Dishes
Wa-gui (bowl rice cake)
碗粿
Also called: wa gui · bowl rice pudding · bowl kway
A savoury rice pudding steamed in its own bowl, with pork, egg and dried shrimp inside.
Photo: othree, CC BY 2.0
Photo: bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: Sinchen.Lin, CC BY 2.0What it is
A soft, set rice pudding made from rice milk, with pieces of pork, preserved radish, dried shrimp or braised egg in the middle. It is eaten with soy paste or sweet chilli sauce. Some versions are dark brown from sauce in the batter; others stay white.
Where it comes from
The name comes from the bowl it is steamed and served in. It is often mistakenly called 碗糕.
How it is made
Rice milk is heated and stirred until it starts to thicken, poured into bowls, topped with fillings and steamed. Hamasen's Wa-Gui Zhi grinds aged long-grain rice each morning and steams the bowls for about 30 minutes.
How to eat it
People eat it at breakfast or as a snack. Cut it into pieces in the bowl with the bamboo skewer or spoon provided and eat it with the sauce.
In Kaohsiung
Tainan's version is dark because sauce goes into the batter. Michelin notes Yi Wei Pin's is much darker than Taipei's and comes with braised pork sauce, wasabi or garlic. Kaohsiung's Hamasen Wa-Gui Zhi, founded in 1951, makes a pale, firm version with the sauce on top, and its owner calls Tainan's oilier and saltier.
Where to eat it in Kaohsiung
Sources