Also, having a frugal dad, being thrifty on food has become a habit since I was a kid. Even after started working, going to fancy restaurants to have 'amazing meals' has never been my thing; partially is also because I've never equated 'amazing' with 'expensive'.
Even though I'm never a foodie in a gourmet sense, I appreciate good food. Over the years living in Taipei, there is a kind of restaurant that brings a piece of grandma's cooking wherever I go.
來來順 (Lai Lai Shun) is a Chinese style eatery that is owned by two mothers. They've been running this for more than a decade.
They're popular dishes are: 餡餅(xian-bing), a Chinese-style pie, that comes in beef or pork. Or 蒸餃(zheng-jiao), steamed dumplings that come in vegetarian, beef, pork, and kimchi flavor. Then, it's the 小菜(xiao-cai), small dishes, usually served cold, including: spicy pig ear, lotus root slices, eggplants, and a kind of green bean taste like capers.
There are also traditional Chinese stirfrys in most of these places. Things like Mushu noodles, General Tso's Chicken, sweet-sour pork and so on. Sometimes they also have beef noodle soup (牛肉麵) and beef rolls. (牛肉捲餅)
There are a lot more restaurants like this, including: 穆記, near 101, and 北大行 on Guang Fu near TongHua, or the one next to it which I forget the name of.
The best things about these restaurants or why this restaurant is good depends greatly on its 小菜, because even though it seems insignificant because they're cold and served in small portions, if it isn't treated with care and skill, it gets screwed up easily.
Since my grandparents are from 山東 (Shan Dong Province), food like this has always been a home-cooked meal for me. But as they get older, it seems like rather learning the techniques of making, I have been depending mostly on the restaurants to keep the memories.
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