Wandering Fel

Showing posts with label Yongkang Street. Show all posts

"Under this pressure, under this weight, we are diamonds taking shape."

Oh man, the last time I was having this strong urge to throw in the towel without concrete future plan was...hmm, let me see...oh wow, exactly 8 years ago. Everybody says that you are supposed to know what you want and find where you belong by the time you hit certain age but turns out I'm going back to the start. Am I in some kind of The Scientist's music video? Uh oh.

Not really sure how to solve this situation since the solution will not come within a day to be honest with you. I guess I'll just update this blog to finish my soon-to-be-completed Taiwan travelogue. Hehe.

Whenever I visit Yongkang Street, I dunno why but I always ended up eating at Kao Chi. Probably because there is always a super long queue in front of the original restaurant of Din Tai Fung. Kao Chi seems to be the closest alternative in the vicinity and I do suspect they get customers via this manner so they should not really complain to Din Tai Fung. I won't even be surprised if they turn out to be owned by same owner.

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Kao Chi, Yongkang Street

Guess what, Kao Chi sells xiao long bao too and its xiao long bao is not that inferior to Din Tai Fung. Maybe every restaurants in Taiwan sell good xiao long bao? Hahaha. Kao Chi also have other dishes than xiao long bao like lotus pastry, veggie dumpling, char siew pastry, etc. They all seem good but we were kinda full from our visit to steamboat restaurant in Taipei.

Xiao long bao from Kao Chi at Yongkang Street Taipei

And after eating many meats and fried stuff for the past few days, we finally miss having some greens in our diet. This is a miracle because I am not particularly a green-eater. We were initially planning to order dou miao but the server informed us that that veggie has been sold out. She recommended us for another type of veggie which we totally forgot its Chinese name but it comes out like this. Well, name does not really matter when the food taste good. If you want to order this, I suppose you can just show the picture to the server and they will find out for you. Hahaha.

Green veggie from Kao Chi at Yongkang Street Taipei

The steamboat that we just had was really filling and yet it's amazing that the two of us still had the capacity to share a bowl of dan dan noodle. Dan Dan Noodle is a noodle served with peanut sauce. I quite enjoy the different taste of this noodle and I have only tasted similar noodle at Din Tai Fung. This one does not fare that bad either.

Dan Dan Mian from Kao Chi at Yongkang Street Taipei

Oh right, what steamboat that I was referring to? My Taiwanese friend brought me and my travelling buddy to a steamboat restaurant in Zhongxiao Fuxing area. I was totally clueless on what and how to order so I left all the ordering to him after giving him one special instruction.

My special instruction is to help me order BEEF because I've been missing out Taiwanese beef steamboat. Funny thing is, all of us ended up ordering the same. Haiz, I forgot the name of the restaurant and my Taiwanese friend is totally ignoring me right now. Sadz.

Beef steamboat at Zhongxiao Fuxing in Taipei Taiwan

Kao Chi is located at:

No. 1 Yongkang Street,

Taipei

Opening hours:

Monday to Friday 9.30AM - 10.30PM

Saturday and Sunday 8.30AM - 10.30PM

"The dreaming of escape will keep you up at night."

One of my favourite place to escape with empty stomach at night in Taipei is definitely Yong Kang Street. Whenever I was hungry after a day of studying in nearby Shida University, I walked around Yong Kang Street to enjoy the neighbourhood and filling my stomach with food. What a glutton lifestyle but I enjoy pigging out I suppose. Oink! XD

We had just finished our dinner at the restaurant few houses down the road, Yong Kang Beef Noodle, but we had joined another queue for food and this ain't just normal regular food. This corner food stall sells Taiwanese egg crepes (with different type of toppings and fillings). The queue for the egg crepes has always been long as far as I remember since four year ago when I visited Taipei for the first time.

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Cheesy Egg Crepe and Pork Dumpling, Taipei

While we were waiting for our turn to order, we carefully checked out the menu (which comes with English translation woohoo!). I've always gone with the combination of Cheese and Egg (NTD 40) i.e. No. 5. If you can't speak Mandarin and don't know how to order you just need to (a) point at the menu or (b) says "Wu Hao" if you want to order the same. Don't forget to say how many do you want to order afterwards. You can use your fingers to do that I suppose. Hahaha.

Menu for Egg Crepes Stall at Yongkang Street in Taipei

The ladies behind the stall work like a very fast and efficient factory line. The work division is so clear and they are able to follow each other's pace. I wonder if they manage to get a break at all with forever-long-queue. Amazed!

Egg crepes at Yongkang Street in Taipei Taiwan

The end product: Cheese and Egg Taiwanese Crepes. Still my personal favourite since three years ago. Not gonna change for other flavour so soon I think. Hahaha. #notreceptivetochange

Cheese Egg Crepe from Yongkang Street at Taipei

You would have thought that we were gonna so stop eating after we stuffed ourselves with a bowl of beef noodle and egg crepes but oh boy, we continued our adventure that night to Shida Night Market. One cannot go to a night market without ordering food. But since we were kinda full, we were only lured by one particular stall named Hsu-Ji.

Hsu Ji is famous for the dumpling which kinda looks like xiao long bao. They are pork dumpling filled with broth and ginger.

Making of pork dumpling at Hsu Ji in Shida Night Market

You can see how the dumpling is made from dough because the production line is visible to the customers. Looks so interesting to make and it tastes pretty good too. Although I am sure it will taste better if we eat them on an empty stomach. Hahaha.

Hsu Ji Pork Dumpling at Shida Night Market in Taipei

How to go to Yong Kang Street:

(1) Take the Red Line or Orange Line to Dongmen Station. You will see Din Tai Fung at the start of Yong Kang Street if you walk straight from Exit 5

(2) Walk through Shida University from Shida Night Market direction (nearest MRT is Taipower Building Exit 3)

"Leave your broken windows opens, and in the light just streams."

Blessed Good Friday everyone. How I wish I can go for a short trip for this Easter weekend but then again Easter weekend is always a blackout period and the plane tickets are never cheap for these dates. Boo! A lot of people still proceed with the travelling though so I can't really say who want to travel with that kind of price. Oh well. #cheapofel

Personally, if I take an additional one day leave and make it 4D3N trip, I would probably not mind going to Taipei for a short break although 10 hours will be spent up in the air for a return trip. Hmm, do I love Taiwan that much? Hahaha. Apparently I do, and the last time I visited Taipei in February, I finally managed to let my best pal to try out Taiwanese Beef Noodle (although I don't really dig it but anyway...).

10D9N Taiwan Trip: Yongkang Beef Noodle, Taipei

This is the second time I visit Yongkang Beef Noodle and the place does not change even a bit. The prominent yellow sign displaying the fact that the restaurant has been around since 1963 is still up there. I wonder why the Taiwanese seem to place a very heavy emphasis on since when a particular restaurant or product brand has been around. The restaurant has two levels and we were asked to sit at second level because first level seem to be quite crowded. There were no queue in front of the restaurant though.

And guess what, finally I know how to order this dish called sweet potato pork ribs rice in English. Why is this such an accomplishment? Because my Mandarin is very very noob. And the menu in every restaurant (well, mostly) in Taiwan show no mercy to non-Mandarin speaker. The menu use traditional Chinese characters, well not that I understand simplified Chinese characters either but. So I was so glad when the dish that I randomly ticked in the menu (I randomly ticked dish which has the words "排骨") turns out to be the right dish. Woots~~

(By the way it tastes so good and warm so it's perfect for rainy weather)

Pork ribs with sweet potato from Yongkang Beef Noodle at Taipei

Here comes the legendary Taiwanese beef noodle. The beef noodle smells good but I'm gonna close eyes on the amount of the oil used in the broth. Hahaha.

Taiwanese Beef Noodle from Yongkang Beef Noodle at Taipei

The noodles used in the beef noodle is yellow noodle. Nothing special about the noodle I suppose. The beef taste okay but it will be better if there are not so many tendon pieces given. On second thought, maybe I should tick other option in the menu? But I can't read. Hahahaha. A bowl of beef noodle costs you around NTD 280, if I remember correctly.