The Food I Ate

mitcho — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 08:42:18 +0000

Perhaps with increasing restlessness to find increased variety in my diet or perhaps by hanging out with Aaron more, I’ve been eating some great food recently. Here’s a documentation of some great food in Taiwan (Yilan and Taipei) and where to find it:

Best Curry Udon ever (Yilan)

I’ve been craving some good udon noodles, called 烏龍麵 (wūlóngmiàn) in Taiwan which originally confused me as those are the characters for Oolong tea.¹ I haven’t found great soup udon in Yilan but I did find some fabulous fried curry udon.

The (unfortunate) best way to describe this shop is “half-a-block from the entrance of the night market, across the street from the condom store.” For the past month or two, since I found this store, this has been my dinner every Tuesday before Chinese class. Here are some pictures from when Aaron and I went.

The curry udon is 55 dollars. The other two flavors were unfortunately not as good. I haven’t tried anything else at that store, but I really don’t know why I would. The store also has Coke, Sprite, and Apple Sidra in glass bottles which taste great.

Real Ramen (Luodong)

I asked a few locals where I could get “real ramen”: not that instant schtuff but the fresh firm yellow noodles in a variety of soups with different toppings.² The place that was recommended to me is just down the street from the Luodong night market, past the post office and toward (but before) Zhengzheng elementary school.

They had all the classic soups, like pork broth, soy, and miso, and they all came with wonderful fixin’s. Highly recommended.

The Diner (Taipei)

The Diner, Taipei

The Diner is a classic American diner in Taipei near Da-an Park.³ Other places may advertise “American breakfast” but this is the real deal. It took us a disgustingly long amount of time to find it but it was worth the wait and, with the proper directions or address, I know you, gentle reader, will find it with ease.

The Diner has a great atmosphere. While there isn’t much of a counter, there were soft bench seats and a real diner feel. It even had a print of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks on the back wall. Nice touch, though it makes me miss the Institute.

Michelle and I split a mushroom and swiss and a California burger. A&W Root Beer was available, so we bit.

We also saw the most disgustingly large burger this side of the Pacific two tables down that just had to be documented. I finished the meal off with their pecan pie, served warm and soft with some vanilla ice cream. Amazing.

“Steak” and bread-covered soup (Yilan)

Aaron and I went out to get some Taiwanese 牛排 (nǐupǎi, ‘steak’) after our last Classical Chinese class. The particular place we went was inside the Yilan night market. We ordered the meal, meaning we got some soup and some salad. This soup had a thin pastry-esque top to it. In classic Taiwanese style, however, the bread was slightly sweet, making it interesting—not bad—in the savory soup.

The Taiwanese interpretation of “steak” is a bizarre concoction. It’s steak on a skillet alright, but with some extras. The steak is laid upon a bed of “spaghetti” (close, but not quite) with some mixed vegetables and a fried egg on top. You have your choice of black pepper and some other sauce although our waitress recommended the half and half.

Once you get over the fact that you don’t live in America, it’s really quite delicious.

Tavoli pizza (Yilan)

Aaron called this “the best pizza in Asia” (possibly only matched by The Tree in Beijing which I went to back in January). The owner went to Cornell and speaks English fluently. She returned to Yilan and opened this restaurant, bringing much needed amazing boutique pizza to Yilan.

I’ve had the white chicken pizza and BBQ beef pizza which were both fabulous, and nibbled at others’ Formaggio (lots of cheese) and Margherita. They also have a great caprese salad with fresh mozzarella (!). I was about to die when I tasted balsamic vinegar.

Tavoli also serves good fresh American-style lemonade, A&W Root Beer (cans), and an Italian import beer. It’s not cheap by Taiwan standards, with a meal registering 200-300 dollars (still cheap by American standards), but definitely worth every penny.

All that being said, the photos above aren’t all about the pizza, but that’s just because good company is the ultimate ingredient in a meal.⁴

The Wikipedia entry on udon isn’t bad, though pales in comparison to the 50+ varieties laid out on the Japanese page. To better understand udon and its cultural significance, however, I highly recommend the movie UDON. Yoshitaka gives it two up. ↩
Wikipedia has pretty good information on ramen. ↩
We went to the 瑞安 location. ↩
Tivoli photos courtesy of K80. ↩