Shanghainese Taste in Taiwan

Kao Chi (高記) was the first restaurant along Yongkang Street (永康街) of Taipei selling Shanghainese light refreshments, or dian xin (點心), or dim sum as they call it in Cantonese. It was established in 1949 but the founder only moved to the present premises at Yong-kang Street in 1969. In Taipei, it is as popular as the famed Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐) which has branches overseas, including Malaysia.

The flagship three-storey shop at Yongkang Street was the one we visited to have a taste of Shanghainese food after our satisfying beef-noodle meal. It has an open kitchen to convince the diners that food hygiene is not any way compromised.

Since the xiao long bao (小籠包) is the speciality of this place, we ordered the one with crab roe and pork. The skin of the soup dumplings was very thin and soft but strong enough to hold the broth. They were as good as those at Din Tai Fung in Malaysia or Singapore.

Another dish complementing the xiao long bao is the shrimp dumpling (高記蝦餃皇). These were the best shrimp dumplings I have ever had. The shrimps were so fresh that I could smell the taste of the ocean!

The siu mai (蟹黃蒸燒賣) were also very good. The taste of crab roe was quite obvious along the flavours of pork, shrimps and mushrooms.

Another signature dish of Kao Chi is the steel-pan-fried bun (上海鐵鍋生煎包). The dough is said to be fermented with the over sixty-year-old yeast from the old dough. The slightly seared skin of the buns in the sizzling steel pan was very flavourful and crunchy which I liked. The filling is pork which was very soft and tender.

Although it was only a light meal after the beef-noodle meal, it was a very satisfactory one.

Food from the Sea

When we were in Kaohsiung, our taxi driver recommended that we must at least have a seafood meal in Qi Jin (旗津) as that's the place to get the freshest seafood around Kaohsiung, so we followed his advice and chose one of the restaurants lining the street to have our lunch.

Qi Jin (旗津) is an island off the west shore of Kaohsiung. Taking a ferry from Kaohsiung is the most common way of visiting this island, but we hired a taxi and took the underwater tunnel which was a longer trip.

We ordered nothing but seafood! The asparagus was not spared from having been flavoured by seafood. Everything was so delicious but I only know two of them, oyster and squid! All the seafood here is so fresh that no strong flavouring is needed in preparing the dishes.

Before the meal, the taxi driver took us to the Qi Hou Market (旗後觀光市場) to buy some local produce. As the main produce is from the sea, the snacks sold here are all made from seafood as well. All of us bought some for the family members as well as friends and colleagues. They make nice souvenirs and not that expensive, and delicious too!