The first place I went to eat after I came back to NYC is a place called Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao. This restaurant is famous for its soup dumplings. The picture on the left are soup dumplings. They make look ordinary, but they are not. Unlike regualr dumplings, xiao long bao, is filled inside with meat as well as soup. One bit into the dumpling make the soup inside explode out. One must be very careful when eating this because the soup is hot, and it may burn your mouth. The plate to the right is actually not Taiwanese, but it is Shanghai-nese. It is pan-fried udon noodles. What I find very interesting about this dish, is the name of it. It's cooked shanghai-nese style, but the noodles are udon, which is korean noodles. It is very contradicting. Nevertheless, these noodles are amazing as well. Both plates of food are also pretty cheap, around $7 for both.
The next restaurant I ate at was 666 Lu's Seafood Restaurant. This place to me is one of the most authentic taiwanese restaurants in flushing. The dish on the left is the pork chop over rice. It may seem like the regular pork chop over rice you get at any restaurant but it tastes completely different. It is fried in a different way and prepared with rice, minced beef, sour cabbage and tea-boiled egg. It is my all time favorite entree. The plate on the right is called Stinky Tofu. AND YES this tofu's aroma is very strong. Many people have found the smell to be unpleasing and gross but I think otherwise. For me, this dish tastes better the stinky-er it is. I do not know what makes the tofu stinky, but it is very delicious. In every night market in Taiwan everyone eats this stinky tofu. The smell is everywhere and it is irresistible to many.
I love Xiao Long Bao! And as a Taiwanese myself, I totally agree with you about the unique yet delicious taste of stinky tofu. It is one of my favorite dishes, and it brings back my childhood memories in Taiwan. I will probably go to those restaurants some day. By the way, the smell of stinky tofu is done by soaking the tofu with a solution of fermented veggies, meat, and milk. In other words, the smell is from a bunch of rotten food. I hope that you still like stinky tofu after knowing this fact lol. Maybe recently people have found a way to make the flavor chemically though.
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