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COMPASS MAGAZINE, December 1998 - January 1999 VOL. 6 ISSUE 1

Hole in the Wall Of the month: The best of Taichung's Small Local Eateries

The establishment is actually larger and better established than most -- an added advantage in that this shop is easy to find. The Ah-Bian Steamed Dumplings Restaurant is a big favorite among locals (and a few enlightened foreigners) for its freshly-steamed dumplings, hot and sour soup and other simple, but delicious, offerings. At any time of the day or night, the brightly-lit, two-floor eatery has a steady steam of customers--an interesting mix of working people from the neighborhood and other folks, including tourists from the nearby Plaza International Hotel. It is clean and the service is fast. Take-out is available. Walk in, sit down and a waiter will bring you a small Chinese menu. After ordering, walk to the back table, pick up your chopsticks, spoon and small dipping bowl to be filled with your mixture of soy sauce, vinegar oil, red peppers, garlic and sesame oil. A trip there wouldn't be complete without sampling some of the steamed dumplings cheng chao, which come in batches of 10 in round bamboo steamers lung for NT$40/steamer. In addition, the restaurant provides soup-less mushroom noodles (NT$40), hot and sour noodles (NT$60), and egg drop/green vegetable soup (NT$25) and some rice dumplings. Iced teas, coffees and soy bean milk can be grabbed from an outside refrigerator. Whether it's a quick lunch or late-night dinner/snack, Ah-Bian is hard to beat for some of the city's best dumplings.(Feng Chia branch: Intersection of Feng Chia and Hsitun rds.; Fengyuan city branch: Opposite Pacific-Taiping Yang Dept. Store).