Haute cuisine, a la Taiwan
The arrangement of space at Hillside Garden is thus a reflection of the proprietor. The same applies to the food served there.
At Hillside Garden, the customer gets no menu and no choice. Lin decides what's for dinner, whipping up creations from the best that's available each day at the market. He just follows a few simple principles. All ingredients must be natural, and there is no use of heavy condiments or sharp flavors. The idea is to send customers away sated but not stuffed. And the proprietor's preferences rule. A gourmet lover, Lin says: "At Hillside Garden, we sell what I like to eat. It's my space, my food, my idea. That's the only way the place can have a coherent feel."
Our meal starts with chilled sashimi. Deep-sea bream skins and fresh shrimp in hollandaise are served over crushed ice on a powder-green platter, garnished with shredded India root. Pink peach blossoms are arrayed along the rim of the platter. There is thus more to the eating at Hillside Garden than just the eating; each platter is work of visual art in its own right.
The cherries are in full bloom this day, and Lin personally picks a few for us. Every bit as beautiful, however, is the delicate white meat of the bream, freshly steamed together with a garnish of cherry leaves. The final course is a sublime stew of lotus seed and chicken, simmered for three hours.
It is a 12-course meal in all, with seven main dishes plus several side dishes and dessert. There were several local specialties, including gao zha (deep-fried patties of ground pork and shrimp, a typical Ilan treat), xian gu mi gao (a Taiwanese paella), and Hakka-style broad rice noodles. The order of presentation calls for cool dishes first, followed by warm dishes, then hot soup, in steady progression to the meal's climax. After each course we are served tea, fruit vinegar-juice, and alcoholic drinks to wash away any aftertaste before we move on to the next course.
"On top of its basic Chinese 'substratum,' Taiwanese culture has much that is particular to Taiwan. And there's also been Japanese influence. In the food at Hillside Garden we see a highly refined blending of all three of these elements. The result is Taiwan-style high cuisine," says Lin Ku-fang. In his view, Hillside Garden represents a step forward for an island that up to now had not advanced to the point of high culture.
As each course is served up, first-rate ingredients, creative cuisine, and a refined aesthetic sense elicit gasps of delight from diners. There's nothing to compare with the artistic pleasure of a meal at Hillside Garden.