Taipei Chef, Artarmon

Taipei Chef is a humble Taiwanese restaurant located a stone's throw away from the Artarmon train station. I came straight after work and was there before they opened their doors for dinner. Thank God it wasn't long before they flipped the door sign to 'OPEN' and welcomed us in with warm smiles and greetings. We were of course one of the first group of lucky customers that fed our growling tummies with yummy Asian tucker but the flow of customers came in less than half an hour later.

Along with its bright yellow signage and tourism wall posters of Taiwan, this place has its own unique vibe that brings back nostalgic memories of dining in cosy eateries in Asia.

We did not order the famous Taiwanese style smoked chicken as I wanted to try other dishes that were not reviewed by other fellow bloggers. The smoked chicken did look good though, and I'm sure it tasted  like how it looked. JC ordered rice with a minced meat topping instead of plain white rice. This bowl of rice was tasty on its own, almost too tasty to be eaten with the other dishes that we ordered. The spicy chicken dumplings were one of the best dumplings I have ever tasted. The skin of the dumplings were slippery smooth and the fillings were juicy with an almost bouncy texture. It had a right amount of spiciness and left a tingling spicy sensation on my tongue. The staff were very considerate to ask us how spicy we wanted our dumplings to be when we ordered them.

Steamed rice with minced meat

Spicy chicken dumplings

Next was the stir fried century egg with dried chillies or some may know this as the 'Gong Bao' style. It is usually stir fried with cashew nuts but they used peanuts instead. Personally, I prefer cashew nuts over peanuts. Century egg is one of the many weird but delicious Chinese delicacies that should be in your bucket list if you haven't tried one yet. I remember watching it on Fear Factor once where the host told the contestants that century eggs were eggs that were a century old! I'm not sure how it got its name (perhaps of its taste), but those eggs are definitely not a hundred years old. So don't worry, these eggs are basically eggs preserved in alkali clay and taste a bit like ammonia because of its preservation method. If you like century eggs, you will definitely love this dish.

Stir fried century egg with dried chillies

We also ordered stir fried scallops and vegetables as I absolutely lurveee scallops. I was happily surprised with how generous they were with the scallops. This dish was a playground of textures with its springy well-cooked scallops and crisp vegetables.

Stir fried scallops with vegetables

This place is definitely worth a try if you want good Taiwanese food. Make sure you are there early to avoid the crowd. This is definitely a hidden gem of Artarmon.

So tell me dear foodies, have you ever had century eggs? What do they taste like to you?