A hidden gem in the maze of restaurants across from Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館), King of Dumpling Haerbin Restaurant is a well-kept secret among gourmets searching for a real taste of northeastern Chinese cuisine.
Walking into the modest joint with seating for about 20 patrons, first-time customers are likely to be surprised by the thick menu featuring 394 dishes and over 30 kinds of dumplings. Depending on the seasonal ingredients available, the joint offers 50 dishes and 12 kinds of dumplings a day to ease the confusion.
“Noodles and dumplings are our staple food, while salad is the essential part of our diet,” said proprietor Chung Tung-hai (鍾統海), a licensed and experienced chef from Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, China.
PHOTO: HO YI, TAIPEI TIMES
The importance of salad in the cuisine is apparent by the over 160 varieties on the menu that include the representative chiang yu (熗油) salads. The joint's self-made specialty, chiang yu is a type of seasoning oil mixed with herbs. The crispy potato slice (熗土豆絲) is a recommended dish to savor the scent of chiang yu, while pig ear cucumber noodle (豬耳黃瓜拉皮) is a savory mixture of marinated gelatin and cold noodle made of green tea and potato.
As for the exotic dumpling variations, popular choices include pickled Chinese cabbage, white radish beef, onion lamb and sailfish mixed with basil and squid. The dumpling wrapper is made according to Chung's secret formula, who stays up till 2am every night making fresh dumplings along with his wife and partner Tsai Fu-mei (蔡富美).
Their popular side dishes are smoked chicken wing (NT$30) and lamb brochette (NT$40). The tasty chicken wing is blessed with the smoked flavor of tea and sugar, while the brochette is first fried then grilled to make the meat crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside.
Crystal sugar-coated sweet potato (拔絲地瓜) is a must-try dessert famed for its strenuous preparation process. The harmonious union of the crisp, cold sugar coating with a tang of sesame and the warm soft starch brings pleasure to the stomach.
Even though Chung is usually exhausted by the end of the day as the culinary art in the region requires meticulous preparation and complicated cooking steps, he still insists on making all the ingredients from scratch.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless