Open for 50 years, Du Hsiaw Uyea is an old restaurant serving traditional Ilan cuisine. From Ilan train station, it takes five minutes by taxi to get to the restaurant. Almost every cab driver in the city knows about where it is.
The restaurant moved three years ago to its current address, in a four-story building. It is fitted out with Chinese antiques and wooden screens sculptured with Chinese landscape paintings.
Third-generation owner Chen Chao-ling (陳兆麟) is a celebrity chef who took charge of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) national banquet in Ilan. He is also a frequent guest on TV food shows. Under his guidance, the traditional rural dishes of Ilan are refined in taste and presented beautifully, adding Japanese and French styles.
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Kao-cha (糕渣), a deep-fried meat cake, is a must-try dish. Here at Du Hsiaw Uyea, the process to make the dish is complex. First, the ground chicken, pork and shrimp is ground into a paste. The paste is mixed with chicken stock and potato starch to thicken, it is then cooled until set. Finally, the "meat tofu" is cut into blocks, then deep fried it until it turns golden in color.
The finished product has a crispy skin and a soft or jelly-like center. Traditionally the deep-fried cakes are presented in the shape of chicken nuggets. Here, the new style is to present it as a big piece of tofu with a dip.
"All the ingredients we use are local Ilan agricultural products," said Chen's wife. Grilled goose salad with fish liver (洋蔥鵝肉魚肝醬), for instance, features locally reared geese. The goose's breast meat is grilled with olive oil and then steamed and cooled. Accompanied with expensive an-kan fish liver, the salad is garnished with shreds of onions, fruits and cucumbers and the sauce is a lightly seasoned mix of soy, vinegar, olive oil and sugar.
Si Luo Meat (西魯肉) is another traditional Ilan dish and it is the favorite of spicy taste lovers. It is pork shreds stir-fried in large amounts of black pepper and a bit a red chili, then braised in chicken stock. The strong taste of the dish goes well with rice.
Finally, one must try the almond tofu (杏仁豆腐). The texture of the tofu is unique, extra soft but sticky at the same time. The secret lies in adding potato starch to the mixture of almond and milk. It is reportedly the favorite dish of semiconductor tycoon Boris Chang (張忠謀).
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