Dishes
Wok-fried eel noodles
鱔魚意麵
Also called: 炒鱔魚 (fried eel) · eel yi mein
Rice-paddy eel flash-fried in a sweet-and-sour sauce and served over fried egg noodles.
Photo: TACO Huang from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, CC BY-SA 2.0What it is
Strips of eel tossed in a hot wok with a thickened sauce of black vinegar and sugar, so it tastes sweet and sour. It comes over yi mein, fried egg noodles that shops stack by the stove as dry, bowl-sized blocks. The eel stays crisp and the sauce is rich.
Where it comes from
Chinese Wikipedia calls Tainan's eel noodles the best known in Taiwan but records no clear origin. Jin Fu (進福), one of the city's long-running eel specialists, opened in 1972.
How it is made
There are two styles. In the saucy one, cooked eel is stir-fried with the noodles over high heat with starch, black vinegar and sugar. In the dry-fried (乾炒) style, the noodles are cooked separately and the fried eel is tossed through them.
How to eat it
You choose saucy or dry-fried, and over noodles or on its own. Eel shops often also do sesame-oil kidneys.
Where to eat it in Tainan
Sources