Kunming Street in Ximending is, in parts, lit by those rotating blue, red and white barbershop signs that are not advertising haircuts. I was on my way to a restaurant that had won a national beef noodle prize and was reluctant to stop when a man started talking to me, thinking it was a tout offering a "massage" from one of these establishments.
"Don't eat there he said," pointing to the prize-winning noodle restaurant that had been in business for 50 years, "the best place in town is here."
While Niu Dian (Beef Shop) wasn't shabby on first glance, it wasn't imposing either. Even so, a quick look on either side of the street suggested Niu Dian was the busier of the two restaurants. To cut a long story short, eventually the man said if I did not think his friend's beef noodles were the best in town he would pay for the meal. It was such an unusual offer that I agreed ... and ended up paying.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
The Han-style beef noodles was as good a bowl of the national dish as you will find. Connoisseurs will tell you that, like Japanese ramen, the broth should be sampled first. Made from beef bones and simmered over a gentle flame for 16 hours it looked like a consomme it was so clear and golden. It had a subtle rather than strong flavor. The Australian beef was sliced and slightly marbled. The small lumps of tendon were so tender they almost dissolved in the mouth, leaving a pleasant briny back taste. I am not a fan of stomach, but this was most palatable and easily chewed.
Most beef noodle fans keep it simple but owner Lin Kai (林凱) is a bit of a perfectionist. He offers three jars of homemade chili sauce, which vary in strength from mild to piping hot. The spicy oil is a specialty of the house, as it is made from marrow. Cold side dishes include soft peanuts, seaweed, marinated cucumber and sliced bamboo. For the adventurous there is tofu with thousand-year-old eggs.
Lin has been a chef since he was 14 and worked at the Westin, Shangri-La and Regent hotels. He has brought Western expertise to the art of beef noodle making. This is his first restaurant and is charmingly fitted in a simple manner, with solid, wooden tables and chairs and exposed brickwork. Though Lin has a good friend who loudly sings his praises, his beef noodle dish speaks for itself.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and