🔅Actual visit date: 2025/04/26
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Every time I return to Kaohsiung Meinong, I have to eat a bowl of ban tiao (wide rice noodles) before I leave. In fact, most ban tiao shops in Meinong are quite tasty, but once you leave Meinong, you really can’t find these flavors, especially in Taipei, where you can't find anything similar. This restaurant, Hao Wei, tends to cater to tourists, but the environment is well-organized and there are plenty of items on the menu, so I go there often in recent years.

▪️ Ban tiao soup/dry $60
▪️ Fried ban tiao $70
I think both the soup and dry versions are good, but I eat the soup more often. The feature of the soup is that it has a lot of crispy shallots, and it looks oilier. It includes chives, bean sprouts, and meat slices; the meat is usually more of a garnish and isn't particularly tasty. The main focus is the broth and the ban tiao itself, which have varying thickness, a Q (chewy) and soft texture, and when you add vinegar and chili, it tastes different. The fried ban tiao is a relatively new dish. When I was a child, it didn't exist; it's stir-fried with eggs and is very fragrant!

▪️ Stir-fried intestine with ginger $170
Another basic item at ban tiao shops is the big intestine, which has a strong vinegar flavor. Personally, I don’t like it because the big intestine is usually hard to chew, like rubber bands, but everyone seems to be used to biting it for the aroma.

▪️ Large portion of water lily $150
This is also a specialty of Meinong; water lily grows very well and is supplied steadily. The one we had today was stir-fried very well and had a fragrant wok aroma.

Overall, it's a must-try flavor. Although it's not limited to visiting a specific place, we have been dining here quite often in recent years, usually at large tables. I highly recommend it to tourists looking for a good meal.