I Fking Love This Restaurant

The Restaurant Where I Want to Eat Every Single Day Is the Size of a Button

And it’s filled with the scent of broth

The Braised Shop photo

I Fucking Love This Restaurant features writers’ favorite places that feed communities around the country.

I grew up in the street food capital of Taipei, where the best food is not found in restaurants. It’s found in night markets outside temples. It’s found on the side of the street, in wheeled carts. And it’s found in the alleys outside drinking establishments, where vendors roll up at night and stay until the sun rises.

When I return to Taipei these days, my food itinerary always includes stops at these places, for street foods like scallion pancake wraps, pork belly filled baos, and oyster omelets. And I always eat lu wei in some form or another. By definition, the phrase means “braised flavors,” and refers to meats and vegetables that are braised quickly in a soy-based sauce. The most common way to find it in Taiwan is at lu wei stands, with their bountiful array of vegetables, tofu, meat, and specialty items like fish balls. And there’s always a huge pot of flavorful broth simmering in the back. “It’s sort of an urban legend that street vendors for lu wei never change out their broth — they keep adding to it day after day, and it gets more and more complex from the braising,” said Cathy Erway, author of “The Food of Taiwan.”

Lu wei isn’t just street food. Taipei’s only three-Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Palais, serves mostly Cantonese food but has an appetizer dish that’s best described as a party platter of lu wei, from beef tongue to tofu to chicken’s feet. And I confess that once, on my last night in Taiwan, I asked my mom to pack up the leftover braised pig ears so I could have them as a snack on the plane.

My fondest lu wei memory is eating it a stand in an alleyway near the most popular bars in downtown Taipei after a long night out — but I can never point visitors there; I can only get there with visual cues. So despite (or perhaps because of) its ubiquity in Taiwan, I’ve never had a go-to lu wei place.