Wein in Taichung

This is Wein. Its a modern Shanghainese place with a Taiwanese influence that Mr. Wu took us to for lunch. Usually, I don't go to the upscale places, but this was dope! Its a good example of what I talked about in previous posts concerning restaurants that evolve but stay on the same flavor track. Its not fusion, its a progression...



Mei Tsai Coh Roh - one of my all time favorite dishes. A sweet and funky preserved cabbage with sliced pork belly. This was probably the best version of it I've ever had. Sorry mom. haha



Egg roll in a new shape with a different approach to the skin. It was very thin but fried extra hard and filled with cheese and shrimp. I liked the skin, I didn't like the filling. Felt like some funky japanese fusion where they are just excited to use mayo, cheese, or cream of corn.

That's one thing you'll notice a lot in Taiwan. There is a lot of cultural exchange with Japan and most tourists are from Japan. They like Taiwanese food and Taiwanese people like to borrow things from Japan as well. Very interesting to see in practice. Of course, those jerks occupied Taiwan for a while, but we won't talk about it here LOL.



This was the most creative dish. I am playing with taro a lot on our new menu at Crackhaus so I like to see it done here. Taro is really underappreciated. One of the things we'll be doing is trying to introduce and use certain ingredients that have not been utilized much in American Taiwanese (or Chinese) cooking. In short, class is in mother fucking session lol. This dish was inspired by a old half-n-half "love story" called Oha Nanji (my Taiwanese spelling is horrible, I will get the correct by end of day) about Taiwanese-Chinese connect. The old heads really liked this use of an old name for a new dish as well.

The dish combined sauteed chicken with a light marinade then tossed in taro gravy paired with a crisp Purple Yam. This was some serious shit. Deeper than money, taro, and hos.