Xin Lan's Tasty Travels
Today we do Hakka cuisine.
Last night, Alice and John mentioned that they were going out to dinner tonight and asked if I would like to join them. They said they were planning on going to a Hakka restaurant to meet Alice's parents and brother-in-law, and of course I immediately took them up on the offer. I was extra excited because I had seen an entire exhibit on Hakka foods a few weeks back at the Taipei Chinese Food Festival. While I hardly know the intricacies of the cuisine's genre because I couldn't understand any descriptions, I could see how artistic some of the dishes were and some ingredients that were used. I wouldn't at all be surprised if the restaurant we ended up attending happened to be represented at the festival.
While Hakka falls under the broad classification of Chinese cuisine, it is yet another subspecialty, just like Szechuan or traditional Taiwanese. The restaurant we had to had some of the most creative dishes I had ever tasted, in part because I don't think I have had Hakka before, but regardless as to whether I have or not, the dishes were top-notch in terms of creativity and flavors.
Alice ordered up a bunch of different dishes, including seasoned bamboo, a special kind of tofu with an incredibly soft and almost liquid-like inner consistency, an egg and herb dish (kind of like an omelette), oysters and green vegetables (it was less about the actual vegetables and more about the seasonings), squid with spinach (and I liked it!), and my favorite, the mushroom soup. Apparently making the soup is an incredibly laborious process, and interestingly, I wouldn't have known it contained mushrooms unless Alice had told me. The mushrooms (which appeared like meatballs) had an incredibly meaty texture with a white color inside, and I would have otherwise assumed it was fish. The waiter explained that one purchases a giant block of the mushroom (or something like that), then pulls it apart and rolls it into small spheres. The spheres were then simmered in chicken broth for some amount of time, and then placed on a grill to give a crispy outer texture. Following that preparation, the mushrooms were placed in the main broth of the soup, along with other skinnier mushrooms, which sort of played the supporting role.
Following dinner, we all had a bit of white mushroom soup. I think it was intended to be dessert, as it had a very faint sweet edge and was obviously served separately from the main meal. It was very subtle, and I really like it, although I never would have guessed it would be a post-meal indulgence.
I also met both of Alice's parents, who are both in remarkably good health for their age. Alice's dad, who I found out used to be the president of Taiwan Medical University back in the day (will my awe ever end?), was a little hard of hearing, but other than that, seemed to very engaged in the evening. John told Alice's mother that I went to Shilin and tried aiyu lemon jelly, and she proceeded to tell Alice how she made her own so I could try. They mostly spoke Taiwanese so I couldn't really understand (but honestly, if they spoke Chinese, it would have been too fast anyway), but I found out aiyu is really amazingly simple to make, and if I can get the ingredients back home at Ranch 99, I might have a go at it. All you need is 20g of lemon seeds (which are often sold pre-weighed and pre-packaged for convenience) and 1.5 liters of water. After rubbing and grinding the bag for two or three minutes and letting the lemon ingredients diffuse into the water, the mix is placed in the refrigerator for a few hours and voila! You have lemon aiyu ready to go.
After dinner we took the bus back to Academia Sinica and returned to the apartment. It's amazing that a week ago I was still semi-scared of John and Alice. Well, I don't know if scared is really the right word--more like insanely intimidated. But now, after 2 days of living with them, I view them as my temporary foster parents, and it totally rocks. They are such wonderful people, and I will miss staying with them.
Last night, Alice and John mentioned that they were going out to dinner tonight and asked if I would like to join them. They said they were planning on going to a Hakka restaurant to meet Alice's parents and brother-in-law, and of course I immediately took them up on the offer. I was extra excited because I had seen an entire exhibit on Hakka foods a few weeks back at the Taipei Chinese Food Festival. While I hardly know the intricacies of the cuisine's genre because I couldn't understand any descriptions, I could see how artistic some of the dishes were and some ingredients that were used. I wouldn't at all be surprised if the restaurant we ended up attending happened to be represented at the festival.
While Hakka falls under the broad classification of Chinese cuisine, it is yet another subspecialty, just like Szechuan or traditional Taiwanese. The restaurant we had to had some of the most creative dishes I had ever tasted, in part because I don't think I have had Hakka before, but regardless as to whether I have or not, the dishes were top-notch in terms of creativity and flavors.
Alice ordered up a bunch of different dishes, including seasoned bamboo, a special kind of tofu with an incredibly soft and almost liquid-like inner consistency, an egg and herb dish (kind of like an omelette), oysters and green vegetables (it was less about the actual vegetables and more about the seasonings), squid with spinach (and I liked it!), and my favorite, the mushroom soup. Apparently making the soup is an incredibly laborious process, and interestingly, I wouldn't have known it contained mushrooms unless Alice had told me. The mushrooms (which appeared like meatballs) had an incredibly meaty texture with a white color inside, and I would have otherwise assumed it was fish. The waiter explained that one purchases a giant block of the mushroom (or something like that), then pulls it apart and rolls it into small spheres. The spheres were then simmered in chicken broth for some amount of time, and then placed on a grill to give a crispy outer texture. Following that preparation, the mushrooms were placed in the main broth of the soup, along with other skinnier mushrooms, which sort of played the supporting role.
Following dinner, we all had a bit of white mushroom soup. I think it was intended to be dessert, as it had a very faint sweet edge and was obviously served separately from the main meal. It was very subtle, and I really like it, although I never would have guessed it would be a post-meal indulgence.
I also met both of Alice's parents, who are both in remarkably good health for their age. Alice's dad, who I found out used to be the president of Taiwan Medical University back in the day (will my awe ever end?), was a little hard of hearing, but other than that, seemed to very engaged in the evening. John told Alice's mother that I went to Shilin and tried aiyu lemon jelly, and she proceeded to tell Alice how she made her own so I could try. They mostly spoke Taiwanese so I couldn't really understand (but honestly, if they spoke Chinese, it would have been too fast anyway), but I found out aiyu is really amazingly simple to make, and if I can get the ingredients back home at Ranch 99, I might have a go at it. All you need is 20g of lemon seeds (which are often sold pre-weighed and pre-packaged for convenience) and 1.5 liters of water. After rubbing and grinding the bag for two or three minutes and letting the lemon ingredients diffuse into the water, the mix is placed in the refrigerator for a few hours and voila! You have lemon aiyu ready to go.
After dinner we took the bus back to Academia Sinica and returned to the apartment. It's amazing that a week ago I was still semi-scared of John and Alice. Well, I don't know if scared is really the right word--more like insanely intimidated. But now, after 2 days of living with them, I view them as my temporary foster parents, and it totally rocks. They are such wonderful people, and I will miss staying with them.
posted by Shannon @ 9:47 PM
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