Huwei Township, Yunlin County｜虎尾婆婆的店

20200501: thoroughly impressed by the 婆婆 grandma who runs this shop despite being over 90 years old. apparently, she keeps at it as she wants to give back. decided to make a special trip to her eatery as we had seen her on a TV show. the five stars is not for the food but for the special experience. she's since moved from a food cart to an actual storefront so was a bit lost but finally located the shop. on this occasion, arrived at 0330h (was doing an overnight, red eye drive enroute to our Tainan food tour/trip to be able to eat at breakfast restaurants). she was out procuring produce and so we came back around 0400h. ordered one 魯肉飯 braised meat rice (TWD 20). from the photos on Google Maps this looked pretty good. however, the product that was served didn't look anything like the photos. the toppings were completely different (deep fried pork ribs!) and the flavor profile was, at best, average. portion however, was gigantic, including the largest (chicken? duck?) egg we've ever had. although we had only ordered one bowl, she surprised us (there were two of us) with another bowl of the braised meat rice and also a seaweed soup. communications were not easy as it was and although we didn't order these additional items, we also could not really find a way to refuse the food (as we didn't want to waste food) so, given the circumstances, we ended up finishing all the food which made us much, much more satiated than expected. recall that the whole point of driving to Tainan was for a food tour/trip. after we finished our food, she insisted on treating us but we didn't feel right about it (TWD 50), so we discretely left the money for the food on the table. in retrospect, maybe we should not have left the money on the table; as maybe 婆婆 not only finds it her purpose in live to be generous and give back, but it is also her source of joy and happiness. hopefully, we did not take that away from her.

Very hospitable mother-in-law, very light taste, unbelievably cheap

Large portions and cheap