Shanghai

Beef noodle soup, so simple yet so delicious, has been escaping my clutches for the last two years that I've been in Beijing. In Taiwan, I've had the pleasure of devouring bowl after bowl of the delicious beef soup, but there was nothing like it in Beijing.

Even back home in New York City, I was able to come across the simple mixture of braised beef in a tomato-based beef broth with noodles, bokchoi, and suan cai (pickled Chinese cabbage), but in Beijing the closest thing to it had been at the fast-food chains of Yonghe King and the Goody House, and both versions were only mediocre on their best days.

Chef Hung Jinlong, chef and founder of Chef Hung, an award-winning Taiwanese noodle beef soup chain, hopes to fill the void in Beijing.

At the opening in November, Hung said he is bringing his winning broths and noodles to the Chinese mainland completely unchanged, offering patrons a taste of what it is to eat at one of his two establishments in Taipei.

Eager to try the noodle soup, I enlisted the help of two of my colleagues and we headed to Chef Hung's Beijing location, at Wangfujing.

The outlet is in a mall, and Chef Hung feels like a fast food joint. Much to my surprise there was also a bubble tea bar inside. I was glad to see that the homely nature of beef noodle soup wasn't lost in a place like Wangfujing.

On the very first page of the menu is a list of Chef Hung's championship bowls, the very recipes which won him consecutive titles at Taiwan's beef noodle soup competition.

We ordered the Champion Beef Shank with Noodle in Soup, a traditional red roasted noodle soup, a bowl of the Champion Beef Brisket in clear soup, a simple clear beef broth, and a bowl of Champion Braised Beef in Tomato Soup, a more authentic Taiwanese-style beef noodle soup.

There was one more bowl on the front page, the award-winning beef shank, tendon and tripe soup, but we were going for the tried-and-true beef noodle soups. All the bowls on the front page were priced at 58 yuan ($9), which is very expensive for a bowl of noodle soup in Taiwan where the average bowl of beef noodle soups is only NT$ 150 ($5).

We also ordered a Taiwan street food staple, xianshuji (Taiwan-style crisp-fried chicken chop).

The bowls arrived promptly and were very good portions. Each bowl was filled to the brim with beefy broth and the servings of beef were more than adequate.

My other two colleagues, who had never tried authentic Taiwanese beef noodle soup other than the instant noodle version, were immediately awestruck by the natural beefiness of the broth and the springy nature of the noodles.

We rated the tomato-based soup the best, and personally I found it to taste the most like what Taiwanese beef noodle soup should be.

The beef was also braised to meltingly tender, much like the pork found in Japanese pork bone ramen. Overall this was our favorite bowl, and my only problem was the lack of suan cai - but that was probably an oversight on the server's part.

We also liked the clear soup noodles, a dish which was elegant in its simplicity.

The red roasted beef noodle soup was least appreciated and was the only bowl we left unfinished.

Despite Chef Hung's claims that no monosodium glutamate (MSG) was used, I still felt a tingly aftertaste.

Overall, it was pleasant to see how Chef Hung has replicated the flavors from Taiwan in Beijing.

You can also get to taste other favorites like luroufan (Taiwanese braised pork rice). If you are in the neighborhood, drop in for a taste.

You may contact the writer at ericjou@chinadaily.com.cn.

China Daily

(China Daily 12/04/2011 page13)