Drama in the mouth
Curry was introduced into Taiwanese food culture in the Japanese colonial era via the navy at Keelung Harbor, which was then a major link to the wider world. Along with shacha sauce, curry was incorporated into a distinctively local pastry.
A five-minute drive away from Keelung’s Miaokou Night Market, Dashin Pastry Shop on Zhongchuan Road starts to send out waves of curry aroma in the early morning. The day’s first batch of curry pastries are sitting on the racks to cool. On the second floor, diced pork—the heart and soul of curry pastries—is being cooked at a furious pace.
Here, hind-leg pork, with its even texture, undergoes a complex process of braising and stir-frying that helps seal the savory flavors in the meat. It is then set aside to cool and dry before being combined with mung-bean paste. Next, a curry-flavored “oil dough” (made from flour mixed with oil or fat, without added water) is wrapped around the fillings and molded into the desired shape by the chef, who then stamps a red logo on it. Finally, the pastries are transferred to the oven, the heat having been carefully adjusted according to the weather of the day.
This apparently straightforward procedure belies first-generation shop owner Chen Chaozong’s extraordinary ingenuity. From the braising liquid and the proportion of the bean paste to the recipes for the curry and the oil dough, Dashin has a secret formula for everything. Even Chen’s son Jianhong has had to work terribly hard to learn the craft.
And yet it is thanks to these secret formulae that Dashin’s creations have become so indelibly intertwined with local people’s sense of home. The pungent aroma of curry makes our mouths water even before we sink our teeth into the pastry. At the first bite, we sense a lively duet between the flaky crust and the velvety texture of the mung-bean paste. Then the savory taste of the meat comes to the fore, only for the scent of the spices in the curry crust to prevail once again.
If a bite happens to contain more bean paste, we bask in the powerful scent and sweetness of mung beans. If the next mouthful has more meat, we’ll feel that the bean paste has retreated into the background to give way to the savory flavors of the braising liquid and curry. It is as if a rambunctious culinary drama is unfolding on our tongues.
Pastry lovers will be immediately spellbound by these delicious treats, and even those who aren’t particularly fond of traditional pastries are likely to be enthralled. During our visit, we come across a customer who wants to buy 15 boxes of curry pastries. He has driven here specially from New Taipei’s Ruifang District just to get these Lunar New Year presents for a friend in Yilan. Full of excitement, he describes to us the magical power of Dashin’s curry pastries: “My friend didn’t use to eat pastries, but after tasting the curry pastries from this shop, he puts away a whole boxful of them at a time.”
When we ask what exactly is so charming about the fusion of sweet and savory in the curry pastries, he gives us a mysterious smile and says: “Eat one, and you’ll know!”
After a complex cooking process, the glistening, juicy meat has fully absorbed the flavor of Dashin’s secret braising liquid.
Crispy fried shallots used to be the main savory ingredient in curry pastries. As living standards rose, pork began to be added.
Chen Jianhong, second-generation owner of Dashin Pastry Shop, has worked extremely hard to acquire his father’s pastry-making skills. He hopes to preserve and pass down the delicious flavors of his family’s curry pastries.
Being mixed by hand, the fillings of Dashin’s curry pastries look uneven. Each bite promises a different combination of wonderfully rich sweet and savory flavors.