What it is
Rou mi xia (肉米蝦) is a thick, starch-bound soup from the old Tainan banquet repertoire. Pork, bamboo shoot, shiitake, daikon and carrot are chopped very fine, and deep-fried shrimp sit on top. The broth is light, faintly sweet and sour, and not greasy.
Where it came from
The name describes the knife work: the other ingredients are chopped to the size of rice grains (米), and the shrimp (蝦) are the star. In Tainan the dish is closely tied to Amei (阿美飯店), which treats it as its signature. The founder, Tsai Chung-lien (蔡崇廉), learnt his trade in wine-house kitchens and later cooked for outdoor banquets (辦桌). The generation that followed him kept the original recipes rather than chase new dishes.
How it is made
Pork, bamboo shoot, shiitake, daikon and carrot are chopped to the size of rice grains. The mixture is cooked into a broth and thickened with starch. Velvet shrimp (火燒蝦) from Anping, Tainan's old harbour district, are deep-fried and set on top.
How to eat it
It is served as one dish in a shared banquet-style meal. Shrimp of the right size can be in short supply, so restaurants such as Amei ask diners to order it ahead, ideally when booking.
Around Taiwan
- Tainan
- Amei (阿美飯店) in West Central District, a Tainan name for more than 60 years, lists rou mi xia as its signature, alongside charcoal-cooked clay-pot duck (砂鍋鴨). The menu keeps to banquet classics with Tainan's savoury-sweet seasoning.
