June 2025 Shoal Menu
With the Dragon Boat Festival behind us, quilts can finally be aired and winter clothes packed away—yet June still lingers in that awkward lull, the humid “Grain-in-Ear” rains drumming on the roof. Rainy days bring orchard bustle: it’s the season for candying fruit. Gina from Meishan Village just sent us boxes of ruby-fleshed plums bursting with summer color.
Shoal turns nineteen this month, and we wish simply to return to the comforting rhythm of days past.
To ensure solo diners can still enjoy a communal feast, every dish is priced and portioned for one person. When you come with friends, order as many portions as suit your party and appetite; the kitchen will serve everything family-style.
Our menu changes each month with the turning seasons, and we host only ten guests every thirty minutes. Reservations can be made via private message to our Facebook page, and we will reply when free. If you dislike digital tools, please call between 14:30 and 16:30 to reserve by phone. For reservations not on the day of dining, please avoid calling during service hours; when we are in a rush, it is hard to handle matters thoroughly.
June business hours: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, serving lunch and dinner; weekend afternoon tea is temporarily unavailable; closed on Monday and Tuesday. When visiting Shoal 2.0, please reserve in advance, note our business hours, and be aware of unscheduled closures—please don't make a wasted trip.
| June 2025 Shoal Menu |
| This translation is provided by ChatGPT and cannot guarantee complete accuracy. Please refer to the original Chinese menu for detailed information. |
Wind-Cured Chicken
NT$200
A Shoal classic, synonymous with the restaurant's culinary history and craftsmanship. "Wind" refers to an ancient method of preserving food before modern refrigeration—marinating and hanging it outdoors during the cold, windy days of winter to capture rich and abundant flavors. The sweetness of the chicken, the saltiness of sea salt, and the fragrant numbness of Sichuan pepper overlap in layers. The intense yet fresh Sichuan pepper salt enhances without overpowering. Stir-frying the salt elevates the spice's aroma; salting by hand determines the perfect flavor. Steaming preserves the tender texture and original taste, using a bamboo steamer passed down for three generations and meticulously maintained over the years by master craftsman Huang Fu-Xing from Lucao, Chiayi. This complex and time-consuming process infuses deep flavors, making it a masterpiece of culinary artistry.
Strange-Flavor Kidney Slices
NT$250
Organ meats reward precise knife work; kidneys demand the most. A flat blade glides along each curved surface, trimming away the adrenal tissue. When scoring the classic “flower” cut, one holds the breath and stops exactly halfway through—swift, clean, never tearing. Jicama blanched in Sichuan-pepper salt becomes the garnish. Sesame paste melds with a numbing-chili dressing to yield the legendary seven-note medley—salty, sweet, tingling, hot, sour, fresh, and fragrant—known as the “strange flavor.” The kaleidoscopic sauce is poured over the kidney slices, each piece fanning open like a feathered wing. Recipe adapted from Tseng Hsiu-pao’s The Chef at Home.
Shishamo Tsukudani
NT$160
Tsukudani, an Edo-era preservation technique, simmers ingredients in soy and sugar until glossy and shelf-stable. The method reaches back to Tokugawa Ieyasu, when Osaka fishermen supplied the shogun’s city with long-keeping catch. Our version follows a recipe from our Japanese friend Yasumi Ouchi—walnuts add mellow richness—while a tip from Kyoto’s three-star restaurant Kikunoi inspires a whisper of miso. A final shower of shredded nori lifts the umami, delivering a balanced sweetness with a grown-up edge.
Honey-Glazed-Bonito Eggplant
NT$145
We begin with Yong-Hsing’s crystal-bright light soy sauce from Tainan, marry it with bonito dashi, and braise eggplants over the gentlest flame until silken, then chill so they drink in every note. They pair with nostalgic honey-glazed-bonito—a sweet pickle once hawked from pushcarts during the Japanese era in Taiwan. Recipe inspired by Murakami RECIPE: in Norwegian Wood, Midori Kobayashi invites Watanabe to her family’s bookstore and serves a lavish Kansai-style meal featuring eggplant, followed by her riff on strawberry-shortcake and love.
Slow-Braised White Jade Bitter Melon
NT$220
When bitter melon ripens to a golden blush, its pearly vesicles collapse and the rind fissures at a touch; the scarlet-cradled seeds shine—an instant of magical sweetness unique to the White Jade cultivar. The Ming-dynasty Jiuhuang Bencao notes: "Inside lies a red pulp, sweet to taste; pick when yellow-ripe and eat the pulp." We simmer the fruit in Yong-Hsing’s unsweetened soy, coaxing out gentle bitterness in an oil braise, then chill it overnight. The result is something close to myth—a single fruit, a self-contained universe where bitter and sweet resolve into perfect accord.
Chilled Fern-Tip Salad
NT$140
A homage to our borderland-born friend Ah Cai. Tender Diplazium fern fronds are flash-blanched, ice-shocked, and kept emerald-crisp. We toss them with slivers of purple onion, carrot, and halved cherry tomatoes, then veil everything in a bright Yunnan dressing before finishing with a scatter of crushed peanuts. Ah Cai’s cooking—an heirloom from parents who wandered from Mogok, Myanmar, forever yearning for Longling in Yunnan—became a love-letter carried across stateless years and, at last, rooted in Taiwan.
Golden-Jade Chilled Bamboo Shoots
NT$140
From Dakeng, Taichung, come “Golden Jade” bamboo shoots grown entirely underground beneath cloth-blanketed soil. Harvested at daybreak and plunged straight into 2 °C spring water, each organic spear stays sweet, glass-crisp, and as delicate as an iced pear. Such purity needs little: a dab of Yong-Hsing sun-aged soy sauce, whose restrained aroma simply frames the shoot’s own gentle brine. As Li Yu wrote in Casual Expressions of Idle Enjoyment: “Truly perfect things travel best alone.”
Roast Duck with Preserved Salt Lemons
NT$335
We cure whole perfume-lemons from friendly farms with coarse Zhounan sea salt until their sharpness turns mellow—half kumquat, half aged chenpi. The duck is packed with dried tangerine peel, scallion, and ginger, rubbed with our salt-lemon pulp, and slow-roasted for hours until glossy and fragrant. Borrowing from Nanning’s famed lemon duck, the bird is then cleaver-chopped and quick-tossed with wok-seared scallion whites, ginger, garlic, a hint of plum sauce, fresh perilla, red fermented bean curd, and oyster sauce. The result sings like a mountain folk song—salt-lemon on lead, Zhuang harmonies beneath.
Stir-Fried Minced Pork with Spicy Pickled Greens
NT$170
Another keepsake from Ah Cai: Yunnan New-Year pickled mustard leaves—fiery, tart, sweet, and salty all at once—are chopped and seared with fragrant minced pork. Their heady aroma leaps from the wok, begging for a bowl of hot rice. Like the salad above, this dish is a passport stamped in longing: memories of Longling carried through Mogok’s hills, finally finding rest, leaf-fall-quiet, in Taiwan’s kitchen.
Steamed Stinky-Tofu
NT$155
For devotees of Jiang–Zhe cuisine, nothing rivals that deep, elusive perfume. The tofu is first pressed through a sieve and seasoned, then whisked with egg to form a silken custard. A lavish “cap” of sautéed shiitake, dried shrimp, minced pork, edamame, and aged snow-vegetable crowns the surface before the whole dish is steamed hard, setting into a fresh, opulent block of its own. We insist on Ming-Feng’s hand-crafted stinky tofu—legend of Taiwan’s “soy-bean revolution.” Non-GMO food-grade beans are contract-grown in the USA, washed in ten-stage filtered water, stone-ground, cloth-wrapped, and shaped by hand. The curds are then steeped for a full year in an herbaceous plant-only brine fermented with natural yeasts from amaranth, mustard greens, bamboo shoot, ginger, and chiles—no dyes, no additives, just uncompromising flavor and safety.
White Water Snowflake with Preserved Cordia Dichotoma
NT$140
A signature vegetarian dish from the “Shoal Bento for Cheng Hsing-tse.” White water snowflake—the xìng-cài praised in the Book of Songs—thrives in the irrigation ponds of Meinong. Once a foraged summer lifesaver on Hakka tables, it was later domesticated as a post-tobacco cash crop, inspiring Zhong Yong-feng and Lin Sheng-xiang’s rural epic “Wild Snowflake Leaves the Village.” Preserved cordia dichotoma, adopted from Plains Indigenous foodways and found in no other world cuisine, lends a salty-tart brightness; Lin Sheng-xiang’s song “Across the Black” evokes both its flavour and the weight of everyday life. Shoal took part in the long campaign to clear Cheng Hsing-tse’s wrongful conviction, providing regular visits, emotional support, and home-cooked meals to the detention centre for three years until his acquittal on 21 November 2017.
Yunnan Corn Soup
NT$150
No one ever says they’re too full for this bowl. Adapted from He Guifen’s Yunnan Dishes on the Table, yet aiming for the cozy charm of a Western chowder, we lace the broth with slivers of niú gān-bā dried beef for a subtle bacon echo. Sweet corn turns velvety, peanuts stay playfully crunchy, while a house chili oil—layered with tsaoko, star anise, Sichuan-pepper, sesame, garlic, and dried chiles—floats on top like molten amber. The dramatic clash between that aromatic firestorm and the soup’s pure, sunny sweetness makes each sip feel like a small, delicious argument resolved in your favor.
Champion White Rice
NT$20
Rice grown by Tian Shou-Xi, the rice king of Zhubei, a pioneer in planting Taoyuan No. 3 rice, who once won the National Top Ten Classic Good Rice for two consecutive years and was the national famous rice production champion in 2014. The sweetness of the rice is instantly recognizable without needing to chew or savor deliberately; the taste buds immediately perceive the sweetness. The grains are distinct, with a moderate texture. The rice is milled fresh and delivered promptly, sun-dried rice cultivated with sustainable agriculture, without using chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. Orange ladybugs and hardy morning glories are common in the fields. Green manure is sown annually to enrich the soil, plowing and sun-drying to activate the soil, intentionally limiting rice yields.
| Shoal's Chicken Rice |
Founder Su Wen-Wen's nostalgic recollections of her childhood and hometown. Originally a family dish made only for a few days during the anniversary celebration, it has accumulated countless fans who praise it as "the world's most delicious chicken rice!" Ma Shifang acclaimed it as "a peerless delicacy," while Feng Xiaofei said, "We need food like Shoal's chicken rice to increase rice consumption." One mother's comment was the most heartfelt: "This is exactly the kind of chicken rice a mother wants her children to eat!"
Signature Chicken Rice
Spiral-Cut Cucumber
Golden Pipa Shrimp
NT$340
In a white porcelain bowl, soft and fragrant rice is topped with sweet, tender chicken, drizzled with rich chicken broth blended with aromatic traditional black bean soy sauce, and then finished with a generous pour of rich and fragrant chicken oil... One bite will bring you joy! The fragrant and silky chicken rice, accompanied by various exquisite side dishes, is both homely and refined, making it irresistible to finish every last bite.
The spiral-cut cucumber is arranged like a coiled dragon; expertly sliced with a zigzag pattern, the silent knife work cultivates patience and discipline. Crisp and refreshing yet rich and appetizing, seasoned with soy sauce, Sichuan pepper oil, and rice vinegar—the blend of spicy and aromatic flavors serves to cleanse the palate.
Fresh shrimp are peeled and deveined, leaving the last segment and tail intact; the shrimp is flattened into a pipa (Chinese lute) shape. After marinating for flavor, it's coated with egg white and sweet potato flour, then fried to a golden color. This is a home-cooked dish that founder Su Wen-Wen enjoyed during her childhood, recorded in old recipes preserving the culinary trends of the 60s.
Mini Chicken Rice
Chrysanthemum Radish
Pig Liver Rolls
NT$190
The rice portion is halved, catering to those avoiding carbohydrates—this is the miniature version.
White radish is cross-cut to bloom like a chrysanthemum; the sweet and sour pickled radish is dyed with the yellow of gardenia and the crimson of perilla.
Pig liver rolls are a traditional Taiwanese delicacy that emphasizes quality ingredients and meticulous procedures. In the past, pig liver was expensive, and adding it to dishes was a display of wealth. Wrapped in caul fat like spring flower shrimp balls, the pig liver paste enhances the richness of the filling, mixed with scallions and water chestnuts for freshness to cut through the richness. The pig liver is made into a paste, visible in texture, jet black and glossy like volcanic mud, wrapped into a rich roll. Deep-fried in warm oil until golden and crispy, one bite releases the fatty aroma, unlocking the flavor of the liver instantly. Sized for two bites—one elegant bite, and another to satisfy.
| Refreshing Cool Drinks |
Chrysanthemum & Honeysuckle Cooler
NT$75
Pure, delicate, and lightly aromatic—this is a Cantonese herbal‑tea staple. We simmer pesticide‑free Hangzhou chrysanthemum from the Taitung Farmers’ Association together with sun‑dried honeysuckle from Blue Mountain Farm in a clay pot, yielding a heat‑clearing tisane rooted in Lingnan food culture and folk wellness. Shennong Ben Cao Jing Bai Zhong Lu notes: “The chrysanthemum blooms and falls late, the flower of greatest longevity; thus, its virtue to people is likewise enduring.”
Dual Wen Herbal Tea
NT$80
Throughout history, when encountering miraculous herbs, ancient texts would often exclaim, "This is true heavenly herb." These medicinal and edible plants have become a staple of everyday life across the seasons. Each plant of resurrection grass is simmered in a clay pot, brewed into a cooling tea that dispels seasonal heat. Founder Su Wen-wen, with twenty years of study in Chinese herbal medicine, has perfected these cooling remedies, carefully crafting the formulas herself. As the saying from the Shennong Bencao Jing goes, "There is nothing useless in the world, only people who cannot make use of things."
Shiso Plum Juice
NT$130
Aged for ten years, purely natural with no additives. The plums are soft and glutinous, and the juice is pure and exquisite. Its elegant plum aroma stimulates saliva, counteracts richness, and awakens the appetite. Created by Mr. Su Zhong-Shi, father of Shoal’s founder Su Wen-Wen, after fifty years of refining his plum-making craft. Box after box of plums, bag after bag of sugar—Qingming is the season for brewing plums. The beautiful fruit from Alishan’s plum trees is naturally fermented in clear water, layered with plums and sugar in glass jars like time capsules, awaiting the next year’s burst of enchanting fragrance.
Preserved Oriental Plum Sparkling Juice
NT$130
Shoal proudly presents its sugar-preserved oriental plums, sourced from wild ancient trees in Yushan National Park and safeguarded by the Bunun people of the Meishan community. Grown without chemical fertilizers or herbicides, these plums ripen into brilliant ruby-like gems—so enticing that even macaques and wild boars are left with a lingering taste. Hand-picked at full ripeness rather than plucked unripe by poles, they are meticulously de-pitted by hand to retain whole fruit pieces. The naturally sweet, sugar-preserved plums are pure and free of additives, exuding a fragrance as delightful and aromatic as cherry blossoms. Blended into a sparkling juice, they yield an exquisitely refreshing cold beverage.
Preserved Akihime Plum Sparkling Juice
NT$160
These golden-hued plums are sweet and juicy from peel to flesh, shining as brilliantly as blooming canola in midsummer when cicadas serenade in the rainy season. Grown exclusively in Lishan, Taiwan, they have a very short harvest window and limited yield, making perfectly ripened Akihime Plums a rare summer treasure. Harvested at Baolian Orchard in Lishan—celebrated in A Woman Farmer’s Mountain Writings and often compared to a Taiwanese Walden—they’re nothing short of a natural marvel and a gracious gift.We sugar and simmer the whole fruit without any additives, transforming the soft flesh and fibers into a fragrant pulp that exudes a pleasantly sweet-tart aroma with a subtle honeyed note. Served in a tall slender glass, it bubbles into a champagne-like hue—bright, lively, and reminiscent of sparkling wine—while its distinctly sweet fruit flavor leaves an unforgettable impression.
Preserved Orange Sparkling Juice
NT$130
Sourced from Zhu Changhui Orchard in Zhongliao, Nantou, where eco-friendly farming has been practiced for eleven years, achieving organic certification. The oranges are fully ripened on the tree, then sugared and aged—purely natural with no additives. With its pleasant, sweet-tart fragrance, this member of the citrus family is like a friendly star in the fruit world. Oranges are Taiwan’s most widely grown citrus, with a long harvest season. The mother trees trace back to Xinhui in Guangdong, famed for its dried tangerine peel. In the autumn breeze and dewy nights, orchards are dotted with spheres of yellow and green. As early winter arrives, piles of oranges appear at roadside stalls, offering sweet, refreshing juice that embodies the scenery and flavor of Taiwan.
| Tipsy Quadrant |
Pomelo Brew
NT$160
"My brewing represents freedom!" states Kou Yan-ding, author of "You've Committed the Crime of Subverting Taiwan's Fruit Brewing." A single bottle can create a universe, once deeply immersed in Yilan's secluded self-brewed pomelo, before leaving Taiwan, he entrusted his precious brew to Shoal as a living testament to his existence. The brewing process is highly experimental, dissecting the pomelo's peel, vesicles, and seeds to explore the detailed flavors of brewing, a unique and astonishing experience.
Plumcot Sour
NT$160
These plumcots boast a brilliant red skin and fragrant yellow flesh, yet their short harvest season and low yield make them truly rare. In Taiwan, the most coveted varieties come from Baolian Garden in Lishan—revered in Notes from a Female Farmer on the Mountains and honored as the Taiwanese equivalent of Lakeside Musings, cherished as both a prized and sacred offering. Hand-pitted and sugar-cooked whole using only natural methods and zero additives, they yield a radiant red syrup that is sweet, beguiling, and reminiscent of strawberries—showcasing the captivating fragrance unique to red fruits. The finely pulped flesh reveals layers of plum tang, peachy perfume, and plumcot essence, fresh and refined. Mixed with Kou Yanding’s fermented Purple Glutinous Pomelo White, it embodies a blissful summer sweetness nourished by mountains and streams.
| Wind-Resisting Warmth |
Sour Mandarin Tea
Candied Grapefruit
NT$80
A unique Hakka tea drink, sour mandarin tea is made by repeatedly steaming and drying tea leaves stuffed into tiger-head mandarins, following the "steamed into rounds" method dating back to the Tang and Song dynasties. This rare compressed tea is used for health and wellness, with the lightness of aged tangerine peel aiding in vitality and warmth.
Shoal continues the tea-making tradition passed down from Zheng Xingze’s mother, Zheng Wang Qin-zi, who followed ancient tea-making methods. The tea blends twenty-year-old roasted tea with various herbs, following field research on Taiwanese herbal tea formulations, which often adapt to local needs. These practices honor the wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine.
The tiger-head mandarin from Miaoli’s Yuanli is grown with natural farming methods. Thick-skinned and juicy, the fruit’s sour and sweet flavor is released by opening the stem end and stuffing the cavity with tea leaves and herbs. The fruit is carefully steamed, compressed, sun-dried, fermented, and baked, undergoing nine rounds of steaming and drying. Over time, it becomes dark, firm, and shiny, embodying labor-intensive craftsmanship.
After being used in New Year offerings, these mandarins are transformed into tea, symbolizing blessings of peace, hence known as "peace tea." It takes six months to turn a single sour mandarin into sour mandarin tea, with its sweet and mellow flavor becoming richer as it ages, offering a glimpse into the wisdom of ancestral diets.
Eco-friendly green-skinned grapefruits from Yuanli are candied with rock sugar, Shoal’s malt syrup, and caramelized winter melon sugar, then aged for four years—purely natural with no additives. Finally, the candied fruit is gently baked to dryness. It’s said to dispel wind, lighten the body, and bring clarity of mind.
Candied Grapefruit Tea
NT$80
Green-skinned grapefruits from Yuanli, cultivated with eco-friendly practices, are candied with rock sugar, Shoal’s malt syrup, and caramelized winter melon sugar, then aged for four years—purely natural, no additives. As the rind’s sharpness softens over time, the tea remains clear and bright, said to dispel wind, lighten the body, and leave the chest free and open.
Starfruit Drink
NT$90
A traditional beverage rich in Taiwanese local flavor. In Taiwan History—Volume 27, Agriculture—Fruits, it's noted: "The fruit has five or six ridges; the sour ones are made into candied fruit or soaked in sugar water to make a drink." The greenish-yellow star-shaped fruit, with ridges like a sword's spine, preserves the sweet and sourness of starfruit with sugar. The clear amber-colored drink overflows with natural fruit aroma. The honey-soaked starfruit transforms into a gentle force, quenching thirst and soothing the throat. We select honeyed starfruit from the Liu family's Starfruit Drink in Tainan, a legacy spanning three generations over 85 years. It brings back warm childhood memories of roadside starfruit juice stands—drinking it is like savoring a gentle poem of nostalgia.
Stewed Pear with Chuan Bei and Rock Sugar
NT$95
Listed in the Compendium of Materia Medica as the second fruit, the venerable Li Shizhen said of pears: “They are beneficial, their nature descends and flows smoothly.” These New Century pears come from A-Sheng Orchard in Lishan, cultivated with eco-friendly methods—sweet as honey, crisp like water chestnuts, thin-skinned, and juicy. The whole fruit is simmered with Yongliang handmade golden rock sugar, enhanced with Chuan Bei. Purely natural, with no additives. Through careful heat control and aging, the result is warm and gentle. The pear is like unpolished jade, and the syrup is as clear as jade dew—a delicacy both mildly sweet and soothing.
| Desserts Supreme |
Grape Granita
NT$190
We use premium grapes from Xinshe, Taichung, cultivated with eco-friendly methods—ground cover, organic fertilizers, minimal pesticides, and greenhouse protection. They’re of the Kyoho variety, Taiwan’s most widely grown, forming large, firm clusters coated in a velvety purple-black bloom. Sweet and aromatic with a perfect sweet-tart balance, these grapes offer a rich, full flavor. Each grape is peeled and seeded by hand; the skins and seeds go into a cotton bag for a slow cook with sugar, forming a grape jam. After four years of cellaring, the jam is blended and frozen into a refined granita, boasting a sophisticated “adult” taste profile.
Longan Ginger Chocolate Granita
NT$200
This inventive granita features pesticide-free longan and ginger free of pesticide residues, complemented by organic brown sugar and unbleached rock sugar—all slowly simmered over six hours. It incorporates a concentrated longan-ginger soup, a longtime favorite from Xi Di Yao Farm, which melds with the subtly bitter roasted, nutty, and citrusy aromas of Michel Cluizel’s Mangaro Chocolate—rated by Forbes as “the world’s rarest and most precious chocolate”—to create a richly sweet and sumptuous flavor.
Plumcot Butter Cake
Sun Moon Lake Assam Tea
NT$155
These plumcots boast a brilliant red skin and fragrant yellow flesh, yet their short harvest season and low yield make them truly rare. In Taiwan, the most coveted varieties come from Baolian Garden in Lishan—revered in Notes from a Female Farmer on the Mountains and honored as the Taiwanese equivalent of Lakeside Musings, cherished as both a prized and sacred offering. Hand-pitted and sugar-cooked whole using only natural methods and zero additives, they yield a radiant red syrup that is sweet, beguiling, and reminiscent of strawberries—showcasing the captivating fragrance unique to red fruits. The finely pulped flesh reveals layers of plum tang, peachy perfume, and plumcot essence, fresh and refined.
For the cake we clarify Elle & Vire cultured unsalted butter from Normandy, then fold it with Sifang fresh milk, organic free-range eggs from Green Life Farm in Yongjing, Mariner flour, and just enough sugar. The cake is inlaid with jewels of plumcot jam, creating a simple yet radiant finale.
