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[Richie Lin] Mume is a casual fine dining restaurant.
We serve a very casual menu.
Relatively short and we want to keep it very dynamic.
We are more, like, produce-driven, so we depend a lot on the seasonality in Taiwan.
[Kai Ward] So, the philosophy behind the food at Mume here, is we like to....
....take local produce as much as possible and then
approach it by using our own personal experiences and....
transform it into Western cuisine.
[Richie Lin] We have a lot of different chefs coming from different backgrounds and....
One of my sous chef is a CIA alumni,
and he's Taiwanese, he went abroad.
How we come up with the dishes is....
....A lot of the time, we start from the dishes that we actually really like to eat....
Like some classic dishes in French or western cuisine.
Like the brûlée is one of the examples, the tartare is one example....
So, the brûlée....
We were thinking it will be a very interesting idea to incorporate a dessert idea into a savory dish....
Because the chicken liver is such a savory dish....
And then, so we wanted to prepare it like a desert.
So, we incorporate some of the local bacon into the process,
and then took out more flavor out of it.
And then we use Shaoxing Wine, which is, like, a local wine — Chinese wine,
instead of a white wine when we are sautéing the onions and the shallots, and....
So, it gives a local touch to the dish.
[Kai Ward] The Mume Salad is made up of over 20 different local vegetables.
They can vary on exactly how many, but we try to to keep it quite a large variety.
A lot of them we believe are very special to Taiwan,
especially the tuberose is something that's really incredible.
Sort of an asparagus-like vegetable.
The radishes, the carrots — local carrots, as well,
we cooked in a special way.
And that's all brought together, I guess, by the fermented black bean that we use to season the salad.
It sort of adds a really Umami to the whole dish
and really brings it all together.
Sort of a familiar flavor, but also something quite interesting and complex at the same time.
[Richie Lin] My favorite ingredient? It would be a wild pepper.
They call it "Maqaw" in here.
It's also indigenous to Taiwan.
So, we feel like we want to incorporate as much as possible in our cuisine.
There's two dishes that we have today. We're using Maqaw.
The pineapple on top of the ox tongue.
We brush the pineapple with the Maqaw oil
that we cook it in low temperatures with the Maqaw to extract all the flavor out of it.
And then we use that oil extensively in the restaurant.
In desert and in seasoning and all that.
So, we brush that pineapple and then we grill it,
so we get, like, a lemony sort of flavor and then....
It's just different layers on top of the pineapple.
And then on the prawn as well, we season the prawn lightly,
and we brush with the Maqaw oil as well.
[Kai Ward] The cobia crudo.
Yeah, it's a locally farmed cobia.
We cure it and then thinly slice it
and then shave it — uh, *shape* it into a sort of a rose.
The sauce itself, it's based off the Italian — Ajo Blanco.
But traditionally, it's a cucumber and almond.
But we add some grape. And we use a bitter almond as our almond.
Um, on top there's some thin slices of grape,
some candied kombu, their local Buddha hand,
and a little bit of cucumber powder as well.
[Richie Lin] The tartar is another signature or, like, a classic dish from French cusiine.
But we want to incorporate as much of local ideas into the dish.
It's more a take on how we like our tartare.
So, we season the tartare with a local shrimp oil,
which is very savory, very umami, like....
Almost like a fish sauce.
And then inside we have a preserved daikon that is chopped up into small pieces....
...to replace the traditional tartare, like....
There's usually, like, capers and cornichons inside.
So, we make pickled onions and then we use the.....
Taibo, which is a really classic Chinese ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine.
Some preserved daikon, so we....
....cut it into very small pieces and then we incorporate inside.
And on top, we have some fried lotus root.
It depends on the season, we will change it occasionally.
And then just for a different texture, or for some crunch.
And then this is....
Plain Mayo and confit egg yolk.
Because usually tartare, you serve with a raw egg yolk,
but instead, we want it to look a little bit different.
So, we cook it in a very low temperature,
and then, instead of a raw egg yolk,
we have a more.... Almost like a purée, like....
Kind of an egg yolk, and then so we can present it [...].
And then on top — some seasonal herbs.
[Kai Ward] Local pork ribs from [...].
We slow cook them overnight,
and then we made this plum miso glaze using aged plum ball [...]
and white miso — local miso.
And then we just barbecue it, glaze it up,
And then on top we put some local radishes. We make some Nasturtium capers,
using the buds from the Nasturtium.
Some chervil. Some small green mustard greens.
The Amadai is quite special.
The Amadai that we get, where we do the crispy scale,
it's definitely some of the best fish, our favorite fish to cook with here in Taiwan so far.
We pair that with a local bell pepper sauce,
where we add — we make some fermented chilies and add that to it as well,
to make it a bit more interesting.
We serve it with these local sweet peppers which are just
really, really nice.
The Taiwanese bacon — we just sort of grind it and fry it.
Some concentrated Tomatoes. We sort of take small cherry tomatoes and turn them into — sort of — raisins.
Adds a real nice little tartness to it.
Um, and then just some chervil and [...] sorrel on top.
To bring it all together.
I really find the produce has been really incredible.
Something that I just never expected from an outside perspective of Taiwan.
[Richie Lin] I think Taipei's really diverse.
And Taipei has a lot of amazing ingredients and people like to eat.
People like to dine out. And so....
The dining scene is very dynamic.
You can a lot of different styles of cuisine and
the level of execution is.... It's pretty high.
And it's not expensive.
And also you can get a lot of reasonable prices.
Like, you can go to the street market, night market,
and then you can get amazing food and you can....
....just....
.....grab whatever you want, and just walk and eat at the same time, so.....
I mean it doesn't happen in a lot of countries.
I think for someone that.... ....who likes to eat,
it's definitely a very unique and special place to visit.
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