The Taiwanese love affair with instant noodles is a lifelong passion that begins early on. Bowls are gulped down in childhood with wanton disregard for the admonitions of health-conscious parents, provide sustenance for college students with small budgets and large appetites, and remain a familiar sight in many a household in later life.
No one ever made a restaurant business out of the convenient meal from a packet — that is, until the arrival of Instant Noodles House. While Taiwan boasts innumerous noodle houses, Instant Noodles House is the only one that literally serves packs of instant noodles. Now with four branches, including ones in Shida (師大), Taida (台大) and Gongguan (公館), the chain store is, according to its proprietor, frequented primarily by neighborhood college kids.
My dining partner and I visited the Taida branch on a weekend night. The joint may look like a makeshift hut on someone’s front yard, but it is reasonably clean, cozy and well air-conditioned.
The heart of the establishment is its two shelves filled with instant noodles from Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan that cost between NT$30 to NT$60 per pack. After selecting a pack of noodles from these shelves, customers decide if they want to add a combo, of which there are four varieties of meat and/or vegetables. The restaurant then cooks the selected concoction and delivers a bowl of steaming noodles to the table. For an additional NT$40 to NT$130 diners can choose from a selection of vegetables, eggs, pork and beef, or order a glass of iced tea.
For a classic Taiwanese flavor, the President braised pork noodles (統一肉燥麵) is the perennial favorite among locals that long ago reached comfort-food status. Other options include Korean varieties, known for their spiciness, or Japanese types, recommended for their light taste.
For my late-evening snack, I chose the salt-flavored ramen from Nissin Foods, since it is, after all, the company’s founder, Taiwanese-Japanese Momofuku Ando, who is credited with inventing instant noodles. My expectations weren’t high: not only are instant noodles usually too strongly flavored, overly salty and greasy for my taste, in unskilled hands, the noodles can be undercooked and too crispy, or overcooked and too soggy. So I was quite surprised by a broth that was pleasantly light and noodles that were well cooked but still al dente. It helped that the extra greens and egg partially alleviated my guilt for consuming a meal high in sodium, fat and MSG.
Instant Noodles House also offers a few non-instant noodle items, including a braised pork rice bowl (冰糖肉燥飯, NT$50) and a Japanese rice bowl (日式蓋飯, NT$80) that comes with beef, pork and eel. The spicy stinky tofu bowl (麻辣臭豆腐, NT$50), with stinky tofu, duck blood chunks (鴨血) and huakan (花干), or fried bean curd stewed in broth, is recommended.
Final verdict: the novelty of dining at an instant-noodle eatery alone is worth a visit to Instant Noodles House.
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