Taiwan Today

Chefs in Dahu Township, Miaoli County, have cooked up singular new dishes to take advantage of the region’s strawberry season from mid-December through April. Local food and beverage providers have gotten together with the Dahu Farmers’ Association and set up a "Dahu Strawberry Banquet" themed restaurant on the 4th floor of the Dahu Strawberry Cultural Center. Chef Li Chun-sheng said it is not easy to work strawberries into recipes. The meat dishes and set meals on offer integrate modern concepts of nutrition, bringing together Asian and Western culinary techniques and developing various new foods featuring strawberries, to provide strawberry loving-diners with a unique gustatory experience. Some examples of available fare include the "Dahu Lover's Strawberry Steak," "Strawberry Surf and Turf," "Japanese Style Eel Rolls," "Strawberry-Cheese Boneless Chicken Legs" and "Strawberry German Style Pig's Foot." The menu also includes spaghetti, beef braised in red wine and mushroom tenderloin stew, all with a dash of strawberry flavor. Set meals come at NT$780 (US$24.10), NT$480 or NT$280. Li said the special soy sauce used plus the flavor of strawberries lingers on the noodles, making the Strawberry Spaghetti a unique dish that has been a big success. Working strawberries into a traditional salty pig's foot recipe was a real challenge, said Li. But the inclusion of strawberries, with their sweet and sour flavor, means that the pig's foot lacks the ordinary oily quality, and makes the dish a real delicacy. One visitor, surnamed Chen, said the recipe was a true departure from traditional German pig's foot, reminding her of Hakka cooking with overtones of strawberry. It is, she said, a fine dish. (This article first appeared in the “Liberty Times” Dec. 7, 2009.)