Hsinwu Pan-Fried Rice Cake Introduction
Wang Yeh-ying (born in 1946) wanted to start a business to supplement her family income when her children were still small. She began selling fried shallot rice cakes and savory rice cakes at her current location on Guangming Road. However, since these rice cakes could not be consumed by vegetarians and fried shallot rice cakes were primarily in demand during the Lunar New Year, she switched to selling pan-fried rice cakes. In 2013, as she grew older, she passed the business on to her son Chen Guo-shu (born in 1968) and daughter-in-law Yu Hsueh-hung, who continue to run it. The preparation of the rice cake involves soaking Taiwanese rice for 2-3 hours in the afternoon before grinding it into a rice batter. The batter is then poured into a lead bucket, filled about 90% full, along with the necessary flour and seasonings mixed in. After boiling water in a large pot, the rice batter is added and stirred with a ladle to smooth it out. It is cooked for 4 hours, then removed and allowed to cool. After an hour, salad oil is spread on the surface to prevent the rice cake from becoming dry and hard. Once cooled, it is sliced, and because there are no preservatives, it must be stored in the refrigerator soon after slicing. The next morning, the rice cake is taken to the market. When customers order, oil is first added to a frying pan, and the rice cake slices are pan-fried until golden brown on one side, flipped, and then cooked until golden on the other side before being plated and served with dipping sauce. The dipping sauce is made by boiling soy sauce and mixing in minced garlic. The soy sauce is boiled first to prevent it from being overly salty. In those early days, when Wang Yeh-ying sought advice on making rice cakes, no one was willing to teach her. Thus, she went to a rice shop and asked the owner to take her to learn...
