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I can't believe I've been in Taiwan for so long, and it was only a couple of nights ago that I had tomato based beef noodle soup. It was a revelation. Just wondrous. The tomato flavor is subtle enough that it doesn't overwhelm the beef flavor, but still strong enough to give the soup that something extra. I really, really recommend it. And where can you get this divine tomato beef noodle soup, you ask? Why, at 饌王 (Chuan Wang), last year's first place winner of the yearly beef noodle soup competition*.
For 180NT, you can get a nice big (ok, medium sized, but it just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? And it's still a substantial amount) bowl of steaming beef noodle soup (it comes in tomato, regular, or spicy broths), with pieces of tender beef and pickled vegetables heaped on top. A small bowl - but why would you deny yourself? - is around 150NT; large is about 200.
The most expensive item on the menu is "gan ban mian," which is a dry noodle (NT330). Luke ordered this last time, and he said it was pretty good. It's sort of like zha jiang mian, but with a lot more different types of meat:
It also came with a soup and some pig knuckle. And some plastic gloves so you don't soil your hands as you're mixing everything around. So thoughtful.
Has anyone been to the beef noodle soup competition yet? Any other recommendations? Let me know!
*Updated to add: I heard that they cheated in last year's competition - you could vote online, and they flooded the polls and voted for themselves! I don't know if it was psychological or what, but then the next time I went, my meal didn't seem to taste as good.
饌王
www.chuan-wang.com
Zhongxiao East Road, Section 4, No. 94, 2nd Floor
(02) 2711-0388
Our lives pretty much ground to a halt this past weekend with the release of the last Harry Potter book. I forsook sleep, personal hygiene, going to the bathroom, my husband, etc. for the Deathly Hallows, but did I forsake food? Nope. Of course, we had to shovel the food into our months as fast as possible to get back to the reading ASAP, but we still managed a decent meal at 中國牛肉麵 (zhong guo niu rou mian).
Anyway, so I might not be the best judge of this place since I was speed eating my way through the meal, but luckily, I’ve been here before. Or more accurately, I’ve been to 中國牛肉麵’s original location by the Sun Yet-Sen Memorial Hall. This past Saturday’s meal was at their other branch in A5 of the Mitsukoshi by city hall. And I have to say, the one by the SYS Memorial is much, much better than the one in the Mitsukoshi. In fact, the only reason I could possibly think of to eat in the one in the Mitsukoshi is that that one is perhaps a little nicer and cleaner. Yes, the other restaurant might be considered by some to be a bit of a hole in the wall, but it's not that bad, honestly. It's definitely tastier, and less expensive.
中國牛肉麵 is known for their jin bing, which is somewhere between a crepe and a scallion pancake (but without the scallions). Here’s a picture:
You can eat these with just sauce and scallions, or you can also order something more substantive to go with it. We ordered the jin jiang rou si to accompany it, which is tender strips of beef and scallions stir fried in a sauce that’s reminiscent of the sauce you eat Peking Duck with.
中國牛肉麵 is also well known for their beef noodle soup. You can pick between two different kinds of soups: the hong shao, which is the spicy flavored beef soup, or the chin dun, which is their lighter, clear broth. I usually get the chin dun. Sadly, the broth in the Mitsukoshi restaurant wasn’t as flavorful as the one near SYS. Don’t get me wrong; it wasn’t bad, just not great. The broth at the SYS branch is really good. Also, their meat is nice and tender – it feels like it melts in your mouth. The meat at Mitsukoshi was a lot tougher – so much so that there were some pieces that I couldn’t even eat.
So I’d still recommend this restaurant, but only the one by the Sun Yet Sen Memorial Hall. There’s actually a few really good restaurants in the same alley, which I’ll review another time.
By the way, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was excellent.
中國牛肉麵
Yanji Street, Lane 137, Alley 7, No. 1
(02) 2721-4771 / (02) 2771-1004
