A-Cheng Braised Pork with Preserved Mustard Greens

Review

A-Cheng Braised Pork with Preserved Mustard Greens is on Zhongzheng Road in Yuanlin, about a ten-minute walk from Yuanlin Station. The small shopfront is squeezed along a main road, so look for the white sign with red lettering to avoid walking past it. It started as a small food cart and only got its current shop after decades in business; online accounts of its age vary from thirty to more than sixty years. Some blog posts call it A-Hao Bo (A-Cheng) Braised Pork, at the same address.

There is no menu, and the only staple is braised pork with preserved mustard greens over rice, NT$50 a bowl. The pork belly is slow-braised for hours until it separates with a nudge of the chopsticks; the fat is silky and the lean meat stays moist. The hand-pickled mustard greens are savory with a sweet finish and very fragrant, and mixed into the rice with the meat juices they are seriously good. Side dishes sit by the door for you to help yourself and are priced by the plate, roughly NT$15 to 20. A popular add-on is a half-cooked fried egg whose yolk runs over the rice, or you can ask for a scallion omelet instead, plus a bowl of miso tofu soup.

Media and diners mostly praise the pork for being tender, neither dry nor greasy, and the mustard greens are even compared favorably with Hakka restaurants. Others warn that piling on sides can turn a NT$50 meal into more than NT$100, so keep track before paying. A few find it on the salty and oily side and suggest adding more vegetables to balance it.

Supertaste's shop card lists Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 12:30 a.m., while a 2022 blog post says 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., so sources differ and you should check before going. All sources agree it is closed on Sundays. Weekend lunchtimes are busy, so avoid the peak. Dining in means a traditional snack-shop setting, and many people take their food away.

It suits anyone craving a bowl of hearty old-style rice or a late-night meal. Ordering is easy: tell the owner 'one bowl' or 'two bowls', pick two or three side dishes, and add a half-cooked egg and a bowl of soup for a complete meal.