The Taipei Kid

I finally had it. I finally had DinTaiFung. I was in the area (the area being Yangkang) during the rare moment when there was only like a two-minute wait. I know that everyone else and their mother has been there, but I wanted to go when the time was right, when it was my moment.

It was good, but it all tastes so familiar–the same kind of stuff you’ve had on every street and stall, although this time presented in a cleaner environment with food literally made more on the scientific side (it is all perfectly measured and cooked in what looks more like a clean room than a kitchen) as opposed to a little pinch of that or a handful of this. The food looked like it belonged in a cookbook. Even the sliced scallions floated ever so perfectly in the bowl. The way the wait staff kindly hustles you in and out of the place reminds me of Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining Room. You sort of have a “does not compute” moment, though, when you take in the taste of everything and look for, and are not able to find, a large blaring TV set hanging on the wall somewhere.