After returning to Taipei from the Taroko Gorge we relaxed a bit at our hotel. The location of Sky 19 Hotel might seem a bit odd, occupying only the 19th floor of an large business building, but the location, right out the exit from Taipei Main Station was great. All the stores and shops in the area didn't hurt things either. Of course the subject of dinner came up. The Missus was wanting to get Lu Rou Fan, a classic braised pork on rice dish. I had a couple of places on my "list" and one of them had come up in the Missus's discussions with various drivers; Jin Feng Braised Pork Rice. The shop was located about 2 kilometers from our accommodations and after having my TR Pork Chop Bento on the train back from the Taroko Gorge, I thought a nice walk might help me burn off the pork.
We arrived at the busy corner where Jin Feng stood in about 25 minutes or so.
Good thing the Missus reads Chinese and speaks Mandarin as there are two queues; one for takeout orders and one for dining in.
Like just about everywhere in Taipei, the lines move quickly. There's no dallying, we got a table, which could be easily divided by plexiglass for single diners in less than ten minutes.
The menu has quite a bit of choices.
But we were after one thing; the Lu Rou Fan, braised pork on rice.
My goodness, where have you been all my life. The rice was cooked nicely and fragrant; that sauce was rich, porky-soy sauce deliciousness. A nice collection of tender meaty pieces, along with rich, fattier pieces that basically melted in your mouth. And for a medium bowl at $40 NT; that's about a buck-twenty-five…. you get the picture, right?
We also got the pork belly; which came out looking dark and somewhat foreboding.
This was quite silkenly tender; surprisingly so. It wasn't overly salty, with hints of anise, and a touch of sweetness.
And of course, after punishing our arteries; we needed some veggies. We had enjoyed all variations of Bamboo Shoots during our time in Taiwan and this version was no different.
Crunchy and earthy with a touch of sweetness, the preserved vegetable added a bit of oomph to things.
The Ong Choi was also crisp and fresh.
A touch of soy and garlic, to bring out the chlorophyllic – nutty notes.
This was a nice, comforting meal, and if I recall, came out to around $4.50/US! No wonder we've been grumbling about the prices here in the US recently. In some places five bucks would get you little more than a cup of coffee here!
Jin Feng Braised Pork Rice (金峰魯肉飯)
No. 10, Section 1, Roosevelt Rd.
Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan
After dinner we took a different way back to the hotel, exploring the area a bit more.
We had started to learn some interesting things to note about everyday life here. You'd hear some music, it was always the same song emanating from a truck. Well, this was the signal to folks that trash pick-up was occurring. We'd see folks rushing to the curb to deliver their trash for pick-up.
Further up the street we walked past the Judicial Building.
Where this little "soldier" was hard at work doing drills led by his Mom….who seemed to be filming from her phone. Perhaps for Taiwan's version of Tik Tok?
There was a kind of lively, yet orderly sense to things here.
And of course, every time the Missus saw a line She needed to investigate.
We were really enjoying our time in Taipei!
Thanks for stopping by!
Since I arrived before 11, I took a stroll around the strip mall. It was quite interesting. Back in 
This was a fairly straight-forward bowl. The broth had a decent beefiness, hints of five spice, and was not as spicy as it looked. The broth was not very rich either.
Man, this as a mistake. The pork, which seemed like strips of super lean, pounded pork chop were really tough, almost hard and dry. The batter was on the chewy side as well. The strips were lightly seasoned and not particularly spicy. I ended up using the dried chilies and a big splash of chili oil to help me consume this. I had a ton of it left over.
In retrospect, the egg was also a mistake, it was ice cold, the yolk severely overcooked and dry.
I don't know if they went easy on me, but this wasn't particularly spicy…I mean, it did have some heat, I actually enjoyed the funk induced broth, which was lightly permeated with the flavor of the "fat intestine". The broth edged on the salty side but was by far my favorite of the three visits. I enjoyed the offal-ly, funky, earthy pork bung. Yes, it was a bit chewy, but in a pleasant way.
The guacamole was fine, we prefer our guacamole a bit more coarse, with more heat, and this really in need of salt and more lime. It was almost like this was made in a food processor.
