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HOME CENTRAL TAIWAN DINING
COMPASS
MAGAZINE July 2012

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Tsai-i Hakka Restaurant
By Niang Chen
Translated by Angel Pu
82, ZhongTai E Rd, North District
(04) 2205-0025
Hours: 11:30 am-2:30 pm, 5:30-9 pm
(closed 1st, 3rd Mondays)
Chinese only.
Credit cards not accepted.
No service charge.
Tsai-i Hakka Restaurant, previously located on Jianxing Road for many years, has moved to ZhongTai East Road and retains the great food and reasonable prices that brought its patrons back regularly.
The owner's wife Tsai-i visits a traditional market twice a day to buy fresh pork and seafood herself. Being Hakka, she makes a firm, chewy pig-knuckle stew and savory stir-fried dishes, and most patrons love the home-like atmosphere the restaurant offers. Tsai-i's son Chen Kuan-wu, who has returned from overseas and taken charge of the kitchen, has decided to make the overall flavor of the restaurant's dishes healthier and lighter, while still retaining traditional Hakka flavors. |
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The Stir-Fried Hakka Snack
(small NT$150/ large NT$200)
includes black pork belly, squid,
bean curd, green onions and chilis,
and tastes even better with some
ice-cold beer. |
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The tasty, appetizing Three Cup Cuttlefish (small NT$220/
large NT$330) is stir-fried with soy sauce, sesame oil,
rice wine, ginger and Taiwanese basil. |
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The restaurant buys 9-10 kilos of Goose Meat (small
NT$250/ large NT$350) daily. This is drizzled with some
salt and rice wine after being boiled, with these simple
seasonings helping highlight the meat's juicy, savory
qualities. It tastes even better if you dip it in some
garlic-flavored soy sauce. |
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The meat and skin for the Pig Knuckles (small NT$280/ large
NT$380) are firm, but chewy, and have a bittersweet flavor,
thanks to camaralized rock sugar. |
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The intestine in Stir-Fried Pork Large Intestine
(small NT$120/ large NT$180) is tender, with
added shredded ginger and logan vinegar
making it even more appetizing. |
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Stir-Fried Eggplant (small NT$100/ large
NT$150) exudes the fragrance of
Taiwanese basil, and the House Balsam
Pear Stew (NT160) is a very popular
seasonal dish. |
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