Haicheng: The Must-Try Seafood Spot in Penghu That’s Worth the Line
Intro
It had been ages since I last had any small squid, and I was really missing that squid flavor. Now that we’d made it to Penghu, where you can stumble onto the seaside no matter which way you wander, we obviously had to go eat some seafood! That said, some seafood spots have prices that are honestly sky-high, and for penny-pinchers like us, it’s hard to bring ourselves to open the wallet. Even so, we managed to find a pretty solid restaurant called Haicheng, and after eating there we felt it was great bang for the buck, so let me share it with you all!
(Image taken from content posted by “Haicheng” on Google Maps.)
The restaurant we went to today is called Haicheng, and this place really has a ton of recommendations on the map. We arrived at 19:50 and there were still 3 to 4 groups of customers waiting outside, so if you can’t stand to wait around, you might want to think twice. This time I ordered the small squid yi mian (noodles), milkfish belly, and a few side dishes, so let’s savor them one by one!
Garlic White Pork & Cheek Meat
Let’s start by sampling the side dishes. For the garlic white pork, the meat seems to be boiled and then paired with a minced-garlic sauce. The spicy and salty notes work pretty well together, but it’s not anything super special. I’d call it a side dish worth trying.
The cheek meat was also nicely balanced in saltiness, never feeling heavy, and combined with their house special tiger sauce it basically turns into a bowl of fiercely spicy braised goodness. Seriously delicious!
Small Squid Yi Mian
But the dish that left me feeling truly amazed wasn’t either of those two sides—it was their small squid yi mian. They have four kinds of noodles or rice to choose from, so I went with the small squid yi mian. The first sip of the broth was incredibly fresh and sweet, yet the umami wasn’t so heavy that you couldn’t finish the whole bowl. It tasted more like half fish soup combined with half clam broth, and floating in the soup was a lengthwise-halved squid. Halfway through the soup, I added 3 to 4 spoonfuls of chili sauce, a bit of chopped scallion, and some minced garlic, which instantly turned the whole bowl into a spicy version—a totally different flavor, a fresh new way to eat it, and not boring at all.
Milkfish Belly Soup
Let’s also give their milkfish belly a try—half meat and half what I’d call the fatty part, and it was absolutely delicious with no bones to deal with. The broth uses the same base as the yi mian from before, and personally I don’t think it pairs all that well, because the soup steals the show a little and ends up masking the flavor the milkfish should have had.
Alright then, thanks to everyone who read this far! If you like my posts, feel free to hit follow, and go ahead and tap that heart while you’re at it!
This is the third installment of my Penghu travel diary, and every day I’ll bring you a different side of Penghu. If you want to read the previous one, it’s right here.