Yongkang beef noodle soup

Yongkang Street is home to one of Taipei's most well known (at least in tourist circles) beef noodle shops. It's the shop with the big yellow sign saying "Yong-Kang Beef Noodle" though not even on Yongkang Street. And beef noodle soup is one of Taiwan's most famous dishes. 

I biked there around 11AM on a Sunday and there was already a healthy line building outside. But I was told it moved quickly. It can be hard to tell who is local and who isn't (they're all Asian!). I assume most of the line consisted of tourists. The group behind me were very obvious mainland tourists with their Southwestern Mandarin and Taipei city maps.

I got a "small" beef noodle soup (紅燒牛肉麵) and grabbed one of the 小菜 in the window. 200NT + 60NT. About 50% more expensive than other beef noodle soup places! But hey you do things for the sake of tourist-ing.

The meat was amaaaazing. Perfect amount of fat for my tastes. The amount of meat I thought was quite generous. Broth was decent, but I've had better at the not-famous-at-all shop near my apartment. Didn't like the noodles. Too... spaghetti-like. The greens were delicious.

As much as I do love beef noodle soup, it doesn't really go with Taipei's hot hot summers. By the time you get to a shop, line or no line, you're often not feeling like you want to consume a big bowl of soup. But shaved ice? Ah, always.