Dishes
Goat and lamb soup
羊肉湯
Also called: 當歸羊肉湯 (angelica lamb soup) · goat soup · 羊肉爐 (hot pot)
Thin slices of fresh goat or lamb cooked by hot bone broth in the bowl, a Tainan breakfast and tonic.
Photo: bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: fullfen666, CC BY-SA 2.0What it is
A bone broth, sometimes scented with Chinese angelica, poured over thin slices of raw meat so it cooks to medium rare. Shops also blanch other cuts and offal in the soup and dress them with sesame oil. Menus write 羊肉, which English menus give as lamb or goat.
How it is made
Bones are simmered for hours (at least four at Lien Wu Chiao, about five at Baa Wanli), with angelica sometimes added near the end. Raw sliced meat goes in the bowl and the boiling soup is poured over it.
How to eat it
Locals count it among Tainan's breakfasts, with beef soup and milkfish congee. Many shops open early and sell out by late morning. Larger restaurants serve the broth as a hot pot.
In Tainan
Tainan shops stress freshness: Baa Wanli uses goats slaughtered that day in Shanhua, and Lien Wu Chiao in Xinhua gets same-day lamb from central Taiwan.
Where to eat it in Tainan
咩灣裡羊肉店BAA Wanli Goat
Long-running goat restaurant. The signature hotpot is built on a slow-simmered goat broth, with lean or skin-on cuts to choose from.
蓮霧腳羊肉湯Lien Wu Chiao Lamb Soup
Lamb soup with angelica in Xinhua, where raw sliced lamb is cooked to medium-rare by the hot broth.
無名羊肉湯No Name Lamb Soup
Morning lamb soup stall by the Da Cai Market, also serving lamb cuts and offal finished with sesame oil.
Sources