李仔哥爌肉飯 (埔里鎮)

We were given a few choices for lunch while leaving Qing Jing heading to the next destination, Tai Chung. Our Tour guide highly recommended this place as its quite popular in the area and had been there 40 over years.

Li Zai Ge operates from the morning till about 3pm in the afternoon, serving breakfast from 6am. This place is well liked by locals as well as tourists. During Weekends and Public Holidays, the entire place will be flocked with patrons.

We were quite lucky in the sense that the lunch crowd is over and we still get to reach the place before it closed. However, the cons were that quite a number of dishes were sold out and choices were limited.


While we were there, the staff were busying doing washing and cleaning its area. Nevertheless there are still 1 or 2 groups of customers ordering from them.

Menu was straight forward and not too complicated with 5 main items, 6 side dishes and 4 soup dishes for diners to choose from. Diners just have to indicate on the slip of paper to place order.

Some commented that for this price that we were paying, its actually equivalent to Taipei's pricing. Converting to Singapore Dollar, its about $3.50. Well, given the portion we would say its rather a standard pricing in terms of our living standard.

Pork Ribs retained a traditional braised taste. The method frying them before braising had lend a salty and crispy taste. Not to mentioned that the pork rib was a big and thick piece, covering up the entire bowl of rice. The braised sauce not only infiltrated the ribs, giving it moisture and makes the meat chewy. Definitely worth what we were paying for.

Although priced at 70 TWD maybe little steep for the local, she still draw a constant crowd daily till sold out. The signature dish that Li Zai Ge pride themselves with. Many may dislike pork belly due to its oiliness or greasiness but this pork belly has distinctive layers of lean meat and fat. Meat was braised till tenderness and a slight pull with chopsticks may have them disintegrated. That's why they made use of toothpick to keep the belly in its original state. Paring the meat with yellow pickles and cabbages, it completed the bowl of rice. Simple and tastes good!

We have additional side items and of course when it comes to braised shop like this, I could not let my rice go plain without pairing with its braised sauce.

 Each Overall, I find that their standards are above average and living up to its name. For those who will be passing by Nantou to or from Qing Jing, do not forget to visit this place if you do not mind having braised meat rice.

鼎泰豐 信義店 (大安區)

https://www.umakemehungry.com/2018/08/din-tai-fung.html

Yes we have many Din Tai Fung outlets in Singapore and just never get bored of it even overseas, especially visiting in her "home" country. Trying out Din Tai Fung in its original location is one of the Must Do in our itineraries.

Even under the scotching hot weather, we are surprised to see so many die hard fans waited for their turn to dine in the restaurant given the queue is at least minimum wait of half an hour.

Once you pass the entrance on the 1st floor, you will get to see the kitchen through the glass panels on the right. You can see that each one of them are so studious, working no-stop from rolling, stuffing in preparation of the food.

Communication among the servers is a breeze with the use of Walkie Talkie. We were ushered into the restaurant then was told to go up to upper levels without escorting.

Very well communicated and team work among the staff is observed. As soon as we entered the upper level, we were showed to our designated seating.

We agreed on sharing the table (which isn't a practice in Singapore's Din Tai Fung) so to speed up the queuing time. We were given a table tagging with a card stand to identify ourselves and the orders. Over the years, we all knew that the customer service in Taiwan is great and cannot be compared to what we have back home.

Accustoming themselves to the current business world, I'm amazed by how these servers start serving tourists in different parts of the world, each with at least a knowledge of Foreign language. They are real eloquent in Korean, Japanese, English beside the common daily use of their Mother Tongue, Mandarin.

Out of so many plates of fried rice that I have eaten, I still think that DTF's one is the best.I love that the fact that every grain of the rice is evenly coated with the egg not to mention the satisfaction we have on our face once the spoonful of rice went into our mouth. You just wont go wrong ordering their fried rice even the plain version.

The condiments is different from Singapore when comes to pairing them with the popular Xiao Long Baos. Vinegar comes in the yellow orange color and the friendly servers recommend to pour one part of soy sauce to three parts of vinegar.

Followed the instruction and place them into our small plate of ginger strips.

Having the World's most popular Xiao Long Bao as a signature, it would be a regret if you did not give them a try. Its paper thin wrap cradling the juicy pork fillings was sealed with a pleat done up by exactly 18 folds.

200 $ NT for 10 Pieces Surrounding the juicy pork fillings, you will get the flavourful broth once you bite down the Xiao Long Bao. Do be careful of the piping hot flavours that may burst out. Comparing this to what we have back home, frankly, their standard are better, tastier and more succulent.

We did not overly order as compared to neighboring table. They ordered 3 different kinds of Xiao Long Bao with pork, shrimp and chicken fillings.

Notice that we do not have this side dish in the Singapore's menu. Pork ribs were well coated in both sweetness and sourness by the vinegar.

 This is one of my favourite orders in DTF. I'm not sure if its psychology but it seems that their soup here taste better too. Clear and tasty pack full of natural sweetness from the chicken.

Last but not least, we ended our meal with the sweet treat. A cooling dessert to beat the heat. Dessert was chilled, soothing to throat with ingredients such as Gingko Nut, Longan and white Fungus.

If you want to grab some souvenirs back home, you can have a look at their merchandise near the cashier counter. There are magnets, key chains, pens, towel, paper clips etc.

If you tried Din Tai Fung in other parts of world, you may want to head down to this original shop of theirs and get a great experience of their food and service.

周家豆漿店 (中正區)

We heard of Zhou Jia Soya Bean Milk through one of the local TV program recently and decided to do a breakfast itinerary all the way in Keelung from Taipei. Just like a typical local breakfast place in Taiwan, place is quite run down with ceiling fan and light covered with layer of dust.

 It was said that this is the busiest breakfast place in Keelung but do not worry if you see a long queue as it is for those who are taking away. For dining in patrons, there should be enough sitting.

Popular among the locals, the ladies are working non stop. There are no secrets to how these pancakes were prepared. Just right in front of the shop, you will get to see them busying frying the scallions pancake.

 The dough was already well prepared and placed neatly on the tray, each looking like big flower bud.

It was then being transferred into the oil pan for further processing.

The "bud" dough was then stamped and flattened, achieving a round shape pancake with about 2 cm thickness, ensuring its taste.

Just for these pancakes, there are already 3 workers tasked in preparation. One frying the pancakes, the other arranging the cooked pancakes and another attending to the take away queue.

 We were quite lucky to get invited to the 2nd Storey as the 1st Level was fully occupied. Boxes / Baskets of Scallions were left on the rack for airing.

Soya Bean Milk and Scallion Pancakes are freshly make daily.

Here's our order. Simple and satisfying. Enjoying the breakfast just like a local, not to mentioned that the price of these items cannot be even compared to one breakfast meal back in Singapore. One cup of chill Soya Milk cost only 15 NT$ which is about $0.65 Singapore Dollar. We ordered a fried egg at 10 NT$.

This is the basic and original version of the Scallion Pancake. It is fragrant.

If you prefer to have egg for breakfast, you can add on to your Pancake. The egg is plastered onto the pancake.

Though it was fried, this pancake is not overly greasy, what's more to mention is that they are very generous in the ingredients used, chopped scallion especially. The exterior was crispy, not flaky and the first bite into it was great.

By having this pancake and sipping the Soya Bean Milk, you will get a taste of authentic Keelung breakfast.

If you are ever in Keelung for the morning, Zhou Jia Soya Bean Milk is not to be missed. Want to try out their breakfast? I suggest to go early before these delicious pancakes get sold out. Another tip is that don't get mix up with the queue if you are dining in house.

阜杭豆漿 (中正區)

Skipping Yong He Dou Jiang which we already have in Singapore, Fu Hang Dou Jiang is one of the popular breakfast spots in Taipei that you may want to add to your itinerary. Well liked by the tourists and local, it is not surprising that one may have to queue for hours just to get their breakfast.

As long as we hurried to the place after alighting from their metro we were quite skeptical of the long queue that comes out all the way from the building's 2nd level to their ground floor and to its perimeters. There I began to worry about the time needed to queue for the weather is so hot in August even during the morning time.

Not long after, we went up into the food court following the queue. Everything was swift, including the ordering portion.

While lining up , we get to see the operations in the kitchen.

 Everyone in the kitchen was just too involved in their delegated duties.

This is something interesting to me. The staff is trying to reach the breads in his oven with a pair of long metal thongs.

The catch here is that you have to make up your mind quick when ordering the items because you can only rejoin the queue later on if you want to add on. That's a lot of time taken!

It was said that the local would prefer the Salty Soya Bean Milk to the original. I'm too use to the original taste and not quite comfortable in having the salty version. However, I will still give it a try as such Soya Bean Milk is rare back home.

The good thing I notice about Taiwanese Soya Bean is the smoothness in their milk drink without being too thick. The thickness is just at its right amount.

 Besides the bowl of Soya Bean Milk, the fried dough stick was something commendable. It was fragrant, light and fluffy. The crispy skin on the stick was an addiction. Furthermore, though these are fried items, they are not too greasy.

 Last but not least, a decent try of they egg crepe. Soft, naturally sweet with the eggs and scallion.

It was quite lucky that we had queued less than 30 minutes, there were many tourists, Japanese and Koreans made up a majority.

Though the WOW Factor is not very big on their food, I would say after trying their Soya Bean Milk and dough sticks, what we have at home in Singapore cannot be compared over here. How I wish we have such wonderful items back home, of course that includes the pocket friendly pricing and tasty food.

九份張記傳統魚丸店 (瑞芳區)

The traditional fishball Soup Eatery that can never be missed whenever I'm up there in Jiu Fen. I believe those who have been there and done that will definitely agree with me.

 With the open kitchen preparing the fishball and dishes, it attracted a good handful of onlookers watching its operation and photo taking for most tourists.

Having been here more than 3 times, their menu did not change much. Every thing stays quite the same, even the crowd.

There are a few menus and you are just spoilt for choices besides their signature dishes. To cater to the tourists, the menu is written in Chinese, English, Japanese as well as Hanyu Pin Yin.

 There is a constant crowd whenever we are there in Zhang Ji Traditional Fishball Eating Place. However with Taiwanese friendly service, you will feel welcome everywhere you go. Interior is traditionally furnished with wooden plankings, resembling the 客站 (guests stopover) that we often seen in the traditional Chinese shows. Not to mentioned about its menu, it looked retro too.

One do not just stopped at ordering their fishballs only, we did try ordering other items available in their menu. Bamboo Shoot is crunchy in the right thickness and was not too oily drizzled in chilli oil. If you worry about the typical foul smell, nope, it does not exist here.

 $ Love Century eggs? If you do, wait no longer and just order this side. The dish is chilled with Tofu and Century egg topped with Bonito Flakes, Spring onions and sweet sauce. You will definitely love how runny the egg is!

Not forgetting the typical braised dish that most Taiwanese Eatery offer. The braised meat came with good portion of fatty and lean meat without being unctuous. Pairing the braised meat with these pearl grains, we felt very stomach comforting indeed.

Their dried noodle are quite springy topped with braised pork. An alternative choice to the braised pork rice.

Ordering a bowl of mixed fish ball soup will be a good choice if you want to try assorted balls without bursting your stomach. The soup is tasty with chopped celery and contained a mixture of Fu Zhou Fishball, Mushroom Meat Ball and the normal Fish ball.

We love Fu Zhou Meatballs and ordered a bowl of it. While they come from a boiling pot, do be additional careful when you bite on the balls for the "juice" may just ooze out and scald your mouth.

What we enjoyed about Zhang Ji's traditional fishball doesn't just boil down to their inexpensive pricing but more on its quality of food. This is definitely not a tourist trap because even the locals recommend it.
Unlike our fishballs, I like the fact that these are not overly bouncy. The springiness on the balls were addictive on our jaws. Once you bite into the Fu Zhou Fishball, you will enjoy the burst of fragrant meat. Look at the ratio of the meat to the fishball encasing. How generous it is!

Unfortunately for our Fu Zhou Fishballs back home in the Supermarts, the ratio is the reverse. We have more of the bouncy encasing and a small amount of meat! Thus enjoy all you can while you are there.

Looked transparent and raw, however if you enjoy drunken chicken, this plate of chilled dish are pack full of the chinese wine taste.

Overall, if you are in Jiu Fen, this is one of the stalls there that is worth a try, especially if you went there over the cold seasons, the hot fishball soup would definitely of great help to warm your body up.