Eel Noodles in Tainan

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: eating noodles outside always taste better

In Taiwan, my trip itinerary is usually the same, spend a couple of days in Taipei and then take the high speed train down to Tainan. I do not think that there has been a time that after my Aunt picks us up at the train station that we had not gotten food, regardless of what time it is and that first stop is a bowl of eel noodles. 

Eel noodles is a popular dish which though you can get it in Taipei, it is more of a thing down south in Tainan and of course, it taste better down here. Though it is seems something as simple as just a bowl of noodles and eel it is much more than that. The eel is painstakingly deboned and stir fried and the noodles are a special kind of noodles, called yi-mein which is wheat based noodle that is characteristically chewy. The noodles are important in this dish and it is not eel noodles without this kind of noodles. It all swims in “broth” or more like starchy, sweet gravy. For future travelers, everything in Tainan is sweeter, sauces, soups you name it, it is going to be sweet. Noodles after Jump!

Murky starchy gravy/broth

One of the most notable places in Tainan is a pseudo restaurant stall that is all outside, rain, shine and the cold or at least what constitutes as cold here. This place just makes the one dish and the one dish only and if there was anything else, I have never seen it, I never seen anybody eat it and frankly, there is no real point to eat anything else besides the eel noodles. 

BAM! Noodles

The noodles come in a bowl that barely contains it all and causes the sides of the bowl to glisten and makes it a bit sticky to handle. The bowl is just a slurry of noodles, eel and gravy. An addition of black vinegar is a must that cuts the sweetness of the dish. It is hearty and filling and the sign that this is a great place? It is relatively quiet and the only thing you hear is the slurping of noodles. 

Random Kitty Chilling while we were eating