Nostalgic Old Times: The Year-Round Dishes at the "King of Buns" in Minsheng Community Are Uncommonly Good

When the cured meat from the "King of Buns" is taken down from the bamboo pole, it’s still dotted with peppercorns and star anise. Get your nose close, and you can smell a rich, salty aroma. (Photo by Yao Shun)

The "King of Buns" doesn’t use soy sauce when curing the meat, so the slices are lighter in color and have a subtle smoky ham flavor. (Photo by Yao Shun)

The handmade sausages from the "King of Buns" are made by curing pork hind leg meat, chopping it into cubes, stuffing it into casings, and air-drying. They come in two flavors: "original" and "spicy." (Photo by Yao Shun)

The "King of Buns" sausages don’t contain sodium nitrite, so they can be eaten after steaming them at home. (Photo by Yao Shun)

For environmental reasons, the "smoked fish" from the "King of Buns" isn’t actually smoked but is instead braised dry with a well-balanced sweet-and-sour sauce, resulting in a moist texture. (Photo by Yao Shun)

The "lion’s head" meatballs from the "King of Buns" have the "taste of a mainland mother," and each serving includes five large meatballs with cabbage for 450 NT dollars. (Photo by Yao Shun)

The "Matsu red yeast pork" is made by marinating pork belly in a Matsu red yeast sauce with aged wine and rock sugar, then steaming and pan-frying it. The meat is tender and sweet, with each serving of two slices costing 90 NT dollars. (Photo by Yao Shun)

Each serving of "braised beef brisket" weighs 3.5 jin and costs 1350 NT dollars. After bringing it home, you can add carrots, white radish, and potatoes to reheat and braise again. (Photo by Yao Shun)

At the "King of Buns" dumpling and scallion pancake shop on Fùjǐn Street near the intersection with Sānmín Road in Taipei’s Minsheng Community, strings of sausages and cured meats hang from racks under the eaves. The cured meat is dotted with bumps—close up, you’ll see they’re peppercorns used in the curing process, while the meat is also covered with star-shaped star anise. In highly modernized Taipei, this sight is truly rare. "Brother Bao," the owner of the "King of Buns," says that with the Lunar New Year approaching, if they don’t step up production now, regular customers who can’t get their hands on these sausages, cured meats, smoked fish, Matsu red yeast pork, or lion’s head meatballs for the holidays "might just complain!"

The "King of Buns" New Year dishes are actually quite "homely"—they’re all classic dishes with mainland Chinese flavors. In terms of refinement, they can’t compare to the New Year dishes offered by international hotels or high-end restaurants, nor can their packaging rival that of "name-brand" offerings produced by central kitchens. But when it comes to "flavor," Brother Bao is proud—because these dishes are made using traditional methods that deliver old-time tastes. Regular customers savor them slowly, enjoying "old times and old flavors," which is why they’re so popular.

The New Year dish business is huge. In addition to hotels and Chinese-Western restaurants offering takeout dishes, even department stores, supermarkets, and convenience stores are jumping into the market. This "everyone’s doing it" phenomenon is called a "trend," where everyone sells the same dishes like Buddha Jumps Over the Wall or Abalone and Fish Maw Chicken Soup, making the market feel "cheap." However, this also increases the "contrast" between the "King of Buns" handmade New Year dishes and mass-market ones, making their mainland-style dishes feel "refreshingly unique."

"The sausages and cured meats we make must definitely be frozen when you take them home," says Brother Bao. The sausages and cured meats he makes contain no artificial additives or sodium nitrite, so there’s no need to worry about food safety—but they do need to be frozen. These sausages are made by chopping pork hind leg meat into cubes, flavoring them with soy sauce, salt, sugar, and kaoliang liquor, then stuffing them into casings and air-drying them for five days to a week depending on the weather before freezing. When you take them home, you can pan-fry, roast, steam, or stir-fry them. They’re not overly salty and have a subtle sweetness, with a tender texture that’s great not just with rice but even more so as a drinking snack. Brother Bao says the meat for the sausages "must be chopped, not minced"—otherwise, the texture suffers.

The cured meat with visible peppercorns and star anise is made from thick slices of skin-on pork belly from black-haired pigs. It’s cured and air-dried without soy sauce like Jiangsu-Zhejiang-style wind-dried meat, so the steamed meat has a tender pink hue. Considering environmental concerns, this everyday cured meat isn’t actually smoked, but it still has a subtle "smoked ham aroma." At the same time, the salty richness is balanced with a hint of sweetness.

The "King of Buns" smoked fish is also delicious. Like the cured meat, this "smoked fish" isn’t actually smoked. Thick slices of grass carp are first deep-fried, then braised in sauce and soaked. The sauce is made by simmering soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, star anise, black pepper, and licorice. After braising and soaking, the fish is red-braised once more to reduce the sauce, ensuring it’s fully flavored. The taste has the perfect balance of sweet and sour, with moist, tender fish that’s neither dry nor tough. A serving of 10 pieces costs 880 NT dollars.

The "King of Buns" Matsu red yeast pork is highly recommended. Made from black-haired pork belly with a balanced fat-to-lean ratio, the meat is cleaned and then marinated in Matsu red yeast sauce with aged wine and rock sugar. Once flavored, it’s steamed and pan-fried. The meat marinated in the wine lees is incredibly tender, with a hint of sweetness and a faint wine aroma. Its texture and flavor far surpass the bright red Taiwanese-style char siu you’d find at street stalls.

The "King of Buns" cabbage lion’s head meatballs and braised beef brisket have "a mother’s taste." The lion’s head meatballs are made from ground pork hind leg meat, seasoned with scallions, ginger, eggs, sugar, salt, soy sauce, and sesame oil, plus tofu to enhance the texture. They’re pounded to develop gluten, deep-fried, and then braised with cabbage. Each meatball is plump and tender. The braised beef brisket, made from Australian beef ribs, is first blanched and stir-fried before being braised in sauce. The result is tender yet slightly chewy, deeply flavorful meat that can be eaten hot right after reheating or further cooked with carrots, white radish, and potatoes.

(Business)