The more you chew, the sweeter it gets — Tainan’s flavorful milkfish thick soup paired with rice noodles and regular noodles for an even better taste

Text & Photos /Xiaohu's Dream Food Web

When it comes to street food, aside from Taipei, Tainan is arguably the most popular. Mentioning Tainan street food immediately brings to mind “Guohua Street” and “Bao’an Street.” Xiaohu has wandered and eaten around these two streets many times, and there was one place I passed by numerous times but never dared to go in — this is “A Feng Floating Milkfish Thick Soup.”

The reason I didn’t dare come in, of course, was the fear of “fishiness,” because the few times I had it in Taipei, it always had some level of that slightly off-putting “fishy” taste. This time, I only came in because a local vouched for it with confidence, promising there would be no fishiness. But partly, it’s also because I really hadn’t had any fishy-tasting milkfish in Tainan.

I’m not quite sure how long A Feng has been famous in Tainan, but it seems like they must be a well-established name. At sixty NT dollars a bowl, if it were in Taipei, that price would be about right for something genuinely made with quality ingredients, but I’m not so clear on the standards here in Tainan.

Aside from the fish thick soup, they actually also sell fish paste? Is it meant for you to mix it yourself at home? Also, the usual accompaniments for thick soups like rice noodles and regular noodles — and you can even have both rice noodles and noodles together? What kind of combo is that?

A local friend said that’s just how people eat in Tainan, but as someone from Taipei, it was the first time I’d ever seen anyone mix rice noodles and noodles together. Actually eating it, the texture felt pretty unique — slurping it down, then biting into it, you get two distinct textures and flavors at once, which is pretty refreshing, even though it’s a combination you could imagine.

This milkfish thick soup, when you bring it close, has a faint fishy aroma hovering at the threshold… After stirring it up into a very thick, dense broth, the flavor becomes even richer. After taking a sip, it tastes a bit like a soup thickened with cornstarch, and then your taste buds pick up a faintly fresh fishy taste, but the texture is strangely sticky — to be honest, if it weren’t for that hint of mild acidity, I really wouldn’t have dared to drink what feels like a cornstarch-soaked thick soup...

A bit worried, I took a bite of the fish thick soup, but was surprised to find that it was actually sweet. And as I chewed, there wasn’t even a trace of fishiness. Even more impressive, the sweetness intensifies the more you chew — it’s super delicious. It’s just… next time, can I get the dry version of the milkfish thick soup? Because I really can’t get used to this sweet-but-a-little-scary, thick-and-a-little-shocking soup...

A Feng Floating Milkfish Thick Soup: No. 59, Bao’an Street, Tainan City, Phone: 06-2259088, Business Hours: 07:30–01:00
 

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