May 02, 2010
海風餐廳
Took the baby out to Danshui to take in the riverside scene and enjoy the sunset. Once the sun fell below the horizon, it was time to search out dinner. We had a big group plus the baby, which made the usual street-eats vendors impractical. Wife's uncle knew exactly where to go, though, and we followed him down the street to this restaurant. Trays of seafood sit on ice in front of the restaurant for the customer to order even before they sit down at a table. The placards suggest a preparation but you can have them cook it anyway you like. We went upstairs to grab a table and get the baby settled into a high chair, while uncle ordered food at the door. Nothing fancy but large plates of fresh seafood cooked hot and piled high, which is enough to make the restaurant a Danshui institution. Turns out that the restaurant has been in Danshui for ages, and wife's uncles used to take her grandparents here for family dinners, way back before the MRT line made Danshui much more easily accessible. Nowadays, with the massive weekend crowds from the city the restaurant is doing better than ever.
The table was slightly slick, built up from the layers of grease that never quite got fully wiped clean. Any squeamish thoughts disappeared when they brought out the huge plate of the stir-fried onion crab, each chunk sweet and meaty and infused with ginger-onion flavor. No wonder almost every table had it. The roasted mini-conchs were tender in their hard shells, to be plucked out with a sharp toothpick. Chili-basil clams is a homey staple, but the seafood specialist offers meatier morsels than what we can buy from the local market. Fresh-fried shrimp-cakes and squid-balls are a notch up from the usual heavily-flavored street-eats versions. All the leftover seafood trimmings went into the soup stock to make a super-rich miso soup. Finally there's a big plate of chow-mein to fill up whatever space is left in the stomach. Too bad we were driving home otherwise the food would be perfect for knocking back a few beers with the uncles.
海風餐廳
台北縣淡水鎮中正路17號
02 2621 2365