HOME CENTRAL TAIWAN DINING

COMPASS MAGAZINE July 2012
　

	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.
	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.
	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.
	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.
	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.
	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.
	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.