3 Cups Runneth Over With Tastes of Taiwan

Tastes of Taiwan: “3-Cup Chicken” (aka san bei ji) is chicken-on-bone pieces fried in a sauce traditionally made of 1 cup of soy sauce, 1 cup of rice wine, 1 cup of sesame oil (hence the name “3 cups”!) with ‘”sweet spice” flavours of cinnamon/cloves/star anise, raw sugar, soft lemongrass, sliced garlic & ginger, Thai basil, scallions, capsicum – and maybe a few “chef’s secrets”.

Here it’s served with steamed rice topped with Taiwanese “pork gravy”, lettuce with dressing, and the tastiest, crunchiest wok steamed veggies.

It’s a meal and half, only $15.80 as “lunch special” at Jymmanuel Eatery in East St Kilda (formerly Tang Dumpling House, a fav weekend family lunch venue)

Oh – and, of course, with the ubiquitous Asian boiled egg!

3 Cups Chicken is a traditional Taiwanese meal that is big on “sweet spice” flavors

Good taste doesn’t guarantee good looks

Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is in the eye of the Marketing Manager.

Fortunately (just ask my kids) food often tastes better than it looks.

For a convenience/frozen meal, this “pea mash with lemon & pepper chicken”, is umm, a tasty emulsion. Add a dollop of natural yoghurt, a sprinkle of hottish paprika and a few rye Cruskits, and you’ve got a meal maybe fit for a Mughal Emperor’s kitchen staff on their day off …


On the upside, it’s a nice colour scheme of orange and green …