Taipei’s kings of fish paste
Thirty shops offering various seafood paste products across Taiwan were honored in a national competition last month
By Han Cheung / Staff reporter
Chiu Chia-hao (邱家豪) once desperately chased down a butcher truck to obtain caul fat to recreate his late grandma’s signature dragon-phoenix leg (龍鳳腿), a fish paste snack made to resemble chicken wings. And Cheng Ching-teng (鄭靖騰) thought he came across the perfect specimen to make his heritage cuttlefish balls, only to find that it was not suitable for blending into paste.
“Dad told me, and I didn’t listen,” Cheng laughs.
Having little formal training, the two went through much trial and error until they perfected their family traditions. Even after 52 years in the fish ball business, Shih Mo-chou (石莫愁) wakes up at 3am every day to personally taste the shop’s pastes, vividly recounting all the times that things went wrong when she didn’t do so.