taiwanese/dessert: i strongly recommend SAN HE MIFUN TANG & TAI DA PANG NIU SHAVED ICE

SAN HE MIFUN TANG 三禾米粉湯
No. 3, Lane 61, Linsen S. Rd, Zhongzheng District
台北市中正區林森南路61巷3號
(02) 2392-5489

TAI DA PANG NIU BING 胖妞冰店

Lane 18, XuZhou Rd

台北市徐州路18巷口

MRT: Shandao Temple or NTU Hospital

hours: closed Mondays 6:30AM - 3PM 


visit reviewed: 

If you want to eat like a local in Taipei, a bowl of mifun tang 米粉湯 (rice noodle soup) isn't a bad place to start.  A sign that a place serves mifun tang (besides the characters in Chinese) is the huge vat of boiling tofu and noodles at the front like the one at San He Mifun Tang. Pair it with a plate of mushrooms, tofu, pork belly, seaweed, offal and bamboo, you are good to go for less than NT$200. Even though I've lived here for so long, I usually don't go to local shops like this because I don't know what to order. Luckily, I tagged along with some friends on this day and they did all the ordering and it was one of the better bowls of rice noodle soups that I've had in awhile (better than the bowl at Keelung night market and just as good as the one at Tonghua Night market.) Because the broth is clear, it doesn't look as flavorful as the more well known beef noodle soup or the popular Ah Chung flour rice noodles in Ximending, but don't be deceived. A hot bowl of fat, slippery rice noodles has a broth that rivals any ramen broth you'd slurp in its umami for only NT$25.

A photo menu is always a helpful reference.

I shared a bowl with a friend, and the restaurant kindly gave us a bowl filled with extra broth rather than an empty bowl. Sometimes some places overcook their rice noodles, but I found the texture here just right. 

Mushrooms and "oil" tofu 油豆腐 (NT$20)

Pork belly (NT$40), chicken heart (NT$50) and seaweed. I liked all the side dishes we ordered and would order them all again. These three plates were shared between 6 people.

Fresh Bamboo (NT$30) is always a favorite side dish.

On our way back to my friend's hotel, we came across a corner shaved ice stand- Tai Da Pang Niu Shaved Ice. It looked too good to pass up on a hot day, so we decided to get a bowl. You can pick as many toppings as you'd like and I got it with condensed milk of course (NT$50)- tapioca, green mung beans, grass jelly, peanut...

Generous with the condensed milk and we polished off the shaved ice before it melted. If you're staying at/near the Sheraton Hotel or near NTU, you can come look for this corner at XuZhou Road. So good. Can't beat it. For this price, you could have two bowls.