Shrimp roll

What it is

Shrimp rolls (蝦捲) are a fried snack most associated with Tainan. A filling of shrimp and chopped cabbage, sometimes with minced pork or fish paste, is wrapped in pork caul fat (豬網油), the lacy fat from around a pig's stomach, then battered and fried. The fat melts into the filling as it cooks, keeping it moist under a thin crust.

Where it came from

Huang Chia (黃家蝦捲), a shop running for more than 60 years, tells a story that reaches back to the 17th century. In its account, soldiers from Fuzhou who came with Koxinga (鄭成功) made a "meat roll" (肉捲) of minced pork, cabbage and duck egg wrapped in pork membrane. Under Japanese rule, new fishing ports made shrimp easy to get, and shrimp took the place of pork. No written record confirms this.

The craft has passed through named cooks. Huang Chin-shui (黃金水) learned it at 26 from a 70-year-old master from Fuzhou and later took over the trade, selling only shrimp rolls and shrimp dumplings. In Anping, Chou Chin-ken (周進根), a banquet chef (總舖師), sold snacks between catering jobs. The shrimp rolls outsold everything else, so he made them his speciality, and Chou's has traded since 1965.

How it is made

Shelled shrimp, chopped cabbage and spring onion are mixed into a thick paste. Huang Chia uses velvet shrimp (火燒蝦) and no pork at all, while Chou's adds minced pork, celery and fish paste. The paste is laid on sheets of caul fat and rolled up. Huang Chia chills the rolls, coats them in a potato-starch batter and fries them to order at about 180°C for five or six minutes, turning them all the time.

How to eat it

Eat them straight from the fryer, while the crust is crisp. Huang Chia serves them with its own sauce, yellow mustard and thin strips of radish pickled in vinegar and sugar, which cut the richness. Takeaway there comes wrapped in bamboo leaves. At Chou's, a mixed soup of fish, shrimp and pork balls is the usual partner.