Beef Soup 牛肉汤

How it is made

The raw beef is cut into thin slices, and a clear stock simmered from large beef bones is poured over it, which cooks the meat to between half and seven-tenths done. According to Chinese Wikipedia, about 95 per cent of the beef comes from male dairy cattle, and only about 15 per cent of a carcass is suitable for this quick scalding, so shops buy the cuts in mixed lots and one bowl usually holds better and lesser cuts together. The difference in flavour between shops lies mainly in how the stock is made.

The Tainan City Agriculture Bureau said in 2023 that the city's meat market supplies fresh beef locally every morning and evening, and that the cutting is done by several teams working at the same time, who finish within 30 minutes to keep the meat tender.

Where it comes from

Shanhua District (善化區) and Yanshui District (鹽水區) hold Tainan's main cattle markets (牛墟), and Chinese Wikipedia gives this as the reason beef soup is so common in the city; outside Tainan, where places lie further from a cattle market, it is rare. The city government's beef food map listed as many as 200 shops in 2023, when that year's promotion of Taiwanese beef was held at the Shanhua brewery.

How it is eaten

Beef Soup is eaten with plain white rice or with minced-pork rice (肉燥飯), and it is also eaten as a breakfast. The specialist shops also sell other beef dishes: plates of sliced beef, beef heart stir-fried with shredded ginger, beef stir-fried with green peppers, beef offal soup, brisket soup and blanched tripe.