00:00The life of Xiao Long Bao probably only lasts 5 to 10 minutes.
00:03It's there for you to eat straight away.
00:05Hello, I'm Er Chan Chan.
00:07Here we are in Taipei, and I'm taking you to my favorite spots.
00:10And this is where the chefs eat.
00:17Welcome to Taipei.
00:18We're here to eat.
00:24We're in Zhongshan area, which is a very buzzing neighborhood.
00:27It's right in the center of town.
00:29And I'm going to take you to my favorite spot.
00:32One of my favorite spots since childhood.
00:34And it's called Jijiazhuang.
00:35I'll show you.
00:42This is where I come for comfort food.
00:44I've been coming here since I was a kid.
00:46So it's just been a place that's ingrained in my brain.
00:49Like whenever I come back to Taiwan, this is the place I want to hit.
00:51You can sit around the round table, have the Lazy Susan.
00:55And nothing has changed here since day one.
00:57I come here for San Weiji, which is their three treasure chicken.
01:02And here, the name being Jijiazhuang, meaning like a chicken house.
01:06Chicken is their specialty, their signature.
01:09And it's amazing.
01:10This is a chicken fat rice.
01:12So they boiled it in chicken stock and a bit of chicken fat.
01:15And it's really plump and glistening.
01:17And the flavor is really elegant.
01:19I know it looks really ordinary, but I love how simple it is.
01:23And it's done so well.
01:24And it's so consistent.
01:25And it works so well with all the other dishes.
01:28Especially this mapo tofu here.
01:30Scoop a little bit on it.
01:32I kind of make a tiny dent.
01:35And then let it sit in.
01:36And you can literally,
01:38You can keep slurping it in.
01:40It's beautiful.
01:41The first one I always go for is the chicken here.
01:44And I'll find a nice juicy bit.
01:48And then a little bit of the pickle.
01:50Amazing.
01:55I love how the skin is always really like bouncy.
01:58And then the flavor of the chicken is really well seasoned.
02:01So then you're not just eating a bland piece of chicken.
02:03It's like chickeny and also flavorsome.
02:06A table like this,
02:07I always have to order a veg for the family.
02:09One of my favorite veg is Cheerio Si Gua.
02:12It's like a loofah.
02:13So like a gourd.
02:14They cook with ginger.
02:16And then the liquid.
02:17For me, the liquid is the gold.
02:19Because it works so well with rice.
02:20And this is a dish that my grandma actually loves cooking for me.
02:27So sun-dried daikon cooked in egg.
02:30Quite really fluffy.
02:31I think it takes a lot of oil to cook this to keep it this fluffy.
02:36I just love the burst of saltiness from the sun-dried daikon.
02:39And the flavor inside the egg is a very classic Taiwanese flavor combination.
02:45And chicken clam soup.
02:47It's a chicken house.
02:48You have to have chicken broth, chicken soup.
02:51Clam.
02:52Taiwan is an island surrounded by amazing seafood.
02:57And clam being one of the greatest of Taiwanese cuisine in my opinion.
03:05This is the bowl you want to eat after a shift.
03:09So we've finished our full meal now.
03:11And they always give you a complimentary custard pudding.
03:15We call it bouding.
03:15Jitan bouding.
03:16And I love it.
03:17Because it tastes really nostalgic.
03:18The idea of like having a flan at the end of your meal is like a very 80s thing to
03:23do.
03:24And it's just something that I love that nothing has changed.
03:27We're frozen in time.
03:29Cool.
03:30We're done.
03:30Let's go to the next spot.
03:39So here we are in Wanhua area which is the west side of Taipei.
03:43It's really close to Ximending and it has a very famous temple called Longsan temple.
03:49We're here to visit one of my favorite bao place.
03:52It's called Yijia Zi which is kind of like a classic Taipei eatery.
03:58This one specializes in kind of Tainan, South Taiwan flavor.
04:02They have a whole piece of pork belly, braised, super succulent.
04:07The bao is kind of like this big, like really big.
04:10But I always describe to my friends that it just disappeared like that.
04:15So usually the queue is always down the block, like all the way to the end.
04:19And today we're really lucky that it's really short.
04:21I have to join the queue as soon as I get in just in case someone else also come in.
04:25My favorite is their classic Gua Bao.
04:27And in Taiwan, the Gua Bao only comes in a fermented veg,
04:31peanut powder, braised pork, coriander, super simple, big fluffy bao, nice and warm.
04:38Serve in a plastic bag and that just kind of woof into your mouth.
04:47Cool.
04:47So we just got the Gua Bao and then you can feel that it's really,
04:50really soft.
04:51I love that they just come in a plastic bag anyway.
04:54So humble and everyday life.
04:57The pork itself is one big slab of pork, which is different to how I serve in our restaurant.
05:04But what I love about them is they really have braised their pork to perfection.
05:12The coriander in Taiwan is so flavoursome and then the combination of peanut powder,
05:18coriander and that kind of like soy braised flavour is the epitome of Taiwan, in my opinion.
05:27I think what makes Taiwanese food things so special is that there's so many
05:31houses like this, like a hole in the wall in a really humble, humble street.
05:36And they kind of have been doing this for years, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years, day in, day out,
05:43perfecting kind of their craft.
05:44Every time I come home, I really feel like they just hit the spot for me.
05:54We're in front of a convenience store, which I find is a big part of Taiwanese culture.
05:58Not just a convenience store, it's where you do everything.
06:01Here, you probably come in first thing in the morning to get your morning coffee.
06:04Then you can pay your utility bill.
06:07They have like really amazing hot food.
06:09It's not just what you think a regular convenience store would do.
06:12And then you also have ATM.
06:14This is where I come to get money out.
06:16I don't go to bank.
06:17I come to convenience store because there's like really amazing aircon.
06:20Basically, I could do everything here.
06:21I feel like at home when I hear the sound of a convenience store, the jingle.
06:26So let's go in.
06:33There are many aisles and each one kind of specialised in different things.
06:37It's really exciting.
06:38It's kind of the place where I discover what's happening in Taiwan right now.
06:42And what's hot at the moment.
06:44So first thing first, I'm going to have a high bowl.
06:47Look, you can open the top fully.
06:50And then you can see a real lemon.
06:53Really good, really crunching.
06:57So this is a ke le guo, which is like a pea crisps spiral in shape.
07:03And the craziest thing is it actually tastes like the soup that you can get from Shaoshi House.
07:10Insane.
07:12Okay, moment of truth.
07:14I actually haven't tried Doritos with coriander.
07:17Oh my god, it's green.
07:18So stupid.
07:19I love it.
07:25It's mainly Doritos with a hint of coriander flavour.
07:29It's fun though.
07:30It's good, it's good.
07:31Let's have some tea eggs.
07:33So what I do, when you get an egg in a plastic bag, I normally kind of crush it a
07:38little bit.
07:38So then I can peel it easily.
07:41So then you see the crack of the egg.
07:44The soy braised liquor kind of seep into the surface of the egg.
07:47Quite beautiful.
07:51Who loves a fully cooked yolk?
07:53I do.
07:55So the convenience stores in Taiwan are open 24-7.
07:59Sometimes I come late at night.
08:00Sometimes I've even been to a bar where they have a convenience store opposite the bar.
08:04The middle of the night convenience store is kind of like where all walks of life come together.
08:09It's kind of a strange place.
08:20What's your favourite thing about Taipei?
08:21My favourite thing about Taipei is how walkable it is.
08:24And there are so many things to look at.
08:26I love the streets.
08:27I love the plants.
08:28And then I just love the food culture here.
08:31There's like multi-layers of food culture that you can experience.
08:35Night Market has been a big part of the place that I grew up with.
08:39Lingjiang Market is my current favourite because it's such a neighbourhood night market.
08:44It's one street.
08:45But the quality of the stores here are incredible.
08:48You can walk and snack.
08:49You can be quite spontaneous.
08:51You don't have to decide what to eat.
08:52You can eat a little bit, change it up, try something else.
08:55And it's really the way of life rather than being a destination.
09:00So here we are in Zhenghao Xiaolongtangbao.
09:03It's a Xiaolongbao place.
09:04And in Taiwan, I would say Xiaolongbao has become a really iconic dish
09:08that represents Taiwan.
09:09They hand-roll everything in-house that you can see here.
09:12What I love about it is it shows like so much craft
09:15into making something seemingly really simple.
09:18I love the sound of the scooters in Taipei too.
09:21It's such an iconic, sonic identity of Taipei.
09:25This store is located in Lingjiang Market on the side street.
09:29I believe it's a family-owned business.
09:30And it's been here for many years.
09:39So fast.
09:40They serve it so fast.
09:42So one of the key things for Xiaolongbao is make sure
09:44you have to have your sliced ginger and vinegar.
09:49I love my ginger.
09:50So I'm gonna take a little bit more.
09:51And then I'm going to have a bit of vinegar and tiny bit of soy.
09:56Definitely need to have a spoon to keep yourself civilized.
10:02Cool.
10:04So can you see?
10:05It's so beautiful.
10:06Perfectly intact.
10:07You can tell how thin the skins are
10:09by like seeing it droop down a little bit.
10:12And what I do is I put it into a spoon.
10:15And my trick is bite a little bit.
10:21And soak the soup in as I go.
10:24Tiny bell of ginger.
10:27For the vinegar, soy mixture.
10:30And then down it in one go.
10:35The skin has a very slight chew to it.
10:37And then the meat texture is so like flavorsome.
10:41And kind of melts in your mouth.
10:43The soup ratio is really high.
10:45That's kind of what I'm looking for in a Xiao Long Bao.
10:49And I love that I can eat it by myself.
10:51Right now it's quiet.
10:52But like the times I've been here it's been so packed.
10:56But silence.
10:57Because everyone knows you don't talk.
10:59Because you have to eat it when it's really hot and fresh.
11:03The life of Xiao Long Bao probably only lasts
11:05five to ten minutes.
11:06It's not there for you to wait.
11:08It's there for you to eat straight away.
11:10You need to enjoy that burst of heat in your mouth.
11:14That explosion.
11:25Now we're done.
11:27I've showed you all my favorite spots in Taipei.
11:30Next time in Taiwan be sure to visit these places.
11:33And let me know what you think.
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