Taipei City Government

Taipei is home to one of the world's greatest kitchens, offering the very best of the many distinct regional cuisines from the Chinese world. In a bid to boost understanding of Confucianism and boost the tourism assets around the Taipei Confucius Temple, the city govt. has invited well-known local gourmet Zhu Zhenfan to design a series of 13 "Confucian dishes" based on the great Confucian worthies enshrined in the Confucius Temple, and on related information sources on food.

The results: Wen Tianxiang Chicken, Kao Ting Double Delicacy, Hanlin Twice-Cooked Pork, Emperor & Ministers Congee, Guan City Chicken, and Yang Ming Vinegar Fish, among other creations. You'll now find them being crafted at local hotels, restaurants, eateries, roadside stands, and lunchbox purveyors, night market by Taipei Confucius Temple each bringing their own unique mix of culinary skills and ingredients to the recipes. Each dish will bring you a different taste experience, but all will bring you better understanding of the stories of the ancient sages.

Uncle John – Jiangzhe Confucian Cuisine at Its Best

Specializing in Shanghai specialties, Uncle John has in the past offered feasts based on the Chinese literary classic Dream of the Red Chamber and the paintings of the great Chang Daichien. In complement to the Confucian spirit, the Jiangzhe approach is used in such dishes as Kao Ting Double Delicacy, named in honor of the famed Southern Song dynasty Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi (1130-1200 AD.) and the town of Kao Ting, where he set up a school in his later years. Zhu's purpose in eating was to keep mind, spirit, and physical vigor in optimal condition, and he insisted on amaranth every day. It is said to keep the mind clear and thoughts flowing, accompanied by a great variety of complementary foods.

Uncle John's amaranth with "gold and silver" egg, literally amaranth with cubes of preserved and salted egg. The amaranth and small anchovy steamed dumplings, which also has mushrooms inside, are served as a "double bridge" tandem, providing a cool and warm texture contrast. Zhu Xi is one of the famed "12 Confucian philosophers", and is enshrined in the Taipei Confucius Temple's Dacheng Hall.

Another dish, Wen Tianxiang Chicken, honors Wen Tianxiang, who lived during the latter phase of the Southern Song dynasty, 1236-1282 AD. While resisting China's Yuan Mongol invaders he was captured and placed in a dungeon, where he ate food provided by a kind old woman who visited and made a chicken dish in an earthenware bowl, adding water, wine, and edible oil to the meat. In the recreation of this recipe, Uncle John first flash-fries ginger slices in sesame oil in a wok, then adds garlic, and chili pepper, then finally adds diced oil-fried chicken leg and sautes until crispy. The whole is then placed in an earthenware pot and simmered, emerging as a treasure of heady aroma. Wen Tianxiang is enshrined in the Dacheng Hall East Side Building.

Hanlin Twice-Cooked Pork is a dish alluding to the presentation of a whole pig in sacrifice to Confucius during the Confucius Ceremony. The ancient custom is for young men to take portions of the pig home to eat after the ceremony. The custom in mainland China's Sichuan province is for the pork to be cooked again in a pot, giving rise to the name "twice-cooked pork". Uncle John uses three-layer marbled pork, adding dried beancurd, green pepper, and other items, and also introducing thick bean sauce, chili sauce, and sweet flour paste for seasoning, stir-frying the whole. This dish is a favorite wine/spirits accompanier. At Taipei Confucius Temple, the tablet for Confucius is enshrined in Dacheng Hall. Whether you try each of these Confucian dishes on its own or together as a feast, you are in for a truly delectable—and edifying—experience.

Shin Yeh Restaurant – Time-Honored Taiwanese Meets Confucian Cuisine

Its reputation built on classic Chinese rice porridge with side dishes, and a beloved upholder of age-old Taiwanese flavors, Shin Yeh now brings unique and flavorful "Confucian dishes with Taiwanese characteristics" to your table. Its Emperor and Ministers Congee honors the great Confucian sage Lu Xiufu, who lived 1237- 1279. Among his many renowned acts, Lu escorted the young Southern Song emperor—the last of the reign— to Zhangzhou in Fujian province, fleeing from the reign's northern enemies; along the way he stopped at a rich family's home to ask for food, and the owner, looking down on him as a beggar, merely tossed him meal leftovers meant for the family cat. This "recipe" with time evolved into the classic richingredient slow-heated porridge beloved by so many generations. In Shin Yeh's version, you'll find seven flavor enhancing treasures added, including shrimp, lean meat, celery, and taro, featuring a soup stock made with large soup bone and hen meat. Stir-fried shallot is also added, creating fragrant flavor bursts around what is essentially a mellow taro porridge. The Taipei Confucius Temple tablet for Lu Xiufu is enshrined in the Dacheng Hall West Side Building.

Guan City Chicken is a sliced cold chicken dish. Free-range chicken is used, preserved in salt and rice wine, stewed in boiling water, sliced, and iced. The meat is wonderfully succulent and chewy, with all natural juices and the free-range chicken's stronger taste preserved. For the dish, Yang Huo Pork, which refers to the Spring and Autumn years (770-476 BC), the senior official Yang Huo wished to meet with Confucius, and to get him to come offered him a roasted pig. Confucius did not wish to meet him, and in fact went to his home to thank him when he found Yang was out. Unexpectedly, they met on the street afterward and engaged in serious conversation. Shin Yeh is famous for its soy-stewed meats, and introduces the juices from this method along with soy-stewed green bamboo shoots to this dish, creating a deliciously sweet and luscious aroma, texture, and taste.

Xiao Lizi Seafood – When the Taiwan Table Meets the Confucian Table

Xiao Lizi Seafood has long experience in banquet-style feasting, famed for fresh seafood and stir-fry virtuosity. There's no menu here, and no set recipes, and you must make reservations. The owner bases your meal on what's been bought fresh that day and on your budget. The house's Yang Ming Vinegar Fish honors the Ming Dynasty Confucian philosopher Wang Shouren, also called Yang Ming, who lived 1472-1528. Known for his love of fish, the story goes that one day a chef added“too much”vinegar to a fish dish yet Yang Ming found it delicious, and it thereafter became a Jiangxi province specialty. This eatery uses fresh bass, wraps it in flour, and oil-fries it until crisp outside, then spreads a combination of onion, green pepper, sugar, vinegar, and other flavor enhancers over it. The Taipei Confucius Temple tablet for Wang Shouren is in the Dacheng Hall West Side Building.

Dalong Night Market – Confucian-Style Traditional Snacks

Dalong Night Market, near Taipei Confucius Temple and neighboring Baoan Temple, offers many beloved traditional snack food treats—stinky tofu, fried noodles, mutton soup, and a host of sweets a mere short-list. Tourists come for the thrill of the night-time fun.

The market's Fang Kuangroufan (Fang's Soy-stewed Pork Rice) once took home first prize in the Taipei Soy-Stewed Pork Rice Festival, and uses its signature fatty pork belly in its interpretation of Yang Huo Pork. The pork is three-layer marbled, and is first oilfried and then marinated for a lengthy time in the house soy-stew broth. A final touch is the addition of bamboo slivers cooked in soup bone stock, which adds a bit of zesty flair.

Elsewhere in the market you can stop at Halu Rougeng (Halu Thick Meat Soup), where you can enjoy crispy pork-rib soup and an interpretation of Yang Huo Pork using its lean-meat thick soup. At A-Qiu Haixian (A-Qiu's Seafood), the sweet and sour pork ribs and the tilapia fish are used in interpretations of Yang Huo Pork and Yang Ming Vinegar Fish, respectively. All are delectable taste journeys you won't be able to savor anywhere else.

Information

Uncle John Add: 18 Hengyang Rd. Tel: (02) 2388-5880 Shin Yeh Add: 8F, 9 Songshou Rd. (A9 Building, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Xinyi New Life Square Tel: (02) 8786-1234 Xiao Lizi Seafood Add: 93 Hami St. Tel: (02) 2597-6619 Note: Reservations only Fang Kuangroufan Add: 255 Dalong St. Halu Rougeng Add: 294 Dalong St. A-Qiu's Seafood Add: 261 Dalong St.