Christmas Eve
Although the decorations are up for Christmas around town, it really doesn’t feel like Christmas. It’s missing that frantic sense of urgency. You know the need to buy gifts or ingredients to make dinner. No, here it’s another day for the majority. There’s no day off and not that many, if any, stores that are shutting down early. It’s still hustle and bustle around town.
We started the day off with lunch at Yong Kang, a place known for beef noodle. And actually the first place I had good beef noodle soup. The bad thing though is learning from Vicky’s mom that this place wasn’t that good anymore. She actually sent back the our steamed pork and rice side. I’ll trust her judgement, she’s actually taken us to some really good places. Still, I enjoyed my bowl of soup. Rich, spicy, and full of flavor. Back in the Bay area, it’s really hard to find a place that goes all out. It’s usually mellowed out soup, not full of umpff that’ll grow hair on your chest. There’s usually a line at this place. It moves quickly. There’s several floors. Even though we waited in line for about 10 minutes, when we got seated on the second floor, it was half empty. Kinda reminiscent of clubbing no? Well, the lines may be attributed to the fact that this place is listed in Chinese magazines as the best place to have beef noodle soup. I did see a lot of cameras out, including mine.
After lunch it was off to finding and internet cafe. No such luck. Not too many places have free wifi anymore. Those days are over. It was time to find a cafe cafe. And after some searching, I found out those open 12:00-1:00PM. Happy to sit down with a cup of coffee and dessert to type away.
For Christmas Eve dinner, we went to Ningxia Night Market. It was a very Charlie Brown Christmas for me, err, Asian style of course. It’s much smaller than the rest but some sections were elbow to elbow to get through. It had stalls carrying my favorite, hotdog in a hotdog, popcorn chicken, grilled bacon and green onions, soup noodles, and others. We went to try the lu rou fan, braised pork over rice. We had it with small strips of chicken. Great stuff. I’m really appreciating this, especially after my last tasting of this was at Formosa Chang’s. Ironically, we were eating almost in front of a store branch. We didn’t want to get stuffed before unwrapping presents so we went with a little stir fried noodles to fill us up and topped it off with some soft tofu dessert nearby. It hit the spot. Back to turkey and stuffing next year.
Greasy goodness that’s great for filling you up, sorta. The dish is kinda small. About the size of your hand. The zoomed in photo does make it larger than it actually is. Hopefully the price will let you know how much you’ll be getting. $45NTD
A variation on the infamous, Lu Rou Fan (滷肉飯) by introducing juicy strips of chicken. This was an utter delight and now I see why this is such a staple dish in Taiwan. Oh and this is how it’s suppose to be. Not like the one in Formosa Chang. $40NTD
This is a small night market that’s relatively less crowded. Granted we were going here on a Monday, but I can’t see how this can be as crowded as the other places when it’s only one street. But still, I love Taiwan night markets.
My favorite would be the steamed pork ribs in rice. Usually a good dish, but this time around it didn’t live up to the memories.
Okay, so the name doesn’t quite fit the photo. In fact, it could fit almost any noodle soup dish being used like this. However, that was on the menu. This dish is actually something I have to try next time I come back to the place.
Otherwise known as niu rou mian (or a spelling close to that) is the soup I’ve sought after back in the bay area. They only pale in comparison to this rich spicy broth. It’s hard to let go of a favorite but I hear there’s better around town. Time to level up.