It’s always a pleasure to find something new on the food front, and Hua Cai Gan (花菜干) does just this with its menu, which is drawn from the Penghu archipelago’s traditional cuisine. The food of these windswept outer islands, with their extensive use of preserves and pickles, is quite distinct from that usually found on Taiwan’s main island.
Hua Cai Gan is a branch of a Penghu restaurant that has a reputation for serving an authentic presentation of the locale’s cuisine. Its Taipei branch, which opened last month, exudes rustic chic with colored tiles and low-fired hand-painted crockery. The dining area aims for the look of a well-maintained traditional home; customers sit on backless wood benches while they eat.
The menu comprises many unfamiliar dishes, but staff members are more than ready to help. For larger parties, an array of nicely balanced set menus are available starting at NT$1,250 for a six-course meal (enough for a table of four to six), going up to a full 10-course banquet for NT$3,000.
The restaurant takes its name from an unusual preparation of pickled dried cauliflower, which is served fried (炒花菜干, NT$300). Despite being the restaurant’s signature dish, it was interesting rather than toothsome, the vegetable neither vibrant nor crunchy enough to delight.
Fortunately, it was the only dud out of the nine dishes I tasted. Some of these were unusual, such as the pork with pickled gourd (酸瓜炒肉, NT$300), which paired well-marinated meat with the crisp, sharp preserved gourd to excellent effect. Another revelation was the cabbage fried with chopped peanuts (高麗菜炒土豆芙, NT$180). Sweet cabbage leaves sitting in a nutty broth and topped with finely chopped cooked peanuts made for an unusual combination, which despite its unfamiliarity, was instantly recognizable as soul food.
Not all the dishes are so exotic; a simple preparation of stewed sardines (燜魚醬, NT$250) went down a treat, the flesh firm and flavorsome, unadorned by complex garnishes. The flavors of most of the dishes are powerful, with salt and vinegar predominating, which is not surprising given the heavy use of preserved ingredients. According to bloggers familiar with the restaurant’s Penghu outlet, these have nevertheless already been much toned down to cater to the blander preferences of Taipei residents.
An unexpected pleasure at Hua Cai Gan is the rice, served in three varieties — millet rice, sorghum rice and sweet potato rice (NT$20, one kind available daily) — which harks back to the days before Taiwan’s economic miracle, when rice, then a luxury, was often eked out with these cheaper staples. Now that we don’t have to rely on them to ward off hunger, they taste remarkably good, giving flavor and texture to the highly refined white rice we eat every day.
That’s not to say Hua Cai Gan can’t manage finesse — the Taipei branch also offers a catch of the day menu featuring a variety of fish flown in daily from Penghu. All the fish on the menu are served up steamed in the traditional Chinese fashion, with the aim of highlighting their freshness.
Hua Cai Gan staff members are knowledgeable about what is on offer, which makes the job of settling on a suitable choice from among the unfamiliar menu items much easier.
The restaurant also has some surprises in the dessert department — the unusual dish of deep fried rice noodles topped with a sweet soy and sesame oil sauce (煎熱, NT$200) was a revelation. A reasonable selection of western and Chinese spirits and beers is available.
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