Tai Ke Meat Congee 台客燒肉粥 is a nice little eatery serving homely Taiwanese comfort food centred on their signature porridge with fried pork eaten with small plate side dishes.
Tai Ke Meat Congee restaurant's quite elaborate decor has a rustic homely small town, hometown Taiwan feel modelled after owner 林志樺's Ah Mah's (grandma) home. It is a busy, popular eatery in Taichung City.
The star dish packing in the crowds is their signature Shao Rou (Pork) Congee. It is a porridge topped with slices of deep fried pork, you tiao (you char kway or fried dough stick), chopped scallion, fried shallot etc.
The soup base for the porridge is complex - it is made with pork bones, chicken, vegetables (e.g. radish, carrot, corn, onion) and fruits like apple. So, it is full of wholesome clean tasting natural savoury sweetness.
The rice grains are cooked separately by steaming, added into the soup and boiled briefly before serving. The rice grains are soft but are in whole grains and neither broken down nor dissolved. It is a 饭汤 rice-soup porridge, not a congee as stated in the Taiwan Michelin guide.
The Shao Rou topping is fresh pork belly infused with a secret marinade over 2 days, lightly battered and deep fried to a golden brown crisp outside. The shao rou is sliced and laid onto the porridge.
Pieces of crisp spongy you char kway in the porridge complete the comfort dish.
Tai Ke's fans love it that the shao rou porridge is tasty yet not overly salty. The shao rou slices in the porridge are flavourful - savoury and still have a bit of residual crispness outside despite soaking in the porridge.
Tai Ke restaurant also has a seafood version of the porridge. Inside there's fish slices, prawn, squid, two types of clams, scallop, oyster, etc.
They also have a less elaborate version with just hairy gourd & clams.
The porridge is eaten with side dishes. Needless to say, the most popular side is their tenderly juicy flavour packed savoury shao rou (deep fried pork belly slices).
They also have a deep fried prawn roll which is minced and chopped prawn wrapped in tofu skin.
Tai Ke has house made sausages packed with rice, pork or liver fillings.
If you want more soup, get their Pork Bone & Vegetable Soup which uses the same soup base but served with big socket bones and some vegetables (radish, carrot etc) inside. Same savoury sweet soup with a slightly different taste profile from the added ingredients. Many customers enjoy the rich bone marrow with a straw.
Look out too for the daily special menu on the chalk board which boss 林志樺 prepares depending on what is the season's best at the market, just like Ah Mah (grandma) would.
Translated by Tony Boey on 27 Jan 2021
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