Authentic regional Chinese 
Chyi La Hotpot 
--Pop star's mala taste   

Both numbing (ma) and hot (la), mala challenges the limits of the senses.

The Taiwanese pop star Chyi Chin is dubbed "the wolf" on account of the skin-prickling howls that he makes when singing. Chyi also owns a restaurant, Chyi La Hotpot, which specializes in the fiery hot mala (literally: numbing and spicy) variety of hotpot. One gulp of the mala broth at Chyi La and you'll feel a streak of flame sear your throat, leaving you hot all over. The experience is actually "hotter" by far than listening to his songs. 
 
"If it's neither numbing nor hot, life has no flavor;/ Be mala for ever more, like the heroes of the Warring States." As Chyi explains, this couplet neatly sums up the Taiwanese infatuation with the mala flavor, which really pushes the envelope of sensory stimulation. Chyi La has two trademark hotpots. One is the split-pot yuanyang hotpot, and the other is the pepper-crab hotpot. Just one whiff of either is enough to send spicy-food fans into raptures. This is especially true of the pepper-crab hotpot, which looks so innocent until the crabs are dropped in but then begins to exude an enticing aroma. Start slurping it and you won't be able to stop! 
 

No. 7, Alley 6. Lane 170, Chunghsiao E. Rd. Sec. 4, Taipei  Tel: (02) 2711-5385

A Humble Abode 
--Tsai Chen-yang's sugar-heart abalone

"Happiness and wealth" abalone in juice.

This dish of seven-star grouper cut into chunks conveys a blessing of happiness, because in Chinese, the phrase "fish chunks" sounds the same as "happiness."

A glass snuff bottle from the Qing dynasty.

The owner of the Recipes of a Humble Abode Restaurant is Tsai Chen-yang, a noted antiques collector. Tsai is a former owner of the bronze statues from the Summer Palace in Beijing that hit the headlines when they were auctioned in Hong Kong. As a gastronome and a connoisseur of the good life, Tsai designed his restaurant around a combination of fine dining (shark fin and abalone top the menu) and antique decor, with Chinese music in the background. Diners may be forgiven for thinking that they are banqueting at the imperial palace. 

Tsai believes that cookery and art, in their respective ways, aspire to the same goals. In cookery, it is essential that the right heat is applied and that seasonings are added in the right proportions. The house speciality at Humble Abode is sugar-heart abalone, costing NT$3600 for a 23-piece serving of top-grade abalone. Lunchtime diners can select a set meal priced at NT$680-NT$1080, while there are six shark fin and abalone set menus in the evening, costing NT$168.
 

B1, No. 108, Tunhua S. Rd. Sec. 1, Taipei  Tel: (02) 8771-9928

Leicha
 --A basketball star's homestyle Hakka fare 

Leicha has plenty of longstanding customers who keep their own pots and cups at the cafe.

TBasketball is a national sport in Taiwan, and one of its stars, Chiu Te-chih, has opened a caf" based around a Hakka beverage" I>leicha (pounded tea)--that he has been drinking since he was a kid. In bringing leicha tea, in its unadulterated form, from his rural home to the big city, Chiu is sharing with the world the unique brew that helped him grow into the strapping fellow he is to day. 

Leicha is prepared by pounding a mixture that includes sesame, peanuts and leaf tea in a clay mortar, then mixing the resulting powder into green tea. Dozens of different ingredients go into leicha, including Chinese medicinal substances, fruit kernels, and plenty of powdered green tea. The Japanese consider green tea to have miraculous properties as a beauty product, and in recent years it has been shown to have anticancer properties. But the Chinese have been using green tea since ancient times, and leicha, so rich in vitamins and fiber, is an excellent energy supplement at all times. Leicha also offers a selection of authentic downhome Taiwanese tea snacks such as Taiwanese rice pudding (both savory and savory-sweet versions), turnip rice-flour pudding, and the recently created leicha sponge cake and leicha cookies, all of which reflect the range and style of southern China's rice-based culinary culture. 
 

F1, No. 82, Civic Blvd. Sec. 4, Taipei.  Tel: (02) 8771-6797

Lai Lai Lamian Restaurant 
--Guinness World Record Holder 

Lai Lai Lamian owner Chang Hung-yu stretches and doubles a single lump of noodle dough 15 times, producing 16,384 separate noodle strands.

Japanese ramen is all the rage in Taipei at the moment, but for genuine "hand-pulled noodles" (which is what ramen means) you have to go for Chinese lamian. Chang Hung-yu, proprietor of the Lai Lai Lamian Restaurant, can stretch and double a single lump of noodle dough 15 times in succession, "pulling" it into 16,384 lamian strands. It's an achievement unmatched by chefs anywhere else in the Greater China region, and one which has earned Chang a place in the Guinness Book of Records. 
 
Chang Hung-yu's lamian noodles are firm and chewy. For maximum appreciation they are served in the simple Northern Chinese fashion--plain-stirred with fried bean-paste topping, submerged in thick broth, fried over a high flame--and don't need special additional preparation. Local-style lamian noodles taste just great when slurped down by the mouthful, accompanied by big gulps of soup.
 

1F, No. 23, Lane 233, Tunhua S. Rd. Sec. 1, Taipei  Tel: (02) 2778-8942

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