Dishes
Tainan-style fried pork liver
南煎肝
Also called: 煎豬肝 · nan jian gan
Pork liver seasoned with five-spice and flashed over a fierce flame for about a minute so it stays tender.
What it is
A signature dish of Tainan's old Taiwanese restaurants: slices of pork liver, lightly spiced, cooked very fast so they stay soft and sweet. Getting it right tests the cook's control of heat.
Where it comes from
The News Lens says the core menu of Tainan's old Taiwanese restaurants grew from wine-house banquet food (酒家菜) mixed with Fuzhou cooking, which a chef at the old Bao Mei Lou passed on.
How it is made
The liver is marinated with five-spice and other spices, fried in oil, then stir-fried over a flame so fierce it leaps around the wok. It takes less than a minute, and only an experienced cook keeps it from ending up raw or tough.
How to eat it
Eat it the moment it leaves the wok, as one of several shared dishes in a Taiwanese meal.
In Tainan
Hsin Hsin in Tainan, open since 1975 under chef Wu Huo-tu (阿塗師), serves it as a house signature.
Where to eat it in Tainan
Sources