Yiminghao Noodle

When people come to old streets, what they want is to sample original and traditional snacks—whether they are delicious or not. Qishan Old Street, an old street revived just in recent years, has only a few long-established eateries on it. Eateries on the street are mostly renovated after crowds of people appear here. In fact,delicious food is rarely found on Zhongshan Road (中山路) in Qishan District. The delicacy you should sample during your trip to Qishan in summer is actually Yiminghao Noodle on Fuxin East Street. Although the eatery also provides most of the common dishes served in noodle stores, such as mitaimu (silver needle noodles, 米苔目), noodle soup with shredded meat (肉絲湯麵), and side dishes, the iconic dish of the eatery is Japanese soba noodles. A dish prepared with Japanese culinary approach, the cooked and then iced soba noodles are put on bamboo slips complemented with scallions, wasabi, and sesame sauce. Although the scorching heat may cause you to lose appetite, you would like to order another dish when you just half finish the first one.

But if you don't check out its location on the Internet in advance, you may pass the eatery without looking at it consciously. Light at the entrance is dim, the signboard is covered by an awning, and the eatery does not stand on a busy old street or a main road. Yet walk inside the eatery, you can see clues revealing it's a renovated old shop. The walls are decorated with old-time posters. On a pillar hangs a signboard of an old grocery (in Taiwan it's called "kam-a-tiam"). You can also see an obsolete clock, old-fashioned bottles of Taiwan Beer, and a streetlight in early years. The vintage atmosphere may be a little bit artificial, but at least you can feel the owner's efforts, which just makes it different to dine here.