A bowl of eel noodles is a must-try Tainan specialty, and the most well-known place to get it is easily A Jiang Stir-Fried Eel noodles.
The place is fairly notorious for its long lines, so I showed up right when it opened at 5:00 and managed to get seated right away (it was, however, already quite crowded).
Like so many restaurants here, the place does one thing, and it does it well. Eel noodles is basically the only item on the menu; you can either get it dry, or with sauce. The latter seems to be the more popular of the two, so that’s what I went with.
It’s damn good. The pieces of eel are super tender, with a mild fishy bite, and the sauce is a taste explosion. It’s very sweet, slightly sour, garlicky, and a little bit smoky from the searing hot wok.
It’s a good thing that the sauce is so delicious, because there’s a lot of it. It’s halfway between a sauce and a soup. But it works very, very well with the eel and with the thick, chewy noodles. It’s easy to see why this restaurant is so revered.
Location: No. 89, Section 3, Minzu Road, West Central District, Tainan City, Taiwan 700
How to find it: There’s no sign that I could see (in English or Chinese), so look for the glistening, red pile of uncooked eel to know you’re in the right place.