Every time I think of Keelung, I think of snacks at the entrance of the temple; When I think of those snacks, the first thing that comes to mind is "tempura"; As soon as I think about the "King" Ji tempura in booth No. 16 at the entrance of the temple, the saliva is abundantly secreted, and there is no time to swallow saliva. This stall has been in business since 1956, and it has not been among the stalls at the temple entrance for a long time, but it is an important landmark in my mind.
Tempura is a deep-fried fish paste made from the Japanese name dome woji – shark meat is minced into fine mushrooms, made into fish paste balls, pressed into a shallow dish, fried until golden brown in appearance, dipped in sweet and spicy sauce and eaten with pickled gherkin slices. The key to whether tempura is delicious or not is whether the fish paste is good or not, but unfortunately most of the fish paste today comes from wholesale factories and is made from stale miscellaneous fish. Keelung Miaokou No. 16 stall does not follow the custom, honestly use small sharks and moray eels as materials, add taibai powder, sugar, miso, miso, misin beaten into fish slurry, freshly fried, this kind of food made according to the original is customary?
Tempura is best fried with peanut oil or mixed sesame oil, it is difficult to make at home, the pan must be large enough, and no one will spend a large bucket of peanut oil just to eat tempura.
seafood
Taiwan's sweet or not spicy is the process of frying fish pulp and then cooking, often accompanied by fish balls, pork blood cake, radish, cabbage rolls, and drizzled with sauce when eating, which can be described as the most common fish paste products at present, which can be seen everywhere.
Sweet but not spicy
Taipei Xiyuan Road "Yadong sweet not spicy" cabbage rolls are very good, simple cabbage, refreshing, sweet and crunchy, containing vegetable aroma; Unfortunately, the store is too attached to the special sauce, and the dipping sauce made with soy sauce and miso has a good flavor, but it is not advisable to drizzle every food, otherwise there is no taste and tasteless. Sweet or not spicy is naturally the signature, it is indeed good, and the dipping sauce is much more accurate for this.
Tempura is more common in the north, and "black wheel" in the south, which is Japanese for Muzhudi, so we must pronounce it in Hokkien. In the Kansai region, it is called the black wheel "Kanto boiled fox (邸pickesha 狎)". There is quite a difference between the north and south of Taiwan, and the northerners call it sweet and not spicy, and it is only about a quarter of the size of the southern black wheel. The black wheel used to be eaten in Kaohsiung was also mixed with boiled eggs - sailfish meat is beaten, white boiled eggs and sugar are added, mixed well, and fried in a pan.
Black wheel
I still prefer deep-fried tempura and charcoal-grilled black wheels. Pingtung Chaozhou's "Miaokou Sailfish Black Wheel" is made of freshly caught sailfish, emphasizing that no borax is added; Popular because it's fresh enough, this Kurawa's dipping sauce is ointment with mustard and has a unique taste. In the Donggang Overseas Chinese Market, there is a "Rui" Ji Sailfish Black Wheel that has been established for more than 100 years, which is also famous for its freshness and deliciousness, real materials, and no preservatives. It can be seen that the ancient taste made sincerely and honestly is a good way to revitalize food culture.
The night market often has many Western/local, delicate/rough mixed pomp and circumstance, presenting a noisy aesthetic. Taiwan is a shallow saucer-type society, and the popularity cycle of everything is very short - red wine was popular a while ago, and everyone drinking red wine is very much like pouring beer; Suddenly, it became popular to eat Portuguese egg tarts, and I saw "Andrew" and "Margaret" egg tart shops everywhere; It seems that it didn't take long for the whole society to crowd in front of bakeries, lining up to buy "dome bread" and doughnuts ... The kind of fish paste food we rejoice in seems to have evolved into a gradually stable Taiwanese taste, and the historical memory of the ethnic group is condensed in a bowl of tempura and inscribed in the post-colonial food culture.