September 23, 2012

My brunch in Hsinchu 新竹

I'm not completely sure what this is, but it was tasty. The shop I went to specializes in grass jelly. I hope grass jelly is a healthy substitute for tapioca because I like to think it is. Everyday near my apartment, I walk pass Chen San Ding whose tapioca is so sickly sweet and fragrant. Thank god it always has a long line; otherwise, I'd be getting fat from drinking milk with brown sugar tapioca everyday.

滷肉飯 (lu rou fan) - braised pork belly rice, ~$35NT

肉圓 (rou yuan *or* ba wan) - ...I don't know how to translate this...

I didn't catch your name... $35NT

Okay, we all know this by now!　蚵仔煎！ $50NT

Today my cousin brought me to one of my favorite-est places in the world: the city temple at Hsinchu. This place is bustling with people praying and people eating. It seems Taiwan is a culture that never stops eating! What am amazing feat for such skinny people. Now, I don't know if this is true, but in my mind, Hsinchu is known for one thing - rice flour. Why? Because Hsinchu has all these rice products that I love so much! 米粉，蚵仔煎，肉圓, etc. The city temple has a lot of great food.

I'm actually not a fan of ba wan because it's just starch and a hard piece of meat to me. It has other things in there, but it has never fully appealed to me. I left this to my cousin as I ate the other three things, which we shared, of course! My complaint about the lu rou fan is that there is way too much rice! That is not healthy! Though, Taiwan is not exactly a nation of healthy eating...think popcorn chicken, bubble milk tea.... But the lu rou fan is really delicious otherwise. How can it now be with the fatty pork belly braised in soy sauce and magical Asian spices? The rice, too, was delicious, especially smothered in sauce.

I think so far, and this may be personal bias because my dad is from here, Hsinchu has the best oyster omelette. Do you see that color?! Do you see that red?! That is what I want! What I loved about this oyster omelette is that the oysters have a very strong oyster taste. The omelette was different from Shilin Night Market's because it had more egg/veggie stuff to starch ratio. I do think the starch was quite delicious, but overall, mmmm, I just want to eat 蚵仔煎 every time I come to Hsinchu!

My dinner

Three types of potstickers

In Chinese, we call you 鍋貼 (guo tie) which is English for delicious pot sticker!

I was cruising around by foot looking for a place to eat. I remembered almost coming here for lunch once, but the line looked too long. I was enticed by the pictures above the menu and the cleanliness of the restaurant. There was still a line for dinner, but it wasn't so bad, and my friends and I weren't really in a rush. This place is known as "8 way junction dumpling specialist", and it is a chain. The dumplings are $5NT each. Above you see pork, chives, and kimchi flavored dumplings. There are others...I'm going to eat everything on the menu. Well, I'm not sure about curry dumplings; those sound odd. These dumplings are very oil-y. I think of the three I tried, I liked the chives and pork one best. I can't wait to come back for the garden vegetable dumplings though. They are green, and I easily fall for green objects- green noodles, green tortillas. Really, my mind has tricked me into believing that green things are healthier. Anyway, bottom line: this place has lots of noodles and dumplings to choose from. The menu is in English/Chinese (though the order form isn't). I am eager for more!