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Restaurant: (Ningpo)Tsai Wan Shing (蔡萬興)

By Yu Sen-lun
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Jan 16, 2004, Page 19

Spare-ribs Tsai Fan, upper left, stir-fried rice cakes with pork shreds and vegetables, right, and a bowl of sticky-rice dumplings soup. PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN, TAIPEI TIMES

When it comes to Zhejiang traditional dishes or dim sum, Taipei's gourmands will tell you not to miss Ningpo Tsai Wan Shing, as this 50 year-old restaurant serves the best zongzi (glutinous rice wrapped with leaves,(粽子) and dumplings in town.

The restaurant is located just a few meters west of the former discotheque 2nd Floor. It's a low house with a big signboard, on which are written three giant words: "Tsai Wan Shing."

The inside is a little dark, and the decor is not much different from the time when the Tsao family followed the Chinese Nationalist Party to Taipei from the mainland. The decor may not be modern, but there are many celebrity autographs and photos on the wall -- including former defense minister Tang Fe (唐飛), legislator Sisy Chen (陳文茜) and pop band Mayday (五月天) -- to attest to its popularity. The original Tsai Wan Shing in Zhejiang province's Ningpo was a store that sold glutinous rice products and had been in business for about 200 years.

Arriving in Taipei in 1949, the Tsao family transformed the house into a restaurant, selling zongzi, glutinous rice dumplings, Won-tons and dim sum items based on glutinous rice. Later, as the restaurant became popular, it started to present some traditional Ningpo dishes to satisfy the nostalgia of mainlanders. They include baked crucian carp with green onions (蔥烤鯽魚), chicken and chestnuts casserole (栗子雞), fish hot pot casserole (砂鍋魚頭) and stewed mustard leaf (芥菜). These are now the signature dishes of the restaurant and have been dubbed the"Kung-fu dishes" by second-generation owner Tsao Ai-chin (曹愛琴) -- meaning they take a long time and a lot of skill to prepare.

For diners on a budget, the most exciting items are the spare-ribs Tsai Fan (排骨菜飯), stir-fried rice cakes with pork shreds and vegetables (雪菜肉絲炒年糕) and a bowl of sticky-rice dumpling soup for dessert.

Tsai Fan is a traditional Zhejiang and Shanghai rice dish, which is rice cooked with green vegetables and a little oil to add flavor. Spare-ribs Tsai Fan is the most popular item among the house's seven Tsai Fan variations.
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