Arabic Food- Abdu Arabian Cuisine

First off, you get only one of these per calendar year so you’d better make it last, from the bottom of my heart a very big thank you to people who have stepped in to help me continue this in the short term while I sort out my finances and my mind. I had a particularly heavy blow this week, that even by my standards is not something I’ll be able to walk off easily, but we can but go forward. I’m generally pretty bad at saying stuff like this in public, because I’m pretty shy and socially a bit heads gone, but I have no such qualms with the written word. Seriously, thank you, your kindness and words will not be forgotten and I will return in kind. I’m glad my nonsense has kept other peoples’ attention and is actually useful/interesting.

Anyway, on with the show.

I was pretty much winding down my quest, knowing about the black clouds on the horizon when Ms. Crew of the earlier Rocksteady Crew sent me details of this place. I’d put it down on my list of possible visits, not knowing when I’d be able to do so. Thank you once again Ms. Crew for the detective work and as surreal as it may sound to overseas readers, I will try to make it out with my own four year old question fountain to Preschool Crew’s birthday party at the Sock Museum. Yes, Taiwan really does have a sock museum. Along with the Soya-Mixed Meat Museum in Kaohsiung and the Beneficial Microbes Museum and Tourism Factory in Yilan. And the Taiwanese government still wonders why Taiwan is not a particularly big tourist attraction…

Somehow, this is a pretty good segue into who came along  and funded my visit to Abdu, the gentleman and scholar Crispy Pete who has remained a champion of this blog from the very beginning. Alongside his many academic escapades, CP is also something of an adventurer who usually spends summers traveling the world. This year being 2020, and all logic having gone out of the window about eight months ago,  CP has been spending his time traveling the lesser known areas of Taiwan and has shown some interesting places around and about that I’ll look at in the future ( A Catholic Church famous for its bread? A Belarusian restaurant? Why yes, of course I’ll go).  It is he, as well as Our Man in Paris, that discovered the “museums” mentioned earlier.

Abdu is located near to Taiwan’s most famous University near to the Gongguan MRT station.  It is generally a pretty good area for cheap-ish eating because of the nearby university, but stuff does seem to come and go quite frequently. There was a Uighur place run by a strict Christian Korean man that wasn’t halal (my mind still boggles) there until I think last year, which I would have included here had it stuck around. It is also close to the university I teach at, but mine has cheaper food areas and things tend to last.

It is odd that the two universities are about a ten minute walk from each other, yet students who attend one, do not know the area around the other. I asked my students why that would be, but they wouldn’t give an answer. I can only surmise that eating near “the other one” is like going deep behind enemy lines. I took a group from the department I work in to a restaurant in “the other territory” at the end of semester one time, and they were looking sheepishly around the place like they were frightened to be there. The jury is still out.

Abdu is on the second floor of an otherwise nondescript seedy looking building that also houses an internet cafe. If you have seen any of the Hong Kong Heroic bloodshed category of action films (particularly the late 80’s or 90’s ones) you’ll know the kind of place I mean. There are so many places like this in the city, and they contain pretty much any kind of business. I always poke my head in to the lobby and look at the floor guide to see if they have any obscure martial arts (I once found a place that taught vovinam this way- but then I forgot where it was because all these places look the flipping same), but rarely get lucky.

So, up the stairs and through the door and the smell of Middle Eastern food hits you very quickly. I’m going to say that as a region- Middle Eastern food has never disappointed me.  Abdu continues that streak, it is bloody marvelous.

I arrived a bit earlier than CP, I live a bit closer and as always, map navigation isn’t my strong point. As Indiana Jones remarked about Marcus Brody in The Last Crusade “He could get lost in his own museum”.

I was welcomed by the owner’s wife, who is Taiwanese yet her accent in English sounds very Saudi, not unexpected of course, I had a similar experience with the lady in the Iranian restaurant, but it is that slight jarring moment where your mind adjusts. And once again, as has been shown to me oh so many times in my life, Muslim hospitality cannot be beaten. However, I’m getting ahead of myself; at this point she had only given me water.

CP rolled in and I told him the unedited version of my last few months as we looked through the menu.  There was mandi, kabsa, (choices of lamb, chicken or beef) , shish tawook. (Halal obviously) There were also fish dishes, salad and hummus. Basically everyone is covered- and everything is under 400NT. We went with the meal deal where we also got soup and a drink. They forgot the drink, but we got an extra dessert- which was fine by me. That hospitality again man!

CP went with lamb kabsa, really tender, very representative of the region, I had a bit- he loved it. I went with salmon and pineapple, mostly because it sounds like it shouldn’t work and I’ve been eating far too much meat recently (OK, pedants I know fish is meat, but you know what I mean. I’m looking mostly at you Conquering Lion of Sanchong!).  Well, it was fantastic, really fragrant rice, unusual to see long grain rice here, and it is the first time I’ve seen raisins included in Taiwan. Somewhere along the way, we also got vegetarian hummus, high fives for that too. As I have vegetarian friends, I should try to eat more veg options when I go out, so this one is for you. Go there eat hummus and enjoy.

We weren’t quite full yet, so after hearing about recent travels and general “why 2020 has been a train wreck” type conversation, we went with baklawa. There were three pieces on the plate and… man alive- I’m going back again anyway- but I’d go just for that alone. As I may have said before when writing about Middle Eastern food and its sweetness, it can be full on. This was no exception and definitely one of the top desserts I’ve had this year, in this project or outside it.  Wonderful stuff.  As we were finishing that up, we were served “mystery dessert” because I didn’t catch what the lady called it, also amazing. It was good enough in itself to be a main event, so a free dessert that was in no way an also-ran, no sane person can complain.

I really can’t praise this one any more than this. I want to, nay, must go back here, and I want all you Taiwan people to go so they don’t close down. Selfish I know, but then again you’d probably agree if you went.

In my head I now have a pretty good food tour sorted out if any of my Islamic friends back in the old country want to visit. You will not be disappointed, this is not something I could have said ten maybe even five years ago.

As we went our separate ways, CP indicated he hadn’t been to Gongguan for a while he went off on, if his Facebook page is to be believed, another adventure around town and I mooched off to Xindian, to finish up the real business of the day: cleaning the fridge, writing this and preparing to fight young people who will kick my head in at wing chun class. Not a bad life.

Menu:

Lamb kabsa  360NT

Salmon with pineapple 300NT

Vegetarian hummus 190NT

Baklawa 100 NT (?)

Plus 30NT for soup and drink

It came to 1010NT- but because they are super nice it cost only 1000NT

Address:  Section 3, Xinsheng South Road, Daan District Taipei City 106 (opposite NTU campus- next to Eslite bookstore)

So what country is next? If I can get this project out of mothballs, I will let you know as soon as I can. It is as fun as it looks.