Really good traditional Taiwanese street food can be quite hard to find in Taipei, and it is no surprise that in many instances, it has migrated to up-market restaurants that charge a premium for their classy surroundings. But, as often as not, these modern temples of culinary professionalism don’t get these simple dishes right either, even if it is just a question of atmosphere. Street food always tastes better curbside, and in this regard, Black Spot Chicken (黑點雞肉) hits the right spot.
Black Spot Chicken is something of a blast from the past, and it has street cred in buckets. Tucked away on a small street off Changan West Road (長安西路), it does little to advertise itself and is easily missed. It is really nothing more than a wooden counter set in front of a grubby shop space, with chairs and tables scattered higgledy-piggledy across the sidewalk. Its main form of storage is plastic buckets. Some staff
wear plastic boots, which seems a little excessive, for although the floor is far from clean, it is not quite necessary to wade through the detritus.
One look from the outside and you are likely either to embrace the establishment as a piece of Taipei’s heritage, or run a mile to find a food court where at least you can’t see what they are doing in the kitchen. It doesn’t help that the counter display case is piled high with glistening organ meats from pigs and chickens and that dishes are washed in a rickety aluminum basin under a streetside faucet.
Black Spot Chicken serves, as its name suggests, boiled chicken with soy (白斬雞), which is sold by weight (minimum order of NT$50), and is a perfectly fine example of this dish, but nothing to write home about. The real appeal, for this reviewer at least, was in the soup noodles (切仔麵, NT$30), which I had heard rivaled the best in town. This is a dish I usually avoid, since at many street stalls it tastes of dishwater spiked with MSG holding in suspension some limp yellow noodles and bean sprouts. At Black Spot, I was not disappointed. The soup was richly flavored, the noodles firm, the scallions bold, and the overall sensation was of a dish that was thoroughly robust. The trick, I believe, was in the generous use of schmaltz (chicken oil). This might not be to everybody’s taste, for no concessions were made to modern worries about the consumption of saturated fats. Indeed, Black Spot positively rejoices in the satiny textures that animal fat provides. This passion is amply displayed in its other signature dish, rice with chicken oil (雞油飯, NT$10), which is exactly that: warm rice with a generous drizzle of rendered chicken fat on top. Stir the oil into the rice and you are in chicken heaven, and for less than the price of a newspaper.
Many kinds of organ meat are available, including different sections of intestine, stomach, liver, heart and tongue. Pig’s fallopian tubes (生腸), which can be tough, proved particularly memorable, being crisp and light. The big chunks of pig’s tongue (豬舌) and the chicken livers were both mouthwateringly tender. The only thing missing was some good chili sauce; unfortunately, only some salty mass-market stuff was on offer. Not everything is uniformly good, and the sweetheart egg (糖心蛋) — a hard-boiled egg with a soft center — for which the establishment is justly famous, can vary in quality from day to day. On a good day, it is totally awesome.
You will search in vain for anything resembling a menu, but the two middle-aged women who run the establishment are extremely friendly in a rough and ready sort of way. For the adventurous eater, just point and order. Apart from the good food, a visit to Black Spot will also provide a slice of life from old Taipei, at no additional charge.
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
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
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