Thu, Nov 20, 2014 page12

• Restaurant review: Liu’s Traditional Juancun Food (劉家酸白菜火鍋)

  • By Enru Lin / Staff reporter
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  Though it’s easily the calling card restaurant of Greater Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營), the original Liu’s Traditional Juancun Food (劉家酸白菜火鍋) is hard to find by accident.

  To reach Liu’s, a local favorite for its pickled cabbage hot pot, you have to go down a lane flanked by trees that leads to a naval base gate with guards. Turn right, pass by a pack of wild dogs and go through a second, albeit abandoned, naval base gate. At the end of it all is a military recreation center that closed permanently a few years ago. After nightfall, Liu’s restaurant is the only source of light in the cul-de-sac.

  It is remote, but it is also very busy. The dining hall is a large room of banquet tables and a few tables for smaller parties, which were filled to capacity during my visit on a weekday evening. Service is no-frills and brisk, with the first dish arriving in under 10 minutes and the others following in rapid succession.

  

  The signature hot pot, made with salted cold-fermented green cabbage.

  Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times

  Liu’s makes traditional cuisine of the nearby naval dependents’ villages. The menu has the signature hot pot, noodles, braised meats, fish-paste snacks — and notably, no rice-based dishes. Historically, these villages have tended to consume wheaten foods, partly due to a high concentration of Civil War refugees from China’s wheat belt.

  The restaurant got its start as a neighborhood dumpling house, but dumplings probably aren’t the main attraction anymore. At NT$5 each, they are a bit overpriced for the area. There’s one option, a savory pork with chives, but it’s a small morsel in tough-looking thick skin that’s a lot less al dente and more watery than it looks.

  However, the flour wraps are some of the finest you can find. It’s not about the special ingredients: There’s no crab or exotic vegetables, just common meats and lettuce, but the lettuce is crisp and the braised beef is jaw-droppingly good. Served in thick slices, it’s slightly smoky, soft and aromatic. Ingredients are assembled in a brilliantly golden fresh flatbread that’s somehow both moist and crispy, like a jazzed-up version of Indian naan. Rolls range from NT$45 to NT$90 and are big enough for two to share.

  

  Appetizers include stringy tofu.

  Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times

  Liu’s is best known for hot pots made with salted cold-fermented green cabbage, which it makes in-house in a slow natural process. The dish is popular, and when I was there, most families had one at the center of the table, brewing away in a copper pot with a tall smoking chimney. A small hot pot (NT$520) should be good for two to three people, a large (NT$920) serves six to eight and extras like beef meatballs and sliced meats can be added a la carte.

  Even without add-ons, it’s a lot of food. The pot holds a seemingly bottomless lode of ivory-marbled pork, fish-paste balls, floppy tofu skins, firm tofu and finely shredded cabbage, which is juicy and mild. It’s the flavor of the broth that is most unusual — a flavor that would be difficult to replicate at home. There’s a true-to-form sour pungency of top-grade pickled cabbage, rounded out by a sweetness and a faint char flavor, probably given by the copper pot.

  For the last few years, the dish has been fueling a healthy frozen-food delivery business and expansion plan. Liu’s now has five branch locations: three in Greater Kaohsiung, one in Yunlin and a store in Taipei that had its grand opening yesterday. Hot pots are half price during off-peak hours, from 2:30pm to 4:30pm and 9pm to 10:30pm.

  

  Liu’s started as a neighborhood dumpling house, but is now better known for its cabbage hot pot.

  Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times

  

  Wraps are served in cooked-to-order flatbread similar to Indian naan.

  Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times

  

  Liu’s makes a small assortment of flour-based desserts traditional to the neighboring naval dependent’s villages.

  Photo: Enru Lin, Taipei Times

  For your information

  Liu’s Traditional Juancun Food
  劉家酸白菜火鍋

  Address: 9 Jieshou Rd, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市介壽路9號) Telephone: (07) 581-6633 Open: Daily from 11am to 2pm, 2:30pm to 10:30pm Average meal: NT$400 Details: Menu in Chinese, no service charge
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