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Review content:
i was born in 1975. at the time of this writing, i am thirty years old. my family is from taiwan. in fact, i think the original ay chung noodle house is near where my dad grew up. well, milpitas's ay chung flour rice noodle shop is a really cool place. it's a casual eatery where you place your order at the front, pay, grab some utensils, sit down at a casual table, watch some taiwanese tv on a big flat panel tv, and then receive your food and drinks from the polite servers. the place is open decently late, which is nice. you see, back when i was living in berkeley, i'd often hit up 168 in the richmond pierce street 99 ranch pacific east mall. back then, that was easily my favourite taiwanese restaurant. yeah, 168 is pretty much a taiwanese joint even though it serves taiwanese food as well as chinese food such as shanghainese food, i guess. anyway, ay chung is more of an unadulterated taiwanese restaurant, i.e. they pretty much serve only taiwanese food.
some good dishes to try include the chicken thigh rice, the squid stew bean noodle soup (bean noodle, not noodle soup with bean!), beef stew noodle soup (gou ba mi or [in mandarin] neu ro mien), oyster pancake (uh-ah jien), pork chop rice, and meat ball (bawuhn or [in mandarin] rowuhn, which is not really a meat ball but a meat dumpling). as with many taiwanese restaurants, the english translations of the names of dishes are often really, really, _really_ "wack." seriously! however, the food's anything but wack. it's really good. oh, i bet the crispy fried chicken is good here; but honestly, i've never had it.
the boba, tea, and blended drinks here are cheaper than at fantasia, but we all know fantasia is still the ultimate best place in the silicon valley to get boba or coffee drinks. no doubt! the freezes are just squishees, but i'd rather have an almond squishee than a cherry coke slurpee; wouldn't you?
listen, one thing that i really like at ay chung is their hot sauce! you see, i'm really immersed in the local korean community, and most people don't realise that i'm actually taiwanese and not korean since i speak korean, dj korean music, teach tzaekwondo, and all sorts of crap that started way before the whole halryu thing. i'm really into spicy food (i've done the cluck u. 911 challenge), which i guess people associate more with korean culture than taiwanese. it's true; taiwanese food typically isn't that spicy. however, wow, this ay chung hot sauce is something that any taiwanese kid can be proud of!
anyway, eat here now!
(btw, in case you haven't figured it out; the milpitas location isn't 30 years old.)
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