Kung Fu Fish Ball Uncle only sets up his stall at night

As night falls, the shop signs along Zhongmei Street in Taichung light up one by one, and the headlights of the stream of scooters seem to urge pedestrians to hurry home so they can enjoy a rare, relaxing dinner. Kung Te-yung, known to everyone as "Brother Kung," is also bustling about in front of his stall; he runs it just four hours a day, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., welcoming diners after dusk.

Brother Kung's noodle stall is formally called "Shanghai Kung Fu Fish Balls"; the clerical script lettering paired with the traditional noodle cart has a strong artistic feel, and the cart holds only two pots, one for boiling noodles and the other for cooking fish ball soup, with homemade fried shallot oil and vinegar sauce set to one side and nothing else. The shop itself has only two large tables and a few wooden stools, and customers who come here can choose only between scallion oil noodles, vinegar sauce noodles, and fish ball soup. There are only four food items, but there are quite a few paintings on the walls, and among the regulars are young artists who organize small exhibitions here.

"I'm only one person, so there's no way I can make that many dishes; I'll add a little more soon." Brother Kung says as he boils water for the soup. After dropping out of university 30 years ago, he especially loved cooking, and even during his military service he served as a mess cook. After being discharged, he learned to make Jiangzhe cuisine at the Howard Plaza Hotel, then also learned Italian, German, and Thai cooking, and a few years ago he even ran a nightclub; only 3 years ago did he decide to wind things down and switch to running an old-fashioned Shanghai noodle stall.

Along the way, Brother Kung never left the kitchen, which inevitably makes people wonder why he is so devoted to food, but he just laughed twice with a "ha ha," spread his hands, and said with a mysterious air, "Maybe when people get old, they want to go back to where they started."