laoshi: sikai, what did you do on the weekend ?

me: ‘udon you’d like to know, mwhaha…

I am super hyped!

You can tell by my genius punning, hehe.

And this is why:

The famous udon noodle place.

I have only about two weeks left in Taiwan and so I’m trying to cross items off my bucket list of place I want to visit before I leave.

Dosan Kanroku Udon or [土三寒六讚岐烏龍麵] as is the Chinese name, was on my list of places to hit up.

This place has gotten a lot of recognition, and so if you love udon like I love udon–which is a lot–it’s a must visit. The owner of the restaurant is from Japan, and set up shop in Taiwan. I am not the only person to have blogged about him and his lovely restaurant. You can find videos about this restaurant on youtube detailing the extravagance of their udon noodle making.

 I ordered the udon on the left. I’m not sure what it’s called because I don’t speak Japanese. But I do know Japanese food.

My udon…my god.

It was [insert profanity used for emphasis that likely starts with an “F” and ends in an “ing”] awesome!

Not only was it tasty…it was beautiful.

I ordered a medium size. Which was a lot to eat. It came in this cast iron bowl, that of which was still hot when it was served to me.

I tasted the broth first, as the broth is one of the most important thing about udon noodle soap.

I’m in tears over how wonderful it was.

Let us do a break down of what was in my udon:

Pork slices, fish cake, fried chicken, tofu skin, seaweed, cabbage, tempura shrimp, green onion.

It was amazing. I cannot say that enough.

One of my favorite things about eating this udon, was the tofu skin.

I love Kitsune Udon–a main feature of which is the tofu skin (the triangular brown piece in my bowl). The tofu is made by cooking the skins in a broth made of sugar, soy sauce, mirin, dried anchovies, and water. It taste similar to the tofu skins that cover another favorite food of mine, Inari Sushi.

I’d love to come back here and order their equivalent to Kitsune Udon.

I also ordered, because why not: Tempura!

I’ve never had a tempura spinach leaf, but let me tell you: it’s amazing how crispy and not soggy it was after being fried.

The dipping sauce was also excellent.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take many photos of the interior of the restaurant. Mostly because people kept staring at me…especially when I was talking in Chinese.

There was quite a line to get in, and a small little seating area if you were lucky enough to grab a seat to wait in. I probably didn’t wait longer than 15 minutes to get my food. But oh was it worth it.

As you can see, they have 各式各樣的 [ge shi ge yang de] all kinds of udon.

 

Not the best photo, I apologize.

Also: I was very excited to see this lovely  mask of a tengu hanging on the wall.

Tengus hold a special place in my heart. Mostly because when I was a kid I played Tecmo’s Dead or Alive 2 and was pretty insanely obsessed with the franchise. It was my first game on Dream Cast.

The final boss was a tengu: A mythical Japanese creature which hangs out in the mountains. Here’s a stock image from google of the character from the game.

Dosan Kanroku Udon is just a hop skip and a jump (more like a walk, MRT ride, and another walk) away from where I live, across from NTU.

So on my way back to the Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station,  I stopped by the near by (and my near by, I mean that the MRT station is literally inside) the department store. For curiosities sake.

I discover that they have a LUSH cosmetics store inside the building. Yes. I do not lie. I didn’t buy anything though because it was expensive.

But look what I found:

Some of my favorite cookies.

I love Taiwan, but I miss home.

I got a bag of the Loacker’s Tiramisu flavor. The bag was much smaller than in America, but I let myself splurge a little.  They kept my mouth company as I wrote this piece…

Just two more weeks!