Good Eats in Southern Taiwan (I)

2019 Summer Trip to Asia

July 29, 2019 ~ August 6, 2019 -- Food We Had in Southern Taiwan

During our stay with MOR's father in Chiayi, we normally just stayed home to be with Father-In-Law. Once a while we would take him out for short trips nearby for a change of pace. He is in his 90's and traveling long distance is not something suitable. On other days, SC, brother-in-law who is retired and lives nearby would take us out for some food adventure in cities and towns not too far away. Here are some records that I have of the things we tried. I might have posted these places before since some of these are our favorite restaurants.

Tainan Beef Soup -- Ah Shang

One of the Tainan specialties is their beef soup. We have a favorite shop we usually visit when we crave for beef soup in Hsin-Ying. On this day, which was a Monday, most of the beef soup places were closed because the slaughter houses do not operate on Mondays. We finally came upon this one right next to the bus terminal where SC had been before, and they were opened!

Beef soup is basically thin slices of fresh beef poured over with hot, steamy beef broth. The broth could have many different ingredients, sometimes including herbal bases. Making the beef tender and the soup delicious. Usually, if one orders a bowl of beef soup, the all-you-can-eat minced pork rice is included for free.

The pork rice here was quite fatty, but good.

Beef Soup, about $120 NTD.

Set

The sign telling customers to help themselves to the AYCE items.

Stinky Tofu
One thing hubby missed not having in Los Angeles is the stinky tofu. Back in his hometown Yenshui, there is a hawker stand right next to the roundabout that had been there for years. He likes to visit this place every so often to get his stinky tofu fix.

Good if they are hot and fresh. These are deep fried and served with sour cabbage.

Chiayi

One day, SC decided to take us to the city of Chiayi and visit the Hinoki Village there. Hinoki Village is one of the few tourist places in that city. It's mainly a group of Japanese style old buildings that turned into a cultural and entertainment center with many small shops, cafes, and showrooms. It does have a 'Japanese' feel to it but unfortunately, we came on a day with pouring rain. It was fine at the beginning but then it started to rain heavily. We left after seeing that the rain probably won't stop soon enough.

Hinoki Village

Souvenir shop

cafe

Waiting for the rain to stop.

Smart Fish-Chiayi

This restaurant is now our favorite in the city of Chiayi. For those who likes fresh fish, especially fish heads, this restaurant makes the best fish head pots in town. There are many similar type of restaurants but we enjoyed this one the best. There is always a line for both dine-in and take-out, just have to be prepared. 

Other than the fish head pot, they also have turkey rice served in the restaurant.

A pot of delicious fish head with plenty of ingredients, including cabbage, tofu, dried bean curd, etc.

Just heavenly! Order a pot and get bottomless soup refills. If there's left overs and you want to take the rest home, they'll fill up your pot with soup and pack it for you.

Turkey rice go nicely with the fish pot.

Line

On our way home, we stopped for some tofu pudding in Yenshui. Another go to place nearby.

Yenshui is a town where MOR spent his childhood so it carries a lot of memories of him growing up. We often come back to visit his old neighborhood, eating food that he remembers and just refresh his memories on people and places.

This was the old theater in town which has turned into a movie museum.

Yung Cheng Theater

Pretty nice set up.

Budai Seafood Market

We always come to this seaside village for their oyster omelettes and fish thick soup. I am not into their thick soup, but definitely enjoyed their oyster omelettes.

Fish thick soup

Oyster omelette

On another day, we went to Chiayi again to the Office of the Labor Department to check on MOR's account that he had from forty years ago. It turned out that he still has a small amount in there saved from the few years he worked in Taiwan. Nice.

For lunch that day, we stopped by this turkey rice/curry rice place. BTW, not sure if I have mentioned that turkey rice is one of the other local specialties in Chiayi. This one is not in the city of Chiayi itself, but in a town called Puzi. This is a very busy turkey rice place in town apparently with many student customers.

Turkey rice with meat ball soup.

Some of the sides we ordered. Food was good, nothing outstanding though.

Dong Yuan Xuan, Chiayi

We were invited by our travel companions TL and SC for a nice lunch in Chiayi one day. This restaurant is called Dong Yuan Xuan. The unique feature of this restaurant is its Suzhou garden type setting, very traditional and pretty. The food served was exceptional. One of the best meal we had in Taiwan. We had one of the many private rooms and service was wonderful!

Food is more Shanghai style.

Fruit and dessert

After lunch we walked around the whole property of the restaurant.

Lian Ying Fa Dim Sum, Yongkang, Tainan

It was great finding this dim sum place in Yongkang last year. It has since became our go-to place for dim sum that is not too far from us. I was totally surprised by the quality of food served here and it's always nice to just travel the short distance to enjoy some Hong Kong style dim sum.

Yes, another popular eatery.

Steamed pork ribs

Crispy BBQ Pork buns, excellent! Comparable to Tim Ho Wan's.

Shiao Long Bao 

Har Gaw, very good!

Salted egg buns

Yum!

Qingsong Restaurant, Beigang, Yunlin

Needless to say, our most favorite seafood restaurant in Taiwan is the Qingsong Restaurant where the best seafood is served. This is THE restaurant we always have to come back to whenever we are in southern Taiwan. Seems like every time we are here, there is something new being served. There is always unique dishes that we totally loved. I am sure we will be back again and again in the future.

Baby abalone 

Shark fin soup

beef short ribs

freshest prawns

porridge with crab roe and crab meat

steamed fish

calamari

The expensive mullet roe.

Yay!

I will be sharing more of our food adventures in southern Taiwan in the next week or so. 

As we are now in 'Safer-at-Home' isolation, looking at these photos makes me wanted to go back to Taiwan for more delicious food! Hopefully soon!

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?.....No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."   --Romans 8:35~39