Lu Shanren's Dadao Life Adventure (1): A City Worth Savoring

I admit it. Since childhood, I have built my mental map of life out of memories of a few places that served good food.

A friend at NewsMarket said I should write about my 50 years of experience hunting down street food and good eats on the ground in Taichung. In the alleys by the Luxury Theater, the barbecue salad and preserved mustard green rice next to what used to be the fire station are a must to introduce. They should carry a flavor influenced by the Japanese colonial era.

I like that its offerings are simple and specialized, and that the prices are down-to-earth. Several mothers carefully and cleanly tend to the meat and the heat of the grill. For fifty or sixty years the flavor has not changed. It counts as one of the few old shops in the old downtown that has not moved away.

Facebook friend Amos Po said that he once interviewed this shop's owner, that the craft was passed down from the owner's father, that his father was one of old Chiang's eight imperial chefs, and that the barbecue method blends in the technique of Russian steak……

A Facebook friend responded: This is the city's memory. If even she moves away, then there really is no flavor left at all. What else in this city is worth chewing on?

A student said: Teacher, after you retire you could switch careers and write food reviews full time…

My second brother asked me, saying he really missed that Japanese restaurant and wondered whether it was still open. He also asked whether the rice porridge place that used to be in the alley by Chyi Yu's home on Zhongshan Road had moved somewhere and was still in business. Behind the wall of the old library at the corner of Minquan Road and Ziyou Road, the breakfast fried dough sticks were what we most often passed by and ate; he really misses that salty soy milk and sweet soy milk.

I answered: Dear brother, the shops you liked as a child are all gone. Because you and your outstanding classmates from Taichung First Senior High School and Weidao and Xiaoming all ran off to Taipei to develop careers or went abroad. And if a hometown has no talent willing to stay and run things well, it withers.

Of the old Japanese restaurants, what remains is Houyin in the alleys of the electronics street, and Shuiche on Zhongshan Road. Qinyuanchun Jiangzhe cuisine is still holding on. There was a real Beiping-style sour cabbage hot pot place at the old Zhongshan Hall that changed its name and moved to the corner of Meicun Road and Shengping Road; it is close to home, so I often walk over to eat. When Mom returns to Taichung, she loves to eat at a dan dan noodle shop that has blanched squid and baibaiqie cold cuts, at the alley entrance across from Taiyangtang on Ziyou Road. I just passed by and the sign was gone; I worry it too is about to disappear!

(Series to be continued)