Food Notes: 5/5 Flies' Head, Revisited
Flies head tacos, endangered bagels, cocktail garnishes, illegal cheese, and more
We made some Taiwanese-style Flies Head, so naturally I made tacos.
Flies Head is a classic, but modern Taiwanese dish primarily consisting of garlic chives, fermented black beans, and minced pork. Known as Tsang Ying Tou, Chef Cheng Weng-Chiang is credited with inventing the dish at his Taipei restaurant, Wang Chang Laoma. The Sichuan-style restaurant reportedly had too many garlic chives on hand.
Flies’ head first spread across Taiwan in the 2000s, but arrived in New York City at Win Son, a Taiwanese restaurant that made waves when it opened in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Similarly, the dish is also on Wenwen’s menu, a Greenpoint restaurant that followed a few years later as part of a broader Taiwanese-cuisine trend sweeping across Brooklyn.
A recipe for the dish appears in Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook, although the co-owners acknowledge it isn’t the most popular dish on the menu.
The menu description essentially reads as a pile of garlic chives. And some customers apparently are concerned it contains actual flies head, which might explain why 886 has clarified that it does not. Flies head does make a stunning visual on Instagram though, and ends up talked about quite a lot.
Two years ago, I looked up a version of Win Son’s recipe, and adapted it, swapping in scallions, which are cheap and readily found at the supermarket, for the garlic chives. I’m sure I’ve broken a few culinary rules in my adaptation, and I included a disproportionately high amount of minced pork. That’s actually simply because the ground pork came in a larger package than I had realized.
Last week we cooked up the Flies Head for dinner and served it with white rice. It’s generally speaking a fairly easy weeknight meal, provided we have all the ingredients.
But the following day, I was looking for a low impact lunch. That’s when I realized we had tortillas in the refrigerator.
I’m shocked to report that “flies head tacos” reported zero results in Google. Tacos, like pizza, is an ideal medium for serving whatever savory food you have lying around. And what a perfect entry to send out on Cinco de Mayo.
A few minutes later, I gathered up a half-opened block of habanero cheddar, sour cream, and Korean Gochujang chili sauce.
These tacos were so good I surprised even myself.
Flies Head Tacos
INGREDIENTS
Leftover flies head with white rice
Tortillas
Grated Habanero Cheddar
Sour cream
Gochujang Korean Chili Sauce
Chives
INSTRUCTIONS
Reheat your leftover flies head
Heat tortillas in a pan
Fill tortillas with flies head
Top with cheese, sour cream, gochujang, and diced chives
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