Taiwanese Restaurant - Song Shi Shougong Bu

At most of my favorite little restaurants in Taiwan, there are one or two dishes that the restaurant does quite well, while the rest of the menu items are average. But at this little restaurant, Song Shi Shougong Bu, not only do they have a good amount of variety on the menu, most of the things on the menu are really good. Below is the storefront, found on 31 Changchun (長春) Road in Hsinchu.


Below are the steamed rouyuan. If you want to eat rouyuan in Hsinchu, most natives would recommend that you go to Chenghuang temple, where they serve the deep-fried Hsinchu-style rouyuan with large pieces of pork and bamboo shoots inside. However, I much prefer the steamed rouyuan, with the soft skin and the filling made with more finely ground pork, as served at this restaurant. In addition to the sauce, which is just as important as the filling, there are two other sauces on top of the sauce, as well as cilantro. Two of the small dumplings go for NT$30.


Next is migao, a glutinous rice dish served with a generous amount of sweet-hot sauce. Also NT$30.


Here is a plate of black stinky tofu with pickled cabbage on the side. The heap of white on top of each piece of tofu is pureed garlic. There is also some sliced red pepper to go with the tofu. The spiciness from the red peppers and the freshly deep-fried tofu go together well with the cold and slightly sweet pickled cabbage. The skin of the black stinky tofu might be a little thicker than normal stinky tofu, but I could not detect any difference in taste. Cost is NT$40.

Next is a bowl of noodles with cilantro and pureed garlic on top. Also NT$40.


All of these items are very common, but I can't think of any other restaurant that has all of these items on the menu. There are other restaurants where you can find slightly better versions of some these dishes, but the combination of variety and tastiness of this restaurant makes it a great place to eat.