Trekking all the way to Miaoli County for a meal may not be on everyone's agenda, but it should be for anyone looking to eat the best that traditional Hakka cuisine has to offer. And while it's true there are fine Hakka restaurants in Taipei and large Hakka communities in several other counties, few places, if any, could guarantee the superb meal in a rustic, rural setting of the kind you will enjoy at Shenghsing Inn.
Much of the delight in eating at Shenghsing Inn is the village of Shenghsing itself (as reported in the Taipei Times on Sunday). This tiny community is sufficiently isolated to keep bothersome crowds away and its residents have wisely sought to preserve its quaint charms. But the food is the highlight here, and it's the reason the restaurant has been the village's longest-surviving business.
PHOTO: MAX WOODWORTH, TAIPEI TIMES
Until recently, Taiwan's Hakka communities were notoriously poor, which meant that in the kitchen there simply weren't the ingredients for fancy presentation or grand meals. The goal was sustenance and wherever possible some extra taste was thrown in, usually by means of generous amounts of pork fat and salt. This tradition still holds true even though the days of scarcity are long gone. The Shenghsing Inn's bamboo scroll menu is proof, with its simple dishes that lean precipitously toward the heavy side.
A sampling of a half-dozen dishes on the menu yielded several culinary winners. First and foremost was the fatty pork, diced into thumb-sized chunks and fried into a shiny golden tint. It's a splendidly rich local specialty, so it takes almost a whole bowl of rice (and/or a bottle of Taiwan beer) to get it down. This is often the case with Hakka cuisine in which, historically at least, the rice was the main dish and what went down with it was surplus.
Another way to wash down the heavier dishes is the ginger chicken soup, with its subtle sting in the stock from the fistful of shredded ginger. Allow the soup to sit for a few minutes to let the chicken leg soak in all the flavors. Two other Hakka specialties worth going for are the pork intestine with shredded ginger and the braised stuffed tofu. There's nothing delicate about the tastes these dishes offer, but sometimes that hits the spot.
To top off a meal in quintessentially Hakka style, look no further than the leicha, a thick concoction made mostly of ground green tea leaves, peanuts and sesame seeds that is served hot or cold. The restaurant will bring a large clay pot and a mortar for diners to grind their own leicha to the consistency that they prefer, but don't grind it too finely or the drink loses its fiber-rich texture. Then sip away for as long as you can tolerate the small stools in the converted living room that is the restaurant's eating area.
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