Main Street Imperial Taiwanese Gourmet

• Cuisine(s): Chinese
  Hours: Daily 10:30am-10pm
  Price: $$
• Payment Types: cash
  Features: Takeout
  Serving: Dinner, Lunch
• Alcohol: Beer/Wine
  Reservations: Not Accepted
  Parking: Street

Description

This café just north of the LIE eschews Chinese banquet cuisine in favor of home-style specialties from Taiwan, sometimes showing surprising Southeast Asian and Japanese influences. For example, there's the legendary three-cup chicken, a crock-borne delight of poultry steeped in soy sauce, sesame oil, and the Japanese rice wine vinegar called mirin, scented with Thai basil. Some entrees flaunt indigenous Formosan ingredients you may be unfamiliar with: In "putz fish" (not penile in the least) a poached porgy arrives surrounded by the olive-size fruit of the manjack bush. For a first visit, go on weekends between the hours of 11am and 3pm, when the dim sum menu kicks in and oyster omelets, rice-tube pudding, and bao sandwiches are available.