[Music]
what's up and welcome guys I'm Luke
Martin with chopsticks travel comm and
today we are in one of my favorite
cities in all of Taiwan is je city in my
opinion some of the best Taiwanese food
in the whole island can be found here in
je so today we are taking you to
potentially one of the most famous
restaurants in the whole city and we're
going to be trying their famous dish of
fish head soup so I have been waiting
for this for a long time and I'm super
pumped and we are hungry itself let's go
eat alright guys this is a spot right
here deep in the night market here in je
Sydney and this spot has been open since
1956 so over 60 years old and you can
already see there's a line forming in
front and that is all for their super
popular fish head soup so let's go
inside check the kitchen out and see how
they make this dish
[Music]
don't
[Applause]
okay so we are in the back kitchen now
seeing how they make the very popular
fish head soup and I'm standing right
next to this massive cauldron of pork
bones that is going to be the stock for
the fish head soup so this just smells
already incredible so I guess it's
pretty plain they just mix it in the
bones with some water boil it away for
countless hours and then they mix it the
rest of the ingredients so let's go see
what else the kitchen has to offer so
the next stage is to soak the fish for a
few hours so they use a specific type of
fish it's called a big silver carp and
they've trialed several different kinds
and they found that this fish cooks the
best when deep-fried it becomes the most
tender some other fish will become too
chewy and just check out all this fish
here you can see this is kind of the
sliced fish fillets and then over here
we have a ton of the fish head so this
just looks incredible and then there's a
couple more steps so let me show you
that next so the next step they do is to
bread the fish head and the fish meat
and then the final step is to deep-fry
it and you can see behind me they are
just pounding these oh there's so many
they have five massive deep fryers and
she just told us that they're producing
almost a thousand of these deep fried
fish heads a day that is just a
ridiculous amount extremely hot in here
but this kitchen is just fabulous it's
incredible to watch them at
so we were just in the back kitchen and
now we have come to the front where they
are preparing the actual soup so they
are serving a ton of customers and guys
I cannot get over this just check as if
there is mountains of deep fried fish
heads here
[Music]
they got nothing
here don't run
[Applause]
[Music]
okay we just finished watching her
prepare honestly the most spectacular
preparation of any dish that I've ever
seen in my entire life
so this massive pot here will be feeding
a hundred people so this is the soup
that will be poured on top of the
deep-fried fish head and she's going to
be making a lot more than just one of
these tonight and there is a ton of
ingredients in there but I'll try to
remember all so I can walk you through
this spectacular looking fish head soup
so the first thing she started with was
that same pork bones broth that we saw a
facts I had a really milky consistency
to it then she put a mixture of all
kinds of different ingredients in it was
some garlic some mini shrimp some chili
and a lot of green onion and then after
that she put some very thinly sliced
pork belly you can see in there and then
she put a ton of tofu and then after
that she topped it with a ton of this
tofu skin deep-fried tofu skin and
there's also some wood ear mushrooms in
here and then also the most cabbage I
have ever seen in one place at one time
it must have been so many pounds of
cabbage going in on top of this and then
one very interesting ingredient as you
can see here a lot of these little
orange kind of speckles those are tiger
lilies so actually a flower and I'm sure
I'm forgetting some ingredients but let
me tell you this just smells absolutely
incredible and we're totally ready to go
inside and try it out now so we're
finally sitting down and I am so excited
right now to be devouring all these
beautiful looking Taiwanese
dishes so obviously the centerpiece of
this table is this beauty right here the
signature dish the massive pot of
deep-fried fish head soup so all those
wonderful ingredients we saw her put in
outside in the massive cauldron are all
topped on top of this beautiful looking
deep-fried fish head and that just
smells incredible over here we have our
side dishes we've got some bitter melon
back here we've got some eggplant served
with some dark soy sauce this is an
interesting dish right here this is
actually the top of the mouth of a pig
and then serve with that dark soy sauce
and ginger and then we've got some
asparagus served with mayonnaise over
here we've got a couple more dishes this
is another soup but instead of the fish
head this is just the fish chunk and you
can see the special ingredient that she
added last is the satay sauce or the
Taiwanese barbecue spicy fermented
soybean sauce and it's kind of made an
oil on top and there's a huge chunk of
deep-fried fish there then the je famous
dish is the giro fun which is chicken
rice so minced chicken on top of rice
and then another famous dish she
actually mentioned that this is the
original dish of the restaurant and this
is a kind of an egg soup with some
shrimp in there and she kind of like
shallow boiled this egg with the shrimp
and then mix it with some broth with
just a couple simple ingredients some
green onions and man let me tell you
this just looks like the most incredible
meal ever I'm totally ready to dig in
okay I'm gonna start with the original
dish of the restaurant this is the
coaming done which means smart egg and
this is really cool looking dish so
let's kind of just break in to this egg
right here and get a chunk
and then we'll put that over into my
bowl here with the shrimp and let me get
a little bit more broth and let's try
that we go in for some egg some broth
and that's actually celery in there I
thought it was green onions but the
celery is actually really nice with it
that's a nice movie shrimp and then that
egg yolk is still creamy it's not
overpowering a little bit salty let's
try this eggplant next served with some
dark soy sauce eggplants one of my
favorites so cold it's a little bit
fruity a little bit salty from that soy
sauce a really juicy meaty exit' let's
try this bitter melon next and I'm not
even sure if this is cooked it feels
nice and crisp
and that lives up to the name extremely
bitter really juicy and kind of part as
well oh man that's really better next up
is the asparagus with some mayonnaise
try piece of that
again nice and crisp kind of tastes like
to cover almost okay last side dish is
the roof of the pork note which is
really interesting ingredient I've never
actually tried before so it's served
with some wasabi and some ginger so
let's get some ginger a nice big piece
and that is like up here on the roof of
your mouth so it's very interesting with
try to
oh it's actually not as chewy as I
thought that was taught me as spicy and
that ginger is also a little bit spicy
it doesn't have much of a taste kind of
bland but nice with that ginger next up
is the famous dish here enjoy this is
the chicken rice these nice pieces of
tender chicken on top and then it's kind
of a mix of some spices and the juices
of the chicken which make the sauce on
top of that rice so let's grab a nice
big piece of that Oh mmm oh that's a
good chicken rice it's actually a little
bit spicy you can taste some black
pepper in there but that is a famous
dish here enjoy the most famous dish for
a reason that chicken is just so tender
next up is this beautiful looking bowl
of deep fried fish a massive piece of
that silver carp and then this almost
looks like a curry broth but that is the
broth that she made based on those pork
bones but then a ton of extra
ingredients and then on top of that we
have that satay sauce so let's just try
the broth first
[Music]
that is actually like nothing I've ever
tasted before it has such a complex
flavor profile you can definitely taste
some spice from that barbecue sauce but
it's also a little bit sweet not too
salty and it doesn't have a seafood
flavor whatsoever I'm imagining that
this has soaked up that broth
quite nicely and oh man that feels nice
and firm actually break off a piece and
it's actually quite crispy on the
outside you can see that batter is
sticking on nicely so there I've got a
nice piece of fish let's try that last
but certainly not least is the massive
pot of the fish head soup the signature
dish here and there is just so much
ingredients as I explained earlier and
looks like she's topped it with some
cilantro at the end and I think I'm just
gonna have to go in straight for the
fish head so she told me that the best
piece of meat is kind of hidden
underneath the jawbone behind the cheek
so let me dig in and get that
oh yeah oh man that's just so natural
pure flavor oh and then afterwards you
start to get hints of all of those
ingredients we're just gonna dig further
into this stew to just get the full
effect of all of these ingredients
working together okay I'm gonna get a
big scoop of as much ingredients as I
can I know I'm not gonna be able to get
everything in one bite but that should
be a good attempt and I can see some
pork belly in there that deep-fried tofu
skin big pieces of tofu and let's get a
little bit more of that broth where all
the magic is happening coming from that
rich creamy broth and let's try that
[Music]
all of those ingredients soak the flavor
of that broth up really well the tofu
the tofu skin they're just completely
saturated with the flavor of that broth
what mainly is that key ingredient as
such a sauce which is your barbecue
spicy fermented bean paste okay we are
working on all of the dishes here we
have a lot to eat but that's okay
because everything here is absolutely
phenomenal it's a little bit difficult
to you know pick the meat off of this
fish but when you do get a nice piece it
is certainly rewarding because that
means from that fish is so ridiculously
tender and this stew is phenomenal so we
had a great time just watching them
prepare the Stupak and now it's on our
table and we're gonna enjoy the rest of
this meal okay guys we just finished off
with one of the most incredible meals of
my life that was a food experience I
will certainly not be forgetting that
anytime soon and as you can see now this
place is absolutely packed this is one
of the most popular spots in all of Jaya
city if not the most popular so this
place is called fins homing and I'll
leave some directions down below so you
guys can find it I definitely recommend
it's worth the pilgrimage just coming
down to gie city to try this fish head
soup one of the best dishes I've had
here in Taiwan so thank you very much
for watching I hope you enjoyed this
video make sure to give it a thumbs up
leave me any questions you have in the
comment section and subscribe for more
videos like this and I'll see
on the next video buh-bye