Taiwan Trip: The story of 2 cows!

A meal of beef noodles has always been a great dining option.  Despite being such a common food in many Asian countries, many things can possibly go wrong.  Sucky noodles, tasteless broth, and chewy beef just to name a few.  Nevertheless, coming to Taiwan could possibly be a beef noodles lover paradise!  With so many different stalls to choose from, one would be held back only by price and stomach space.  From the little darling who watched a lot of Taiwanese host shows, the price of beef noodles can range from the low hundreds up until 1000 TWD.  Of the two which I had, the noodles which tasted best came from a shop in Ximending!

While I cannot read/speak Mandarin, the pair of red horns have easily made a strong impression!  This restaurant was rated as the top 10 best beef noodles in Taiwan and it was a lucky day for us that we stumbled upon it on that day when we were clueless about our food!

 

As good as it gets, popular eateries means having to queue up for a meal.

Hungry folks! But fortunately for us, the wait took little more than just 10 minutes as we were there past lunch time at about 2 in the afternoon!

Condiments for the day was cold stewed bean curd, bamboo shoots, beans and braised taufu pok! Most were pretty good with the exception of the bamboo shoots! I could have easily had another one of the braised taufu pok with rice. It was really delicious! Tasted something like the ones accompanying traditional Chinese Herbal Pork but even tastier! Slurps!

 

The main meal that day was the braised beef noodles.  With a choice of thin/thick handmade lai mien (pulled noodles), we all went for thin considering the thick one had already finished selling.  Unfortunately, I am never a fan of lai mien as I often found that it was rather thick (despite having the thinner one) and failed to absorb any of the delicious broth.  As for the soup, I had the spicy one which was a big FAIL compared to my peers who had the classic broth.  I’d have to say, the classic broth was rich and flavourful! Everything a soup base should be!  And now, for the beef, it was decadent.  Despite looking dry and cut too thick, it is everything I did not expect! It was moist with melt in your mouth bits. Really surprising!  If I had to guess, it was the translucent swirly parts of the meat that made it taste so good!

 

Overall, this had to be the best beef noodles I have had in Taiwan only to be spoilt by a poor choice of soup and noodles.  If I had the original soup base, this meal would have been close to perfection!  Nevertheless, a good eat!

 

Regards,

WenY

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