- Welcome to the beef noodle soup battle.
I'm your host, Cup of TJ.
Today we are explor--
Wait.
Where's my camera?
Today we are exploring--
What the?
Welcome cuteas!
In today's episode, we are visiting two Taiwanese
beef noodle soup restaurants that are extremely
popular here in Taipei, Taiwan.
Our goal here is to decide which of the two
is actually the best.
(pop music)
We are inside of the restaurant right now
and it is so packed.
There's a line out the door and right when it was
opened the spaces were already filled, so.
And granted, it is a Saturday, it is the weekend,
but dang, there's a lot of people.
Also, weirdly, the weather today is very, very hot
and it should be rainy and kind of cold.
But it's fine, we're gonna eat this bowl of noodles anyways.
So we just ordered the half tendon, half meat,
spicy beef noodle soup.
Hopefully it's gonna come soon.
Oh, by the way, when you guys are here,
you're probably gonna be seated with some strangers,
so don't be alert.
Okay.
(pop music)
We have gotten my spicy beef noodle soup right here.
I don't know if you guys can see,
but the color of the soup is just red.
It's red, it's oily.
And right over here we have some delicious, gelatinous
slices of tendon.
Look at that.
Oh my gosh.
And right over here we have these big pieces of beef.
See, like these slices of fat.
That's gonna be so good when you bite into it.
Now, let's do some noodle pull porn.
(slow, sexy music)
- [Man] Oh yeah.
(slow, sexy music)
- Okay, ooo, look at these glistening, springing noodles.
I'm so excited.
Let's take a big slurp.
(people chattering)
Oh.
Oh man.
That's really, really good.
You guys, that soup is so flavorful.
Whatever spices and seasoning they put in the soup,
it's really clinging onto these noodles.
You can definitely taste the flavor when you slurp.
Let's do one more slurp.
(people chattering)
Mmm.
Now, let's try some of this chewy tendon.
Oh.
These pieces are pretty big, they're pretty good.
Okay.
(people chattering)
Mmm.
These tendon pieces are buttery.
They're almost like butter, they just melt in your mouth.
You can taste that oily goodness.
Oh, let's try a piece of the beef.
See how it is.
This is a huge piece, but, we're gonna dig into it anyways.
Oh wow.
Mmm.
Nice.
Took one bite into this piece of meat
and it just slid off.
Tender, my goodness, and juicy.
(people chattering)
Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum.
I'm gonna be honest, I've been here three different times,
but at different periods.
Maybe like a year or two years later,
and I've kind of forgotten what it tastes like,
but it actually tastes really, really good.
The only thing I'm kind of iffy about is the price.
So for this bowl of noodle soup, it is 240 for a small
and 270 for a large.
In Taiwan, that's considered really, really expensive.
Yeah, that's about, what is it?
Seven, eight dollars.
- [Cameraman] It's about eight bucks.
- Eight bucks, yeah.
I mean, it's pretty standard in other places,
but here in Taipei, it's considered expensive.
Okay, we're gonna go ahead and try
some of this soup.
Oh my goodness.
It's got this almost orange red, ruby color to it.
- [Cameraman] It looks oily.
- It does look oily as heck.
You can definitely see all the little circles of oil.
It's just like drinking oil, saucy soup.
Okay.
Oh.
I take a sip of the soup and I just feel the oil film
is all over my lips and my tongue.
Some people might want something lighter.
Good news for you, they have a lighter soup option
so you can always go that way.
Let's take our final bite before we head
to the next restaurant.
(pop music)
We are at the second place now,
and the second place is literally this
tiny little shack.
Like, look around.
Look at this.
- [Cameraman] That's it.
- There's so many people waiting outside
so we're gonna do our best to eat this
as fast as we can to give people a place to sit.
Right away, I don't know if you can tell,
it looks so different from the one we just had.
Right here, the beef is thinly sliced.
It's not a chunk.
And this broth is so much lighter than the other one.
In terms of the oil, I think the oil level
is still the same, but it's much lighter
so they probably put less of the soy sauce in there.
Here are the pieces of the tendon
looking pretty similar to the past one.
Another noticeable difference,
and I actually love this a lot, is their noodles
are much thicker.
They look chewier, they look springier.
Look at that.
Oh, that looks so good.
(slow, sexy music)
- [Man] Oh yeah.
(slow, sexy music)
- I'm definitely more of a fan of this type of noodles
than the thinner ones, especially in my beef noodle soup.
Okay, let's try it.
The taste test begins.
Oh, that looks so good.
Here we go.
(pop music)
Mmm.
Oh, it's yummy.
Nice, soft chew.
I'm a big fan.
And it's so bouncy.
Let's try the slices of beef right here.
Look at that beautiful swirl of fat.
Yum.
And these nice beef, oh, oh, it's just--
Did you see that?
It's just, like, teared off.
It's so tender.
(pop music)
Mmm.
Oh, yum.
This beef has this nice, smoky taste to it.
It's not as salty as the previous restaurant,
but it's just as tender.
My goodness, look at that.
It just really just tears apart with your chopstick.
It's insane.
Let's get some soup here.
Okay.
Mmm.
Mhm.
It's light, but it still has that nice beefy flavor to it.
It's not as salty as the previous one, and,
I also don't feel that oil film.
Another plus to this particular bowl
is this is 200 for the small one,
and I think it's, 250, for the big one.
So slightly cheaper than the previous restaurant.
(woman speaking Taiwanese)
So the boss lady wants me to tell you guys that
the special here is this tofu dish.
It's over there on the wall.
Okay, let's take another bite.
(pop music) (people chattering)
The noodles are so thick and long and chewy,
I can't slurp it all in one bite.
Well let's eat some of this.
Ooo, tendon.
I didn't even try that yet.
(pop music)
Mmm.
Yum.
Okay you guys.
Here I am standing next to a pot of meat.
I think this is probably the best video backdrop
I've ever had.
How did I feel about this particular restaurant?
Well, the service was so much better.
They were super friendly.
When you're in there, you don't feel like you're rushed.
You don't feel like it's super hectic or anything.
You're just in your own little beef noodle soup shack.
Loved the broth, it was light.
It didn't make me feel bad and heavy after eating it.
I thought it was pretty dang good.
Also, the meat was tender, it was juicy.
I loved that it was sliced up.
You could see the beautiful fatty swirl.
I'm loving it.
Well let's get out of here and decide which is better.
Them too, right?
- [Cameraman] Yeah.
- Oh.
Yo, I've been tricked.
They have another whole section for them.
They have a huge restaurant right here.
I mean, it's not huge, but it's certainly another section
so you can actually get your food faster, as well.
And the boss lady told me that they're actually moving
from that little stall to here officially in January,
which is probably when this video is gonna come out.
So, if you come here in 2018,
this is the spot.
It is time for the deliberation.
Judges?
It's just me.
(cameraman laughing) I'm the judge.
It's time for the final deliberation.
I think, based on my preferences and the things
that I've said, I think you guys know
which one I'm gonna choose.
But before I choose, please comment below on which
of the two.
Was it Yong Kang niúròu miàn
or Lin Dong Fang niúròu miàn that you loved more?
So the first, or the second?
Well based on my preferences,
and what I ate and what was in my mouth,
I have to say Lin Dong Fang niúròu miàn
was the better one of the two.
The broth was lighter, the beef was just more tender.
It just slid off.
It was less oily, that was very important,
and the service was so much nicer.
It was a nice compliment to the noodle soup.
I want you to know that there's a lot of other places
to get beef noodle soup here in Taipei, Taiwan.
Those two restaurants are just two of the most
popular ones.
So now if you have a day or two here in Taipei,
you know which of those two restaurants to go to.
But don't be afraid to expand out,
to go out your comfort zone and to eat other
beef noodle soup here in Taipei.
And that's it for today's episode.
Give it a big thumbs up.
I'll see you guys next time.
Bye. (kissing)
- [Man] Meow.
- Have you guys seen that jif?
- [Cameraman] Gif, jif, I don't know?
- Where like Homer Simpson's in the bushes
and he's like.
Welcome to the suburbs of Taiwan.
If you are wondering who is helping me film,
it is my new cameraman.
It's Kevin Tai.
Hi. - Hi everyone.
- He is also a YouTuber.
He does travel videos, food videos, lifestyle videos
all around Asia.
He also raps.
- Yo, check it out.
Yeah, I do. (laughing)
- Yeah, exactly.
Head over to his channel, give him some love,
subscribe, and we'll see you guys in the next video.
Bye.