What it is
Pork intestine thin noodles (大腸麵線) is the misua soup most associated with Taipei. Red misua is simmered in a starch-thickened broth flavoured with bonito, then topped with short pieces of braised pig's large intestine. Oysters are an optional extra, and many menus offer the two together.
Where it came from
Like oyster misua, it comes from 麵線糊, the thick noodle porridge of Quanzhou and Xiamen, which reached Taiwan in the Qing dynasty. In Xiamen the porridge is cooked in a pork offal stock with pig's blood added.
The food writer Jiao Tong (焦桐) has described a north-south split. Growing up in Kaohsiung he mostly ate oyster misua; in Taipei, he found, the usual bowl was intestine misua.
Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle (阿宗麵線) in Ximending opened in 1975 and grew from a street stall into a shop. It is one of the district's best-known snacks. There are no seats, so customers eat standing on Emei Street, green bowls in hand.
How it is made
The intestine is the demanding part. It must be cleaned thoroughly, then braised until tender and seasoned through; some shops clean and prepare it the same day. The stock is often pork bones simmered with the intestine, lifted with bamboo shoots, bonito or dried shrimp. It is thickened with starch, but the noodles should soften without collapsing into paste.
How to eat it
A snack or early meal, eaten at the stall or carried along the street. Garlic, black vinegar, coriander and chilli sauce are usually set out for customers to add. Ask for 蚵仔大腸麵線 to have oysters as well. Some shops sell small and large bowls.
Around Taiwan
- North
- Ay-Chung's broth is sweet and sour, flavoured with bonito and shredded bamboo shoot. In Xinzhuang, New Taipei, a weekend market stall of more than four decades wraps the intestine in fish paste, a style rarely seen elsewhere.
- Central
- Central Taiwan uses a broth of pork bones and bonito, and bowls carry intestine together with oysters, pork thick-soup pieces and small intestine.
- Outlying islands
- On Kinmen, white misua comes with oysters, intestine and pig's blood, as in Quanzhou.
