Braised Pork Rice at 台南度小月 Tu Hsiao Yueh
Tu Hsiao Yueh, hails from Tainan – a city in southern Taiwan, is known for traditional Taiwanese food. You’ll find all sorts of foreign visitors waiting for a table, like Americans, Japanese,and Hong Kongers. Their flagship location, in the heart of the eastern district of Taipei on Jhong Hsiao East Road, is on a bustling alley of the main road. Some of the best neighborhood restaurants are off the beaten path.
Almost always a wait, Tu Hsiao Yueh offers shared seating at large commune tables. The wait is well worth it. The main showcase kitchen features a noodles boiling area with meat sauce/soup prep area. If you look closely at the braised pork stewing, you’ll notice the large ring of pork meat caked on the rim. They never clean that kettle, after all these years, to maintain the flavor and character. Thouigh, it might seem gross, it is what NYC street hout dog vendors do.
Almost everyone orders the famous Tainan noodles. They produce bowls and bowls of noodles almost as fast as they seat people. They offer a few different types of noodles, with one main soup base, with similar toppings with or with an egg and meat balls. The braised pork meat sauce is one of a kind and used in their rice dish as well.
With a preference for rice, i naturally had, not one, but two bowls, of the lu ro fan – the traditional braised pork over rice, with an egg and meat ball. I love this simple “filler” dish. You usually eat this with the different dishes, like meats and vegetables. But i could eat this by itself, all by myself. The fatty pork gels with flavor, subdued by the rice. The little lean pork pork meat is almost an afterthought. The egg and beef meat ball i s nice, but not required. Rqther than a hardboiled tea leaf egg, i would have preferred a fried egg. Egg + lu ro fan would be a devastating combination. Anyways, I digress.
Almost done with my wall of text, i remembered we also had a fish, fried shrimp, and a couple of tofu dishes. The fried shrimp and fish was really good, and popular so i was told. The diced shrimp was formed into fried “rolls” with a thick sweet sauce with wasabi. With the sauce, the shrimp was quite good. The fish, without the bones,l is a southern Taiwan lake fish. Buttery and just right, it went well with rice. Not a big fan of tofu, but my friends were, we had a fried and steam tofu dish. I won’t say much, but they weren’t that bad.
I remember coming to Tu Hsiao Yueh years ago, but i don’t remember the food being so good. I’m glad I came back.
台南度小月 Tu Hsiao Yueh 臺北市大安區忠孝東路四段216巷8弄12號 No. 12, Alley 8, Lane 216, Sec.4 Jhongsiao E. Road, Taipei, Taiwan (02) 27731244 http://old.iddi.com.tw
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