If I could re-live my life again, maybe in some alternate reality or universe (like in the comic book world), I wanna be either an exchange or foreign student of Taipei University.
Why? Only because of all the cheap good sexcellent food right across the street! Nearby is Gonguan District, home to many bookshops, coffee places, local businesses, and cheap quick fast, goooooooood eats.
Sure you can go to a presitigious university like Berkeley and dine on the great (and some former) places like Bongo Burger, Intermezzo, Ethiopian, some Korean Bear place, sub par but cheap mall style food court mixed eats, but the food just won't compare.
But there are a few shall we say hiccups in the area. Not bad, not great, but just enough to hit the spot.
And one of them is a place called Da Hshir Koh Hu Jiao Bing 大學口胡椒餅, or University Corner Fuzhou style Pork Pepper Bun.
This is unfortunately nowhere near as good as the Fuzhou Pork Pepper Bun that originated out of Rao He night market (and has another branch at Shihlin and arguably somewhere downtown Taipei).
http://beefnoguy.blogspot.com/2010/01/fuzhou-style-pork-pepper-roasted-bun.html
But they do offer more than one version
These guys operate just against the wall of the side of a building!
The grill in which they make the buns.
They do deliveries. Flavors include curry lamb, beef, pork, and chicken.
You line up, place your order. I believe it costs the same as the competition, NT$50 (under US$2) and they go into their makeshift charcoal powered pseudo tandoori oven, and scoop out one of these roasted buns, put it in a paper bag.
Then you eat with a lot more care than a McScalding coffee (worthy of a McLawsuit but these guys won't McGiveaF**k if you Mcburn yourself).
The outside was indeed nice and toasty and roasty. Pictured is the pork version.
After a first few bites you see the really juicy and moist insides, and sure enough a ton of white pepper smothered in the marinated ground pork, just sufficient scallions. A ton of juices (and grease) inside. The marinated pork is a nice hue of dark brown. But when you eat that top layer away, towards the center, the pork is looking a lot lighter, and in some cases just a shade of pink away from looking fully cooked (although I'm sure it is fully cooked). Then some weird taste of sweet and sour, as if they used Worcester sauce....WTF? The exterior is doused with sesame seeds that after roasting does give the outside layer a very nice well rounded flavor.
The outside is decent but the inside is only good until you get towards the inner middle.
So sad to say and for once, been there, done that.
There are way better food stalls in the area and elsewhere, and with literally hundreds of thousands of eating places to choose from, I have less than a lifetime to try new things.
On to the next adventure....
大學口胡椒餅 (Mouth of University's Pepper Pork Bun)
台北市大安區羅斯福路三段335號 (Da An District, Roosevelt Road 3rd portion #335)
Tel: 02-2363-2181
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