After completing our shopping at Dawncake we headed on back toward our accommodations. On the way back, I mentioned Shen Ji New Village to the Missus. Once the location of government dormitories; the area has been renovated into a what's called a "creative and cultural" center. And since there was shopping involved, well, the Missus was all for it!
This was a Sunday, so the place was bustling with various stands selling all manner of things.
In fact, the Missus ended up buying a dress from one of the vendors!
Shenji New Village
Lane 368, Minsheng Rd.
West District, Taichung City, Taiwan
From here, we decided to cab it back to the hotel and grab some lunch in the area. Of course, the Missus had a nice chat with our cabbie. When She mentioned wanting a light lunch, he recommended a place close to where we were staying that served Rou Yuan (aka Ba-wan). He dropped us off at the bustling shop.
We had quickly come to understand that lines are a good sign in Taiwan and in most places they move quickly. Actually, that line is for takeout.
The place basically serves three items; the Rou Yuan, a mung bean noodle soup, and fishball soup.
The line to dine in was much shorter and we were seated at one of the communal tables promptly.
Though it seemed chaotic, there was a system in place. Luckily for us, we sat next to two really nice young men who quickly knew that we were "newbies" here. One of them spoke perfect English and he quickly flagged down one of the Servers carrying the bowls of rou yuan and voila…. we had our lunch!
The the outrageous price of NT$45….yes, I'm kidding, this equates to about $1.45/US we got a bowl with a large dumpling which was fried before entering the thick miasma of a sauce. The wrapper had a pleasant, somewhat glutinous chewiness. The sauce was thick, quite savory, with a hint of sweetness. The meatball was very tasty, though a bit on the tough and chewy side. The combination of flavors was excellent. And this was pretty filling.
The two young men eating next to us were great; the fellow who spoke English who coordinated delivery of our bowls also went up and got us napkins….I'd soon know to look for napkin dispensers on the walls of these type pf places. I regret not paying for their lunch!
Our "bill" was dropped on our table. And as is the "system" in Taiwan, you pay at the register; there's no tipping.
This was a fun and interesting meal at a Taichung business founded in 1933! After returning home and using Google to find the address I discovered this place has earned a Michelin Bib Gourmet designation! You gotta love those taxi drivers! They were making sure we stayed well fed!
Taichung Rou Yuan (台中肉員)
No. 529, Section 3, Fuxing Rd.
South District, Taichung City, Taiwan
We were loving our time in Taiwan!
Thanks for stopping by!
Does the presentation of the sashimi look familiar? Well, it should. When I sat, I was told "Sashimi Kirk-san…." it wasn't a question, more of an affirmation.
my 
And this was just what I needed at this moment. Don't get me wrong, this would be just decent poke back home; but it sure beats all those "chi-poke" places out there. And it made for a nice lunch.
The opening gate looks a little different, going with the theme:
'Explore the outdoors and get s'more of what life has to offer' is the idea behind the simple entrance decor.
The Theme building, to the right when you walk in, has a friendly looking entrance.
Not much was set up as of last Wednesday. The rides and food booths had been at the Los Angeles County Fair during most of May until Memorial Day and all had been packing up for the move to San Diego.
Home Made (formerly Home and Hobby, formerly Home Arts) was setting up.
Displays are finalized after judging, so as to focus on the Competition participants and winners.
2023 San Diego County Fair June 7-July 4. Closed Monday and Tuesdays in June. 
The Theme of "Heroes Reunite" was a continuation of the canceled 2020 Fair with the "Heroes Unite" theme. 
It turns out that every booth on Thursday had a $3 special. There were pieces of paper, most handwritten, with a $3 Thursday special listed and taped to the booth behind the cash register. There was nothing written on the Website nor on the Daily Fair Events handouts listing this pricing. I highly suspect the same will be happening on Thursdays during the Fair this year and will update asap. If you notice, most of the $3 specials are small (battered veggies, mini cream puffs, mini Dole Whip, fried pineapple and fried Oreos), but that fried pineapple from Chicken Charlie's was the whole $9 item! I hope that remains the Thursday special. (Remember there are five Chicken Charlies booths; each had a different special).
Of course, we also purchased our 'regular' items, which included fried pickles, grilled vegetables, the artichoke sandwich and an apple tower.
I enjoyed sitting right outside the shop. The view of the plantation style houses reminded me of our trips to Honolua "small kid time" to see my grandparents.
We had enjoyed the fact that everything from the pasture raised beef, to the brioche buns, to the mushrooms in the mushroom burger is local. The Missus had really enjoyed the mushroom burger the last time and of course, this being Parker Ranch territory, I needed to have that Big Island Beef Burger.
This was cooked a bit past that, but the burger was so beefy! I requested just a touch of mustard, which combined with the wonderfully sweet and acidic tomato really helped to balance out the beefiness. The beef was a bit toothsome; but that's the deal with pasture raised beef made from cuts like chuck and brisket.
This was actually not bad. The large salad did have some brown leaves, but while the rice looked dry, it wasn't.
A generous plate of fresh-looking bun, basil, mint, et al was provided. The nuoc mam cham was on the sweeter side of things. The sauce for the Bun Cha was on the sweeter end of things but wasn't too bad. Loved the pickled veggies, which helped to cut the sweet and saltiness. There were two good size pork patties, which were on the chewier end of things. The actual pork slices were much more flavorful in my opinion.
While it arrived on the typical sizzling plate….well, it wasn't sizzling. The dill and onions were soggy and wilted, and the fish cold. This was quite strange. Totally a far cry from 
I got my plate with Red Rice instead of white. The rice was done quite well, moist, good texture, there was another scoop of rice hiding under the eggs. There was a good amount of Portuguese Sausage, which was really crisp and hard, almost like it was deep fried! While I do like the exterior of my sausage crisp; this had taken it a bit far. The sausage was dry. The eggs were a nice easy-over and that egg yolk flowed beautifully over the rice. No off flavors: though I needed to get some salt as it seems that they don't season the eggs. I also like my eggs crisp around the edges.
The coconut crust was a bit too sweet for us. There were also spots where the coconut was burnt, adding a rather unpleasant bitterness to the dish.
The Missus loved Her coffee and wanted to buy a bag. So, we went in and took a look around and could not find the coffee. So we asked Brian who told us he had two bags left behind the counter. He sold us one. It was $95! The Missus just absolutely loved this coffee.
We were interested to see what effect the "time of Covid" had on Suisan and it was soon evident. Gone are the tables out front. You wait in line in front of the shop, there's a limit to the amount of folks they let into a shop at any one time.
