We stayed in for dinner at Tainan Silks Place with a special tasting menu prepared by Chef Lo and his team. The menu was said to be inspired by the feast hosted in honor of then Japanese Crown Prince Hirohito (later Emperor) during the 12-day Royal Visit to Taiwan about 100 years ago featuring some of the finest ingredients one could source in town and prepared in the traditional style. Details of the feast were well-documented at that time so the hotel kitchen team were able to re-create many of the dishes served at the time.
Most of the dishes have heavy Hokkien and Cantonese influence, not a surprise due to the proximity of both provinces to Taiwan just across the strait and does represent the finest of Chinese cuisines at the time. The braised fin soup was rich and loaded with umami flavor from ham and chicken being used as soup base. It's difficult to find any restaurant serving the traditional Cantonese braised pigeon egg with bird's nest dish even at home and glad that Chef Lo (who is originally from Hong Kong) brought this to the menu, true to the traditional version.
Another Cantonese dish of stuffed crab shell was served, with picked crab meat, scallions, leeks and diced pork meat stuffed in a crab shell and baked with a bread crumb crust. Hokkien Flat Spring Rolls is a common local snack and they were served hot and crisp.
The next two main course dishes also came straight from the original menu. Sea cucumber was soaked and braised and served with snow-ear and oyster mushrooms, shiitake and gingko nuts, followed by "fish rolls" prepared using local kingfish fillet, lightly battered, deep-fried and served with a thick egg-white crystal gravy. We ended with the sumptuous assortment of seafood delicacies, served in a bamboo steamer basket with rice underneath.
Surprised the sweet almond cream was actually served in the original banquet as one of the dessert courses, but the version we had was lovely with crispy dough served on the side. That's in addition to the steamed "Eight Treasure" glutinous rice which symbolized wealth and prosperity.
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