It quickly became clear as our van set off into the green mountains outside of Taipei, toward a rural area called Shixi – where the river ends – that this wasn’t going to be a conventional dining experience. We passed by scantily clad women sitting in shop windows, selling betelnuts, soft drinks and cigarettes. Eventually, windows stopped appearing altogether, giving way to windy roads. Our government guides didn’t provide much context for our visit to Shi-Yang, but this was my most complete, memorable dining experience in Taiwan.
Drive down a twisty road, criss-cross brooks many times on foot, and traverse paths of stone and gravel, passing lily ponds, to reach Shi-Yang’s different dining environments.
Mr. Lin Bin Whei is an architect and designer by trade who 15 years ago built a series of semi private dining rooms, 105 seats total, each with a prep kitchen, spread out across several acres. It’s former farmland, and the original stone farmhouse is integrated into design of the main restaurant. A reservation requires 2-3 months planning.
We started in a room with fresh flowers, communal tables, a bamboo mat and clay pot of “cultural mountain” tea, with hot water rinses to keep cups hot.
The brewing process involved shoveling tea with a stick from a bamboo tray into a pot. Pour tea into primary pitcher. Drain water. Pour tea into cups.
Oolong is Taiwan’s most famous tea, originally from China’s Fujian province and grown at 1200-1600 meters. It’s half fermented, black being fully fermented. In 1862, after Treaty of Beijing, English businessmen introduced oolong tea to Taiwan.
Oolong went out of style from 1895 – 1945, since Japanese preferred green and black tea from places like India and Sri Lanka during their colonization of Taiwan.
We walked from the teahouse along Wuzhi Mountain Ancient Footpath, past Chong Lo (more softly) Bridge to the main restaurant. We waited in an outdoor dining room, treated to the screech of cicadas, before moving indoors.
Shi-Yang doesn’t sell alcohol, though they allow people to bring alcohol, and don’t charge corkage. Alcohol doesn’t fit with Shi-Yang’s aesthetic. However, flowers most definitely fit, as they present a different flower with each dish.
Mr. Lin Bin Wei isn’t a chef, but conceptualizes and designs each dish, changing things seasonally and little by little, more based on a feeling, and without the need for a single chef.
Our amuse bouche consisted of mango juice with passion fruit seeds.
Many Shi-Yang courses involved multiple dishes, including our first course. A taste of smoked salmon “stromboli” featured bursting salmon roe on top and julienne cucumber at the base.
A snow white slab of creamy tofu sported spicy wasabi and soy sauce.
Inari sushi featured a crunchy lotus root base, a bean curd wall, a topping of walnut, tangy capers and tiny fish. Thin, juicy sheets of white fish, creamy avocado, and a bed of tender cabbage also factored into the busy but good dish.
A unique soup featured delicate steamed egg and minced mussels, bits of shiso leaf, and filmy green mushroom – “the tears of lovers” – that apparently only grow after the rain.
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