''Ageh'' () or ''Tamsui ageh'' () is a speciality food originating from

Tamsui District Tamsui District () is a seaside District (Taiwan), district in New Taipei City, Taiwan adjacent to the Tamsui River and overlooking the Taiwan Strait. The name of the district means "fresh water" in Chinese. Although modest in size (population ...

New Taipei City New Taipei City is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality located in regions of Taiwan, northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 4,004,367 as of January 2023, making it the most populous city in Taiwan, a ...

and consists of a piece of fried

tofu or bean curd is a food prepared by Coagulation (milk), coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness: ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', and ''extra (or super) firm''. It originated in Chin ...

, stuffed with cooked

Cellophane noodles Glass noodles, or fensi (), sometimes called cellophane noodles, are a type of transparent noodle made from starch (such as mung bean starch, potato starch, sweet potato starch, tapioca, or canna (plant), canna starch) and water. They originated ...

, and sealed with

surimi is a paste made from Fish as food, fish or other meat. It can also be any of a number of East Asian cuisine, East Asian foods that use that paste as their primary ingredient. It is available in many shapes, forms, and textures, and is often ...

, which is widely sold by vendors in the district. The name ageh was derived from ''

aburaage is a Japanese food product made from tofu. Thin slices of tofu are deep-fried, and the product can then be split open to form pouches. is often used to wrap , and it is added to miso soup. It is also added to udon noodle dishes, which are ca ...

'' (, ), a fried and stewed Japanese tofu packet from which the ageh is made.

Culture

The ageh was reportedly created in 1965 by Iông-tēⁿ Gím-bûn (楊鄭錦文), who combined various food items sold at her Chin-lí street (真理街) food stall to sell as a new food item. This original ageh consisted of fried tofu that has been emptied of its center, stuffed with cellophane noodles cooked in stewed ground pork, its opening sealed and covered with a

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild ...

and surimi mixture, and then steamed to completion. The dish incorporates several techniques from other dishes, including the stuffing of abura-age in the manner of '' inarizushi'', the capping of tofu with surimi to make Yong Tau Foo, and the use of cellophane noodles as a filling for many stuffed pastries. The individual a-gei are served with either a plain soy-based or a sweet chili sauce. A-gei is commonly eaten with a bowl of stuffed

fish ball Fish balls are balls made from fish paste which are then boiled or deep-fried. Similar in composition to fishcake, fish balls are often made from fish mince or surimi, salt, and a culinary binder such as tapioca flour, corn, or potato star ...

soup in the winter and a glass of cold

soy milk Soy milk (or soymilk), also known as soya milk, is a plant-based milk produced by soaking and grinding soybeans, boiling the mixture, and filtering out remaining particulates. It is a stable emulsion of oil, water, and protein. Its original ...

in the summer.

Vendors

Well known vendors of a-gei in Tamsui include: *Original store a-gei (老店阿給) *Three sisters a-gei (三姊妹阿給) *Wenhua a-gei (文化阿給)

References

External links

A dissection of a-gei from two well known vendors
Culture in New Taipei Stuffed dishes Taiwanese noodle dishes {{Taiwan-cuisine-stub

Culture

Vendors

See also

References

External links