House of Chicken is a restaurant specializing in Taiwanese food and chicken. Yep, bet you couldn't figure the second part out. But we veered off from a chicken heavy meal into one that was oyster heavy after I briefly mentioned my love for oyster pancakes to my uncle. Oysters, he made sure I got them. I had oysters floating in my blood and eyeballs by the end. First up, oysters rolls. They are basically spring rolls stuffed with oysters. I heart these. The oysters were fresh and plump, stuffed in a light and crispy fried shell. Unlike American-Chinese spring rolls, the roll part of these were thin and didn't overwhelm the stuffing. They just lovingly held the innards together and provided crunch. Yum
Next up, oyster pancakes. I've never had this kind of oyster pancakes before. Unlike regular Taiwanese oyster pancakes, House of Chicken made theirs with eggs and not potato starch goo. It also didn't have the sauce drenched on top. I prefer their version for sure. I love fried eggs and I love oysters. Together, their got exponential delicious culinary power! What what!
And yes, more oyster dishes coming up - braised tofu with oysters and stir fried oysters. Both were yummy, very homey, like something your grandma would make at home. That is, if your grandma is Taiwanese. If not, the the last statement doesn't apply to you. They saucy nature of the two dishes made them rice's best friend. Rice likes to be coated in sauces. So I complied.
On to non-oyster dishes! Napa cabbage is one of my favorite veggies. I can eat that stuff forever, raw, stewed, baked, kimchi'ed. HoC braised theirs. And I ate it. Napa cabbage is slightly sweet and the sweetness was brought out by the braising. Dried shrimp and shitake mushrooms add umami to the dish.
Our other veggie dish was stewed loofah with bamboo innards. Loofah is a gourd that's usually cooked down with shitake mushroom and other umami inducing stuff into a yummy rice complement. Bamboo innards are harder to explain... umm.. they are these fibrous things in between the hollow part and the outside part of the bamboo. I love these things. They are kind of crunchy and have a very slight bamboo flavor. Another win.
And here are the rest of our dishes - fresh shrimps.
3 color chicken - which was basically regular chicken prepared 2 ways and a black skin chicken. Did you know that black skin chickens actually have white feathers? Yep, true story.
And finally, fresh bamboo shoot soup. Fresh bamboo shoot tastes 100% different from the stuff you get from a can (the kind they put in everything at Chinese restaurants). Fresh is amazing and has a flavor that I dream about. I can't even explain it. It tastes fresh, clean, spring-like, and sweet. Sorry, that sucks. JUST GO EAT IT! They are available in the states now! Go go go!!!
I think we might have eaten other stuff, but I forgot to take pics and so have conveniently forgotten everything else. But shoot, that should be enough for you to run to House of Chicken when you go to Taipei.
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