Batter-Fried Bean Curd with Shrimp

Flavor: Mild and Gingery

Not all the good food in China comes from Szechwan. This savory bean curd dish is Pekingese. Said to be the favorite food of Tzu-hsi, the famous Empress Dowager of late nineteenth-century China, it is just the kind of simple, delicate food an experienced gourmet would yearn for after a surfeit of imperial banquets. We first encountered the dish at the most famous Peking Duck restaurant in Taipei. A helpful waiter suggested it — and once we tasted it we were