Lin Tung-fang Beef Noodle (林東芳牛肉麵)
274, Pa-te Road, Sec. 2 (八德路二段274號), tel: 2752-2556.
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN
Open 11am to 3am. Average meal: NT$150, no English menu, credit cards not accepted.
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN
Walking into this small store, you have to cross an unfinished gutter and muscle your way through a narrow row of customers gulping down noodles to sit on a stool about the size of the typical playing card. Beside you may be a huge barrel of beef soup which the store's staff occasionally comes to ladle into another big bucket. But you will dismiss these minor discomforts, because seeing so many people cram into this street-side store even at 3am informs you that the food here is exceptionally good.
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN
It's a beef specialty store, so ordering beef noodle soup is an obvious choice. Unlike many beef noodle stores that use beef breast or sirloin in their beef noodles, Lin Ting-fang uses beef parts full of tendon. A main difference in this cut of beef is it contains a lot of gelatin and adds tenderness to the meat.
"Some beef breast meat has a harder taste texture, but tendon meat is never like that. It's always soft," said owner Lin Tung-fang (林東芳), who is the second-generation owner of this 30-year-old store. Lin added that because their beef is first stewed and then sliced, " the sweet taste of the meat is finely preserved."
Adding chili is a must for beef noodles and at Lin Tung-fang, the chili oil is another phenomena. On each table is a tin cup that contains a dark red substance. According to Lin, it is the store's original chili oil derived from beef oil extracted from the beef stew and then stir fried with chili oil and red pepper.
Other recommendations of the store include side dishes like beef stomach, beef gelatin and beef intestine.
A-san Shan-tou Beef Noodle (阿三汕頭牛肉麵)
286, Pa-te Road, Sec. 2, (八德路二段286號), tel: 8772-2935.
Open 11am to 3am. Average meal: NT$150, no English menu, credit cards not accepted.
This is probably the most spacious noodle shop on Pa-te road. It's relatively new, having opened about six months ago, but its flavors are never amateur.
Lin Wen-tu (林文土), owner of the store, confided that his shop is an offshoot of neighboring Lin Tung-fang Beef Noodle. "We were originally the big family of beef noodles. After my grandmother, the original inventor of our beef noodles, passed away last year, some things happened and my uncle decided to have his own store," Lin's nephew explained.
So on this small strip of Pa-te Road a family feud is being played out over the rightful claimant of Lin family beef noodle orthodoxy. According to Lin Wen-tu, his beef soup originates from the grandmother's recipe, whereas Lin Ting-fang's beef soup is a variation. "Old customers who prefer the original taste come to our store," said Lin Wen-tu.
The meat, gelatin and beef stomach taste nearly the same as at Lin Tung-fang, but Lin Wen-tu especially recommends his beef gelatin, which is stewed for five hours and then cooled and refrigerated. This process ensures the gelatin's crispness while retaining its flavor. Another recommended side dish is Hua-kan (花干), a fried bean curd stewed in beef soup.
It is not easy to compare the two Lin family stores. But A-san, the less crowded of the two, has one disconnected attraction. Celebrities including DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), Wubai (伍佰) and Tsui Hark (徐克) have all signed their names on the wall of the store.
Wang's Noodle House (王家麵館)
273, Pa-te Road, Sec. 2, (八德路二段273號), tel: 2731-9148.
Open 10am to 3am (closed every other Sunday). Average meal: NT$120, no English menu, credit cards not accepted.
For those less into meat but very much into the texture of noodles, Wang's Noodle House will serve your need. This shop has established a name for itself with the distinct taste of its noodles.
Ta-lu noodle (大滷麵) is a must when you visit Wang's. It's a bowl of abundant ingredients: stewed pork slices, carrot slices, mushrooms, day lily, bamboo shoots and egg shreds. With so many elements and thickened with starch, the soup is as rich as gravy. It's hard to believe a bowl only costs NT$70. Despite the price and the soup, the true magic of the house lies in its northern Chinese rich, thick handmade noodles.
Owner Wang Mu-jen hails originally from outlying Matsu Island (馬祖). Thirty years ago a veteran from China taught Wang and his wife how to make hand-pulled noodles. They then opened a small noodle stall to serve the soldiers on the island. Ten years later the Wangs brought their shop to Taiwan proper.
Apart from their famed ta-lu noodles, the Wang's restaurant is also known for its cha-chian noodles (炸醬麵) and red chili dumplings (紅油抄手). Cha-chian noodles are dry with a rich, homemade pork sauce. Red chili dumplings are seasoned with chili oil, peanut powder, chopped green onion, and a bit of sugar. For a vegetable dish, try the cabbage pickled in a mixture of vinegar, sugar, rice wine and chili. It helps wash down the slight greasiness of a big bowl of noodles.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built