When it comes to choosing a Chinese restaurant, the common opinion is that the longer the history, the better the quality. Not the case with the relatively young Ji Yuan. Since its inception in 2005, the restaurant has built up a broad clientele ranging from gourmands to local politicians to neighborhood families.
Service is efficient and the well-kept interior is warmly lit and embellished with red lanterns and Chinese brush paintings.
The menu of Jiangzhe cuisine (江浙菜) is extensive, but what makes Ji Yuan special is the unassuming vegetable called shepherd’s purse, or jicai
(薺菜), which is used as the key ingredient in the establishment’s feature dishes and is hardly found anywhere else in the city.
Jicai is commonly used as food in Shanghai and neighboring areas. The plant’s healing qualities have long been touted in China, Japan and Korea.
Grown in cold climates, jicai has a short harvest season during the springtime. To ensure a year-round supply of the vegetable, proprietor Cheng Wan-hua (程萬華) works with local farmers who grow the plant at high altitudes and makes his stock by first boiling the greens before preserving them in a freezer.
Jicai novices can’t go wrong with the restaurant’s Ji Yuan tofu (薺元招牌豆腐, NT$200). The vegetables deliver a distinct grassy tang, while the scallops lend the pot a fresh, oceanic aroma. It’s a simple dish that packs a burst of flavors, one this reviewer wonders if she will ever tire of.
The jicai pork dumplings
(薺菜上肉水餃, NT$100 for 10) are a luscious mix of succulent pork and vegetables. Other popular choices include jicai fried with rice cake (薺肉炒糕, NT$150) and jicai with bamboo shoots (薺菜燴筍, NT$200), a savory must-try for vegetarians.
Baby peas with chicken slices (豆米雞絲, NT$350) are a signature Jiangzhe dish. Using clear chicken broth to add a light, sweet taste, Ji Yuan’s version is almost on par with that of the famed Hsiu Lan
(秀蘭小館) restaurant.
Another signature plate is the san cha yueh (招牌三叉月, NT$350) or braised beef tendon. The protein-rich collagen has a velvety, almost fat-like texture and is paired with a sweet brown sauce condensed from cooking wine, sugar and soy sauce.
One should never start a meal at Ji Yuan without sampling its pen tou dishes (盆頭菜), or appetizers in Jiangzhe cuisine. Highlights include green chili stuffed with meat (青椒鑲肉), osmanthus-flavored duck tongue (桂花鴨舌) and the highly recommended braised crucian carp with scallion (蔥燒鯽魚). The restaurant serves more than a dozen pen tou dishes a day priced between NT$60 to NT$180.
In 2012, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) heroically seized residences belonging to the family of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “purchased with the proceeds of alleged bribes,” the DOJ announcement said. “Alleged” was enough. Strangely, the DOJ remains unmoved by the any of the extensive illegality of the two Leninist authoritarian parties that held power in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan. If only Chen had run a one-party state that imprisoned, tortured and murdered its opponents, his property would have been completely safe from DOJ action. I must also note two things in the interests of completeness.
Taiwan is especially vulnerable to climate change. The surrounding seas are rising at twice the global rate, extreme heat is becoming a serious problem in the country’s cities, and typhoons are growing less frequent (resulting in droughts) but more destructive. Yet young Taiwanese, according to interviewees who often discuss such issues with this demographic, seldom show signs of climate anxiety, despite their teachers being convinced that humanity has a great deal to worry about. Climate anxiety or eco-anxiety isn’t a psychological disorder recognized by diagnostic manuals, but that doesn’t make it any less real to those who have a chronic and
When Bilahari Kausikan defines Singapore as a small country “whose ability to influence events outside its borders is always limited but never completely non-existent,” we wish we could say the same about Taiwan. In a little book called The Myth of the Asian Century, he demolishes a number of preconceived ideas that shackle Taiwan’s self-confidence in its own agency. Kausikan worked for almost 40 years at Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reaching the position of permanent secretary: saying that he knows what he is talking about is an understatement. He was in charge of foreign affairs in a pivotal place in
Just far enough out of reach to keep big crowds away, but not so far as to make a day-trip an exhausting affair, Jinhuang Hot Spring (近黃溫泉) is a nice winter escape for your next visit to Taitung County. The pools are numerous, the water is the perfect temperature and the walk in is not too challenging, though you will have to get your feet wet. The adventure starts in the county’s Jinlun Village (金崙), which is accessible by train, but you’ll want to have your own car, scooter or bicycle for this trip. If you arrive by train, walk up
RSS