What it is
A quick stir-fry of thinly sliced beef with gai lan (芥蘭), also sold as Chinese kale or Chinese broccoli. The vegetable has thick stems, flat blue-green leaves and small florets. It tastes like a stronger, slightly bitter broccoli. In Tainan and Kaohsiung it is a regular order to go with a bowl of beef soup.
Where it came from
Beef with gai lan is an established Chinese stir-fry that travelled abroad with emigrants. It is believed to be the parent of American beef and broccoli: early Chinese cooks in the United States could not find gai lan and used broccoli instead, probably some time after the 1920s in San Francisco.
How it is made
The beef is sliced thin and often marinated briefly with soy sauce, oyster sauce and cornstarch to keep it tender. It hits a very hot wok first and comes out before it is fully cooked. The kale goes in next, then the beef returns with the sauce for a final toss, so it does not overcook. Beef-soup shops cook each plate to order.
How to eat it
At a beef-soup shop it sits beside the soup with plain rice or braised pork rice (肉燥飯), which together make a full meal. Some shops sell stir-fries in more than one size. Hsi Lo Tien Beef Soup (西羅殿牛肉湯) in Tainan offers three.
Around Taiwan
- Tainan
- Some Tainan shops, such as Shun Te Beef Soup (順德牛肉湯), get Taiwanese beef straight from the slaughterhouse every day. At Shang Hao Chih Beef Soup (尚好吃牛肉湯) the owner buys the kale at the market daily, keeps only the tender parts and stir-fries it to order.
- Kaohsiung
- Niu Lao Da (牛老大涮牛肉) grew out of a roadside stall selling Tainan-style beef soup and now serves beef hotpot. Its freshly slaughtered beef comes from Tainan daily and is cut by hand, and its stir-fried beef dishes are worth ordering alongside the pot.
