How do noodles and fried chicken sound?
Both are made with precision and great care at a new Taiwanese restaurant in Andersonville, according to NBC 5's Food Guy Steve Dolinsky.
The recipes stem from the kitchens that sprung up around Taiwan in the 1950s. Noodles are crucial, but so are pickled vegetables and lightly fried chicken that have become street food staples there.
With a small kitchen, it helps that the menu at Minyoli, in Andersonville, is a compact one. And much of it is dominated by noodles. Two types actually – a thicker one for soups and a thinner one for sauces.
“So the specific type of cuisine that we are cooking here is called juàn cūn cuisine. Juàn cūn is the type of village that was created by the Taiwanese government after the Chinese civil war,” said Rich Wang, Chef and Owner of Minyoli.
Each day, a cook is charged with transforming three flours into those two types of noodles. From tiny balls, pressed out enough so they fit into a dough sheeter, then passed through a couple of times, until they can be sent through a final time with a cutter attachment. It’s repetitive but necessary work - to make simple dishes like chilled noodles with a sweet and savory sesame sauce.
“Think of it as a pasta salad,” he said.
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An enormous vat of beef stock simmers throughout the day, and some of that beef fat, or tallow, is combined with black vinegar and chile oil, to make another sauce, this one combined with cooked scallions, ginger and garlic, crowned with thinly-sliced braised beef and a shower of fried shallots.
“We harvest the tallow from the stock-making process and infuse it with spices and soy sauce and vinegar, and top with house braised beef shank,” said Wang.
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Red braised beef noodle soup is Minyoli’s signature dish. “Housemade bone stock that is seasoned with broad beans sauce,” he said.
Thicker noodles are used in this case, topped with extremely tender - and thicker - slices of beef shank, finished with pickled greens and scallions.
There are more than noodles here. A light starter of pickled cucumbers features an assertive sauce of housemade chili oil, fermented black beans and garlic.
“It is spicy, it is tangy, zesty,” said Wang.
The popcorn fried chicken, meanwhile, is a must.
“Taiwanese fried chicken is iconic. Marinated for at least four hours. Breading is sweet potato starch. So it is double-fried in order to give it more crispiness and then we season it with plum powder,” he said. “So it has that natural savoriness and sweetness,” he said.
Minyoli offers a bar as well with creative drinks and a handful of simple yet memorable desserts that won’t leave you feeling uncomfortably full.
Here's where you can go:
5420 N. Clark St.
