麻媽家是一家在我家附近，開了幾年的店，位在傳統市場附近，但是，不是賣滷肉飯、陽春麵、牛肉麵等傳統中式小吃，反而賣的是火鍋、乾鍋、涼麵涼皮等改良式小吃，店面位於三角窗，從店開張，我之前就想去嚐試看看，但是一直沒機會，據我觀察，生意看起來不溫不火，我還一度認為會倒閉，不過，也撐了幾年，剛好，那家我想吃的小火鍋店客滿，我就抓住機會去探店。
看了菜單之後，我點了較安全的烤肉飯，菜單上有不少看起來還不錯的餐點，如涼皮鍋或乾拌鍋等，夏天應該蠻適合吃涼皮鍋的，只好下次有機會再試試看其它餐點啦，點了超過一百元台幣的餐點後，飲料就可無限享用，有檸檬茶和日式煎茶等，烤肉飯中規中矩，一片片牛肉整齊地鋪在白飯上，表面帶著漂亮的烤色，看起來相當有份量，還有不少辣辣的泡菜，可以拌著烤肉一起吃，真是越吃越好吃，另外，還有三盤小菜和一碗味噌湯，整體來說，真是豐富啊
在我用餐時，有客人詢問，之前賣的雙椒麵，不若以往好吃，店家表示之前用芝麻醬已經沒用了，所以口味有變，我再仔細研究一下菜單，發現很多菜色，都是改良過的，如前面提到的乾拌鍋，應該是取經自中國四川的乾鍋作法，而我吃的烤肉飯，其實還蠻像日式的牛丼飯，對於喜歡求新求變的年輕人，或許能吃到一些紅利，但是，開餐廳最重要的是食物要好吃，這點，我只能說這家店的食物有特色，難怪，生意只是一般，不過，假如再有機會來這家店的話，我也不會排斥，會再試試看那些我沒吃過的食物。
Mama’s Kitchen is a restaurant near my home. It has been around for several years and is located near a traditional market. However, instead of serving the usual Taiwanese comfort foods like braised pork rice, plain noodles, or beef noodle soup, it offers a mix of hot pots, dry hot pots, cold noodles, liangpi, and other modern takes on traditional dishes. The restaurant is located on a corner, and I had actually wanted to try it ever since it first opened. Somehow, though, I never got around to it. From what I had observed, business always seemed pretty quiet. At one point, I even thought the restaurant might eventually close down. But surprisingly, it has managed to stay open for several years. Then, one day, the small hot pot restaurant I originally wanted to visit was completely packed. So I decided to take the opportunity to finally check out Mama’s Kitchen.
After looking through the menu, I decided to play it safe and ordered the roast beef rice. There were actually quite a few dishes that looked interesting, such as the cold-noodle hot pot and the dry-mixed hot pot. The cold-noodle hot pot, in particular, sounds like something that would be pretty refreshing in the summer. I guess I’ll have to come back another time and try some of the other dishes. One nice thing about the restaurant is that if you order a dish costing more than NT$100, you can enjoy unlimited drinks. They have lemon tea, Japanese roasted green tea, and a few other options, so you can just help yourself. As for the roast beef rice, it was pretty decent. The beef was sliced into thin pieces and neatly arranged over a bowl of white rice. The meat had a nice grilled color on the surface, so it looked quite generous. There was also quite a bit of spicy kimchi on the side, which was great when mixed with the beef. The more I ate it together, the better it tasted. The meal also came with three small side dishes and a bowl of miso soup. Overall, it was a surprisingly complete and satisfying meal for one bowl of rice.
While I was eating, I overheard another customer asking about the restaurant’s double-pepper noodles. The customer said they didn’t taste as good as they used to. The staff explained that they had stopped using sesame sauce, which had changed the flavor. That made me take a closer look at the menu, and I realized that many of the dishes were actually modified versions of foods from different places. For example, the dry-mixed hot pot I mentioned earlier seems to be inspired by the dry pot dishes from Sichuan cuisine in China. And the roast beef rice I ordered was actually quite similar to Japanese gyudon, or beef rice bowls. I guess this kind of fusion-style food might appeal to younger people who enjoy trying new and different flavors. However, at the end of the day, the most important thing for any restaurant is still whether the food tastes good. In that respect, I would say this restaurant definitely has its own style and some interesting ideas. Maybe that also explains why the business has remained steady, but never really seemed particularly busy. Still, if I happen to be in the neighborhood again, I wouldn’t mind coming back. There are still quite a few dishes on the menu that I haven’t tried yet, so maybe next time I’ll be a little more adventurous and give them a shot.