Lung Yen Chu means dragons drooling over food, according to the owner of the restaurant, one of Taipei's few eating establishments specializing in chicken soups.
There are 10 kinds of chicken soups, all stewed with different Chinese herbal ingredients. Ginseng chicken and sesame oil chicken are probably the most familiar ones, along with ho shou wu chicken (
Don't be scared by the odd names and the stereotype view of chicken soups being too rich and too nutritious. Soups here are light and less oily, having been designed for health-oriented cuisine.
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Each soup is made in one-person portions, placed in a hand-made pottery pot and served with a wooden spoon. It's a neat and interesting way to enjoy the traditional soup.
"We want to add more quality and higher taste to the traditional dishes," said owner Kao Huang-chih (
"But very few [cooks] seems to elevate the quality of such nutritious food," he said. "Our aim is to let you eat good food in a comfortable environment."
The house is surrounded by bamboo and pebble stone courtyards. The chairs and tables are antique-style dark wood, imported from China, and the pottery bowls and pots are all hand-made from Yingko, Taiwan's pottery town.
There are three kinds of chickens on the menu. Mountain chicken, (
"We lower the price to make sure you come here often. In Chinese medicinal theory, you have to take food tonics frequently enough to really make a change," Kao said.
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