Pasta all'Ortolana (Healthy Pasta with Lots of Vegetables)

It's a pasta recipe with lots of vegetables, as healthy as it is, but do you know that another key element lies on Parmigiano Reggiano rinds?

That's right, the tough and sometimes being leftout cheese rinds. So next time when you have some leftover cheese rinds, especially the good aged Parmigiano Reggiano rinds, please do treat them with some respect. The Parmigiano Reggiano rinds can still contribute by adding extra savory depth to the dishes you make, especially in a braise, a stew, or even soup recipes.

Pasta all'Ortolana - 

Ingredients (about 5 portions)?

• 1 pack/500 grams short pasta 
• 1 eggplant
• 300 grams cherry tomatoes
• 1 medium zucchini
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• 1 bundle/30 grams basil
• 1 big bulb shallot (about 1/3 cup peeled and sliced)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 small chunk aged Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon red chili flakes (optional)
• 1 cup pasta water
• Some salt
• Some extra virgin olive oil

How?

Peel and slice the shallot, we will need about 1/3 cup once peeled and sliced. Peel and slice the garlic cloves.

Destem and cube the eggplant. Destem, remove the pith and seeds, and cube the yellow bell pepper. Destem and cube the zucchini. Save some fresh basil leaves for garnish in the end and chop the rest. Halve the cherry tomatoes.

Prepare a big pot of water and bring to a boil. Sprinkle few pinches of salt and add in the pasta. I used calamarata pasta this time, but any type of short pasta works such as penne or casarecce.

Cook till the pasta turns almost al dente. Scoop some pasta water out and save for later. Drain the remaining liquid.

While cooking the pasta, prepare a big pot and drizzle about 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Switch to medium heat and wait till the temperature gets hot. Add in cubed eggplant, yellow bell pepper, and zucchini. Give it a quick sear, stir once a while too.

Season with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of dried oregano. Also add 1 teaspoon of red chili flakes if desired. Give it a quick mix. Doesn't need to cook for long. Scoop everything out and set aside for now.

Still using the same pot, drizzle 2 more tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and keep at a medium heat. Once warm enough, add in halved cherry tomatoes along with shallot slices and garlic slices. Cook till cherry tomatoes softened. Mix in 1 tablespoon of tomato paste, mix till blended and cook for another 30 seconds or so.

Add in chopped basil along with about 1 cup of pasta water and 1 square of the aged Parmigiano Reggiano cheese rind. Let the whole thing cook for about 5 minutes.

Time to transfer seared vegetables back to the pot. Also season with more salt during this step too, about 1 teaspoon. Mix and cook for couple more minutes. 

Remove the cheese rind and add in drained pasta. Toss to blend, cook for another minute.

Taste and add more seasonings if needed. Once checked, drizzle some more extra virgin olive oil all around and toss towards the end.

Plate and grate some aged Parmigiano Reggiano over. Garnish with whole basil leaves saved in the beginning.

Besides utilizing cheese rinds in stew-like dishes, I know that some people also fry the rinds. The end result is puffed up and crispy bites to munch on. That I haven't tried. Seems like a fun thing to do but probably going to make some mess in the kitchen though.

Knowing the risk of oil splashing everywhere, I'm still up for the challenge. Just let me move everything out of the way from the frying pot first.

Other healthy pasta recipes:

• Gnocchi in broccoli and and spinach sauce
• Zucchini and squash pasta with parsley and mint sauce

Haili - Ever Thought About Pairing Fried Plum Cordia with Aged Grouper?

So before we dig into their food, let's figure out what exactly Haili means.

Due to its similar pronunciation, at first I thought Haili means inside the ocean, because hai sounds like ocean in Chinese, and li sounds like inside. I took the wrong interpretation ever since the first time I heard about this restaurant Haili.

Haili is located in the southern city of Taiwan, Kaohsiung it is. If you drive from Taipei then it'll take about 4 to 4.5 hours to get there. Since I live in Taipei, it's not that often for me to visit Kaohsiung. 

Only until recently me and Mister planned to spend a short vacation within Taiwan, that's when we decided to go to Kaohsiung. And since we're going to be there, why not pick out a fine dining restaurant and indulge a little while we're out of town. Haili it is, Mister let me pick which restaurant to go.

So it's only till then, when we sat down at the table and the server came over to greet us. She briefly introduced the restaurant name Haili, and that's when I finally realized I've got the name all wrong for years.

Haili can be taken down to two parts. Hai, taken from the Japanese hai (はい), which usually means yes or ok when Japanese says that to you. Some sort of acknowledgment and agreement. Li on the other hand is taken from the Chinese name pronunciation of Chef William's two most important women in life, his mom and his wife. 

Compared to my misunderstanding "inside the ocean," the true meaning of Haili, agreement plus two beloved women, the later one definitely has a much more romantic feel to it.

See, that's the type of surprise I'd love to discover when dining out. Nowadays people tend to search for abundant information online. Most of the time these images and descriptions are coming from total strangers. One we don't even know if taste-wise or preference-wise are similar to our own.

That's why I try to steer away from digging too deep into these scattered information online. I do look for things to get a general idea of what the food looks like, restaurant's opening hours, or where can I book online. Usually the search stops there. Especially once I booked the restaurant, I would like to contain as little presumption as possible, bearing an open mind to get the most enjoyment from a meal.

I did, and that's why I was happy to finally found out the real meaning behind the name Haili. And I also get to try all the dishes that night without knowing much about. So nearly everything was new or almost like a surprise for me, how fun.

Haili's drink menu (don't drink and drive) -

I love the pairing varieties offered here. You get to go up a notch with premium pairing, there're also wine or sake pairings. Cocktails or even non-alcoholic mocktails are not a problem too. If I have to be super picky, only the traditional tea selections are missing. But even without that, this beverage menu is well-covered already. 

I got the premium pairing, but it doesn't come with champagne. Mister knew that I've been craving for champagne for a while so he got the 5-glasses wine pairing, so I get to savor his first glass of champagne instead. 

Mister's pairing, NV Henry de Vaugency Cuvee des Amoureux Oger Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Brut -

My premium pairing, 2020 Meo-Camuzet Bourgogne Hautes-Cotes-de-Nuits Blanc Clos Saint-Philibert Monopole -

Happy wife happy life they say -

Botan shrimp, Shaoxing wine -

To contract the tender bouncy raw shrimp meat on top, there's fried shrimp head tempura on the bottom. The use the Shaoxing wine was just a mere touch, providing a light flow of aged wine aroma, so subtle that you can still taste the sweetness from the shrimp.

Pingtung eel, buckwheat -

Call it Taiwanese style taco. I personally love the tiny crunch from the buckwheats scattered on top of the grilled eel. The whole thing was earthy and has some sort of warmth to it. 

To further brighten up the senses a bit, you know that for Mexican tacos sometimes they'll put salsa or hot sauces on top, but at Haili these were substituted with Japanese "yakumi" ingredients such as shiso leaves and myoga. A fun twist I would say.

Mister's 2020 Cave des Vignerons de Buxy Bourgogne Aligote Buissonnier -

Horse mackerel, lemongrass, bergamot -

Such a gentle color palette we've got here, and the look matches exactly with its taste. With a good amount of sweet element here, there's almost good but at a lesser amount of acidity used as a backbone. 

Between almost two equal forces here, you can also taste the refreshing and lemony touch from the lemongrass. To serve such flavor combo during early stage of the set, I think the Chef was trying to slowly awaken diners' senses for the upcoming dishes.

Cold noodles, pine nut praline, sea urchin - 

Thanks to the previous dish that really helped in brighten up the senses, us as diners can better grasp the nutty and earthy seasonings from this cold noodles dish. 

Especially due to the lowered temperature, which can sometimes hinder the reception of subtle aroma. So thanks to the previous course, at least for me, I knew that I was able to get a more acute feel of the seasonings here. Even for the sea urchin "ice cream," I was able to really get that slight umami note hidden under that cold creamy mass. The pine nut tastes even nuttier so to speak.

Mister's Nana Winery Chardonnay Negev Highlands Israel 2021, also my Japanese sake Yuki No Mayu Junmai Daiginjo -

Grouper, beurre blanc, makao pepper - 

This might be my favorite dish of the night. On top of beurre blanc or Taiwan's specialty makao pepper, you'll also find the little fried round stuff. The fried bunch were plum cordia, or also known as cordia myxa or assyrian plum.

You'll find pickled plum cordia often used in Taiwan, a common ingredient to pair with steamed fish. It has a slightly grassy taste, sometimes almost got a tannin feel to it, but the main flavor carries sweet and savory notes at the same time. To me it's a bit like plum plus soy sauce but in a much milder way.

So imagine using that with fish, and the Chef even up it a notch by frying the plum cordia. So the grassy tannin feel was gone and left with extra fried dough crunch and aroma. The grouper was also aged a few days too so the umami depth was further enhanced. Buffed fish plus buffed plum cordia, this dish has to be good.

Nabeyaki noodles, hollandaise, chawamushi - 

This is not on the course menu, but more like an extra add-on dish that diners can opt in with reasonable fees. 

Originally nabeyaki noodles is considered one of the local traditional breakfast choices. Chef took that idea and recreate a dish. The actual noodles were substituted with fried rice noodles. So the noodles you see inside the bowl were like crunchy airy strings that will only start sucking in the moisture when the server pour the stock table-side. That leads you with semi-chewy and semi-crunchy bite in the end.

Inside you'll also find swordfish mouse and clam ravioli, also wontons made with local crustacean variety called metanephrops armatus. Basically the whole thing tastes like shrimpy soup noodles, but with hollandaise and steamed egg within, providing something smooth and creamy to round out the heavy-tasting flavor. 

Mister's 2022 Vincent Bachelet Maranges 1er Cru la Fussiere and my 2019 Jean Baptiste Jessiaume Clos Vougeot Grand Cru Petit Maupertuis -

Chiayi quail, caramelized onion, curry -  

A solid quail dish, impeccably tender and juicy meat despite the naturally small size of quail.

On the left, Mister got upgraded entrée for the Omi beef, bercy sauce, onion. Mine on the right was Iberico pork, cacao nib, lyonnaise sauce -

The Japanese beef was somewhat predictable -

So let's talk more about the interesting Iberico pork here. When we first sat down at the table, the serve did check with us regarding the doneness of the steak and pork. Medium rare for both and we agreed. However, my pork wasn't exactly look like a medium rare to me but instead more on the rare side. I still went along though, but I did see the girl from another table requested to cook the pork a bit more.

Put the doneness apart, the flavor profile was quite unique. If you ever had Iberico pork, you'll know that such pork is prized for its nutty and sweet tones. I think Haili put a lot of emphasis on these two qualities and made the pork even nuttier and sweeter than one can imagine.

It was almost like a sweet and savory course to me. Don't forget they even paired the meat with cacao nibs. It's fun to know that cacao nibs didn't contribute any sweet taste to the dish, but more like a 90% dark chocolate aroma to it, sort of balanced out the sweet note overall.

Mister and I both had the same wine for our last pairing, 2020 Domaine du Clos des Fées Vin de France Passat Minor Vin Liquoreux -

Watermelon, jasmine, lotus root -

I adore the first dessert here. Both the aroma and the flavor were just like the look of pickled flower bulb on top. A brush of jasmine floral note and refreshing sensation from the melon. Every single element was so delicate and gentle.

But where's the lotus root as written on the menu? They actually use lotus root "powder" and made into these mochi-like semi-spheres on the plate. I bet if it wasn't shown on the menu, no one will guess that these "bumps" were actually made with lotus root.

Peach, crème d'Anjou, perilla - 

Mignardises, coffee, tea - 

Dinner was fun, and to make it even better, the price for the set was quite reasonable. Especially when you calculate in the one Michelin star status. That means $120 USD with additional 10% service charge per guest. If you're visiting from western countries, let's say America for instance, note that there's no tips required in Taiwan too.

As I looked closely to the bill, Haili didn't even charge for drinking water, which is pretty rare even for fine dining restaurants in Taiwan too. Totally a bargain. 

However, me and Mister did indulge a bit more with my premium pairing and his five-glasses wine pairing. On top of that, we each got our own additional add-on dishes instead of sharing, and he got his main beef upgrade too. So all that definitely boosted up our final bill, but still quite fair and somewhat affordable for a Michelin restaurant.

So for that, I think Haili is a good choice for people who would like to try something a bit fancier but without worrying about the hefty price tag. 

Also if possible, just like I said in the beginning, try to dine at these type of fine dining restaurants with an open mind, and avoid extensive "searched" information. It'll make the whole experience much more special and much more memorable. 

Haili currently holds one Michelin star status.

Haili

2F, no.264-1, Chenggong 1st Rd

Qianjin District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

+886 7 215 0559

Official website: https://hai-li.tw/en

Facebook: Haili Facebook 

Online booking system: Haili inline booking

Opening hours:

Tuesday through Thursday 5:30 p.m. ~ 10:00 p.m.

Friday and Saturday lunch 11:30 a.m. ~ 3:00 p.m.

Friday and Saturday dinner 5:30 p.m. ~ 10:00 p.m.

Sunday and Monday off