永康刀削麵 (Yong Kang Knife Cut Noodles)

Ignore the post title, what I really meant to call it was 'place where they pull funky ass knife stunts like whoa.' Having just gotten off the plane 4 hours before, I did what any sensible person fighting jet lag would do. I went and got a haircut. Oh, and I went to get food. Actually, I was told that I looked homeless, and forced to get a haircut, but anyway, I spent my time musing what I'd get for lunch. Realizing that I was sitting on 永康街 (Yong Kang Street), I thought about what there was... soup dumplings, meh, not today. Beef noodles... soup was probably a bit silly given the temperature. Ultimately, I decided on the little shop in the corner that specialized in knife cut noodles, appropriately named 永康刀削麵 (Yong Kang Knife Cut Noodles).



Why? I'm not really sure. I didn't really want plan on getting noodles at all. I had actually planned on getting small burgers, and a side of shaved ice. When I saw these 2 dudes slicing the hell out of giant balls of dough though, I was completely mesmerized. Now, I tried to take a picture, I swear, but when said men with knives turned and gazed at me with eyes of fury, I decided it was probably a poor course of action. In any case, I ordered a small 炸醬麵 (bean paste noodle) which was 55 NT ($1.50) and a small 牛肉麵 (beef noodle) which was 110 NT ($3) to sample. Yes I realize I completely contradicted my previous statement of soup being too hot, but I wanted to try it. Let me summarize this meal quickly. Noodles, out of this world. Cut to the perfect thickness despite the rapidity of the cuts made by said crazy men with knives. Texture was spot on, with just enough resistance to make you question whether or not the center would be cooked through (which it always was). The bean paste sauce was pretty generic, nothing awful to detract from the noodles, but nothing spectacular either. The beef noodles were more of the same, mediocre broth, overly tough and rather tasteless beef. Have I mentioned the noodles are out of this world though? Okay, so obviously that seems like a mixed bag in terms of my opinion, but here's a shocker... the noodles are good enough to outweigh all the negatives of the complementary pieces. Do yourself a favor and just get the beef noodle soup sans the beef. It's way cheaper, and you still get those sensual strands of carbohydrates... mmm~.

Oh yeah, why is the a picture of a cup at the top you might ask? I dunno. I just liked the fact that it had the characters that represented something akin to 'peace' on it. It seemed appropriate in a noodle shop.