Looking for a few tips on where to enjoy a stellar cup of joe in lovely Taipei? Read on below:
“Let’s eat at 1895” I tell my friends. 1895 is NOT the name of the restaurant but its founding date/year. Its name is really Tu Hsiao Yueh and underneath its name is its founding date. But since I don’t speak Mandarin or any Chinese for that matter, 1895 became our nickname for the place. It serves authentic Lu Rou (braised pork, probably cooked for 30 or more hours) over hot steaming rice, fat clams in a soup, birds eye curly fern vegetables and a fried chicken with a super delicious sauce you would come back for. I ate here twice in three days and that says a lot about this century-old restaurant.
Taiwan has many old haunts—by old I mean they have staying power. They respect old recipes, old ways of cooking or should I say, traditional. It’s like what we espouse at Slow Food-respecting tradition and culture and making sure they stand the test of time, fads, trends and evolving palates and tastes. I just had to take a photo of the master—a man in his 70s who probably is the son or nephew of the founders. And beside him is a teen of no more than 18 years old, already boiling the noodles or portioning the steamed rice into bowls. That’s what you call sustainability —training the young to take after them and maybe see the restaurant through till 2095.