Taiwanese Favorites from Old Country Cafe
Old Country Cafe, also known as 老鄉親, has been serving Taiwanese comfort dishes for almost two decades, maybe longer. Anyways… I love this place.
Meals that are simple, meat over rice with different fixins’, is the Taiwanese way that Old Country Cafe does right. The main favorites are pork chop over rice and fried chicken over rice. I like the fried chicken over rice, but occasionally I would get the pork – like I did this past time. They have a simple menu featuring side dishes of stinky tofu, garlic spinach, and sausage.
The fried chicken is a flattened chicken breast that is chopped, fried, then lightly seasoned. They haven’t changed their recipe, ever, even though they gone through different ownership from Taiwanese and Chinese. The big difference between other Taiwanese places, is the batter they use to deep fry. To be honest, my taste buds are simple, I enjoy most fried things – Taiwanese or not. They also include some cabbage, half a hard-boiled egg and pickled mustard green. Pickled mustard greens, I could be wrong, are these great diced greens that go great rice and beef noodle soups. One of my favorites.
Old Country Cafe also has some great soups. Their most popular soups are the beef ball and fish ball soups. These soups, actually are broths or consumes, are clear flavorful soups. Taiwanese people like their soups clear and pipping hot. Westerners like their soups to be thick. This type of soup is refreshing and surprisingly filling. You wouldn’t know it from the clear broth, but this soup has great flavor.
I used to come here years ago to just have their shaved ice. They were one of the few places, along with Shau May, to have the shaved ice desserts. When you add the condensed milk, the sweet rice balls, taro, and other great toppings – you get a great dessert. I like the sweet boiled peanuts with condensed milk – simple but yummy.
I know white people wouldn’t think of walking in here to eat, unless dragged in by an Asian. But being American born, I have a lot of American/Western taste sensibilities. I know white people could easily eat this stuff without issue if they only tried it. We’re not talking about intestine or oysters or other crazy things that Taiwanese people eat, I talking about pork chops, fried chicken boneless chicken breast, and soups. These are simple things. Anyways…
To some of my friends Old Country Cafe is sort of like Denny’s but to me, it is a great treat since I don’t have it as much.
