The BEST Taiwanese Street Food In America? (Little Taipei)

Dan Dan Noodles. You know me, I like the chicken soup, the chee-tang. What you doing, man? What you eating, Dan? I love Ube. I love it. Are we back in Taiwan or what, guys? What's going on, everybody? Welcome to a very special Taiwanese episode of Fun Bros Food. Now, when you're thinking about specifically Taiwanese food in New York City, you're mostly going to find it in Flushing, Queens, and a little bit in Chinatown, New York. But let me tell you this, in East Village, Manhattan, there is a little Taipei growing. Now, some of these chains are directly from Taiwan, and some of these are brand-new original concepts started by Taiwanese-Americans. But we are going to be trying a ton of them today. I'm super hungry. I'm super excited. And of course, we had to lead off with Meat Fresh. Meat Fresh is probably the most famous and largest Taiwanese dessert chain out there. They specialize in their own-made potato taro balls. They got some brand-new items. They're always innovating. You know what it is. It's Meat Fresh. Let's check it out. All right, you guys. We are trying out the brand-new items here at Meat Fresh. You've got the Fluffy Matcha, and I've got a Matcha Latte. Cheers, brother. Shout-out to Meat Fresh for always innovating and always taking the Taiwanese dessert game to the next level. I appreciate that. Everybody gotta adapt. When you have a drink that's so layered, there's kind of a way to drink it, and it's kind of a funny way to do it, but I'm gonna do it. I am digging all the way down. I have to go to the depth of that cup. Man, that's really good. It gives you so much of what you love from the matcha world, which originally blew up in the last couple years, but it still gives you that classic Taiwanese flavor. It's an elevated fusion of trendy foods. Moving along here at Meat Fresh. Andrew, I've got taro and ube fresh right next to each other. You've never even seen that. Taro and ube, that is a purple root duo right there. Taro, more from Taiwan. Ube, more from the Philippines. All right, guys, I'm gonna try to make this bite, try to get everything in here. I'm gonna try to get everything in my bite, too. The pudding, the little pudding right here. Little pudding. Ice cream up top. Get a little bit of ice on the side of the mountain. Shaved ice. In-house grass jelly. That's delicious. I actually like this a lot. This might be my favorite thing right now. Oh my goodness, and then there was a layer of ice underneath with the brown sugar. Dude, you really gotta have the taro and the ube in the same bite. That fluffy matcha whip is something else. And of course, guys, still in the brand new items section from Meat Fresh. Andrew, you are looking at a matcha latte, which they did not have prior. And I've got a matcha latte with a boba and red bean. You guys know matcha, man. It's all the wave. I think it's here to stay. Matcha is kind of a nice in-between if you don't want to get coffee and you want something maybe a little bit on the higher end of the caffeine side of tea, so. But it'll kind of give you a different caffeine rush. Yeah, it's a slightly, it's a slow-release caffeine rush. Matcha lattes. It's real milky smooth. I like it. Get me ready for the rest of the video. This is giving you something old school. It's giving you something new school too. Obviously, matcha was around in Japan for a really long time, but in terms of this sort of fusion of like modern sweet latte matcha flavors, it's pretty new. Some other new items that I wanted to try is their popcorn series and they have different flavors. Look, they have salted egg yolk. You know, that's the wavy flavor of Asia. And then you got brown sugar, of course, another popular flavor. And 13 spices. Is this mala or not? I don't know. We're going to find out. Oh, I am a huge fan of 13 spices noodle, Andrew, at Subcraft. Oh my gosh. Smell it. Whoa. Pour it out. Whoa. Yo, Andrew, it tastes like the noodle from Subcraft. This brown sugar one is super good. Salted egg yolk. The salted egg yolk is the monarchy popcorn here at Meat Fresh. For me, personally, if I was looking for a sort of a dessert, little finishing snack, I would go with the salted egg yolk. But if I was actually really hungry around lunchtime, I would go with the 13 spices. Here I have the brand new ube milk tea on ice. Dang, they're going hard with the ube and the matcha. I like it. Here we have the mango berry shaved ice. So you might think, okay, they've had this for a while. The small size is new. Personal hand serving. This is my favorite milk tea I had today. This ube ice milk tea with the real bits of ube smeared on the outside. This is it. I give this a five out of five. Hey, shout out to Pampangas. This is just right in the perfect zone. They melted some of the milk flavor into the shaved ice. So you have some shaved ice that's pure ice and some that's milk ice. Listen, guys, I cannot think of a better place to start off this little Taipei East Village food crawl than Meat Fresh. You guys, come check out the new items. On to the next spot. All right, you guys, we are walking on St. Mark's right now in the East Village and we are headed to 886. And this restaurant, I might have to say, might be one of the coolest Taiwanese restaurants in the entire city. All right, you guys, the next spot on our little Taipei East Village crawl, of course, 886. The coolest Taiwanese restaurant, maybe in the city. I mean, if you're looking for a vibe, you're looking for something that's gonna replicate some type of cool night market energy, this is it. They have their own pineapple cake. Alcoholic sells from here. They also got their own chili oil. Basically, the owners, Eric and Andy, they're doing a lot of cool things. Shout out to Eric and Andy. David, so what are we ordering? I love the food here, but I feel like we got to get a few really, really Taiwanese things. Like, because this is specifically Taiwanese food. Well, you probably got to go with popcorn chicken. Yen su chi. Everybody loves that. They do a version here that has honey glaze on it. So that's like the elevation or a little bit of the twist that they have. Maybe even what? That Taiwanese sausage fried rice with sacha is crazy. Oh, the Taiwanese sa... Dude, they got so many good... Okay, and the Hakka stir-fry, because there's a lot of Hakka people in Taiwan, maybe. That's like kind of a unique dish. Oh, man. What else, David? They have a small menu here, and you know what the small menu allows me to do, Andrew? Ensure that everything is a bang. Let's go order. I think that 886 is a type of concept that a lot of people would not have predicted existed more than just like two years, three years ago. Man, it's very, very modern, and what I love about it is that they are taking very traditional Taiwanese dishes. They're not reinventing things. They're putting their slightly own twist on it. Maybe different ingredients and a different way of cooking, but really, they are traditional dishes. Heavy wok work. I mean, you can see the wok hay in this Taiwanese sausage fried rice. Look how brown it is. You can see each little rice grain is a little bit fried on the side. I mean, here you have the Hakka stir-fry. Everything's cut in a symmetrical sense so that you can pick it all up with your chopsticks. Yo, man, 886, guys. Taiwanese classics. I love it. The wok is real seasoned, too. A little spicy. Round two here at 886. Andrew, I've got the sambeiji, a three-cup chicken. This is a sleeper dish. A lot of people don't know about this. Even at, like, a boba shop, you can get it at. This is actually another boba shop dish. For sure, you can get this popcorn chicken at any spot that's going to serve Taiwanese snacks. Right. Salt and pepper, yin su ji. However, it has been elevated here with additional fried basil, additional honey glaze. Let's get it. Man, this is good. Guys, listen. Here on the weekends at 886, there are so many Taiwanese-Americans as well as any type of people, not just Asians, getting drinks, too. It is very rare to see people drink alcohol at Chinese spots or Chinese-speaking spots. They do here at 886. Nah, this is kind of a lit Taiwanese spot. Right here, guys. I really recommend it. St. Mark's. David, this is probably the most iconic Taiwanese dish that they have. This is the lo ba bang. AKA, in Mandarin, the lu rou fan. Yeah. Everybody loves this. This is like a braised minced pork with sauce over rice. You have the preserved veggies. You have a little cilantro. You have the egg. This is a classic Taiwanese lunch food right here. Andrew, I've been hanging out with Taiwanese people, and this is like the only thing they get for lunch. Lo ba bang. It's so elevated, yet it's so traditional. I think it's only fair that instead of lu rou fan, they call it lo ba bang. Overall, guys, if you guys are in the East Village, come to 886. Say what's up to Eric. Say what's up to Andy. Crazy. Honestly, I think there should be an 886 in every big city. Great for dates. Great for your mates. All right, you guys. We're on the exact same block that Meat Fresh was on, 886 was on. Now, we are checking out another chain from Taiwan, It's not just 44 South Village. 44 South Village. Taipei Beef Noodles. I can read that, David. All right, you guys. We just went around the block, and then we went back. We're right across the street from Meat Fresh right now, Andrew. The little Taipei is real. And we're outside of a spot that originated in Taipei. The first location in America was in Flushing, Queens. So you know it's legit. And now it's in East Village. We are talking about 44 South Village Taipei Beef Noodles. They're trying to bring authentic Taiwanese beef noodle soup to the world. It says it right here. We aim to be the number one beef noodles in the hearts of overseas Chinese people around the world. Therefore, we use 44 South Village as our brand name. Let's go. Andrew, I'm not gonna lie. I think this little Taipei East Village thing, it might be even realer than I thought. Yo, you know what I love? We're getting different versions of authentic dishes. Like, I think 44 South Village, we might see that it's very traditional. 886 had a slight twist to it. Meat Fresh, of course, that's traditional. And it's got the twist. So it's got both sides. Yo, I am looking at a chicken scallion vermicelli right here. They said this is very, very Taiwanese. In fact, Andrew, it is so Taiwanese, Andrew. I've never even had it before. Wow. No, no. That's... David, spoiler. I had that on Uber Eats during the pandemic. I like that dish a lot. Aw, you had it, and I didn't have it, bro. You know me. I like the chicken soup. The cheetah. 44 South Village. Straight from Taipei. Taipei, New York. Let's go. Yo, this soup is so good. Yo, the broth is so good. I almost want to dip something in it, like an au jus. Luckily, what I do have here is one of my favorite, and sort of a slightly Americanized dish, is the nuru jianbing, which is a beef roll. Basically, it is your scallion pancake wrapped around some braised beef. And originally, Andrew, in Shandong, where mom is from, they just put a big piece of onion in a cong you bing, like this. But now they've added, you know, beef and sauces and all these things. You're saying in mom's hometown, they would just wrap a big piece of chive or onion with scallion pancake, and then just eat that? To this day. By the way, Andrew, I also have a guabao here, made famous in America by Eddie Huang and Bauhaus and Momofuku. But this is the real OG OG version. That's like the ones I've had on the streets of Taiwan. Yo, yo, you know what it is, Andrew, that makes it more like the streets of Taiwan? The heavy crushed sugar peanuts. Yeah. Heavy. The OG one is very sweet. Hand foods. Wow. I really like this scallion pancake. It might be house-made. Dip in it. You know I gotta dip it. How was it, mixologist? This is one of my favorite Chinese hand foods of all time. Guys, so this dish I have right here, I used to think it was called lu rou fan, which is like the minced pork dish, but it's not minced, it's kou rou fan, which means it's a chunk of pork. So this is really what they specialize in. I actually, for me, personally prefer kou rou fan over lu rou fan. You know what's more traditional about this? This tea egg is cooked all the way through, but at 886, it was a soft egg yolk. So, you know, Try to be more traditional. I'm just, I'm not gonna look. 44 South is more traditional. Over here, we've got the dan dan mian. This is the classic spicy sesame noodle. A lot of people order really Americanized versions of dan dan mian or dan dan noodles all the time, but this is the real thing. So when it comes to pork belly, I like the pieces that are at least 50% meat and 50% fat. In Cantonese, we'd call it bun fei sou. Half meat, half fat. The dan dan mian, really strong here. The way they cook their noodles, I can see why this chain is a direct port to Taiwan. All right, you guys. As far as the favorite dishes here at 44 South Village go, I'm gonna go with the sesame chicken noodle soup. Guys, to no surprise, my favorite dish is the beef noodle soup. Just look at how many preserved vegetables. Look how deep the broth is. Look at these chunks of beef. Need I say more? Lu rou mian is synonymous, Andrew, with the island of Taiwan. If we are doing a Taiwanese crawl through the East Village, we would be remiss to miss out on Ho Foods. Ho Foods is one of the only spots that specializes just in beef noodle soup, and it is rich here. It is good, and it's even cooked by a guy named Rich. So that's why it's extra rich. We ate here with Andrew Yang. You may remember it. You may not. We're outside of Ho Foods in the East Village. This has some of the best beef noodle soup you can find in the whole city. But first, let's meet our guy. Andrew Yang. Hey, guys. Great to see you. We gotta check it out on this Taiwanese crawl. All right, I'm here with chef and owner Rich Ho of Ho Foods. Rich, explain to me kind of this concept of bringing authentic beef noodle soup to East Village. Being Taiwanese, I couldn't really find the food that I wanted to eat. So I decided to kind of make it myself. And now what's cool is that there seems to be a few of us around, and I get to eat other people's food, which makes me happy. I hope there's more and more. There's so much more to eat and discover, and it's all really delicious. All right, the food has arrived here. Like we said, their menu is small, but the quality is high. Here we have the spicy, extra rich, niu rou mian, aka beef noodle soup. And of course, your lu rou fan. This is not the only time we've had lu rou fan in this video, but this is the first time we've had it in this format. I think for me, the biggest thing that I love about this beef noodle soup off the rip is the wide noodles. Anytime there is wide noodles or egg noodles, I will opt to get those. Ho Foods niu rou mian beef noodle soup. This might be the best in the city. Noodles are nice and thick. They soak up a lot of the soup. Cooked perfectly. Not overcooked. Not undercooked. My goodness. There is something that hits you deep in your soul about Ho Foods niu rou mian. You know why you know it's good? It's because you want to drink the broth. You just want to drink that broth straight up, bro. Like we said, they have other classic Taiwanese items here. Ponyo chao sou, which is a spicy wonton. As you can see for my lu rou fan, the classic Taiwanese dish, this soft-boiled egg is very soft in the middle, just like how 886 does it. It's kind of like a ramen-influenced egg. I'm gonna go ahead and give the beef noodle soup, as well as the wonton, straight up, man, a five out of five. I really, really like them. And they have a tiny menu for a reason, guys. Sometimes they're less is more. Come to Ho Foods, menu is small. There's a lot of love put into this food. Rich is Taiwanese-American, but he's still keeping very true to the roots. I know that he worked in a lot of ramen shops, as well as, you know, steady niu rou mian. So he got a high execution. Is it notable that Rich is actually from the West Coast? He's from the 626. Yeah. You have a guy from the 626 who came to New York and is serving beef noodle soup out here in East Village, guys. I'm not trying to be like a 626 homer and always talk about how the 626 has the best food, but man, in Manhattan, this might be the best beef noodle soup. Shout out to the 6. Next up on our Taipei meets East Village crawl is the braised shop. Now, this is a brand new concept. It's only a few years old. And the owner is from New Taipei City. He wants to bring lu wei diens, which are like braised star anise five spice spots, to New York City. Let's check it out. Let me set the scene for you guys. It's Da'an District, Taipei. We're having lunch. Side of the road, braised shop, bringing that vibe to East Village. They give you three different types of chilies. Of course, spicy. You just got chopped garlic, of course, green onion, and you've got the Taiwanese black sauce. I don't even know how to describe what this flavor is. It's sweet though. I'm gonna go with the base of the prince noodle. Then I'm gonna go with the base of the wide Kwan glass noodle. I'm gonna put a piece of pork belly right on top, maybe a corn. And of course, I have my eye on this little guy. They call him the Niu Rou Yuan, the braised shop. Are we back in Taiwan or what, guys? So while our little Taipei, New York section isn't that big, food is good, and Taiwanese food in general deserves more restaurants in the city. It's really cool to see chains from Taiwan such as Meat Fresh make it over and offer authentic high quality products just like you would have them in Taiwan. So shout out to Meat Fresh for collaborating on this video with us. And let us know what you think in the comments down below. How good is Taiwanese food? What's your favorite Taiwanese dish and do they need more restaurants in the city? Let us know. Peace.