記得之前上班的公司附近，有間遠近馳名的熱炒店，偶爾中午吃飯時間，就有公司同事相約一起去吃熱炒，活絡一下感情，我記得，那時候，基本上店內每盤菜大多是一百元台幣，有些菜甚至會低於一百元台幣，當然有些高價菜色會高於百元台幣，白飯是吃到飽的，只要點幾道下飯的台式菜色，如蒼蠅頭、蔥爆牛肉、鳳梨蝦球、客家小炒，就可以吃個好幾碗白飯，假如是吃晚餐的話，還可以來幾手台灣啤酒，再加幾個下酒菜，和朋友一起釋放壓力。
這次下班後的聚會，是為了一位久未見面的好友，總之，最後朋友拍板決定，我們大夥結伴去吃個熱炒，這家熱炒店位在大安捷運站附近，店名就叫「大安站那邊」，真是簡單直接，在出捷運站後，只要走路一分鐘就到了，網路上評價是說店內環境乾淨、有設計感，果然，我看了一下，有點網紅店的感覺，而店內的客人，好像也以年輕人居多，不是我想像中的一群油膩膩的中老年業務，因為我前公司的業務們，最愛帶客人到熱炒店「談生意」。
當我入座後，朋友們紛紛到齊，朋友點了幾道常吃的家常菜，不過，金沙杏鮑菇是我第一次聽到的菜色，是一道用鹹蛋黃包覆杏鮑菇的創新菜色，炸過之後的杏鮑菇還蠻好吃的，當然，吃晚餐的話，來幾瓶啤酒是一定要的啦，就讓我們一起酒後吐真言吧，不過，沒有看到熱炒店常見的酒促小姐，來回穿梭，幫客人拿酒杯倒酒，還真是讓我有點懷念傳統熱炒店。
這幾年物價飛漲，熱炒店的盤菜價錢，也早已經不是一盤一百元台幣的平價，而這家算是文青風的熱炒店，不像傳統熱炒店，有著吵雜的環境、店內充斥著油煙與異味等缺點，不過，我還真有些想念傳統熱炒店提供的平價盤菜及熱鬧的用餐文化。
I remember there used to be a really famous stir-fry place near my old office. Every now and then, during lunch breaks, my coworkers and I would go there together for some stir-fry, just to loosen up and build a bit of team spirit. Back then, most dishes were around NT$100 per plate, and some were even cheaper. Of course, a few higher-end dishes cost more than that. White rice was all-you-can-eat, so as long as you ordered a few rice-friendly Taiwanese dishes—like fly’s head, scallion beef, pineapple shrimp, or Hakka stir-fry. People could easily polish off several bowls of rice. If it was dinner, we’d grab a few bottles of Taiwan Beer, add some dishes to go with the drinks, and just let off some steam with friends.
This after-work gathering was for a friend we hadn’t seen in a long time. In the end, one friend made the call, and we all decided to go for stir-fry together. The restaurant was near Daan MRT Station, and its name was simply “Over by Daan Station”—straightforward and easy to remember. Once you got out of the station, it was only a one-minute walk. Online reviews said the place was clean and nicely designed, and that turned out to be true. It actually felt a bit like a trendy, Instagram-style spot. Most of the customers were young people, not the greasy middle-aged sales guys I had imagined. At my old company, the sales team loved taking clients to traditional stir-fry places to “talk business.”
After we sat down and everyone arrived, my friends ordered a few familiar home-style dishes. One dish, though, was completely new to me—salted egg yolk king oyster mushrooms. It’s a creative dish where the mushrooms are coated in salted egg yolk and deep-fried, and it turned out to be surprisingly good. Since it was dinner, a few beers were a must. It was time for some honest, slightly tipsy conversations. That said, there were no beer promo girls walking around, pouring drinks and handing out glasses like you often see in traditional stir-fry places, which honestly made me a bit nostalgic.
With prices rising so much in recent years, stir-fry dishes are no longer the cheap NT$100 plates they used to be. This place, with its artsy, modern vibe, was very different from traditional stir-fry restaurants. It didn’t have the noisy atmosphere, heavy oil smoke, or mixed smells. Still, I found myself missing the affordable dishes and the lively dining culture that old-school Taiwanese stir-fry places are known for.
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