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Restaurants Review: Jinjiang Tea Room (晉江茶堂)

Just down the street from the Guting MRT station, across from the Friends Star Hotel (友星大飯店), there's an unassuming little restaurant where democracy activists used to gather for meetings when the country was still under martial law. It's no longer a the scene of political intrigue, but Jinjiang Tea Room, now in its 18th year, is now known as one of the best restaurants serving authentic Hakka dishes this side of Miaoli (苗栗). In the recent food issue of Fountain, a theme-based biannual English-language magazine published by the National Cultural Association (文化總會), the head of the French trade office listed this cozy spot as one of his places to go for Taiwanese food.

Jinjiang goes to great lengths to look like the traditional Hakka rathskeller. Its facade exudes comfort, with deep green and wood varnish trim and windows that give a view of the restaurant's warm yellow walls. Inside, shelves packed full of knickknacks, like an old mechanical clock and jade Buddha, antique wood chairs and long narrow benches, and a table with legs taken from a vintage sewing machine, give Jinjian a comfortably cluttered, rustic feel. There was even a small, Japanese-style room off to one side, an old raincoat and hat made from palm fronds hanging from the wall, and two tables and cushions on the floor. It's the kind of place where you'd expect to get an authentic, home-style meal, and that's exactly we got.

Jinjiang Tea Room (晉江茶堂) Jinjiang Tea Room (晉江茶堂) Address: 1 Jinjiang St, Taipei City (台北市晉江街1號) Telephone: (02) 8369-1785 Open: Every day from 11am to 9pm Average meal: NT$580 for two Details: Chinese menu; credit cards not accepted

We ordered four dishes: the Hakka salty pork (客家鹹豬肉, NT$200), stir-fried betel nut flowers (炒檳榔花, NT$180), stir-fried river shrimp (炒溪蝦, NT$150) and green tea noodles (綠茶麵線, NT$50). I liked everything except the bin lang flowers, and was especially fond of the green tea noodles and the fatty pork, which was laid out in generous portions on a plate and served with raw scallions and a tangy garlic and vinegar sauce for dipping. My companion, however liked the betel nut flowers, which had a delicate flavor like palm hearts. At the end of the meal we were given complimentary bowls of green bean soup (綠豆湯) and four preserved plums (茶梅).

Other dishes that looked interesting were the Hakka stir-fry (客家小炒, NT$200), made from bean curd, fatty pork, dried squid, red pepper and scallions, and the pork intestines with shredded ginger (薑絲大腸, NT$250). One item I definitely want to try is the lei cha (擂茶), or pounded tea, a mixture of tea leaves, peanuts, mint leaves, sesame seeds, beans and herbs, which are ground into a powder and served as a drink.

My only complaint - and this is a minor one - had to do with the service. Almost immediately after we sat down, the waitress hovered beside our table, just behind me, making us feel pressured, probably unintentionally, to order quickly. When we asked her for recommendations, she responded, "All of our dishes are good."
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