Inside the Ebisu store the requests never stop coming. “Mr. Chang, I want three packages of Hualien Shu for my mother-in-law.” Before the shopkeeper is done at the checkout counter, another customer says, “Please give me five packages of Hualien Shu to take to the U.S.”
Asked why they were buying so many packages of this sweet potato confection, both shoppers said the product has a very dense texture and is a favorite treat in their families.
In hard economic times from the 1930s to 1970, sweet potatoes were Taiwan’s cheapest staple food, widely cultivated to feed both people and livestock. Generally looked down upon as a poor quality substitute for rice, the tuberous roots nevertheless provided the first-generation Changs of Ebisu with a way to make a living and raise eight children.
According to Chang Shuen-bin, third generation owner of Ebisu, the shop was established in 1899, in the earlier years of colonial rule (1895-1945) by a Japanese surnamed Ando who missed the taste of wagashi, or traditional confectionery, and named the store Ebisu, after the Japanese god in charge of business and fortune.
“In the early 1900s, my grandfather worked at the store as a baker, diligent and keen to do chores,” Chang said. Ando and his grandfather worked together to create new sweets. “It took them three years of hard work to develop Hualien Shu, but it later became a food people presented to the Japanese royal family when they paid tribute.
“As Ando had no offspring, he gave half ownership of the store to my grandfather, hoping he could continue to manage the shop,” Chang recounted.
Running the shop was never easy after the elder Chang took over. The worst came during the February 28 Incident in 1947, when there was islandwide rebellion against the ROC government because of rampant corruption, inflation, commodity shortages and outbreaks of disease.
“At the time, someone reported for no reason to the Kuomintang government that my grandfather had guns hidden in his house, when in reality my grandfather was an honest and unsophisticated man,” the younger Chang said, recalling the stories his father told him.
“The government took my grandfather into custody and whipped him till his flesh showed, without even investigating the case. Meanwhile, my grandmother went about asking all the influential people she could find to rescue my grandfather. After he was released, they were disheartened and hid in the countryside, losing the courage to reopen the store.”
His grandfather, however, could not forget Ando’s kindness, nor ignore the economic pressure of bringing up eight children, so he reopened Ebisu in 1950. “Due to the hard times, the new Ebisu sold everything from confectionery to groceries,” Chang said.
“It wasn’t until the launching of the railway between Su-ao and Hualien in 1980 that tourists flocked to the region, boosting sales of our products.”
After Chang took over the store from his father in 1994, Ebisu’s main focus shifted back to its specialty product, Hualien Shu. According to Chang, the key to making tasty Hualien Shu lies in the sweet potatoes. “Sweet potatoes grown in Hualien contain more starch than those from western Taiwan because the soil here has less calcium. This allows our product to have a soft and dense texture.”
In addition, one must use fresh-picked sweet potatoes so the product will preserve as much original flavor as possible, Chang stressed.
“Once the sweet potatoes arrive at the shop, we wash them thoroughly to get rid of any impurities on the surface, or else they will affect the taste of our product. Then we steam the sweet potatoes, peel them, mash them, mix them with trehalose, shape them, brush egg wash on them twice, and cook them in the oven for 45 minutes at 250 degrees Celsius. Not a drop of water or a spoon of flour is added during the process.”
Although these steps seem easy, Chang said it took him almost two years to grasp the key to the process. “I used to think that following the steps my father taught me was all it takes to make the snack, but during the first year after I took over, customers complained that our product was too dry,” Chang recalled. “That was when I came to understand the importance of being familiar with the properties of sweet potatoes.”
He added that one thing that has changed in the century since Ando and his grandfather created Hualien Shu is the sweetness. “People’s tastes change,” Chang pointed out. “People today don’t want such sweet foods, so we substituted trehalose from Japan for the sucrose used previously. Although it costs 20 to 30 times as much as granulated sugar, it’s healthier and not as sweet.”
Another famous product Ebisu has developed over the years is Hualien Yu, a snack made of taro encased in flour with cinnamon sprinkled on top.
According to Chang, Ebisu is a very traditional store that does little to market its products. Department stores such as Shin Kong Mitsukoshi have invited him to set up stalls in their branches nationwide, but he turned them down.
“Many of our customers are tourists in Hualien, and Hualien Shu is a specialty of the county,” Chang said. “If I sold the snack in other cities and counties, it would no longer be a local specialty, and people would not buy from me if they come here.”
In addition, Chang stressed, “Having been through events like the February 28 Incident in the past, our elders always warned us not to create a sensation, but to be diligent and honest.” A common notion passed down in the family is “to earn what is ours and avoid what is not ours,” Chang added, explaining that “this means we do not arbitrarily raise prices or give discounts, but set prices reasonably so as to recover our costs.”
The honesty and persistence that have served Ebisu well for over a century could well take it through another 100 years. (THN)
Write to Grace Kuo at morningk@mail.gio.gov.tw