Restaurant of the week: En Cheng Ju 恩承居

There are plenty of good Cantonese restaurants in Taipei, but En Cheng Ju, run by TV cooking personality Lin Chiu-hsiang (林秋香) is one that is well-known among gourmets, as well as being a popular place for movers and shakers to gather for a meal. Lin is very much a presence in the restaurant, chatting with regular customers, giving advice on dishes and directing the unostentatious but efficient service.

"We have a regular menu, and a number of seasonal variations," Lin said. "With so many regular customers, we must add new dishes occasionally or people would get bored." For this autumn, Lin recommends crabs, which are at their best this time of year, and also the house's lamb chops.

Lin, who specializes in the use of Chinese medicinal herbs in cooking, says that the use of seafood for such "tonic" dishes is unusual. "Normally for Chinese medicine tonic foods, meat [such as pork or free-range chicken] are used. Here we have adopted the use of seafood, which people these days prefer for the lack of fat." It also produces seafood dishes that you are unlikely to find anywhere else. The crab in wine sauce is a perfect example of how medicinal herbs can be used to set off the fresh taste of crabs -- which are of course taken live from tanks at the front of the restaurant. "All the seafood we prepare is live," Lin emphasized.

"Crab meat in Chinese medicine is regarded as having `cold' properties," Lin said. It can cause people to break out in rashes or even get diarrhea. The Chinese herbs are used to counterbalance this effect, so that even people who must normally be wary of seafood can enjoy this dish. Also try the steamed fish, seemingly so simple, but at En Cheng Ju, a true taste sensation.

Herbs are put to another use with the lamb cutlets. Marinated in a specially prepared mixture, the meat becomes so tender that little effort is required to pull it off the bone. While just recognizable as lamb, there is also a mixture of fragrant herbs, and while the flavor is strong, it does not linger unpleasantly in the mouth. Beef cutlets, which are marinated in a mixture of Japanese miso, rosemary and thyme, add a cross-cultural dimension to what on the surface is traditional Chinese fare.

The staff are knowledgeable and helpful but it is probably best to have someone who reads and speaks Chinese, as the menu, with its references to various unusual medicinal herbs, is not always easy to interpret. But you can be guaranteed some unusual flavors, or conventional dishes prepared with great skill.