One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. –Luciano Pavarotti
As a Taiwanese, I haven’t introduced any sightseeing here in Taiwan; while some of you may know that one of the best-knowing place to go in my country is Sun Moon Lake, which is located in Nantou County, the central part of Taiwan; however, my theme today isn’t about this famous abstract, is about a very special restaurant near here- the Full House富豪群.
When I went out of the hotel, I saw a well-decorated restaurant said that it was famous for its “fruit plates.” It didn’t surprise me that this restaurant was proud of its fruit dishes because Taiwan, so-called “ fruit kingdom,” due to we’re in the subtropical, we have the nicest environment to grow a plenty kind of fruits with a juicy, sweet taste, especially, They. Are. Really. Big. But speaking of using fruit as dishes, what will you come up with? Using apple? Tomato? Pineapple? Or maybe a banana? None of these above. Different from using those basis fruits that we’ll normally use as the material for cooking, too; the fruit they used, as those which I’ve never thought that it could be put into dishes like bell fruit, orange, melon and sugar apple. What impressed me was that the way they match the fruits with the cuisine was to use the contrary flavour to create the harmonious taste:
Fresh melon with a strong taste of thorn onion pork;
Sweet sugar apple with light taste shiitake;
Light and sour bell fruit with bitter melon and salted egg;
Fresh orange with creamy scrambled eggs.
Besides the fruit dishes, one of the must-try speciality here in Sun Moon Lake is a kind of freshwater fish which has a nickname called the President Fish (Culter alburnous). FYI, the reason why it was called the President Fish was that it was the favourite fish of our former president Chiang Kai-Shek before 1949. Anyway, the way Full House flavoured the President Fish satisfied me so bad, especially, the soup of the dish. What I love the most about fish is that there will also be the delicate fish soup. The taste of the fish soup Full House cooked was appetizing and savoury, with the fish soup glazed one your bowl of rice, you’ll be willing to finish 5 bowls of rice.
Thanks to the number of fruits around the dishes, I didn’t feel greasy after I finished the meal, instead, I was full and refreshing.
Not only had I loved about the dishes here but also the decorations. The hostess of Full house is an artist, she decorated her and her husband’s wooden villa into a warm and unique B&B and a small restaurant. Every corner in this villa was full of seasonal fruits,
sophisticated decorations and the painting drawn by the hostess herself, by the way, her drawing style reminded me of Amedeo Modigliani.
Next time, if you happened to pay a visit to Taiwan, Sun Moon Lake, it will be worth to come around and have a nice meal here in Full House. Michelin for 2 stars to me, if one day it can have the opportunity to be on the list of Michelin Guide.
