October 2026 Shoal Menu

|| October 2026 Shoal Menu｜The Seasons, Kept ||

After the Autumnal Equinox, Cold Dew and Frost's Descent arrive in turn. Summer's warmth has not yet fully lifted, and midday still holds the lingering heat of the south. The crisp and refreshing, the gently sweet and softly warming: each keeps its place at the table.

In the "Winds" section of the first volume of his Gazetteer of Taiwan Prefecture, Jiang Yuying writes: "After Frost's Descent, the breath of the earth moves from north to south, and the north wind becomes the prevailing wind." He records, too, that in the ninth month the north wind first blows fierce, at times without pause for months on end, a wind commonly called the "Ninth-Month Descent." In Taiwan, the true meaning of Frost's Descent is the dominion of the north wind. The frosted persimmon cakes and the mullet roe on this menu are both born of the north wind.

Broth sets into aspic, duck fat seals in fragrance, and white wine lees keep the lingering echo of wine. In the season of Cold Dew, we eat leaves that have caught the dew. Year after year we rehearse the craft of keeping flavor: vegetables pickled in winter, fruit honeyed at the height of summer, sour citrus tea steamed and sun-dried nine times from the Start of Spring to the Start of Autumn... Steeped in sugar, cured in salt, given fire and patience: so the four seasons are kept.

With a thought for friends who come to eat on their own, so that they too can share in a family style meal, our dishes are conceived with one person's portion as the base unit; each à la carte price is the price of a single portion. Friends arriving as a group may add as many portions as their numbers and appetites call for. In every case, dishes come to the table family style. Wine, other drinks or cake brought from outside are subject to a modest cleaning and service charge, set at ten percent of the meal total. On Saturday, October 10 (National Day) and Sunday, October 25 (Retrocession Day), a holiday service charge applies.

Shoal's menu changes each month in keeping with the seasons of the year, and only ten guests are served every thirty minutes. To reserve a table, please send a private message to our page, and we will reply when we have a free moment. If you would rather not use digital tools, telephone reservations may be made in the afternoon, from 14:30 to 16:30. For reservations other than for the current meal, please avoid telephoning during service hours, for in the heat of the rush it is hard to attend to things properly.

October business hours: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, serving lunch and dinner; weekend afternoon tea is suspended for now, and we are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. When visiting Shoal 2.0, please make a reservation and note the business hours; as there are occasional unscheduled closures, please take care that your visit is not in vain.

| October 2026 Shoal Menu |

| This translation is provided by Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini, and cannot guarantee complete accuracy. Please refer to the original Mandarin menu for detailed information. |

Zao-marinated Shrimp

NT$340

Aromatic zao is the residue left from the brewing and fermentation process after the wine has been clarified and filtered, the lees retaining the lingering fragrance of wine. Used with ingenuity in zao dishes, it yields a fragrance of particular interest. Zao-marinated shrimp and drunken shrimp are similar in appearance, different in resonance: the mellow richness of the zao, the concentrated freshness of the shrimp, the aroma of the zao entering into the flavor, saltiness and savoriness becoming one. Shoal keeps and nurtures white zao, using it for zao-marinated shrimp. The method refers to Huiwei: Hangzhou Cuisine, a “Chan Family Kitchen” recipe written by Chan Kei-lam and Fong Hiu-lam, daughters-in-law of Chan Mong Yan, Hong Kong’s foremost food critic. With thanks to Dr. Yang Szu-Pang for his generous gift of the book.

Pork Trotter Aspic

NT$190

Yunnan-style Pork Trotter Aspic, intensely spiced and refreshingly appetizing, is a unique dish often described by enthusiasts as an "edible work of art." To achieve a crystal-clear aspic, it requires slow, labor-intensive simmering. Various spices, soy sauce, and rice wine are gently simmered with pork trotters for three hours. In a deep pot, the slow bubbling resembles a blooming chrysanthemum. The trotters must be cooked until tender, releasing all the collagen, then diced and set in molds with refined broth. Time works its magic, turning the broth into a perfectly set aspic. The dish is finished with cilantro, sesame, crushed peanuts, and a sharp contrast of spicy sauce and chili oil.

Duck Gizzards Confit

NT$220

Shoal’s classic osmanthus salted duck, rich and savory, provides an abundance of luxurious duck oil. The pure, fragrant fat is used for confit. The gizzards are cured in coarse salt with shallots, galangal, star anise, black pepper, and nutmeg, drawing out the spices’ full flavor. Slow-roasted at low temperatures in osmanthus duck fat for five hours, the gizzards become tender and flavorful, surpassing traditional braising. After three days of salt curing and slow roasting, the confit is packed with a complex, savory aroma—a classic of Southwest French cuisine.

Century Egg with Mullet Roe

NT$250

We select Shennong Award-winning lead-free herbal century eggs, produced by model farmer Su Qing-Fa from Tainan's duck farms. With low breeding density and a 90% egg production rate, the ducks are fed cornmeal, soybean meal, and probiotics. The duck eggs are coated with a red clay mixed with herbal tea made from acacia, grinding plate grass, banyan aerial roots, wild grapes, and lemongrass, then marinated and air-dried for a month. The eggs are fresh with no off-flavors; the egg white is dark and translucent, and the yolk is like molten lava.

We also select Shennong Award-winning mullet roe, produced by Guo Gong-Bao, owner of Hule Leisure Fishing Village in Hsinchu. The mullets are ecologically farmed in pure seawater in Zhubei's Bazikou for four years. Caught fresh in the morning, they are quickly frozen to preserve freshness. Following traditional methods—salting, desalting, pressing, and sun-drying—the roe matures under the northeast monsoon winds, becoming bright orange-red with a dense, sticky texture that is salty, fresh, and delicious.

The caramelized and seared mullet roe is mixed with diced apples and onions, dressed with a sauce made from Yongxing Premium Soy Sauce that is light in flavor and clear in color, and sprinkled with minced garlic chives, resulting in a fresh yet rich taste.

Pork Strips with Fragrant Bamboo Shoots

NT$150

Recreating the home-style flavors of founder Su Wen-wen's childhood, forsaking the crisp Guizhu bamboo shoots in favor of simmering the plump and tender Jiaogao bamboo shoots. An Alishan specialty, Jiaogao bamboo shoots—the tender stems of early spring shoots—are soft-hearted giants, their soft fibers thick and delicate. The Jiaogao bamboo shoots are braised and stir-fried with rich, pure lard and soy-marinated pork collar; the meat borrows the freshness of the shoots, while the shoots are enriched by the meat, placing fresh clarity and richness side by side. Accompanied by soy sauce and sugar, this warmly familiar classic flavor profile is anchored by the elegant aroma of Xiluo's Jui Chun original soy sauce. Appetizing and perfect with rice, it entirely preserves the appetite.

Four Delights Wheat Gluten

NT$260

A recreation of a family banquet dish by Ye Xin-Qing, founder of Yongfu House—a symbol of culinary nobility in the 70s. Shoal's close associate, Mrs. Ye Lin Yue-Ying, provided the family recipe. Unlike common methods that tear raw wheat gluten into small pieces for better flavor absorption, we retain its complete square shape. We select black winter mushrooms and seasonal fresh bamboo shoots, lily flowers, and cloud ear fungus, meticulously removing stems despite the labor. "Roast" here implies "braising"; slow cooking over low heat to let flavors infuse and reduce the sauce. Time and precise heat control are the essence of braising, bringing out the sweetness of mountain vegetables and subtly hiding the umami of scallops—all absorbed by a piece of wheat gluten, fully showcasing the subtle flavors of the cuisine.

Coir Raincoat Cucumber

NT$120

Coir Raincoat cucumbers are coiled like a curling dragon, utilizing the artisan's snake-belly cutting technique; the silent fall of the knife cultivates the mind and character. Fresh, crisp, and refreshing, yet richly appetizing; soy sauce, Sichuan peppercorn oil, and rice vinegar form a harmony of spices, dedicated solely to the duty of cutting through richness.

Shrimp Rolls

Jade-Thread Jicama

NT$200

Minced pork, fish paste, and a medley of finely chopped vegetables are packed around sweet shrimp and a rich shrimp mousse, then wrapped in pork caul fat stretched thin by hand. Supple with its own fat, the caul glides beneath the fingertips and settles close, laying a lace of fat across the filling. Fried in gently heated oil until golden and crisp, it yields at the first bite, and the perfume of the fat breaks open to release the sweetness of the shrimp. The shrimp roll is a Taiwanese xiaochi bound up with feeling and the memory of taste: rolled inside are the bounty of mountain and sea, and the uncommon charm of the common table.

Jade-thread jicama is a crisp, finely shredded vinegar pickle. Jicama, known in Taiwanese as tāu-á-tsî, is a legume: its vines bear bean pods above ground, while below, its root swells into a tuber that can be eaten raw, which earns it another name, the "cool tuber." Lian Heng's General History of Taiwan says it "tastes like water chestnut." Sweet, crisp, and juicy, clean and bright on the palate, it falls somewhere between apple and Asian pear. We cut it into fine threads, white and lustrous as jade, toss them with shreds of carrot, and work them by hand into a pickle. Beside the shrimp rolls it cuts their richness: one rich and one light, one crackling and one crisp, it polishes the savor of meat and fat to a shine.

Roasted Chicken Wings with Black Bean, Sichuan Pepper & Citrus

Roasted Bell Peppers

NT$190

The seasoning draws on the salted-douchi meat of the Southern Song encyclopedia Shilin Guangji and the Chengdu Prefecture douchi sauce of the Yuan household compendium Jujia Biyong Shilei Quanji. In both recipes, fermented black beans are all but inseparable from ground Sichuan pepper, ground black pepper, dried ginger, tangerine peel, and scallion whites. These encyclopedias of daily life record a food culture in which good flavor and good health go together. Douchi, pepper, ginger, scallion, and tangerine make up a classic flavor profile written into the bencao materia medica, one the Ming physician Li Shizhen praised as "fragrant and delicious beyond compare."

We use Yong-Xing ìm-sīnn, Taiwanese fermented black beans carrying five generations of Tainan flavor. They are brewed from Hengchun black soybeans, a traditional Taiwanese landrace, small and round as beads and known locally as "Pingtung pearls." Farmers have saved their own seed for generations, growing the beans in Manzhou, Pingtung, and across the Hengchun Peninsula. As the old saying goes, "Hengchun black beans fear no wind": tempered by the fierce downslope winds that pour off the mountains, they stand up to both salt and gale. Grown organically, without pesticides or chemical fertilizers, the beans are small and thick-skinned, with a rustic, untamed bean flavor. Once the jar-bottom beans leave the fermenting crock, they are neither pressed nor otherwise processed, but simmered on in their own black-bean soy sauce until they turn jet black and glossy, sweet and deeply aromatic. They are joined by Yuan Xing soy sauce from Huatan, Changhua, whose depth comes from a koji of mixed beans and a double brew, and by the rue-family perfume and bright, zesty bite of Shoal's own honeyed oranges.

Lin Family Braised Pork Belly

NT$285

The top choice for lovers of generous cuts, a star of the table. This recipe is directly passed down from Ms. Zeng Jing, the eldest daughter in law of the senior branch of the Lin family in Taiping, Taichung. It begins with blanching the pork in oolong tea to remove off notes, and concludes with two rounds of reducing the sauce to a glaze. Excellent braised pork belly relies first on excellent soy sauce. We feature Xiluo Ruichun, a century old house and the largest maker in Taiwan of soy sauce fermented in clay urns, using its additive free, pure brewed original soy sauce together with a Taiwan Haojiang black bean soy sauce. Scallion, ginger, and garlic keep the ingredient list simple while the technique is exacting. Just before service, a scattering of minced green garlic shoots adds a bright, piquant fragrance.

Jade Fish

NT$300

A family recipe from documentary director Ho Chao-ti, passed down from her father. Day-boat ròu-yú, selected by Lin Kai-lun, author of “The Fake Fishmonger in the Kitchen.” A home-style Teochew half-pan-fried, half-simmered preparation, seasoned with Min-Hsing premium fish sauce, a generous amount of finely chopped scallions, and a generous amount of finely chopped cilantro. Gently cooked over low heat until the broth turns milky, clean and delicately savory. A Top 3 choice on our September menu. A guest from Singapore returned twice and said, "Just like my grandma’s."

Stir-fried Beef Shoulder with Pickled Cabbage

NT$250

Napa cabbage is rinsed, drained on bamboo trays, then layered with coarse salt, layer upon layer, forming ring after ring, sealed in a clay jar to ferment for thirty days until the sour and yeasty aromas are full and round. Three big crates of napa cabbage, coarse salt from the Zhounan Salt Fields, five stones at two kilograms each, and the vast cosmos inside a clay urn are handed over to lactic acid bacteria to bring forth creation. Sliced garlic, ginger, and chilies are first bloomed in oil, then beef shoulder is flashed in the wok. The earthy, gently pungent note of aromatic roots rises. Our house pickled cabbage, put up for the New Year season, brings a vivid sour tang and a full, fermented depth.

Cilantro Seaweed Tofu Skin

NT$175

A classic vegetarian dish from “Zheng Xingze’s Shoal Bento” and a personal favorite of Ah Ze. The slender stems of cilantro, with their naturally pungent aroma, are rolled into the fresh flavors of seaweed and tofu skin. Layers of pepper salt and cilantro interlace, artfully wrapping the essence of the sea and soy. Prepared with organic tofu pouches from Huangdou Wu Tofu Workshop—crafted by dedicated organic enthusiasts who embarked on the journey of tofu-making later in life, using non-GMO, additive‐free organic soybeans to capture an unadulterated flavor that has become a modern, low‐carb treasure. Shoal has actively supported the Zheng Xingze case by providing regular visitations, psychological support, and assistance with transitional care—personally delivering meals to the detention center over a continuous three-year period. The Zheng Xingze case was exonerated on November 21, 2017.

Scallop-Sauce Chicken Hearts with Malabar Spinach

NT$180

Malabar spinach, also called "palace vegetable," was originally named "zhong-kui." The Erya says: "Zhong-kui is 'Abundant Dew.' It is also called 'Dew-Bearer.' Its leaves are the best at holding dew, and its seeds, drooping, are like strung dewdrops as well; thus it acquired the name 'dew.'" The dew-bearing leaves are thick, soft, and smooth, and the jade-green tender shoots are fresh and full of vigor; stir-fried with braised chicken hearts and Penghu scallop sauce, the dish attains a plump richness that is at once vegetable and meat. The Book of Songs, in "Odes of Bin: The Seventh Month," reads: "In the seventh month we boil the mallows and the beans." Malabar spinach is hardy, with little disease and few pests; needing no pesticides, it is well suited to organic cultivation, and its nutritional value is high besides. Abundantly grown across central and southern Taiwan, it is a healthy summer vegetable.

Chicken Soup with Persimmon Cake

NT$190

We source persimmon-frost cakes from Hankeng, a lineage bearing the Bao mark, made with bull-heart persimmons from Fanlu, Chiayi. They are charcoal-roasted with longan wood, a craft handed down through five generations. Even in a township famed for persimmon cakes, traditional charcoal kilns have become rare. The “Compendium of Materia Medica” praises the virtues of the persimmon for porridges and soups and notes the special use of persimmon frost: “It generates fluids and quenches thirst.” With a fragrance akin to wood-fired dried longan, these prized frost-bloom cakes inform a chicken soup inspired by the classic “Jisheng Fang” formula for Clove and Persimmon Calyx Decoction, yielding a lucid nectar of gentle sweetness, elegant aroma, and soothing clarity that brings comfort and warmth.

Fragrant Rice

NT$30

A frequent champion among award-winning rice varieties: Tainung No. 71, Yihchuan Aromatic Rice. To commemorate Dr. Kuo Yih-chuan, who bred the rice variety, it was named “Yihchuan.” Created by crossing Koshihikari rice with Taikeng No. 4, it inherits the beautiful appearance of Japanese rice while fully preserving the rich taro aroma of Taiwanese rice. As it cooks, its distinctive rice fragrance already overflows; the grains are lustrous white and rounded, with a soft, glutinous, cleanly sweet texture. We select it from Wufeng, the home of Yihchuan Aromatic Rice and Taiwan’s largest fragrant-rice-growing region. Its mountain-adjacent climate, wreathed in morning and evening mist, and the Wu River, originating from the southwestern foothills of Hehuan Mountain and irrigating fertile fields, together with the natural conditions and the local farmers’ association’s human management, have supported, since 2005, cultivation without pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or herbicides, making it one of Taiwan’s most scaled and systematic natural-farming rice-producing regions.

| Pre-order Delicacies | Two days in advance

Chicken Rice

NT$250

Founder Su Wen-wen's longing for her childhood and her home town. It began as something made for our own people, cooked only for those few days of the anniversary, and yet it gathered a following past counting, who pronounce it the most unbeatably delicious chicken rice in the world. Ma Shih-fang called it peerless under heaven. Feng Hsiao-fei said, we need a food like Shoal's chicken rice to raise the rate of rice consumption. But one mother put it most tellingly of all: this is the chicken rice a mother wants to give her child.

Rice, soft and yielding and sweet of scent, laid over with shredded native-cross chicken, sweet, fragrant, tender and smooth; a sauce spooned through it, made from concentrated chicken essence and the mellow, fragrant sweetness of traditional black-bean soy; and then chicken fat poured over, unctuous and clean... The first mouthful alone is enough to open the heart. Chicken rice, bursting with fragrance and slick with fat, set beside an array of finely made side dishes, homely and exact at once: the surest trick for a plate wiped clean.

| Refreshing Cool Drinks |

“Elegant Abode” Sour Plum Drink

NT$95

A standout woody bouquet with the deep aroma of smoked black plums and a lingering return of red cardamom. After a long soak and two clay-pot decoctions, the herbal profile is fully expressed. It moistens and quenches without sticky afterfeel or heavy finish. The recipe draws on Professor Chang Wen-te of China Medical University and researches Liang Shih-chiu’s “Essays from the Elegant Abode,” tracing materia medica sources to recreate a concentrated, robust formula.

Salted Lemon Sparkling Juice

NT$120

Shoal's own salted lemons: fragrant lemons under friendly cultivation from Chiang Hsia Hsin Yuan in Puzi, Chiayi, with coarse salt from the Zhounan Saltworks, the whole fruit salted and laid down to age. What was fresh and astringent turns to a sweet fragrance somewhere between kumquat and preserved plum with aged citrus peel. Layered, sour and aromatic, mouth-watering, salty and sweet with a returning sweetness. Zhao Xuemin, the Qing dynasty pharmacologist, held in his Supplement to the Compendium of Materia Medica (juan 7, Fruits I) that the lemon settles a pregnancy, and named it the "mother-friendly fruit": salted and eaten, it settles the qi and harmonises the stomach, and is good for an unquiet pregnancy; made into a drink, it wards off the fierce heat and quenches thirst.

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 Plumcot Sparkling Juice

NT$120

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.

Preserved Pineapple Sparkling Juice

NT$120

Pineapple, so emblematic it’s like holding a Taiwanese ID card, representing the fervent summer of the south. Shoal preserves the whole fruit in sugar, first peeling the skin and boiling it into syrup until aromatic, then continuing to cook the fruit, capturing its fresh taste and fragrance through precise heat control. This southern flair sealed in sugar is bright and sweet. We select Tainong No. 2 pineapples from Songlinmei Organic Ecological Farm in Luye, Taitung, certified by MOA. Forgoing artificial flower forcing, the farm allows natural growth without inducing early bud formation. Farmer He Jiachen thanks beneficial birds for pest control, leaving some fruit for the wildlife. The result is tree-ripened fruit with a distinct acidity, intense aroma, and complex layers of flavor.

| Comforting Hot Drinks |

Sour Mandarin Tea

Preserved Orange

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.

We select organic-certified, tree-ripened oranges from Chu Chang-hui’s orchard in Xidiyao, Zhongliao, Nantou. Pure, natural, and additive-free, the whole fruit is preserved in stir-fried sugar and aged. A finger-licking candied treat, it is approachable and delicious, dispelling wind and nurturing health.

Preserved Pomelo Tea

NT$110

Organic white pomelo, whole fruit candied and aged for ten years. All natural, with no additives. A folk remedy in Taiwan to dispel external chill, it leaves the body light as if shedding a layer. A time-honored common wisdom for well-being. Juice vesicles, segment membranes, and peel are all candied with Shoal’s house made malt syrup and red rock sugar, the emperor of whole-fruit pomelos. After long aging the lustrous, plump vesicles steep in time, and the peel’s signature pungent bitterness turns soft and fragrant. A limpid sweetness, a crystalline acidity, and a tea infusion of poised elegance.

Preserved Grapefruit Tea

NT$80

Green-skinned grapefruits from Yuanli grown with friendly practices are candied whole with red rock sugar, Shoal’s malt syrup, and Shoal’s winter melon caramel. All natural, with no additives. Aged four years so the peel’s sharpness mellows to tenderness. The drink is clear and bright, dispelling wind and lightening the body, leaving the chest open and at ease.

Mint and Orange Tea

NT$150

Chen Shiduo’s Qing-era “New Compilation of Materia Medica” records an old formula: “When someone is struck by external evils and burdened by stagnant qi and will not take medicine, counsel the use of thin-orange tea for immediate effect. Use one qian mint, one qian tea, one qian orange peel, and pour a large bowl of boiling tea to drink.” “Mint not only excels at resolving wind evils but is especially good at easing melancholy.” We apply this to Shoal’s tankan cakes and candied tankan, hoping to sweep away life’s many wearinesses, the five labors and seven injuries.

Tankan Cakes are whole fruits candied in syrup, sweet, spicy, and aromatically vivid, documented since the Qing and now part of Taiwan’s Hakka foodways. Nourishing and home style, they perfume the teeth and gums. We source from Zhong Jing-feng, head of the production group in Emei, Hsinchu. Following Miaoli Hakka tradition, the tankan is scored, pressed into cake shapes to release their juices, then simmered whole with Zhubaoyuan hand made wood fired malt syrup, Shoal’s winter melon caramel, and red rock sugar until the rind softens to orange, the pith turns translucent, and the syrup is as thick as honey. After an overnight rest they are baked to dry: the peel taut, the flesh tender, textures layered, sour and sweet in fragrant balance. With careful heat and aging, time transforms flavor and the peel’s sharpness becomes supple sweetness.

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.

Pear Stewed with Rock Sugar

NT$100

The pear appears in the second fruit chapter of the Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica), and as Grandpa Li Shizhen puts it: "Lí, the pear, is lì, to flow; its nature is to move downward, freely and smoothly." Wild-grown Hengshan pears from Dongshi, full of both sweetness and tartness, are stewed whole with Forever Sweety's handmade golden rock sugar. Purely natural, with nothing added, refined by fire and by rest, the result is pure, warm, and mellow. The pear is like uncut jade, its syrup like jade dew: a clear, sweet, gentle treasure for nurturing body and spirit.

Pot-Brewed Ylang-Ylang Milk Tea

NT$160

Ylang-ylang, celebrated as the perfume tree, calls to mind a line from Li Shangyin's poem "Written at the Zhongyuan Festival": "never knowing I had lost my way, for the flowers were in bloom." At Shoal, we cold-infuse its star-like petals, ripened to gold at the treetops, with Forever Sweety's handmade golden rock sugar to make our own ylang-ylang flower sugar, then simmer it in the pot with Fourways fresh milk and Sun Moon Lake Assam black tea. Its rich, sweet fragrance soothes body and mind, capturing the deep, honeyed tenderness a tropical flower breathes out after ripening in the sun. Fourways runs its own dairy farm, grows its own forage by natural farming, and adds nothing to adjust the flavor of its milk. That clean, full-bodied creaminess gives the sweetness of ylang-ylang a place to rest. It is as if a flower had burst into bloom in the cup: a warm, generous milk tea steeped in floral fragrance.

| Desserts Supreme |

Akihime Plum Granita

NT$160

Golden, radiant fruit, sweet and juicy; from skin to flesh, yellow as rapeseed flowers in full bloom, dazzling on the branches in the last month of summer, when cicadas call through the plum rains. In Taiwan, its only producing area is Lishan; the season is short, the yield small, and the fruit prone to cracking. Fully mature, intact Akihime plums are a treasure of high summer. Produced at Lishan’s Baolian Orchard, known from A Woman Farmer’s Mountain Journal, they are especially rare and difficult to obtain; praised with the fine reputation of being Taiwan’s version of Walden, they are divine things, gifts of grace. The whole fruit is sugar-preserved and syrup-simmered, entirely natural, with no additives. The flesh is soft in texture, tart-sweet and fragrant, releasing a distinctive honeyed aroma.

Plumcot and Shiso Ume Granita

NT$160

Plumcots, rare jewels with ruby skins and amber flesh, arrive from Baolian Orchard in Lishan, famed in the memoir A Female Farmer’s Mountain Journal. Each short-season fruit is hand-pitted and gently candied without additives, yielding a shimmering scarlet compote whose bouquet recalls strawberries and other red-fruited delights. We fold the plum purée into shaved ice together with Shoal’s decade-aged shiso ume; the resulting granita mingles tart ume undertones with the honeyed, floral notes of plum, creating a refreshingly elegant tribute to high-mountain orchards.

Orange Granita

NT$175

From Zhu Chang-hui’s orchard at Xidiyao, Zhongliao, Nantou, where eleven years of patient, friendly farming have yielded organic certified tree ripened oranges. All natural, with no additives. Whole fruits are candied, gently simmered, and aged. Garnished with Meyer lemons from a Pingtung supplier practicing friendly cultivation. This gentle citrus lends a clear, lovely freshness that brightens the finish.