While most Rice Noodle Soup (米粉湯 mǐfěntāng) in the north is made with pork broth and served with different cuts of pork, in Kaohsiung, milk fish rice noodle soup is one of their specialties. I’ll have to say I love how clean and lighter tasting the rice noodle soup is when it’s made with milk fish.
Milk fish (虱目魚 shīmùyú) is a quintessential Taiwanese fish. They are raised in abundance in south of Taiwan and is popular on dining tables- no part of the fish is wasted, not even the heads! How do you eat a fish’s head you ask? I’ll show you in this YouTube video!
In this Youtube episode, we’re leading you to get breakfast at a local wet market in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. We’re all about exploring off the beaten path and finding hidden gems tourists might not know about and experience the way of life of a local.
This rice noodle place was hiding in an alley of a busy street market, and it was filled with locals. Uncles and aunties gathered at the shop and ordered almost without words- the owner knew their orders. Market vendors stood around the stall chitchatting with the owners as they process the fresh fish that just came in for the day, you can hear it in the background of the video and it is very ambient- part of the everyday life in Taiwan!
We ordered more than the rice noodle, let’s be honest, it’s all about the side dishes. We learned and tried a few different things we’ve never had before, I love learning about new ingredients and discovering new textures and flavors.
While walking to the market, there was a cute and curious puppy who came up to us, I love how animals are able to roam the streets rather freely. The puppy did get yell at by the auntie for running to us tho…
Takeaway of making this video
Taste the food before talking. We never scripted anything nor have we been to the places we’re going to, you’re getting the RAW experience! Garlic soy is more common as a condiment for side dishes, so I expected all the sauce to be garlic soy and I was wrong! This shop used ginger, which is a better pairing for fish and seafood items. Lesson learned!
Context for 13:10
We wandered into the only coffee roastery that was open in the AM (Taiwan has an afternoon coffee culture instead of the morning) the day before, the owner poured 6 different kinds of homemade coffee whiskey for us to taste test… at 10 am.
