✨ AI quick take
Looking for a meaty, filling bowl of rice noodles around Taipei Main Station and 二二八公園? 劉師傅客家粄條 (Liu Shi Fu Hakka Rice Noodles) on Xiangyang Road is no overnight social-media sensation. Owner Liu Jia-deng comes from a Hakka family in Zhubei. He and his wife used to sell audio equipment at Zhonghua Market, turning to his mother's cooking skills only after the market was demolished in 1992. From Kaifeng Street to Xiangyang Road, their fragrant braised pork hock, Hakka rice noodles and Handmade Wonton Soup have fed local students and office workers while keeping a taste of downtown life alive.
Liu Shi Fu's Hakka cooking doesn't simply pile on oil and salt. The family recipes have been adjusted: the pork hock retains its braised fragrance and gelatinous texture, while the mains become set meals that suit Taipei's working rhythm. If your idea of Hakka noodles is a bowl crowded with fried shallots and chives, this may not be that style. But pork hock with rice noodles, followed by wonton soup? The direction is clear.
● Xiang Xiang Braised Pork Hock with Dry Rice Noodles
The pork hock is the star. Braising flavors both skin and meat, leaving the skin springy, the seam between fat and lean silky with gelatin, and the meat with enough texture that it doesn't collapse when lifted. The rice noodles lean chewy and keep their bite after mixing with the sweet-savory sauce. Together with the pork, they're very filling. Neither the look nor the aroma has the abundance of fried shallots and chives associated with traditional dry Hakka rice noodles, and the seasoning is more restrained. To this uncle, it's downtown Taipei's practical approach: settle a stomach that's been busy all morning.
● Handmade Wonton Soup
The Handmade Wonton Soup has thin wrappers and substantial meat fillings; the serving originally seen here contained six wontons, quite a filling combination with the pork hock noodles. The bone broth has a mellow warmth, without enough salt to overpower the main, and rounds off the braising sauce and gelatinous richness nicely. There really isn't much greenery, so the bowl looks a little lonely—I won't make excuses for it. Still, sipping broth and eating wontons soothes the throat and does what a set-meal soup should.
On a first visit, try Xiang Xiang Braised Pork Hock with Dry Rice Noodles with Handmade Wonton Soup. If you love a heavy fried-shallot aroma, adjust your expectations: this is about deeply braised pork and chewy noodles. If the meat feels a little heavy afterward, cross the street for a lap around 二二八公園 and shake off the afternoon drowsiness along the way.
- Location:台北市中正區襄陽路33號, about an 8-minute walk from Taipei Main Station (台北車站), exit Z8, near Land Bank, Chengzhong Market and 二二八紀念公園.
- Type:Hakka rice noodles, pork hock with rice or noodles, pork trotters and Handmade Wonton Soup.
- Distinctive features:Entered the food business in 1992, drawing on family Hakka cooking and adjusting the flavors for everyday city life.
- Suited to:Office workers and students around Taipei Main Station, or anyone after a quick set meal built around pork hock.
📌 Editor's closing thoughts
What deserves to endure about 劉師傅客家粄條 isn't simply a longer article, but the family story of moving from a Zhonghua Market audio shop into Hakka cooking. Xiang Xiang Braised Pork Hock with Dry Rice Noodles delivers satisfying heft through thoroughly braised skin and meat, and Handmade Wonton Soup completes the meal. It may not match everyone's image of traditional rice noodles, but beside Chengzhong Market and 二二八公園, this straightforward, dependable old-school lunch has a place of its own.
