Thanks @Hungrydrunk. Looking forward to your thoughts, hope you have a great meal. 
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it’s not the same, but delicious food corner in monterey park has a minced pork rice that’s very popular. i’ve seen it on every table around me the times i’ve been there.
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I know you already mentioned that they’re different but I just wanna add that the Delicious Food Corner version is Hong Kong style which has a completely different flavor profile.
I love that name.
Golden Leaf does a pretty good Taiwanese pork belly with rice.
I just looked at the Yelp listing and some pictures (including the menu)…yes yelp is mostly useful in that regard (pictures are more objective). The style of food is heavily slanted towards military dependent village (ex retired military via Sichuan or other) and perhaps a bit Southern Taiwanese (geographically), evident in the spicy hungshao style beef noodle soup, twice cooked pork, and various spicy intestines stews and related dishes that are very Sichuan Taiwanese (or Taiwanese Sichuan). If comparing this to Liang’s Kitchen (Northern California gone out of business branches) the food here looks far superior, refined and done right for a neighborhood joint (really you don’t need anything more beyond this for this type of fare), and legit. It could exist comfortably in Fremont (NorCal) in a strip mall as well.
Nevermind my Hakka Taiwanese wishful thinking of requests then 
The dry noodle with beef/beef tendon is actually on their menu, lol.
This is a great post @Chowseeker1999! The delicious food, your words, everything!
That is funny. When reading this I was thinking perhaps I should try tendon in another form and preparation. 
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I love tendon! But probably likely to the fact that I grew up eating it in the pho and bo kho (beef stew) my family made. I get so much joy out of eating that slightly chewy and gelatinous mass…sometimes, more so than the actual pieces of beef itself.
I look forward to trying the beef noodle soup from Cindy’s Kitchen soon…hopefully next weekend.
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Just out of curiosity, which forms have you tried? Certain dim sum places also serve the aforementioned style of meltingly gelatinous beef tendon.
Putting together some stuff from my own (intergenerational) past… Are you saying that the chef or the food he is cooking, b/c it is geared more toward non-Taiwanese military, will likely not have knowledge of the dishes that are more traditionally Taiwanese or perhaps even more “homemade” style dishes (which is what you were hoping he could whip up)?
This at Aburiya Raku on La Cienega. A little much for my first Tendon experience, so to speak. Even my gristle loving husband had a hard time with it. The waitress was surprised we ordered it and said only Asians order it. 
@PorkyBelly photo.
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#we’lltakeyou!
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We Asians do inhale them on a regular basis. 
Was it simply grilled? I suppose that’ll yield a very snappy texture rather than giving a gelatinous chew resulting from a braise?
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I grew up w/ it and feel ambivalent. I can’t actually imagine anyone who DIDN’T grow up w/ it enjoying it… 
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I need to try Raku’s version. Grilled must give it an unusual crunchy texture, but I would imagine that they would have had to braise it for some time to provide the right texture.
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Much like sharkfins, tendons are more for the texture rather than the flavor. So if you got a good sauce going to smother the tendons, then it becomes enjoyable to me.
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It’s more like a sticky meat jello at raku
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I take that back. It wasn’t my first time. We had this at Animal on Fairfax.
Spicy Beef Tendon Chip w/Charred Onion Pho Dip
(internet photo) It was delicious, but it’s more like chicharrones or a bag of store-bought pork rinds, definitely not the same thing.
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Yes, it’s grilled, maybe braised a bit first, not sure.
Yah, I think I would like it better braised. I always get happy when a bit of it is still connected to the beef in stews.
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