Korean food in Dashe

There is now a Korean restaurant in Dashe. It's located near Allen Bakery and the DVD rental shop

The purple items in the upper left-hand corner are the claypot rice bowls.

This clay pot is one of the better dishes at this restaurant.

Biggest Chicken Steak (雞排) in Dashe

For the biggest chicken steaks or cutlets, then look no further than this chain. They claim that their Chicken Steaks or Cutlets that are bigger than your head. I especially love that the name of the stand is 奶妹 (which means “Milk Sister”).
 
The stand opens around 5pm, which is the best time to go since it’s extremely popular. The lady seems to get less impatient as the night goes on, probably because she’s taking phone orders, live orders, and filling all the orders at the same time. If you go later than 5:30pm, then be prepared to wait anywhere between 15-30 minutes, depending on how large your order is.

They sell 5 different kinds of chicken steaks, starting from the top left (at 45 NT), going down then to the second column:

(For each steak, you need to specify what topping you want on it WHEN you order. The choices are: white pepper, plum powder, seaweed, curry, garlic, Mexican, Black pepper, Wasabi, Spicy)

BBQ chicken steak (like the kind we normally get) – 45 NT
Teriyaki Chicken Steak – 50 NT
Very Crispy chicken steak – 45 NT
Crispy Chicken steak – 45 NT
Lemon chicken bites – 35 NT
Chicken thighs – 30 NT
Chicken nuggets – 30 NT
Boneless chicken steak – 35 NT

(Column 2):
Three Corner Bone (some sort of chicken piece) – 60 for large, 40 for small
Salted Chicken pieces – 50 (L), 30 (S)
Cuttlefish – 50 (L), 30 (S)
Calamari rings – 50 (L), 30 (S)
Sweet Potato Fries – 40NT
French Fries – 20 NT (choice of cheese or salted)
Yams – 20 NT (choice of plum powder or pepper)
Tien Bu La (fish paste snacks) – 20 NT
Tempura – 20 NT
Chicken Wing – 15 NT
Hot Dog – 10 NT (for 3)
Blood rice cake – 10 NT


Directions from MAK: This stand is right across from the Thai Restaurant. When coming from MAK, do not take the shortcut back road, but go all the way to Dashe Main Road. It is located beside another chicken stand and beside the red and black teashop “Da Pai.”
There are also other chains located around the city, including one in Nanzih by the Choi's church.

Parking: Easy (you can pull up anywhere and put your hazards on if necessary!)

Costs: Economical

The "small" and "Greek" restaurant in Dashe

The design of this restaurant is quite curious and fun. The food is moderately good and the atmosphere is fun (such as in the "small" room shown below). However, the food is, strangely enough, not Greek. They have coffees, hot pots, pasta, and fancy drinks. 

The pasta dishes come with a yummy soup and salad on the side (plus a sweet tea, too). The other two dishes below are a hot pot and pesto-sauce spaghetti with shrimp. The partial menu posted at the bottom has these two items marked in red (with the pork hotpot at the top and the spaghetti at the bottom).

 

Directions from MAK: This restaurant is right next to the 814 grocery store in Dashe. Go down the main road (JhongShan) until you see the 814 grocery store (nearly all the way down the road in Dashe). There's parking right outside of the restaurant (and potentially at 814). 

Taiwan "Snacks" 台灣小吃

If you're looking for a great way to try a variety of Taiwanese foods in smaller, more economical portions, try out 台灣小吃 tái wān xiǎo chī. This is a chain that offers a delicious variety of simple foods. (Note: many of the foods have a pretty high amount of garlic flavor, so prepare yourself for bad breath.) It's a good price, too, with the above-pictured meal just 140 NT. In the photo above are the following foods: Rice with meat, meat floss, cucumbers (upper left, "A" on the menu below), meatball soup (lower left, "L" on the menu below), a large bowl of "dry" noodles (bottom right, D2 on the menu), wooden noodles soup (upper right and also pictured below, G2 on the menu), and fried tofu ("S" on the menu, 5NT per piece).

Here is a menu translation (Thanks, Ellen!):
B. Rice with minced soy sauce pork gravy (light, not thick like American gravy)
C. Rice with slices of soy sauce pork
F. Crispy pork with Noodles (usually soup, but can ask for dry)
G. Wide rice noodles with minced pork sauce (like B.) (2 options: dry (top) or with soup(bottom))
H. Vermicelli noodles with minced pork sauce (like B.) (2 options: dry (top) or with soup(bottom))
I. Short pork rib soup
J. Bitter melon short pork rib soup
M. Spinach / Green (usually a favorite)/Bean sprouts
N. Bamboo shoots
O. "lu" Cabbage ("lu" usually means they cook it for a long time, maybe in a slow cooker in soy sauce and spices)
P. Fish (Tilapia)
U. Sliced pork (like C, with no rice.)


Recommended items on the menu include D or E, G, and M2 (green veggies). Try a little of each and find a new favorite!

Directions from MAK: Go into Dashe on the main road (Jhong Shan Rd. 中山路). At the first major intersection (where there is a Hi-Life Convenience Store), go straight. Keep going past the second light, too (with Watsons, 7-11, Family Mart). The shop will be on your left, before you reach the next intersection (with Donutes). Look for a maroon sign and wooden decor. You can pay on your way out, after eating.

Parking: Challenging, because it's on the main road.

Costs: Economical.

Tea & Magic Hand 茶の魔手

Tea & Magic Hand is a chain tea shop with some of the BEST milk tea I've ever tasted. It's a bit more expensive than other tea shops, but well worth it for a special treat.

 

They have many drinks from which to choose, but here are a few recommendations:

• milk tea 奶茶 nǎi chá
• red bean milk tea 紅豆奶茶 hóng dòu nǎi chá
• bubble tea 珍珠奶茶 zhēn zhū nǎi chá
• almond milk tea (warm) 杏仁奶茶（熱）xìng rén nǎi chá（rè）
• lavender milk tea 薰衣草奶茶 xūn yī cǎo nǎi chá

The tea is pretty sweet, so you might consider half sugar or less for a still-great taste.

For directions to this place, read here: http://taiwaneatsandtreats.blogspot.com/2010/01/fujiwara-ramen.html

藤原拉麵 Fujiwara Ramen

Fujiwara Ramen is a clean, economical restaurant with delicious handmade noodles and dumplings. This place has a particular advantage at dinner time because of it's extensive parking lot and proximity to the fantastic tea shop Tea & Magic Hand:

Here is a picture of their menu:

Dish "A" is a miso soup broth with pork, noodles, and an egg. Here is what it looks like:

Items B, C, D, and F are nearly the same, all being dumplings and noodles with veggies. B, C, and D are all soups, with the first being a red soup, the second a miso soup, and the third a clear Japanese-style broth. Item C is pictured here:

Item F (wonton noodles 餛飩 幹麵 hún tún gàn miàn) is made with the red sauce (slightly spicy, but not too bad), but is served "dry", which means they serve the broth on the side, as pictured below. For only 50 NT, this is one deal that's hard to beat!

If you're still hungry, try out a side dish of green veggies (Item "G--青菜):

Directions from MAK: Go into Dashe on the main road (Jhong Shan Rd. 中山路). At the first major intersection (where there is a Hi-Life Convenience Store), turn left. You'll now be on the morning market road (Jin Long Rd. 金龍路). Follow this road until you see the Tea and Magic Hand tea shop on your right (with a maroon sign). Immediately after the tea shop, there is an alley that leads to a huge parking lot. You can park back there. [If you pass the park or fire station, you've gone too far.] The restaurant is on the other side of the alley from Tea & Magic Hand (look for the red sign above). There's a kitchen in the front with yellow tables inside for eating. You can pay on your way out, after eating.

Free sweetened black tea is provided, as are reusable spoons and chopsticks.

Parking: Easy. You can park their parking lot behind the restaurant.

Costs: Economical. Most dishes are 70NT or less.

Dumplings and potstickers

For some decent dumplings and potstickers, check out this restaurant in Dashe. It's on the main road (Jhong Shan Rd.), next to the "Presotea" tea shop. Look for this sign:

Their menu is basic, so once you learn one section, you'll know nearly half of the menu! The most important parts are pictured below. Basically, #1-4 are potstickers and #5-9 are boiled/steamed dumplings, and 10-12 are soups. All prices are per dumpling/potsticker.

Here's a translation of the menu, thanks to Ellen in Systems Services in Taichung:

1. Potstickers (regular ones, what the store is famous for, just regular pork.)
2. Veggie Potstickers
3. Curry Potstickers
4. Korean spicy potstickers
5. Dumplings(regular ones, what the store is famous for, just regular pork.)
6. Veggie dumplings
7. Curry dumplings
8. Korean spicy dumplings
9. shrimp and pork dumplings
10. hot and sour soup
11. Octopus ball and fish soup
12. Taiwanese cream of corn soup

Back left: vegetable potstickers (#2). Back right: veggie dumplings (#6). Front: pork dumplings (#5). Also recommended are the curry potstickers and dumplings (#4 and 7)

This is the fish ball soup (#11 on the menu):

Directions from MAK: Go into Dashe on the main road (Jhong Shan Rd. 中山路). At the first major intersection, go straight. It is located on the right-hand side (across the street from the Tea Elf and before getting to the Watston's/7-11 intersection). Walk past the kitchen to sit down and use the ordering form. You can pay on your way out, after eating.


Parking: Challenging because it's on the main road.

Costs: Economical.

Fried rice near the temple

This little fried rice/fried noodles restaurant provides a moderately-sized portion for a bargain price of about 50 NT! It's located near the temple on Jhong Hwa Rd. Look for this building:

The inside is rather simple (see below), but you get tea with your meal for free (self-serve in the container on the left).

This is their basic menu. It pretty much works as follows: decide if you want fried rice (炒飯 chǎo fàn), fried noodles (炒麵 chǎo miàn), or a gravy sauce over rice. Then, choose your meat (shrimp, beef, lamb/mutton, pork, seafood). Nearly all dishes are 50 NT. They also have veggies as sides.

This is the beef fried rice:

This is the lamb/mutton with gravy sauce:

Directions from MAK: Go into Dashe on the main road (Jhong Shan Rd. 中山路). At the first major intersection (where there is a Hi-Life Convenience Store), turn left. You'll now be on the morning market road (Jin Long Rd. 金龍路). Follow this road until the next major intersection (again, with a convenience store on your right). Turn right onto Jhong Hwa Rd. (中華路). When you see the temple on your right, go just past it to the building pictured above. You can pay on your way out, after eating.

Parking: Easy. You can park right next to the restaurant. If the temple isn't busy, you can also park in front of it.

Costs: Economical. Most dishes are 50NT or less. Dishes "to go" are good for lunches the next day.

Turkey Rice

One of Taiwan's "famous" foods in the city of the ChiaYi is turkey rice. It's incredibly simple (usually just consisting of white rice with pieces of shredded turkey on it), but makes for a simple, yet filling snack or meal. Dashe opened a turkey rice restaurant on the main road (Jhong Shan Rd.) in 2009, along with a partnering tea shop. Here is what the sign looks like (in red, reading "Fire Chicken Meat" a.k.a. turkey). The tea shop has the black sign.

And here's the entrance:

Most items on the menu are 60 NT or less. Clearly, the turkey rice item is what you'll want to try at some point. It is the first item on the paper menu. If you want the side dishes (which you may or may not be able to choose on your own, depending on what's available), mark the 1a option. For a large turkey rice (火雞飯 huǒ jī fàn), 1b, and for a small turkey rice, 1c. The 1a option looks like this (note the rice with turkey and a few pickles on the lower left):

The second menu item is a combination of fatty meat and sausage, coupled with some side dishes for 50 NT, and looks like this:

Directions from MAK: Go into Dashe on the main road (Jhong Shan Rd. 中山路). Go just past the first major intersection (where there is a Hi-Life Convenience Store), and just past Jack-Boy drink stand on your right.  The restaurant and tea shop are soon after that (just look for the black and red signs). You can pay on your way out, after eating.


Parking: Challenging. Any time you have to park on Jhong Shan Rd, it can be hit or miss.
Costs: Economical. Turkey rice also makes for good leftovers for lunches.

Sen Style Books Store

For some delicious and creative teas, try out the Sen Style Books Store tea shop in Dashe. They have a fun variety of teas, including a green tea with frothy milk (pictured below) and good grapefruit green tea (葡萄柚綠茶 pú táo yòu lǜ chá). It's a bit more expensive than other tea shops (e.g 40 NT for the green tea with frothy milk), but worth it for a special treat. You can specify your desired level of sugar on most teas.

Directions from MAK: Go into Dashe on the main road (Jhong Shan Rd. 中山路).At the second major light (the intersection with the 7-11 and Family Mart and Watson's), you'll find this shop. It's a few doors down from the 7-11, on the same side of the street (across the street from Bridge Drugs). 


Parking: Limited on-street parking for cars.



Other notes: You'll know you found the tea shop when you see the many milk cartons out front and the comic book shop in the back. If you want to order the drink pictured above, you can simply point to the large sign with the drink pictured. It's one of their specialties.

Ah-Sing's Beef Steak

At Ah-Sing's Beef steak restaurant, you'll enjoy the friendly service of Ah-Sing and his wife while enjoying several varieties of fried steaks. Beef steak (牛排 niú pái) is the most typical dish and is available for 80NT, as well as pork (豬肉) steak and chicken leg (雞腿 jī tuǐ) steak. Salmon (鮭魚 guī yú) steak and a bit thicker beef steak are slightly more expensive. You can choose what kind of sauce you want on your meat: mushroom, black pepper, or a mixture of both sauces. All dishes come with noodles and a fried egg.

All meals come with a bowl of corn chowder (玉米濃湯 yù mǐ nóng tāng) and sweet black tea. Both of these items are self-serve, as is the silverware. After you order, Ah-Sing will tell you which table is available for seating. Your plate will be sizzling when it comes, so be careful. Additionally, you'll need to flip your egg over to let it finish cooking.

Directions from MAK: Go into Dashe on the main road (Jhong Shan Rd. 中山路). At the first major intersection (where there is a Hi-Life Convenience Store), turn left. You'll now be on the morning market road (Jin Long Rd. 金龍路). Follow this road until the next major intersection (again, with a convenience store on your right). Turn right onto Jhong Hwa Rd. (中華路). Go past the temple on your right, Turn left at the next intersection (where there is a large store on your left). The restaurant is the first one on the right and has many red plastic tables inside.  There is a tall, yellow sign with red lettering above the restaurant. You can pay on your way out, after eating. 

Parking: Moderate. You can park right next to the restaurant.

Costs: Moderately economical. Dishes range from 80 NT to about 150 NT.

Other notes: The Smuckers eat here nearly every Tuesday night. If you go, tell Ah-Sing that you're friends with Matt and Holly (我們是Matt 和 Holly 的朋友。wǒ men shì Matt hé Holly de péng yǒu) for an extra special greeting. Also, Ah-Sing is fluent in several languages, including Mandarin, Taiwanese, and Hakka. He knows a little bit of English (e.g. the names of the food dishes), so he may be able to help as you stumble through any language barrier.

Red Bestial Superfine Beef Noodles

One of the most wide-spread dishes you can find in Taiwan is called "Beef noodles" (牛肉麵 niú ròu miàn). For a delicious, economical and local variety of beef noodles from a very hospitable owner, try the Red Bestial Superfine Beef Noodles shop in Dashe. Here's what you need to know:

Location: In Dashe, across the street from the temple on Jhong Hwa Rd. (中華路). It is located next door to the large tree where elderly people like to gather to chess and other games. 


Directions from MAK: Go into Dashe on the main road (Jhong Shan Rd. 中山路). At the first major intersection (where there is a Hi-Life Convenience Store), turn left. You'll now be on the morning market road (Jin Long Rd. 金龍路). Follow this road until the next major intersection (again, with a convenience store on your right). Turn right onto Jhong Hwa Rd. (中華路). When you see the temple on your right, look across the street for the Red Bestial Superfine Beef Noodles shop (sign is in English & Chinese). The kitchen is in the front and the seating is in the back. Walk past the kitchen to sit down and use the ordering form. You can pay on your way out, after eating. 


Parking: Easy. You can park right next to the restaurant. If the temple isn't busy, you can also park in front of it. 


Costs: Economical. Dishes range from 35 NT for a basic bowl of sesame noodles to 80 NT for rice and beef. 


Recommended dishes: The first five dishes on the menu are some form of beef noodles and all of them are delicious. Try the 4th one from the top for something special--it's shaved/handmade noodles with meat and vegetables (70NT).  (See picture below)

Their "economical" beef noodles (the first one listed on the menu for 55NT) is a reasonable portion and delicious, too:

If you like spicy foods, try the handmade dumplings in red sauce (18th on the menu and 40 NT for a plate, as pictured below). Yum! This works well as a side dish.

They also have lots of drinks for sale and side dishes, too, as is pictured at the top. 


Happy eating!