Description
An extremely local summer cold (or warm) soup exclusive to Taichung, where young jute leaves are thoroughly kneaded to remove bitterness, then simmered viscous with sweet potatoes and dried whitebait.
Restaurants serving Jute Leaf Soup
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We are researching restaurants that serve this dish.
On this site you can check dictionary details and, later, places to buy or eat related items.
The Recipe section below is a general reference, not a recipe from the listed shops.
Recipe
Ingredients
- Jute young leaves
- Sweet potato
- Dried whitebait
- Salt
- Potato starch
Instructions
- [Authentic Recipe]
- [Jute Prep (This is Everything)] Pick only tender young leaves of Jute (raw material for burlap sacks). Remove leaf veins, put in a canvas bag (or sieve), and wash-knead 'like avenging your parents' under running water until 'green foam (bitterness)' stops (skipping this makes it too bitter to eat).
- Boil water, cook diced sweet potatoes (Digua) and dried whitebait (Wenzaiyu) until soft.
- Toss in the kneaded, paste-like jute leaves.
- The jute releases intense 'mucilage (stickier than okra)'.
- Season with salt, stabilize thickness slightly with potato (or sweet potato) starch slurry.
- In summer, the Taichung way is to chill it ice-cold and pour it over rice.
Learn more Spice, substitutes, tips
Key spices
None(Intense grassy bitterness)
Substitutes at Japanese supermarkets
Moroheiya (similar mucilage but lacks bitterness)
Pairing
White Rice(Pour cold soup over rice)
Trivia
[Hardcore] A soul food where 'Taichung's summer doesn't start without eating this', yet an ultra-localized gourmet most non-Taichung Taiwanese have never eaten. Moroheiya-like stickiness and vivid bitterness stronger than matcha/bitter melon forcibly recover summer-exhausted stomachs. An 'edible AC'.
Eating tips & etiquette
[Unique Eating] Dump the cold, green gooey soup over white rice, slurping the sweet potato sweetness and jute's 'vivid bitterness and mucilage' with a spoon!
Allergen
Seafood (Dried whitebait)