Cat Mouse Noodles (貓鼠麵/猫鼠面)
Very late dinner in Zhanghua [彰化]. We arrived in the city very late but was expecting a buzzling supper scene. How wrong we were! Most of the famous eateries were closed or closing by 10pm and in fact, we were the very last customer of this famous shop.
Zhanghua is home to 3 very famous 'must never ever miss' local dishes. Cat Mouse Noodle is one of them. Don't worry, no mouse or cat was harmed to serve this dish. The name came about, because the chef's nickname sounded like 'cat and mouse' and hence the name of the dish was born.
It is in fact, another very simple dish but one with amazing placements of tastes. The soup - the essence of the dish - is very succinic - not MSG umami - but succinic - which is probably brewed from using cuttlefish. It was like a slam dunk on your tongue and I literally went 'Wow!!". The soup aside, the formula of the dish is simple - add noodles or rice vermicelli, threw in the 3 compulsory companions of a chicken roll, a pork ball and a shrimp ball and voila - one of the 3 specialties of the city.
if not for that remarkable soup, this would have been a rather bland and probably forgettable dish.
Cat Mouse Noodles (貓鼠麵/猫鼠面)
Very late dinner in Zhanghua [彰化]. We arrived in the city very late but was expecting a buzzling supper scene. How wrong we were! Most of the famous eateries were closed or closing by 10pm and in fact, we were the very last customer of this famous shop.
Zhanghua is home to 3 very famous 'must never ever miss' local dishes. Cat Mouse Noodle is one of them. Don't worry, no mouse or cat was harmed to serve this dish. The name came about, because the chef's nickname sounded like 'cat and mouse' and hence the name of the dish was born.
It is in fact, another very simple dish but one with amazing placements of tastes. The soup - the essence of the dish - is very succinic - not MSG umami - but succinic - which is probably brewed from using cuttlefish. It was like a slam dunk on your tongue and I literally went 'Wow!!". The soup aside, the formula of the dish is simple - add noodles or rice vermicelli, threw in the 3 compulsory companions of a chicken roll, a pork ball and a shrimp ball and voila - one of the 3 specialties of the city.
if not for that remarkable soup, this would have been a rather bland and probably forgettable dish.