A few days after eating my way around Singapore, I'm back home in Taipei for the first time in almost a year. The Dining Austrian is making his very first trip to Taiwan, and of course I would be his chaperone for this short weekend detour.
We didn't have a booking for lunch today, as I was gonna wing it and perhaps take my friend to my favorite beef noodle soup joint. When the Prince of Napa decided to join us for lunch, I sensed some resistance regarding paying for those expensive noodles. So we came up with a compromise and decided to check out
Shi Dahua Noodles (史大華精緻麵食) - a place I had heard about from friends.
We started by grabbing a few side dishes, which included
marinated kelp (醃海帶),
vegetarian goose (素鵝),
pickled lotus root (醃蓮藕), and
pickled cucumber (醃黃瓜). I thought the lotus root may have gone off a little, so I stopped eating it after the first bite.
Three different soup bases are offered, along with a combination of three different toppings. I went for the middle-of-the-road braised stock.
Braised beef noodles with three treasures (紅燒三寶麵) - the three treasures are beef, beef tendon, and honeycomb beef tripe. I thought the soup base was just OK - it was neither very rich nor very bland. The noodles were very thin, and lacked any bite that I was looking for.
The beef was tender enough, though... with some tendon.
The others got their bowls with the
mala (麻辣) soup base, and probably got a little more enjoyment out of them. Oh well...
Ai-ya... I seldom order their beef noodle, only other items like Sesame sauce noodle, Wonton soup, Szechung dumplings in chili oil etc.
ReplyDeleteThe owner's brother at 史記 is much better at making beef noodles, especially the clear-broth version. Just my 2 cents.
Thanks, SG... When I asked around for alternatives to my beloved (and very pricy) Beef Father, some people mentioned this place. Sigh.
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