[Food @ Taipei] Taiwanese choice of tasty sandwich - Full Want

 Full Want breakfast

No. 133-1, Sec. 1, Fuxing South Rd. Taipei

Open: 7am - 4pm

Closest MRT station: Zhongxiao Fuxing

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, I mean, starting one's day with delicious food definitely shed some light into the day before it starts isn't it?

Apparently many Taiwanese people think so, too. Otherwise it would be impossible to explain why there are so many breakfast shops at every corner. For Taiwanese, breakfast choice is more than plenty. One can choose between the western style of sandwich, burger, yogurt, and fruits, or the Asian style of porridge, vegetables, and soup, or the Chinese style of oven-baked cake, Mantou (steamed bread), and egg pancakes, not to mention the fusion style in between. Out of this long list, Full Want is one of those who makes great fusion style breakfast.

With just a tiny space in the busy Taipei centre, Full Want almost always has a hungry line in front of the shop. When you are here, try their spicy pork&egg sandwich, one of the simplest options yet very tasty! The pork is marinated with soy sauce first before pan-fried, with a sunny-side-up at the side in the sandwich. Once bite down, the yolk spreads and mixed with the toast... yummy combination! Others of their delicacies include the tuna roll, scallion egg roll, and peanut butter mochi sealed sandwich. The chef would toast bread on the iron board, adding a bit of smokiness on top of the flavour.

There are a few seats in the basement, but I would usually take out if the weather permits. Right at the corner there is a little park with plenty of benches where one you could enjoy the sun and breeze while munching on the hot sandwich!

[Food @ Taipei] Braised Pork Rice - A-Ying

Ah-Ing (Braised Pork Rice)

No. 1, Alley 5, Lane 74, Wenzhou St, Da’an District, Taipei City, 106

Closest MRT: Gongguan

To name the one must-try item in Taiwanese cuisine is an extremely difficult mission. Due to Taiwan's multicultural background and vibrant food culture, it is hard to find one single dish that holds the title of the signature dish of Taiwan like Snitzel of Vienna or Sushi of Japan. However impossible, after years of pondering and careful evaluation, when people ask me if to try one dish in Taiwan, what should they go after, I answer Braised Pork Rice.

Like all translation of local foods here, it sounds nothing special, yet it turns into a different story once you try it. Braised Pork Rice is a simple dish, cooked rice with braised pork on top, this is not a grand and glamorous dish but a daily home dish. Each restaurant has its own braised pork recipe, the basic element includes pork, soy sauce, and sugar, yet it is the extra that counts. There could be fried onion, garlic, chilly pepper, star anise, and other herbal ingredients. Selected pork (usually minced pork, but the professionals choose different parts of pigs in certain percentage and mix them when cooking) is boiled in soy sauce with the extra ingredients until absorbing all essence and fragrance... 

So, to try this dish, most local restaurants have it ready to serve for lunch and for dinner. Yet of course I have to share with you my favourite. This is a restaurant called "A-Ying" (阿英). Named after the owner, this small restaurant hides in the deep alleys around National Taiwan University. Their specialty is exactly the braised pork rice, sided by some soya-boiled goods, and it is a fulfilling and delicious meal. They also have a hidden item that was so beloved by all that eventually they decided to put it on menu. This dish is called Stroke Braised Pork Rice, with a sunny-side-up egg on top and sprinkled with scallion. Break the egg yolk and mix it evenly with the rice and pork before taking your first bite, and welcome to the paradise.

After all the nagging, here is the address of Ah-Ing: No. 1, Alley 5, Lane 74, Wenzhou St, Da’an District, Taipei City, 106. If you are travelling by MRT, go to Gongguan station, take Exit 1, then try venture into the alleys -- don't worry, you will be very safe as Taiwan's the second safest country in the world!

[Short Story] Taipei

There are too many shadows in this city. The skyscrapers stand tall at every corner. It's not only the corporation buildings, either. Even the residential buildings shoots to the sky, like a forest in the temperate zone, fighting for a little bit more of sunlight. She therefore cultivated a habit on buses, that she always presses her cheek to the cold glass windows, and looks up. On the bus she could be slightly taller than the pedestrians on the street, the cars trapped in traffic, and the river-like scooters streaming through the city. She is also slightly closer to the sky at the same time.

People always say this city is ugly and has no style of its own. The gloomy weather also brings too much rain in its residents. The vendor by the street pulled out his canopy, and returned back to the pan to produce more scallion cakes, steaming and crispy. She peeked at other customers and found there are no facial expressions, just a blank. They took the food, paid their fee, and strode on into the rain. She likes her scallion cakes with cheese. The cheese melted to the heat, stickily pulling the cake and formed silk-like stripes that stick everywhere, reminding her of the lanes that she passes everyday.

This is a fast-growing city, yet at the same time a slow-paced one. Just a few blocks from the MRT station and the scenery changes. This district where she grew up in is one of the few greenery spots left in Taipei. Sitting besides the mountain and shouldering the river, she learn that description from her primary school. Across the river banks the mountain ridge rests. When the classes seemed difficult to focus on, she'd follow her mom's suggestion and let her eyes rest upon the green sights to relax them. It is said to prevent near-sightedness, but she ended up still has near-sighted eyes. It is a light one though, so she doesn't always wear the glasses. She often walks in a world that looks blurry. The unchanged part is that she still tries to look far, searching for the mirage-like green spots in the distance. 

She has not turn on the television at home for a while. The politicians and celebrities and their rambling stories give her headache. It is said that in the centre of the city, a group of students has occupied the congress. She admires their courage. She has always been a good girl, a good student. She was the type that always wins the first prize in the exams, elected the class leader each semester, and always keep a handkerchief in her bookbag even when the teachers did not ask them to. She admired that girl who stood out against the boys, chasing after them until they apologized for the misdeeds they'd done to other girls. She didn't even remember her name though. She wondered whether that girl is in the current protest as well.

For her, life goes on like the normal days. Go to work, get off work, follow the boss' orders, these are more important. Life is all about earning some money to sustain oneself after all. Her job is not bad, she goes to work early in the morning and back home when it's deep into night like everybody else. Sometimes she meets up with oldtime schoolmates for a meal, sometimes she visits the restaurnats recommended by famous bloggers online. She does not lack of expectations in life. She had known long ago not to expect too much, therefore there won't be too much disappointment. This is the only balance in life she could grasp. She stood up and gave her seat to the old lady who just got on. The lady spoke Mandarin with a heavy Taiwanese accent, volume loud enough for everone on the boss to hear her appreciation. She felt slightly embarrased, so she only nodded and smiled, then looked out of window again holding on to the poles.

The lights were shining bright outside, the bus drove past windows after wondows. She wondered whether she could see her own reflections on those windows.

[Food @ Taipei] - Wanton Soup

[Published in Visit Taiwan Now: http://visittaiwannow.wixsite.com/vtwn/single-post/2016/05/27/No-name-wanton]

To experience Taipei's foods, one needs to explore the alley lanes, venture into the narrow food stalls with dim lights. Most of the times the shop owners will be cooking right at the door, with steaming pots and loud voices shouting the names of dishes. They never seem to forget anyone's order, detailing to which spices should be put and which ones should not. It has always been a ever-lasting mystery for me.

My favourite wanton soup shop is not any fancy restaurants nor the ones that always have a line in front of the door. This one is so random that it does not even own a name, just simply stick a sign up in the front window, saying something like "Tsai's Beef Noodle."

Their wanton is different, not the usual ball shape but a flat, square of sheet, wrapping the juicy minced pork within. Not many spices are involved, judging from the look, but it's so delici
ous that every time I have a chance to be back at the neighbourhood, I visit them. If you are hungry, you can ask for noodles to go with it, too. And there you go, Wanton Noodle Soup (餛飩麵, huen-duen-mien), at its most simple yet tasty form, will be produced.


How To Get There: MRT Technology Building Station, walk along Fuxing South Rd, and turn right on Heping East Road. Turn left and entre the first lane (Lane 118), walk 7-8 blocks until you see a corner food shop. That's it.
Google Location: https://www.google.com.tw/maps/place/25%C2%B001'19.5%22N+121%C2%B032'33.8%22E/@25.0220732,121.5421868,19z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0