Tuesday, December 21, 2010 Most expensive bowl of beef noodles : Niu Ba Ba Restaurant set world record TAIPEI, Taiwan--The Niu Ba Ba Restaurant ("Beef Father" in Chinese), a small 40-seat eatery (owner Wang Cong-yuan) is known among many foodies for serving a $324 bowl of beef noodles - which sets the world record for theMost expensive bowl of beef noodles
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Photo: A $324 bowl of beef noodles at Niu Ba Ba in Taipei, Taiwanis the World's Most Expensive Bowl of Beef Noodles.Photo by: Ching-Long Liu (enlarge photo)
It took the chef 15 years to perfect his recipe, which includes just 120 grams of noodles, five four-inch squares of beef, one piece of tendon, and of course, soup.
For one bowl of noodles, he uses cuts of beef from four different countries: Japan, Australia, the U.S. and Brazil (for the beef tendons).
Mr. Wang cuts every piece in a specific shape perfectly suited to how the meat and tendons meet. For example, the Japanese beef is frozen slightly to ensure cleaner cuts whereas Australian beef is slowly scooped out from the side of the bone after cooking.
He uses a technique where he slow-braises the meat over three days, and freezes the individual pieces every night so they can rest in between. The process for all the different cuts of meat takes about one week.
Using five or six different stocks, each distilled from various parts of the beef ? tendons (for collagen), tenderloin (for that "meaty" taste), bone (for a smooth but hearty texture) ? he blends the final soup similar to the way perfumers craft a scent.
Mr. Wang offers more than 20 different varieties of noodles ? thick to thin, flat to round ? and will cook them to order based on the customer's choice of al dente.
Niu Ba Ba has a lower-priced beef-noodle bowl ? called "ordinary beef noodles" on the menu ? that costs a more affordable NT$200. But Mr. Wang gets requests for hisWorld's most expensive bowl of beef noodlesalmost every day.
Besides soy sauce, rock sugar, and some five spice, nothing else is used to season the beef broth.
"The idea is to keep things as natural as possible and let the flavor of the ingredients shine," says Mr. Wang, who sees many additional seasonings, like wine, as bad for your health.
For reservations contact Niu Ba Ba. Zhongxiao East Road, Sec. 4, Alley 27, Lane 216, No. 16, Taipei, Taiwan. Tel: 886-2-2778-3075.
The Guinness world record for the most expensive cocktail commercially available was set by "27.321", costing 27,321 United Arab Emirates Dirham (£3,766.52, US$7,439) and featuring on the menu of The Skyview Bar of Burj Al Arab Hotel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Guinness World Records also recognized the most valuable chocolate bar in the world, a 100-year old Cadbury's chocolate bar which went on Captain Robert Scott's first Discovery expedition (1901-1904) to the Antarctic; it was bought for £470 ($687) by an anonymous buyer at Christie's, London, UK.
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