全台灣出現了一波「500cc.飲料店」飲料店原料的熱潮
「預設店名就叫快可立 超好玩」
「一直點路上行人很累XD」
「瘋狂搖搖杯的快可立泡沫綠茶 一杯可以賣50」
「遊戲超好玩的，12星座飲料名 創一些噁心的口味XD」
但為什麼曾經這麼紅的快可立，現在卻在台灣市場幾乎銷聲匿跡？當年的消費者認為有這些原因：
「被葵可利和大聯盟稀釋掉市場」
「2005年之後出現滿多競爭者，但早期的加盟店很難一次更新」
「加盟的人後來都跑出來自己開」
「和葵可利爭過商標權」→這場商標戰纏訟五年之後由快可利勝訴，當時已經是2006年。從這個時期開始，快可立的加盟店數開始有明顯減少，這些最早出現的飲料店逐漸消失，換成清心、五十嵐等品牌崛起。
但這代表快可立已經沒落了嗎？其實這家品牌的飲料店原料加盟店，雖然在台灣幾乎消失，但這些年主打的其實是海外市場，據說全球已經有千家分店了，尤其是美國加州就相當常見
「我在菲律賓馬尼拉的住處就有開快可立欸 常常喝」
「有在沖繩喝過快可立」
「日本好多 美國村那間每次都要排超久」
「光是舊金山就有十多家」
「美國大概一半的珍奶店原料都用他們的」
其實現在的快可立除了轉型成國際加盟集團，供應國外加盟店各種飲料的調和液、粉劑等飲料店原料供應更是大宗業務，可以說雖然台灣的街頭看不太到，但如果你是出國在外的台灣人，反而比較有機會喝到懷念的「手搖始祖」味道啊？
資料來源:新鮮事
In Kuala Lumpur, french cuisine Taipei food has a bit of a reputation for being elitist. Sky-high price points are often cause for sky-high eyebrows, sharp tut-tutting and general avoidance, save for special occasions when wallets can afford to take a little dent.
“People who don’t know French food well will say, ‘Why is it so expensive?’ But the expats know, they come here and go, ‘Wow, this is one third of the price of any French restaurant anywhere else in the world!’ They come and say, ‘This is gourmet food, why is it so cheap?’ So we’re trying to make locals understand that what we’re doing is authentic and on a par with gourmet restaurants in France,” says Julienne Huh, director of French Bistro.
french cuisine Taipei is a chic two-year-old eatery owned by Datin Sainy Chun (the owner of the vaunted Maison Francaise). The eatery features Italian-tiled walls, marble tabletops, a sun-dappled courtyard and plenty of space between tables.
About six months ago, Huh visited Two Ox and caught up with her friend Chun. At the time, Huh was actually based in Bangkok, where she had opened a string of Korean-celebrity themed restaurants in shopping malls. But when she set foot in Two Ox, it was love at first sight (and bite!), and she decided to invest in the business.
“That connection that I had with the restaurants in Bangkok made me think, ‘Okay, I can run this restaurant and make it my baby’,” she says.
The kitchen is helmed by chef Phillippe Murray Dominic, who is Malaysian but has both French and Dutch lineage. Dominic worked in a string of five-star hotels before deciding to venture into an independent eatery to flex his creative muscles. Both Dominic and Huh now work together to create classic French food with unique twists thrown in, reflective of the current zeitgeist for modern interpretations of traditional flavours.
“He is naturally adventurous and very, very creative – he wants to do a lot of things. But it is me who says, ‘Hey, Phillippe, we are a French restaurant, we still need to keep the traditional flavours’. So I pull him back a little bit and we compromise,” says Huh.
According to Huh, part of the reason French food is priced higher than other European food is because of the sheer amount of work involved in creating individual dishes.
“Everything is very labour-intensive and precise and has a long process. And this is one of the things that people do not understand and they look at the food and say, ‘It’s so expensive and it’s so small’. So it’s actually something that we need to get people to understand a bit more,” says Huh.
And this adds up when you listen to Dominic rattle off the list of things he has to do just to get a dish of cognac foie gras terrine (RM55) on the plate. “Foie gras is a very tedious thing to do. When we get the lobe (about 800g worth of duck liver), we have to defrost it, carefully devein it, then flatten it and brine it overnight. The next day, we take out the brine and marinate it overnight in cognac to cure it. Once that’s done, we bake it at 100°C for five minutes, so there are some layers of solids and some fat. And then we chill it for awhile, then take it out of the chiller and press it into the terrine, layer by layer to get it compressed. And then it’s a few hours – at least six hours – before we can actually use it,” says Dominic.
It’s an exhausting process, but the results are oh-so worth it in that epiphanic moment when you slather a generous serving of the terrine on the crispy brioche provided and add a little bit of the onion chutney smeared on the plate onto your mini-sandwich. The confluence of flavours and textures is nothing short of magical – creamy, luscious foie gras with all its sexy, earthy qualities apposed against the crunch of the bread and the sweetness of the chutney – oh, this is pure bliss! You’ll find yourself closing your eyes, oblivious to everyone else in the eatery as you savour every mouthful, letting the flavours immerse your soul with a fleeting, but intangible sense of gastronomic euphoria.french cuisine Taipei
The duck confit with asparagus coulis and a citrus duck glaze (RM80) features duck skin that has a lovely burnished glaze, and meat that is tender and pliable, although if you’re not used to traditional iterations of duck confit (the meat is cured with salt), you might also find it rather salty. The asparagus coulis and citrus glaze add a much-needed fresh element to this meal that you’ll find immensely enjoyable.
From May onwards, Dominic and Huh will be rolling out new items on the menu, including the sous-vide spring chicken with pickled red cabbage, mashed potatoes and cepe mushroom sauce (RM60). The chicken is cooked for six hours in a sous vide water bath, then shocked in ice water to stop the cooking process. After that, it is cooked in the oven for a short period of time before being placed under a salamander and basted. As a result, this is one juicy chook – brimming with flavour and so pliable, it requires minimal mastication. The mashed potato on the side is rich and creamy, although perhaps a tad too runny because it literally cascades down your spoon.
Another worthy new addition on the menu come May is the braised oxtail with pea puree and Dijon-apple ragout (RM65). This is a dish that is a clear winner from the get-go – petal-soft, fall-off-the-bone tender meat dextrously balanced against a refreshing, smooth pea puree. It’s a meal that is instantly easy to love, like a cute baby with a winning smile.
For dessert, tuck into the chocolate lava cake with raspberry sherbet (RM35). Made using 75% dark chocolate, this dark operator straddles the bitter-sweet divide with all the agility of a seasoned tightrope walker. Meanwhile, the raspberry sherbet on the side jazzes up the whole ensemble with its fresh, tart flavours.
Huh says she is on a mission to disseminate more information about French cuisine to Malaysians who may not be as familiar with the cuisine and who have only been to French fine-dining restaurants, as opposed to the contemporary French bistro vibe that Two Ox exudes.
“That’s my mission – to introduce gourmet French bistro food with a modern twist in Malaysia, and to ensure that it is affordable,” she says.