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

Dinner at INITA Taiwan - Second Year Anniversary and Going Strong

"I"talia, "Ni"ppon, and "Ta"iwan, these three countries summarized the core experiences, not only about work, but also life and inspirations of Chef Kunihiro Hagimoto, and from there the restaurant INITA was born.

Chef Kunihiro Hagimoto was originally from Osaka Japan. During his culinary journey, he spent many years working in some of the renown restaurants in Italy. To name a few, Ristorante Tokuyoshi, Eataly Milano Smeraldo, and Trattoria da Amerigo.

But what made him settled in Taiwan? Love? I recalled Chef gave such a romantic answer on my first visit to INITA. Together with Chef's lovely Taiwanese wife Joyce, they've decided to take root here in Taipei, a place that has been drawing many culinary talents from all over the world due to its booming market, a big opportunity with growing number of finer palates in this little island.

It's a harmonic scene to see, Chef and Joyce work hand in hand from the open kitchen area to table-side service, or should I call it "entertainment?" It's a highly interactive dining experience compared to many other "standard" restaurants. First of all, the main dining area is centered on a big open kitchen with surrounding counter seats. All the actions in the kitchen become a culinary show right in front of the diners.

Even private dining room customers get a bit of the scene. It's also where I've seated for both visits. Chef and Joyce will often come to the room and showcasing the dishes themselves. Towards the main part of the course, private dining room customers can also join the crowd outside to see the pasta making process and some story telling from the Chef.

Instead of the usual formal elegant vibe from a fine dining establishment, INITA was actually quite relaxing, more so fun to be exact. 

A little toasting ceremony to start off our night. While the gentlemen got the full glass pairing and the ladies got the half glass pairing to go with our meal, but these orange drinks in the beginning were complimentary welcome drinks from INITA -

These were non-alcoholic beverage inspired by one of Taiwan's summer quenching drinks made with kumquat and lemon. But instead of kumquat and lemon, the actual flavors were coming from lemon, Earl Grey tea syrup, tonic water, and dotted with marigold flower. 

The instant flavor hit was like Yakult to me, a type of sweetened probiotic beverage created in Japan. A gentle yet refreshing start of the night. 

First there's welcome drink, then our welcome snack ravioli di san su (fern) follows -

Bird's nest fern as main ingredient. Chef Kunihiro Hagimoto tasted the fern stir-fry seasoned with salted black beans at a local Taiwanese restaurant, while having a group dinner with the restaurant staffs. So he took the idea and reshaped the dish with Italian, Japanese, and Taiwan elements.

The fried snack resembles ravioli, with actual usual ravioli fillings inside made with ricotta cheese and anchovy. The fried part was coming from the Japanese tempura frying technique, a bit greenish color from the fern, then served with salted black bean powder on the side. 

If food has mind of its own, I think the original stir-fry fern dish will never thought of itself as an inspiration for such a delicate and beautiful dish.

Natural wine, our actual first pairing of the night - 

Produced by Denavolo in Italy, Dinavolino Vino Bianco has this beautiful orange hue, which the aroma also reminds me of citrus, apricot, and pear, perhaps a bit sage note in the end.

And that wine for sure goes hand in hand with the seafood course coming up -

Sushigherita 2.0. This might be my favorite course of the night. Even though the name suggest the marriage between Japanese sushi and Italian margherita pizza, but at first glance, this dish looks more like a Mexican tostada to me.

Let it be tostada or pizza, the supposedly tortilla or dough on the bottom is actually made with rice used in risotto. It's thin, airy, and crispy at the same time. On the top you'll find Japanese amberjack that's be aged for five days, a small umami burst with slightly sweet and acid seasonings woven within. 

Visually, the green seaweed powder, white stracciatella cheese, and red tomato powder resemble the flag of Italy. One more example of Chef successfully turned the multi-national concept to reality, and a quite delicious one too.

A very pretty-looking Japanese sake -

It's made with red yeast, thus the romantic rosé-like hue as a result, or in a more poetic way, like the color of break of dawn. The flavor is quite refreshing with nicely balanced sweetness and acidity to it, which will soon proven that it works really well with the upcoming INITA's signature dorayaki e tartare dish. 

While our server was presenting the sake, you can hear the background noise coming from the main dining area. Kind of like a "ta-da!" sound effect when revealing something. And soon we all found out the noise was from Chef himself, because he just entered our dining room couple minutes later with dorayaki in his hand. 

Chef Kunihiro Hagimoto is definitely a lively soul, always smiling and energetic, I'm sure you can describe him as hyper from time to time during dinner service. So the dorayaki, a class Japanese pancake-like sandwich with red bean paste filling has now reinvented into a sweet and savory dish. The castella-like patties remain about the same, but the filling has changed to beef tartare.

After slicing a big round dorayaki in half, Chef awaits his moment to show us the cross-section view of the dorayaki, while making that exciting "tada" sound, like a kid sharing his treasured toy to his friends. 

Using Taiwan beef for the filling, which I personally think has a denser beefy aroma compared to American or Australian beef. However, the best assist is the anchovy mayonnaise on the side. This sauce not only boost a umami touch, but intensify the sweetness from the patties and savory flavor from the filling. 

The concept is fun, especially when paired with Chef's presentation style. No wonder this dorayaki e tartare has been diners' favorite since INITA's opening date. 

Pane e burro - 

Ciabatta with burro nocciolato. The hardest part about the bread and butter combo at INITA is that you have to control yourself from devouring the whole thing at once, two big slices per person to be exact. Otherwise you might run out of room to fit all the other dishes to come.

The bread itself had an irresistible crust and perfect airy holes on the inside. Not mentioning the hazelnut-tasting butter. And the best part is that they do give you more than enough butter to eat along with, which is like adding fuel to the already burning fire/appetite.

I was, successful in holding back my desire to finish all the bread. The server came up to me couple times throughout the meal asking if I want the bread to be taken away. "No," I want to save the bread there to be enjoyed once more towards the end of the meal. I was about 80% full after the main wagyu dish, but I did manage to finish the last bits of bread, including all the butter spread. Super full, and also extremely satisfied.

A rare whisky pairing on site -

There's a liquor-related collaboration going on at INITA, so we were given a couple hard liquors for the beverage pairing that night. Otherwise in most cases, you won't find such strong alcoholic drink varieties accompanying a course menu in Taiwan.

A little side dish along the way - 

Matsu mussel, rakkyō (a type of Chinese onion), pickled eggplant, and kombu jelly. I think this dish serves like a transition, a slightly stronger seasoned, perhaps a bit pungent bite forecasting the "interesting" risotto coming up.

And the reason why I used the word "interesting" to describe a risotto dish, first of all, it's blue! -

Chef was inspired by a natural phenomenon he saw on his trip to Matsu, one of the islands in Taiwan. Each year around April to September, a type of dinoflagellates with bioluminescent properties can be seen around the ocean in Matsu. Along with the waves, visitors will see the so called "blue tears" glowing light on the water. And I would say Chef Kunihiro Hagimoto's interpretation was quite spot on.

The blue color was from Asian pigeonwings, using Matsu mussel juice with the natural coloring from the flowers. The white potato foam, if you guessed it, just like the bubbles you see on the ocean surface. Before digging in, Chef will spray some Matsu old wine to give the risotto more character. 

After a few bite of the risotto, I can see why the Chef decide to pair a usually milder tasting risotto with whisky. It's not your ordinary risotto, nor the heavily dosed with cheese version. The mussels and the old wine were both strong, think of it like a full bodied wine. So together with equally powered whisky with a fruity hint and a smoky end, it all make sense now. 

Chef's version of the recent popular Chinese dish with pickled cabbage trend in Taiwan - 

Sometimes you'll see an array of similar stores popping up in a short period of time. All the sudden people just went crazy with a certain type of food. Just like boba drinks and fried chicken, it was Chinese pickled cabbage with fish that took over local's spotlight over the last few months.

It's fun to see that Chef Kunihiro Hagimoto can swiftly react to such local craze. His version is of course much more refined, including housemade yuba and three fragrant oil to leveled up the everyday food.

The three fragrant oil including chicken oil, Sichuan peppercorn oil, and parsley oil. If you're up for an extra tingling and numbing effect, server will happily add more Sichuan peppercorn oil as a special treat. 

Ruschena natural wine with 100% Ruché grape variety -

Main wagyu dish, also an inspiration from Chef and Joyce's trip to Alishan, a mountainous area known for its sunrise and sea of clouds - 

You can definitely tell about the clouds part, as Chef fully demonstrate such view with aromatic smokes using sakura wood. The dish was well-named too, "una Passeggiata nella foresta," meaning a walk in the forest.

Hokkaido F1 wagyu with lots of veggies, fruits, and spices on top. Just like a scene from Alishan Sacred Tree Relics. Together with other dish, I have to give it to Chef Kunihiro Hagimoto, he really has an keen eye and capable of transforming all these sceneries to something not only eye-pleasing but actually are delicious on the plates.

Now it's time for us to join the diners outside, watching the husband and wife team telling a bit of the story behind INITA, and their lovely pasta making scene -

Chef was saying that on that exact night marks the second year of INITA, what a surprise. From what I've experienced so far, INITA is going strong and there will be many more years to come. Us lucky diners.

And that pasta turned into AOP flavored dish, as A stands for aglio/garlic, O stands for olio/oil, and P stands for peperoncino/pepper. We also glamoured it with Australian black winter truffles on top.

The soup part is chicken consommé with Parmesan and egg. You can try the combo separately, or half way through, dump some pasta to the soup and enjoy it like ramen. Once the pasta has combined with the soup, the flavor will be very like a common Japanese instant noodles  from Nissin, the chicken ramen with a yellow chick on the package. 

I personally like to enjoy this course on their own though, especially there's well-fried garlic in the pasta, and I love that garlicky aroma pops when biting it. The intensity of such aroma will be lost if I turn to soupy ramen.

Kuzukiri di anguria gialla -

Homemade kuzukiri, think of it as transparent gelatinous noodles made with kudzu root. It's one of the traditional sweet treats commonly enjoyed in Japan, especially during summer time. Since it's in noodle form, we were given chopsticks to eat along with. 

Chef infused kodama watermelon, lemon granita, and winter melon lemon juice. Seems like we're slowly and gently moving on to a more refreshing route to conclude our dinner.

Surprise surprise, another hard liquor even we've already entered the dessert section -

Just a side note here, we were served cognac, in which some people might simply describe it as brandy. But do know that yes, you can say cognac is brandy, but not all brandy is cognac. To be a cognac, you have to follow a certain rules and restrictions, let it be grape varieties, distilled method, aging, etc.

Corn brûlée that looks like a sunflower from top -

A little sweet and savory combo we've got there, with gelato alla crema, fruit corn, and a specialty sugar from Japan, this is something that both the adult and kids would enjoy, even when paired with strong cognac.

To a more refined layer, you'll also find corn cookie, corn mousse, popcorn sautéed with extra virgin olive oil, and corn powder. 

Look how how many glasses we've used -

I got cold brew Alishan Jin Xuan tea to go with the last dessert course, refillable too -

Last dessert was a fancy one, they even brought out the liquid nitrogen to make the INITA style daifuku mochi - 

Daifuku is a type of Japanese confection, here the wrapping was flavored with roselle, and the sweet filling was changed from the traditional red bean paste to mixed juice. With the help of liquid nitrogen, you'll get an almost ice cream-like filling but with slightly harden crust and runny center.

Good thing we have four people here, so I can video and take pictures with others' mochi first. When it's my turn, I can then quickly devour the delicate dessert before the temperature rises again. 

By the way, Chef's bubbly personality was acting again, that "tada" show reappeared when he revealed the nicely wrapped daifuku in his hand.

Chef is from Osaka, Japan. You know there's a general belief that people from Osaka are friendlier and very outgoing. Well, it's not like I have a ton of friends from Osaka, but counting on the few that I've known for years, they really all do have such easy going personality. Maybe that explains a little about the restaurant style at INITA.

While I was sipping tea, Mister got moka coffee instead, with coffee beans from local Moonshine Coffee Roasters -

That should be the end of our meal, but just right before we're ready to head out, Chef brought over a Japanese plum wine from Tsukinowa to share -

It wasn't just an ordinary plum wine, it was plum and apple combined so you get more fruity aroma compare to others. A nice touch to end the night.

It was my second time visiting INITA, and the experience was just like what I remembered, fun and welcoming paired with modern food with a bit Italian, Japanese, and Taiwanese twists. I can see that the Taiwanese influence has grown compared to the dishes I had in the first year. More integration of local ingredients, the inspiration from Chef's off-time traveling in Taiwan, even the local's current trending dishes were noted and put on the table.

Of course many other similar tier restaurants do the same, but it's Chef's keen eye and lively personalities transformed into his cooking. Making the dishes and the vibe at INITA unique. 

Overall, it was a privilege dining on the the exact date of INITA's second anniversary. Seeing the entire restaurant filled with smiles and sometimes bursting laughter as a result of Chef Kunihiro Hagimoto presentation "acts," INITA is going strong and I can't wait to see what other tricks, let it be food-wise or interaction-wise will come many years down the road. 

INITA currently holds one Michelin star status.

INITA

1F., No. 1, Aly. 52, Ln. 12, Sec. 3, Bade Rd.,

Songshan Dist., Taipei, Taiwan 

+886 2 2577 0886

Restaurant website: https://www.inita.tw/zh-tw/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inita.tw

Online reservation: TableCheck for INITA

Opening hours:

Tuesday through Saturday 6:45 p.m. ~ 10:00 p.m.

Sunday and Monday off

Extended reading:

INITA review in Chinese back in April 2023