The Eye on Taiwan News Staff
Michelin — the world-acclaimed French dining guide run by a tire company — is due to release its 2018 edition of the MICHELIN Guide Taipei next week in Taiwan as part of its expansion in Asia after tapping the markets in Bangkok, Shanghai, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau, and Tokyo.
According to an announcement published by the MICHELIN Guide website, the 2018 MICHELIN Guide Taipei 2018 will be launched at the Mandarin Oriental in Taipei next Wednesday, March 14.
Before revealing its acclaimed star selections of the restaurants through its first-ever guide in Taipei, Michelin has also unveiled its inaugural Bib Gourmand selection for Taipei, which includes 36 restaurants and eateries in Taipei.
The Bib Gourmand is a distinction given by the inspectors to establishments offering a quality meal within a fixed price range which today stands at €36 (NT$1,300) in most European cities, according to its website.
The inaugural Bib Gourmand selection for Taipei includes 36 addresses, out of which 10 are offerings from Taiwan’s famous night markets, it said.
“Our inspectors have discovered the diversity and quality of Taiwanese cuisine, with great local gourmet offerings, including beef noodles, pork knuckles, squid balls, all at very attractive prices,” Michelin quoted its international director in charge of the MICHELIN Guides, Michael Ellis, as saying.
Selections from the night markets include a healthy sesame oil chicken soup, pork liver or tripe soup, marinated chicken offal, kelp and duck wings, Ellis said. “We also have a spot serving vegan stinky tofu, a Taiwanese favorite, on the Bib Gourmand list,” he said, adding the inspectors explored a wide range of styles and delicacies of cuisine in Taipei.
On the list of Bib Gourmand establishments, five serve Taiwanese cuisine: Mao Yuan is a friendly home-style spot which has been serving old-time local delicacies since 1971, Michelin said.
Meili ’s second-generation owners stick with their family recipes for authentic Taiwanese tastes, it said, adding My Stove serves traditional Taiwanese cuisine with a modern twist.
My Sweet Home Small Kitchen is a small family-run restaurant serving Taiwanese, Hunan, Zhejiang and Sichuan fare. Shuang Yue Food focuses on healthy home-style cooking and proposes a signature chicken soup daily made with freshly prepared free-range chicken, it noted.
The list also shines a spotlight on the Taiwanese mainstay of beef noodles with a total of eight eateries specializing in this dish including Yong Kang Beef Noodle, Niu Dian Beef Noodles, Liu Shandong Beef Noodles, Lin Dong Fang Beef Noodles, Liao Beef Noodles, Lao Shandong Homemade Noodles, Jian Hong Beef Noodles. Especially noteworthy is Halal Chinese Beef Noodles, a restaurant with over 60 years of history, it said.
In addition, 10 street food selections from Taipei’s famed night markets have also made it into the MICHELIN Guide this year, it said.
Three entrants in the Bib Gourmand Street Food selection come from Raohe Night Market: Chen Dong Pork Ribs Medicinal Herbs Soup, Fuzhou Black Pepper Bun, and Shi Boss Spicy Tofu. Nanjichang, Ningxia and Linjiang Night Market each have two stalls featured.
The final Street Food entrant into the Bib Gourmand Selection is Hai You Pork Ribs from Shilin Night Market which has been using a secret recipe to make tasty and healthy pork rib soup with over 15 herbs for more than 40 years, it said.
The Bib Gourmand selection for Taipei also highlights cuisines such as Jiangzhe, Shanghainese, Cantonese, and Pekingese.
Cuisines from other Asian regions are also featured, such as Hamamatsuya, a shop that sources eels from local farms, presenting their signature eel rice with unagi sauce three ways – straight; with seaweed, green onion, and sesame; or in green tea with wasabi, it said.
Not to be missed, the first Sichuan vegetarian restaurant in Taiwan, Serenity, is also listed as a Bib Gourmand, according to Michelin.
Since 1955, the guide has highlighted restaurants offering “exceptionally good food at moderate prices”, a feature now called “Bib Gourmand“. They must offer menu items priced below a maximum determined by local economic standards. Bib (Bibendum) is the tire company’s nickname for the Michelin Man, its corporate logo for over a century.
See below the link for the full list of Bib Gourmand selections in the MICHELIN Guide Taipei 2018.