[台北市] - 西門町 - 老山東牛肉家常麵店 - Lao Shan Dong Beef Noodles (Xiemending, Taipei City)

While stumbling and fumbling around the busy fun district of Xiemending some moons ago (somewhere between 2005 to 2007), this place was discovered completely by accident, tucked away into an unassuming commercial/office building that had some shops on the ground level, but if you dived further in, you would find escalators going up and down. This building was actually like a multi story shopping arcade (or mall if you will).

The basement was a bit uninteresting at first. Very few shops, a lot of vacant business spaces and literally a dearth of restaurants save about 3 or 4 places. I recall there being a restaurant that specialized in Taiwanse style fried pork chops that smelled absolutely baconlicious and sorry for the Japanese pun, oink-shii. But the thought of overgrease was a bit daunting for a lunch. The other option was a small counter shop of noodles, northern style won tons (huan duan) in chili oil whose name I forgot. We were thinking of trying this place but decided to hit the restrooms first. However on our way there, just feet away from the entrance to the ladies and mens room, was a table with two employees of that food stall, making and prepping fresh huan duans on the spot. Uhm no thanks, as fresh as your wontons might be....it's all about location, location, location!

So we chanced upon this no brainer called Old Shan Dong or Lao Shan Dong Family (specializing in Beef) Noodle House - 山東牛肉家常麵店, that looked super bright and inviting. This restaurant is over 50 years old and has remained in the same location ever since!

Hand made, rolled, and prepped dumplings in house, de-facto standard. It's the equivalent of watching a sushi chef make nigiri, except this is cheap stuff.

Their specialties? Knife shaved hand made fresh noodles, pork based boiled dumplings (jiaozi), and beef in beef broth with xifen (bean thread vermicelli noodles). This is not a place where you mess around.

27 things on the menu. The signature knife shaved beef noodles ran about US$4.70 for a large, and about $1 less for a small bowl. This is perhaps mid end expensive for Taipei but not as expensive as Lin Tung Fong beef noodles in Taipei.

The appetizers were excellent, particularly the marinated pig's ear slices (that tasted like a cross between bacon and tendon) as well as the strings of seaweed that were crunchy with good vinegar marination and also very heavy in garlic which gave it the needed boost. At $1 per plate, it's a no brainer to kick start the appetite.

As for the signature bowl: the beef was very tender and delicious, and the broth was quite good. I'm hardly a fan of knife shaved noodles but I have to say it was executed very very well. At the time, there were no thinner noodles available, and bean thread version would have been uber soggy.

Dumplings were excellent. Primariliy pork but I believe had cabbage in it. And you know what, they were as excellent as San Tung (on Irving Street in San Francisco), if not better.

A taste of the past, stuck in time. There are arguably a lot better places around town, but for a place that has been around 50+ years, you have to respect that.

老山東牛肉家常麵店 - Lao Shandong Beef Noodles
台北市西寧南路70號 Taipei City, Xi Ning South Rd #70
地下室15 (萬年商業大樓地下室) Mahn Lien building, basement level #15
Tel：02-2389-1216

[台北市] - 寧夏路夜市 - 古早味紅豆餅 traditional red bean cake (Ningxia Road Night Market)

Ningxia Road Night Market Taipei's best dessert snack shop "Traditional Red Bean Cake". 寧夏路夜市 - 古早味紅豆餅

You won't find any fancy froyo or cupcakes in this night market (thank gawd). But there is one sweet munchie that is on the top of everyone's list and a must try should any of you make it to Ningxia Road Night Market in Taipei City sometime.

"Gu Tsoh Wei Hung Doh Bing" 古早味紅豆餅 - or Old School Flavor Red Bean Cake.

There are at most 2 people inside the stall. Very simple but slightly time consuming operation:

1) Vendor pours secret receipe egg batter into two rows of the cake cast iron grill.

2) When the first row is about halfway done, toppings are placed on top.

3) When the 2nd row is done cooking, vendor takes a metal pick and loosens the contents of each cast. This is the top portion.

4) When the first row is done, vendor loosens it with a pick to get it out

5) Place top "lid" and sandwiches the topping and the bottom half.

Well what can I say. A toasty crispy exterior made of a light egg batter, similar to that of Cantonese eggette snacks or waffles with an ample thick layer of goodness in the middle (whether it's taro, egg custard or red bean paste which are both excellent, or some wacky savory salty preserved veg or a new offering of black sesame paste which I didn't see before), for only US$1.50. Take it home, reheat and it's a quickie snack or breakfast the next morning!
Try not to squeeze to hard, the fillings would burst out.

Egg custard is nice and thick, and surprisingly doesn't taste like butter even though that's the Chinese translation of it. Red bean is sweet, firm, and rich, not like some of the watered down crap at some Asian dessert places in the San Francisco Bay Area.

寧夏路夜市 (Ningxia Road Night Market, Taipei)
台北市大同區寧夏路(寧夏夜市中段) (Da Tung District, Ningxia Road, about halfway into the main night market).

[台北縣永和市] - 樂華夜市 樂華米粉湯 Lir Hua night market Mifen Tang/Lu Rou Fan/Er Rou

Lir Hua Night Market 樂華夜市 has a more down to earth neighborhood feel with  slightly more shops than there are eating places, unlike the more famous and touristy food night markets e.g. Shihlin where on weekends they bus in tourists from Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea. Thus, you are competiting with these folks just for valuable elbow space and a table at some random yet not so spectacular eatery. And suddenly you feel like a tourist yourself, even if you are just visiting.

Every night market in Taipei serve more or less the same snacks, small eats, local specialties. Some things are more common than others, with varying quality. The key to maximizing your decadently indulgent food orgy snack munching bingefest (with hopefully no purging) at such places, is to quickly identify and be familiar with what the more seemingly popular places are, what they truly specialize in, and to concentrate on those.

In the midst of food vendor stalls and sit down eateries that appear rather random and potentially ho hum is one sit down restaurant that not just dishes the variety and goods out (street food style), but does it so well that it has the full patronage of locals filling up almost all of the foldable stools at the tables. Don't be surprised if you have to wait when you get here.

Almost every rice, rice noodle, regular noodle, bean thread noodle dish you can find at any night market, you can also find here. Their menu sports over 50 items, and arguably more.

The interior is not fancy at all, just white tiled walls with various signs including some excerpts of the menu. Each table has a pad of paper with the menu printed on it in Chinese. The procedure here is simple; you mark off the item you want, quantity, then give it to your server. Disposeable chopsticks are wrapped in plastic, the wooden but circular variety that is arguably a notch better quality than the low brow bleached wood kind made in China that is everywhere. No chairs here, just foldable stools, so get used to it.

No smoking allowed in here. The only alcohol they serve here are 3 kinds of beer (including Taiwan beer which is an aquired taste they say)

Here's what we ordered:

Minced pork with rice (lu rou fan) - One of the more well known Taiwanese street food snacks. Small bowl of rice topped with marinated stewed minced pork. It wasn't the best I had, but not bad for a local rendition.

Steamed pork cheek meat (sai bang rou) - this doesn't qualify to be a nasty bit, but it's one of the best cuts of swine you'll ever have. Served with cilantro, shredded/julienne ginger to give it that extra flavor, and of course the important soy sauce paste with vinegar and garlic that is a must (and elevates this dish to fan-f**king-tastic status)

Smoked shark belly - also with julienne ginger and cilantro. It's really hard to describe this dish properly, except the smoked flavors helped take the fishiness and edge off. Beneath the skin was either fat or collagen, it was quite rich and filling. Served with a side of wasabi paste, so you can make an uber wasabi mud bath with your soy sauce, which would be the best way to enjoy this.

Pork rinds - served in a similar fashion, and with a slightly sweet and sour sauce that was very nice. This was definitely easier to stomach than the smoked shark belly. Not crunchy and not rubbery, and was disturbingly juicy...

Steamed goose - This was a mondo buff  goose on steroids! Well maybe it was also big boned. There was meat, but it was a little on the chewy side (not rubbery), but good flavor.

Stir fried vegetable - one can only have so much meat and nasty bits. A juicy, flavorful, garlic stir fried local greens dish is just what the Taiwanese doctor ordered to lessen the guilt of the bingefest (and to make you feel a little better, like ordering a Diet Coke with Three Big Macs and Supersize Fries).

I must say that it was quite a pleasurable experience to go into a neighborhood joint like this. It's not famous or touristy by any means, and while some of the stuff might not be terribly appealing, it is interesting nonetheless.

樂華夜市 - 樂華米粉湯 (Lir Hua Night Market restaurant stall)
台北縣永和市永平路151號 (Taipei County, Yongho Township, Hir Ping Road #151)
Tel：02-29278723

らあめん花月嵐 - Kagetsu Arashi Ramen Taipei Main Station (upstairs Breeze Center)

Oh Arashi

you're so fine

you're so fine

you blow my mind

Arashi! ARASHI!

Just SICK, absolutely SICK

and DISGUSTING

So DISGUSTINGLY GOOD.

Wait, WTF is Arashi? It's actually Kagetsu Arashi. らあめん花月嵐

I was told there was a place in Taipei City (NOT IN THE USA) that supposedly has some of the best Japanese ramen, which ended up being a consolation afternoon snackeroo after learning that the best Japanese tsukemen in town closed for the New Year.

Enter Kagetsu Arashi ramen, which is actually a popular chain restaurant from Tokyo (http://www.kagetsu.co.jp). There's a location by Narita Airport (Japan) and apparently by expert ramen blogger $tandard$, the Narita location was decent mall food quality (ouch). There are two other locations in Taipei, and this one is upstairs in the Breeze Center food court (a proper sit down restaurant) from Taipei Main Station.

But hands down some of the best ramen I've had so far.

Their signature broth appears to be a shio tonkotsu ramen, so disgustingly creamy and rich, it makes Saint Nizzle ramen in San Mateo an afterthought.

But I ended up checking out their seasonal limited edition offering a while back

just called BLACK

Once you go BLACK you never go BACK. And no I'm not talking about BALACK OBAMA, although I'm sure he'd endorse this BLACK ramen.

Here's what's inside this SICKENINGLY DISGUSTINGLY GOOD bowl.

1) Pure Porcine Porkgasm Bliss of pork bone broth (arguably Taiwanese black pork), as a hybrid shoyu tonkotsu, so rich and so creamy it hurt$ $o good

2) minced garlic pan fried (HELLA garlic) that melts into the soup

3) nice chewy noodles with decent texture

4) digustingly unhealthy FLOATIES, also known as upper (back) side fat of the pig. Doesn't taste like fat but bone marrow for some reason. OINK OINK OINK!!!!

5) Ni-tamago (slow cooked in soy sauce/broth) but sadly overcooked

6) Good chewy menma (bamboo shoots)

7) Piece of nori (yummay)

8) two pieces of porktastic perfectly stewed chashu that is nicely marbled

9) and finally to make it BLACK, delectable kuro mayu (black sesame oil) drizzled on top (like R.Kelly doing a number on a girl)

All this for NT$190, or a few shades over US$6!!!! You can't touch dis, Kuro Ramen @ Maruichi Mountain View....

They have a small pot of self help kim chi. No cabbage here, just spicy chives. Soooo spicy it caused instant hiccups...very potent stuff. Plus several self help special sauces and seasonings for your own application.

Best of all? Crush it yourself garlic cloves. To add more HELLA garlic to your ramen....

In addition to the signature ramen and BLACK ramen...
they seem to have this new seasonal offering called Aka Oni (red demon/ghost) which is supposedly a spicy aka (red) miso flavor.

Also highly recommend but did not try, teppan yaki meshi or cha han. Fried rice on a cast iron skillet. You can add additional bits to kick things up a notch (like butter). Think Benihana style teppan fried rice, but DIY at the table. Even the plastic display behind glass looked so good I wanted to eat it.

The Black Ramen I had around 2 to 3 pm that day. Less than four hours later, I blew out my belt buckle and had a grilled unagi over rice (unaju) dinner at

肥前屋 http://beefnoguy.blogspot.com/2010/01/hizen-ya-taipei-spectacular-unagi-over.html

followed by an extra large sized tapioca milk tea as a late night drink.

Guess what the combo of greasy, fatty, unagi, and milk did? LOL you don't want to know...

But was it worth it?

HELL YES!

One more thing. A surefire sign of authentic ramen is that AFTER you eat the bowl of noodles, you sweat like a muddafugga. As if you engaged in hot monkey love. Kagetsu Arashi was like hot sweaty funky monkey sex.

None of the San Francisco Bay Area ramen places made me sweat after eating. Maybe Daikokuya in LA did but then again it was 108 F that labor day weekend in 2007 when I went....so didn't count. So what's up with that?

A fairly recent visit a year ago, the Black ramen was no longer offered. But one of their broths that had fish and meat bones in it, in addition to shaved bonito flakes, was out of this world. They skimped quite a bit on the chashu unfortunately. There may be better ramen spots, but this place is quite excellent otherwise.

This one is supposed to be their best seller. Pork front trotter bone broth with a ton of garlic.


Kagetsu Arashi Ramen [らあめん花月嵐拉麵」
Taipei Main Station, Breeze Center, 2nd FL
台北車站 微風台北車站2樓

[台北] - 寧夏夜市 - Ningxia Road Night Market Taipei

I've covered a few very delicious destination vendor stops at Taipei's Ningxia Road Night Market 寧夏夜市, but feel that this place warrants its own writeup. Do not treat this as a comprehensive guide, as the compilation of photos cover the last 2 to 3 years. Vendors come and go, so what you see might not even be there now.

Unless it is some earth shattering event (like a typhoon, or ground splitting earthquake), the night market opens even when it is pouring. When it does rain, the night market association provides cover.

On rainless nights, it's open air time.

Sorry for not blurring ya, missy.

One of the reasons why I love this night market so much is that it is way less touristy than Shihlin. Sure that place is great, but it is overrun by visitors bused (and flown) in from Hong Kong, Japan, Korea (Hong Kongers in particular). The offerings are rather commercialized, and frankly after 3 to 4 visits, it loses its glamor.

Ningxia Road Night Market can be almost defined as the heart of where Taipei city started and evolved some 50+ years ago. True traditional old school flavors, with many receipes preserved for the ages. While it is true that you can enjoy even better food in Tainan (where they say street food is way way better), for Taipei I believe Ningxia is the place to be. At the same time, you can get the old school, along with new school, and of course the tried and true, adding variety to the spice.

You can even find Tainanese staples here, like the Tu Tuoh fish soup.

"Smile Skewers" - grilled seafood and meat on a stick. Pike mackeral, squid etc.

 American Corndogs?! WTF? Sooooo out of place.

"Fortune Fried Chicken" - so bold....note the "if it don't taste good, it's on us". Too bad I didn't try.

Teppanyaki.

Saltwater Chicken

Corn on a stick

Sashimi vendor, all fish from Pingtung harbor 東港. Squid, local snapper of some sort, swordfish, tuna

local "hamachi", more local white fish, something that looks like escolar and colored fish eggs.

Pre-made low tech cheap nigiri on the go (from another stall)

Grilled Middle-Eastern/Indian/Pakinstani style skewers

Master Yu's Xiao Long Bao (they have shrimp XLB too, supposedly great)

Fresh lemons and kumquats for honey lemon/honey lemon kumquat juice

Shandong style grilled duck heads. Strange but nothing new really.

Korean style spicy nian gao

Fresh sugar cane juice

Another famous 30+ yr old local oyster omlette shop on Ningxia Road, not part of the night market vendor strip, but a permanent fixture.

Local versions of takoyaki.

Guava

Fresh seafood all over. Cooked anyway you want.

Red bean pancake sandwiches

So many things to eat, so little time...


Ningxia Road Night Market 寧夏夜市
台北市大同區寧夏路 (Taipei City, Datung District, Ningxia Road)

[苗栗縣] - 飛牛牧場 - Miaoli County - Nature's Farm aka "Flying Cow Ranch"

 In the USA, when you think of "farm", you certainly do not think too much in the way of entertainment, let alone a relaxing family getaway coupled with an educational experience. As progressive (or regressive) as the idea of picking your own fruit and berries from the source has become, certain American farms that do offer their resources for educational field trips, are by appointment only and limited to schools for the most part. So what is the public to do?

In Taiwan, the idea of a nature farm is pretty much like going to a theme park. In Miaoli county 苗栗縣, the most famous attraction is Nature's Farm 飛牛牧場 which translates to Flying Cow Ranch. It's a 2+ hour drive southwest of Taipei, past Hsinchu county and on the way you'll pass by Guansi rest stop.

A GPS coupled with printed directions certainly come in handy getting over here. Once you pass the sign, drive up the road. 

And you're almost near the entrance once you see the lovely flying cow logo statue to the right.

Park the car and get your bearings. Pick up a few maps as this place is quite big. Hungry? There's the Red Barn restaurant.

 Your admission ticket includes a coupon that you can redeem for a cup of fresh milk or yogurt drink, all made on the premise of course and all natural.

The milk is so tasty (ditto for the yogurt drink) it's not funny. If this stuff tastes amazing, I can only imagine what fresh Hokkaido milk tastes like...

Oh yes, the Red Barn restaurant. Miso hungry. Time to get some grub.
 

 A very relaxed yet modern decor. The menu is more western slanted, but they say the best dish to get here is the hotpot.

Yup, got your typical veggie fixin's here and some animal protein essentials. At least three to four kinds of leafy greens, corn on the cob, slices of pork belly, enoki mushrooms, shrimp. There was more but I can't remember now.

Oh yes the signature hot pot broth of MILK. As strange as it sounds, it's actually milk mixed in with some sort of base broth. Once you put the ingredients in there, the whole thing flows together. It's actually quite good and a lot healthier than some greasy numbing spice thing that will blow your o-ring out.

OK everyone got a dessert. Check this out, they say it's a Japanese invention. Hmmm it looks like a brown egg in shell. But what's that tube inside? What's that toothpick for?? Oh man, you prick a hole and this milk tea latte flavored pudding oozes out.

For most of us, it looks rather gross. One can only imagine the filthy thoughts going on in your mind if you are seeing and eating something like this for the first time. Is it an egg? Is it a balloon or a condom?? What's that twirly looking discharge?? But the taste and texture is quite unbelievable and delicious! At some point the pudding oozes out very very slow, so you can either take matters into your own hands by poking more holes, or just puncture the whole thing together (but the taste and texture will be different if you do that).

After lunch, a nice stroll down the hill to see the rest of the farm. Unfortunately it was raining during our visit.

Get up close and personal with the sheep and goats! No pellet food for sale here, just little packets of grass

Sure you can pay NT$10 for a small pack of grass, but look around on the ground, lots of grass near the fences (dropped by other visitors), so go cheap on this.

Check the schedule near the sheep petting section for demos on milking a cow

 as well as feeding times for calfs. Watch these little fellas finish drinking a whole bottle of mama's milk within mere seconds!

Then up the hill is where you can see the mountain goats (don't get too close, they'll get into fights and scare you), and at the top is the bunny hutch. A favorite for the kids.

They will be so happy to see you. Even more so if you pay NT$10 to feed them some yam leaves!

Keep your eyes out on the funny bunny. The one on the left looks like a puppy with long ears.

 Or this dude who looks like a Panda.

Back to the gift and snack shop, you'll find more milk based goods. Like their signature Flying Cow milk pudding.

 Or the less popular red bean matcha yogurt.

 Liked that funky egg shaped pudding that oozed out like bodily fluid or discharged? Take it home with ya!

The milk ice cream has got to be amazing...

And there's a non food gift shop nearby too.

 Highly recommend for those visiting Miaoli County.

Website: http://www.flyingcow.com.tw/

飛牛牧場 - Nature's Farm
苗栗縣通霄鎮166號 (Miaoli county, Tung Xiao Jun #166)