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If it is good soup sure. I like to suss out the restaurant in questionâs soup vat. If I see someone tending to it, I might see bones in there, a pork hock for example, I am good to go. If I donât see a lot of activity, or maybe those big yellow tins of powdered court bouillion in the kitchen, then I know soup is not their strong point. With the âfake soupsâ they often dollup a spoonful of æČčè„ over the top of the soup, it acts as a flavour booster. It often is more than just shallot oil these days though, lots of other things in there to enhance the taste. The restaurants buy big tins of it pre-made.
The other thing for me is picking restaurants that donât use the standard Taiwan issue yellow scotto noodles. You know the ones I mean, you see them in huge bags at the markets, and every high street small eat has a bag of them delivered daily. They are ready after dunking in hot water, always mushy, wet or dry. They taste like if I cooked box pasta 10 minutes longer than the recommended cooking time. I typically would have my eye out for some of the waishengren places, they are more likely to have some, less mass market tasting, noodles. Maybe not hand pulled on the premises, but they are a little rough with kinks, and a little more al dente, you can easily spot the difference. It unfortunately is prevalent to have noodles served mushy though. This was confirmed for me once when I went to a local ramen place, which was serving the typically firm high protein Japanese style ramen. There is a sign as on the menu warning the ramen are 祏, and when you order they warn you again, theyâve obviously had dozens of complaints. To me they were perfectly done, perhaps even a little firmer wouldâve been nice.
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Keep in min many taiwanese have fairly weak teeth and seem to have a phobia of anything hard.
The mushy noodles youre talking about, they are âyo mienâ right? Not a fan at all either.
I think æČčéș” are offered as a separate choice to the default éș” usually? At least in beef noodle soup places I remember seeing it as one of the types of noodle you could pick. I might have seen youmian served by default, I mean without you specifically requesting, in thickened soups, çŸč. Someone here might know better than me. But yeah they are no better than the standard noodle, in my experience, still mushy. Wheat is expensive, it wouldnât be an outrageous proposition that they are padding flour out with something cheaper.
Totally agree. The yellow oil noodles arent standard for beef noodle, makes sense they put it as an option cause they dont work well compared to the others. But cheap fried noodle type shops always use those oily ones which give me a gut ache.
My preference is for fried rice noodles these days. But that might not be on the menu at the places you are talking about. Mung bean starch noodles maybe, theyâll generally substitute those for you. Much easier on the old belly.
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Absolutely, i prefer them as well. Far less heavy!
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I mostly prefer dry but some soups are ok, but not ramen. (local beef noodle is good for me and no it is not ramen as some in EU told me when I was there)
Whoops! Wrong thread. I thought this was the Kaohsiung food thread and you were replying to me about my friendâs noodle restaurant. 
Donât like brothy soup that much. I like it actually but Iâm rarely in the mood for it. My girlfriend canât eat a meal without some kind of broth though
haha Since you already mentioned it, I am curious to know about this noodle shop.
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I think I mentioned the address and name earlier in the other thread. They need the business right now thanks to this damn pandemic.
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I saw it and try to visit it
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