When lunch becomes an exercise in artistic appraisal or a spiritual exercise akin to the Japanese tea ceremony, I am inclined to head for the door. As Shuilai Chingshe is located in the backwoods of Taoyuan County, however, there was nowhere to go once I found myself seated in an uncomfortable cross-legged position on the small tatami squares that served as seats for the restaurant’s side booths (regular chair and table seating is available in the central area).
The staff did not present me with a menu; there wasn’t one. Everyone in the restaurant received the same set, which changes with the seasons. I had no choice but to adopt a Zen-like spirit and embrace my fate. This was appropriate for the setting, which is most of a traditional Anhui-style Chinese mansion that has been embedded into a contemporary concrete shell. Dark wooden beams stand out against the white painted walls. Antique furniture, calligraphy and sculpture decorate the interior.
Despite the huge Buddha in the main hall, the ambiance of Shuilai Chingshe is more rustic than monastic. The staff member’s rough linen smocks made them look like members of a lay Buddhist community. The wholesomeness of the place made me very apprehensive about the food I was about to receive.
Photo: Ian Bartholomew, Taipei Times
The overall presentation of the food certainly had an austere quality, but everything was lifted by the quality of the ingredients and the careful balance of flavors. The restaurant boasts ingredients that are mostly homegrown and harvested as needed. (It almost goes without saying that everything is organic.) The preparation allows natural flavors to predominate, but combines them in ways that are often quite exciting. The cone-shaped inari sushi vegetable roll can often be bland, but at Shuilai Chingshe, the cone had been carefully packed to ensure that every part was full of flavor, bursting with the taste of nuts, alfalfa sprouts, fruit and leaves.
The quality and careful selection of ingredients was apparent in the bold simplicity of the chilled tofu with black beans and mustard. This was a piece of glistening white tofu, three large preserved black beans and a small dab of wasabi in a small ceramic bowl. The presentation had the quality of a Zen koan. I gobbled up the whole thing in seconds and couldn’t quite figure out why it was quite so delicious. Another treat was the kimchi. It was recommended that this be wrapped in a dried sheet of seaweed with some five-grain rice. The simplicity of this dish belied the extraordinary variety of flavors.
These opening statements shift gear with some more substantial dishes in the middle of the menu.
The winter menu includes a stir-fry of trumpet mushrooms and bell peppers — which looks remarkably like a sweet and sour preparation of chicken — and a vegetable hot pot. The leaves for the hot pot were so fresh that it was tempting just to eat them raw, and the pot contained some well-made imitations of hot pot staples such as pig’s blood cake and meatballs. One of the few false notes in the menu was the Western-influenced casserole of creamed potato and cheese. It’s inclusion showed a willingness to move outside traditional Chinese vegetarian cooking, but it served mainly to add variety, rather than enhance the overall quality of the meal.
The full menu, with its eight courses, is quite filling, though committed meat eaters might find it a little light. Fortunately, it provides enough culinary interest to keep the diner engaged, even if not a dedicated vegetarian. Outside there is a small garden overlooking fields and a lotus pond where diners can sit to generate a suitably contemplative mood.
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