Dishes
Pan-fried ba-wan (Cishan style)
煎肉圓
Also called: 旗山肉丸 · 肉丸 · Cishan meatball · pan-fried bawan
Ba-wan dumplings steamed and then pan-fried in lard until lightly browned, a speciality of Cishan.
Photo: bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Tsaiid, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Yuriy kosygin, CC BY-SA 4.0What it is
A translucent, chewy starch wrapper around fresh pork and scallion. Pan-frying in lard gives the skin a slightly crisp, browned surface while it stays bouncy. It comes with a house sauce, sweet chilli sauce and chopped coriander.
Where it comes from
Ba-wan in general is believed to have started in Beidou, Changhua, as relief food after floods in 1898. In Cishan, TVBS describes Wu Chi on the old street as a well-known source of the town's pan-fried version, trading for more than 50 years.
How it is made
Ba-wan wrappers are traditionally sweet-potato starch, now usually mixed with corn starch and rice flour. At Wu Chi the dumplings are made by hand each day with freshly stir-fried pork and scallion, steamed, then pan-fried in lard until the skin is lightly scorched.
How to eat it
One is not considered enough, so locals usually order two. Add sweet chilli sauce and coriander.
In Kaohsiung
Elsewhere ba-wan are usually steamed, then deep-fried or warmed in oil. Cishan's version is pan-fried in lard instead.
Where to eat it in Kaohsiung
Sources