Taiwan Day 10. Old Wang's Beef Noodle Soup on Taoyuan Street / 桃源街的老王記牛肉麵大王 (Taipei: Jhong Jheng District / 台北市: 中正區)

On the tenth day of my trip to Taiwan, my friend Grace said that she wanted to introduce me to a beef noodle soup shop that she had just a recently.  We navigated the streets only a few blocks away from Ximen Ding (西門町), a young people's hot spot, to Old Wang's Beef Noodle Soup (老王記牛肉麵大王) on Taoyuan Street (桃源街).  Only after leaving did I realize we had eaten at one of the most famous places for beef noodle soup in Taiwan.

Grace and I both ordered the red braised version of the beef noodle soup (牛肉麵 / niú ròu miàn).  Each time I sit down to eat beef noodle soup, I think about trying out the beef noodle soup with clear broth, but it's tough to change old habits.  I always end up getting the soy sauce variation with chunks of tender braised beef and a bed of pickled mustard greens (酸菜 / suan cài) floating around in the soup.  The soup here at Old Wang's is beefy enough and not unbearably spicy, not overly salty, and not overly doused with soy sauce.  The beef breaks apart upon biting it, and the noodles taste fresh without being doughy.  I would prefer them to be a bit more 'Q' or elastic, but I can see why this restaurant has so much loyal fans.

We also ordered the steamed spare ribs (粉蒸排骨 / fěn zheng pái gǔ) often served in Taiwanese noodle houses as a side dish.  What makes this dish remarkable is how much flavor is compact into this petite bamboo steamer.  Not only is there sticky rice seasoned with five spice and chilies packed around the pieces of pork, but there is a bed of sweet potato at the bottom of the steamer as well.  It soaks up all the fatty drippings from the pork as the fat on the meat renders away in the cooking process.  The sweet potato becomes so tender and soft with fatty juice and seasonings that it could be made into a delicious mashed potato.

With all this juicy protein floating around in our noodle soups and steaming away in our seasoned rice, we have to have some vegetables to balance it all out, right? We also had some of the pickled cabbage (泡菜 / pào cài), a local take on what is otherwise more popularly known as kimchi in Korean or tsukemono in Japanese.

The menu is simple: beef noodle soup (red braised or clear broth), pig's feet noodles, steamed spare ribs, pickled cabbage, and variations on the noodles and soup.  Grace and I ordered everything but the pig's feet not due to any aversions but simply because we wanted to save room for some famous ice cream after lunch.  I will be returning for the stewed pig's feet though.  But until then, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

Old Wang's Beef Noodle Soup (老王記牛肉麵大王)
台北市中正區桃源街15號
No. 15, Taoyuan St., Jhong Jheng District, Taipei City
MRT: Ximen Station, exit no. 3 / 捷運西門站, 3號出口

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Post 32.2: Kalbi from the Korean Countryside (LA: Koreatown)

When most people think of Korean food, Korean BBQ is probably one of the most common thoughts that pop into mind.  Images of sizzling pieces of tender meat on a cast iron plate or smoke produced from meat over a charcoal grill are what come to mind.  Scratch that.  What used to come to mind.  I've recently come across so-called Korean comfort food from Seongbukdong in Koreatown, a restaurant that specializes in Gyeongsang cooking.  After reading about this style of home cooking in C. Thi Nguyen's LA Times article and experiencing what she calls the "trinity" of the three most popular dishes, images of steamed kalbi rather than grilled kalbi now permeate the inner thought cavities of my brain.



There's nothing more than can be said about steamed short ribs (galbi jjim) that hasn't already been said by Nguyen, The Thirsty Pig, or Stuffy Cheaks.  The meat is so tender that you don't even feel like you're chewing.  It's not the same as gnawing on grilled kalbi and working your teeth around the bone.  Here, the meat has already been stripped from the bone by the service staff upon setting the porcelain bowl down on the table.  It's hard not to have just one chunk of beef.  The salty and sweet (soy sauce and sugar perhaps) flavor combination keeps you from putting your chopsticks down.



The braised mackerel is what made it really hard to put my chopsticks down.  But unless you're amazingly adept at grasping chopsticks, fish, and bones simultaneously, you have to put your chopsticks down in order to get all the bones out of the spiny fish.  The mackerel is blanketed by a mound of kimchi... the flavor is rich, salty, and spicy... and absolutely amazing-delicious. 




On the two separate occassions I've visited Seongbukdong, I've also ordered the rice soup (gook bap) and kimchi stew (kimchi chigae).  The gook bap is great to have with the spicy braised mackerel and the salty and sweet steamed short ribs.  It gives you the warmth of chicken noodle soup but the heartiness of a tomato soup (although neither chicken, noodle, or tomato are amongst the ingredients used to prepare the gook bap).  I felt almost cleansed with each spoonful of gook bap.  The gook bap washes the sauce from the braised mackerel's kimchi away like the way the rain takes the pollution from the sky.  Mmmmm... this would be great to have on a rainy day.  Or... great to have any day.  Both Karin and one of the staff say that gook bap is one of their favorites.



The kimchi chigae is not my favorite here because it's more sour than I would like, but the service staff say that Seongbukdong is known for their kimchi chigae.  It tasted authentic, and Tiffany didn't mind it, but I still enjoy a kimchi chigae that's less sour and more spicy.



Some of my favorite banchan are the pepper with fermented bean paste, the sweet red beans, and of course, the huge chunk of steamed egg.  But I still can't get over the mackerel's fatty meat enshrouded in the little quilts of kimchi.  It's not everyone's favorite, but it's definitely mine.  Based on the reviews on Yelp and comments from other bloggers, I'm definitely coming back for the marinated spicy pork.  I'm dreaming out it already...

Read the post on Seongbukdong from The Thirsty Pig here.

Read the post on Seongbukdong from Stuffy Cheaks here.

Read the post on Seongbukdong from Food Pants here.

Until next time, let's all get S.O.F.A.T.

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