david's taiwanese report

Visited this excellent Elmhurst establishment Saturday night with a small group. It's been written up here before but deserves more attention.

I highly recommend: clams with basil; fried rice with taiwanese sausage; squid and cuttlefish with (yellow) chives; fried tofu.

I give my highest recommendation of all to the fried chicken. I think it's called "crispy salty chicken." It may be the best fried chicken I've ever had, except for the batch I made last summer with bacon fat. All dark meat, perfectly salty crust (dipped in rice flour?), cut up so each piece has a high meat-to-bones ratio. Maybe it just hit the spot on this particular night, but it seemed like some truly stellar chicken.

Service was friendly. Yes, our server did discourage us from getting fried fermented tofu--"Stinky!" she said, holding her nose--but not in a condescending way, and I got the feeling that if we'd been bound and determined to eat stinky tofu she would have brought it.

Much more on menu to explore. It's on Roosevelt, right on the main drag, and about 2 blocks from the G, R and V trains.