Chun Shui Tang Xinyi A13 Beef Noodles

There’s rich history to Taiwan’s bubble tea endeavours - Chun Shui Tang 春水堂 is founded by Liu Han-Chieh, first came up with the idea of serving Chinese tea cold in the early 1980s after visiting Japan where he saw coffee served cold. While there are 13 locations in Taipei, we went to the one located in the luxury department store, Shinkong Mitsukoshi in Xinyi District since it’s the closest to us and I went there with an open mind. That's the Chun Shui Tang Far Eastern Xinyi A13 outlet.

Coming in late at 9.30pm (they close 10pm), they only had a few options left - kinda makes it easier for me. The original bubble tea and what I travelled a few thousand miles for: niu ro mien (or beef brisket noodles)

While we can contest that fried rice - ASEAN comes near parity with North Asia; but when it comes to niu ro mien, we are left in the dust. There’s no comparison! The previous best versions were had in Taipei too (I won’t debate - they're abundant all over the city - choose your favourite) - but a traditional tea house like Chun Shui Tang 春水堂- the one that claimed to have originated bubble tea - offering a usurper of a beef noodle. That’s really something I love about being pleasantly surprised.

The broth is super rich, and beefy. You can taste the hours of stewing, braising and stirring that went in. The beef slices were laden with fat and tendons. Melts in your mouth.

The choice of noodle: min xian, a thicker version, was just perfect to soak up all the umaminess

The side dish was a star. The humble pickled mustard (ham choy) stole the show. Perfect savouriness and bite to complete the already near perfect bowl of noodles. Bringing it from a 7.5 to a 8.

The bubble tea is stuff of legend. I’m put off with the versions we get in ASEAN. Here the richness of the tea (oolong, pu’er, whatever tea leaf you choose) and the bounciness of each pearl really comes through. It doesn’t taste one bit ‘fake’ and sugary like the ones we get down South. It’s a proper freaking tea shop serving bubble tea which they invented since the late 80s.

The damage was NT$452.