In 1969, Chiang Yi-chang (姜宜璋) stoked up a fire outside a storage shed off Linsen South Road and started cooking dumplings. Three decades later his dumpling joint is still in the same shed with its timber rafters, homemade wooden tables and wood-plank floor. The only difference is that now it's Chiang's son who's cooking the dumplings.
"I've had to change out the stools several times. Other than that most everything is the same now as it was then," the elder Chiang says of the decor. He's not exaggerating. The walls have never seen paint. The sole attempt at decoration consists of several large, smoke-stained calligraphy pieces with customers' scribblings on the particle board between them: "Roger & Donna `89. We Love Taiwan!"
Roger and Donna probably loved their meal, too. Chiang has stayed in business so long because his pork dumplings are among the best you can find anywhere in the city and likely much further afield. Ask any older resident of the city and they're likely familiar with Chiang's dumpling joint. The number of people waiting outside for a table during peak dinner hours is a testament to just how good the food is -- and not just the dumplings, perhaps the best part of the meal is the requisite plate of tsai: sliced beef or pork, tea eggs, tofu, pigs ears, bamboo sprouts and other items of your choice piled high and covered with chopped onions.
PHOTO: DAVID MOMPHARD, TAIPEI TIMES
The menu on the front wall also lists various soups and noodles, and while the noodles are quite tasty, ordering them is like ordering chicken in a steak house; this place is about the dumplings.
"There's nothing special about my dumplings," Chiang insists, "I've just been making them so long I finally got good at it. The food I make is the food I grew up eating in Qingdao. Maybe people like it because it's different."
Coke is recommended to wash down your dumplings and tsai. It's served in the tall recyclable bottles that are rarely seen any more. "I think we're the only place in Taipei that still recycles Coca Cola bottles," Chiang says. Taiwan and Asahi beers are also in plentiful supply.
Among the few things that are new is a remodeled bathroom. It previously had a wood-plank floor that began rotting long ago but has recently been tiled and tidied into something usable. "Restaurants never had restrooms in Qingdao so I never gave it much thought," Chiang said. "But now my wife is happy with it."
Chiang's grown son has been minding the shop for several years now and promises to keep the doors open for another generation. The shed he inherited has become an institution in the city, he says. "Everyone I've ever met in my life, I've met in this shed. I could hardly walk away from it.
Nothing like the spectacular, dramatic unraveling of a political party in Taiwan has unfolded before as has hit the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) over recent weeks. The meltdown of the New Power Party (NPP) and the self-implosion of the New Party (NP) were nothing compared to the drama playing out now involving the TPP. This ongoing saga is so interesting, this is the fifth straight column on the subject. To catch up on this train wreck of a story up to Aug. 20, search for “Donovan’s Deep Dives Ko Wen-je” in a search engine. ANN KAO SENTENCED TO PRISON YET AGAIN,
Despite her well-paying tech job, Li Daijing didn’t hesitate when her cousin asked for help running a restaurant in Mexico City. She packed up and left China for the Mexican capital last year, with dreams of a new adventure. The 30-year-old woman from Chengdu, the Sichuan provincial capital, hopes one day to start an online business importing furniture from her home country. “I want more,” Li said. “I want to be a strong woman. I want independence.” Li is among a new wave of Chinese migrants who are leaving their country in search of opportunities, more freedom or better financial prospects at a
When the Dutch began interacting with the indigenous people of Taiwan, they found that their hunters classified deer hide quality for trade using the Portuguese terms for “head,” “belly,” and “foot.” The Portuguese must have stopped here more than once to trade, but those visits have all been lost to history. They already had a colony on Macao, and did not need Taiwan to gain access to southern China or to the trade corridor that connected Japan with Manila. They were, however, the last to look at Taiwan that way. The geostrategic relationship between Taiwan and the Philippines was established
Sept. 9 to Sept. 15 The upgrading of sugarcane processing equipment at Ciaozaitou Sugar Factory (橋仔頭) in 1904 had an unintended but long-lasting impact on Taiwan’s transportation and rural development. The newly imported press machine more than doubled production, leading to an expansion of the factory’s fields beyond what its original handcarts and oxcarts could handle. In 1905, factory manager Tejiro Yamamoto headed to Hawaii to observe how sugarcane transportation was handled there. They had trouble finding something suitable for Taiwan until they discovered a 762mm-gauge “miniature” railroad at a small refinery in the island of Maui. On
RSS