Taiwan Today

Taiwanese cuisine attracts not only gourmets, but also those who want a taste of local culture.

There is a story behind every dish, and those served at Shin Yeh Restaurant are no exception. The eatery's baked mullet roe tells the tale of the fish that migrate in large schools to 's southeastern coast around the winter solstice each year to lay their eggs. It also recalls the sight of roe laid out to dry in the open air in coastal villages before being sold as a delicacy. And sauteed pig's liver, one of the restaurant's most popular dishes, is a reminder of the time when was an economic backwater and few people could afford expensive food. Although not considered a luxury anymore, back then pig liver was served only for special purposes, such as bolstering the diet of someone who was sick.

Shin Yeh is proud to serve such uniquely Taiwanese cuisine. "I'm not saying it's a bad idea to take foreigners to a restaurant, but if they stay in for only a few days, you should take them to at least one place serving Taiwanese food," says Steve Shih, the restaurant's executive vice president. "That way, you can have a relaxing conversation and tell them the story of the food you're eating."

Taiwanese cuisine has its roots in the diet of the majority of the island's inhabitants, whose forebears moved to several generations ago. The origin of a distinctive local cuisine is most often credited to the older immigrants from the southern part of 's province, as well as to older Hakka immigrants, who primarily came from 's province. Although a more recent wave of Chinese "mainlander" immigrants relocated to in large numbers around 1949, the food eaten by this latter group--local cuisines from various regions of --does not differ significantly from that found in .

Some kinds of Hakka food are found only in , such as stir-fried pig's intestines with thin ginger strips, a typical Hakka dish known for its vinegar flavor. "As far as I know, it's served only here. I haven't seen it in 's Hakka communities," says Wen Shaw-bing, former director of 's . Hakka stir-fry, featuring ingredients like shredded pork, dried squid and celery, is another local specialty that can be found on the menu of any Hakka restaurant.

Internationalization

Taiwanese food is also establishing a presence in other countries. Like other operators in 's service industry, Shin Yeh has expanded its operations overseas, opening its first restaurant in in 2005. "Taiwanese expatriates like to gather at our restaurant to ease their homesickness, and they like to treat local people by holding banquets there," Shih says. "If they go to other restaurants, they just hear Chinese people talking about their local cuisine."

To be sure, Taiwanese food is to some extent connected with Min food, one of China's eight notable regional cuisines, says Liang Chiung-pai, author of several cookbooks on Chinese food. That is inevitable, since the majority of people in can trace their ancestry back to , or Min, just across the .

One major culinary "heritage dish" brought from to is known as "Buddha Jumps Over the Wall," a seafood-based stew traditionally consisting of 12 ingredients, including abalone and dried shrimp. This dish, priced anywhere from NT$800 to more than NT$10,000 (US$25 to $320) per large bowl, depending on the quality of the ingredients, has long featured prominently in Lunar New Year's Eve family dinners.

Over time, however, has developed its own unique culinary culture. "Compared with Chinese cuisines, Taiwanese cuisine is marked by its lightness and freshness," Shih says. This is especially true in regard to dishes that include the seafood that is easily available around the island. Shih adds that most Chinese dishes often take longer to prepare than those found in . "For instance, rather than cooking over a slow fire, people here shorten the cooking time by stir-frying ingredients," he adds.

Liang also notes that simple cooking methods are typically used to prepare Taiwanese cuisine. While mainlanders in tend to cook fish in a sophisticated way such as simmering it in soybean sauce, sugar, vinegar or thick broad bean sauce, native Taiwanese are more intent on keeping its original flavor, she says. For example, Taiwanese cooks tend to quickly boil a whole fish or steam an entire lobster without adding too many seasonings.

Influenced by the Japanese who occupied in the first half of the 20th century, Taiwanese have also developed a taste for fresh, uncooked foods like sashimi. "Add a little bit of wine and vinegar to clams to kill germs, and Taiwanese are ready to eat their seafood raw," Liang says.

Local herbs contribute significantly to the distinct taste of Taiwanese cuisine. One such herb is Taiwanese basil, which is similar to the basil used in Italian food, but has a stronger flavor, Liang says. Taiwanese basil is most often found in the local delicacy known as san bei ji (three-cup chicken). Featuring a cup of rice wine, a cup of sesame oil and a cup of soy sauce, the dish usually contains stir-fried chicken, but sometimes squid, rabbit or even frog meat is substituted. Three-cup chicken is said to have originated in 's province, but 's version distinguishes itself through the use of the local basil.

In a Pickle

Pickles also play a major role in Taiwanese cuisine, Liang says. Salty dried radish, which can be found in every restaurant offering native cuisine, can be served as a separate dish or added to fried eggs for flavor, among other uses.

"Lucky pickle," another type of pickle made from mustard greens, is often found in Hakka soups. And instead of salt, some cooks use pickled pineapples to add flavor to chicken soup, while the pickled fruit of the Sebastan Plum Cordia, a plant commonly seen in southern , plays a similar role in cooking fish.

Shih of Shin Yeh Restaurant thinks the broad use of pickles in could have begun under Japanese colonial rule. But cookbook author Liang thinks it is possible that pickles became popular because people could not afford more expensive food before 's economic boom began some 40 years ago. Pickles were a good choice then because they usually have a strong flavor, satisfy the appetite and are cheap to make. Hakka people, known for their thriftiness, are especially fond of using salt and pickles. "Hakka foods tend to be greasy and salty," Liang says. "Salty ingredients enhance the appetite, but pickles made people want to eat rice instead of meat, which was more expensive."

Chen Chao-lin, senior chef and operator of Du Hsiaw Uyea, a famous Taiwanese restaurant in Yilan on the northeast coast, also notes the prominence of salty food in the nation's cuisine. For instance, salted and dried duck, an Yilan specialty, has been used as a major ingredient for a long time. "You can avoid waste when food is preserved because it can keep for quite some time, and it was really important back in the days when nobody had a refrigerator," Chen says.

Congee also became popular during lean economic times, author Liang says, because it takes less rice to prepare congee than for the same volume of dry cooked rice. And mixing congee with starch-rich yams, which were less expensive than rice, made for an even cheaper, more filling option when food was scarce. "The yam in congee was often shredded, not in lumps, so that it was almost impossible to eat just the rice and avoid the yam," she says.

Congee mixed with yam, however, is no longer a symbol of poverty. "People eat it now when they're feeling nostalgic. It has also become popular as a health food after researchers reported that yam has cancer-fighting effects," Liang says. "In the past, people ate congee with yam out of necessity, but today they eat it because they want to."

Riding this wave of nostalgia, restaurants focusing on Taiwanese cuisine such as Shin Yeh often put congee with yam on their menus. Several restaurants clustered on a small section of Taipei's Fuxing South Road have also capitalized on the trend, providing congee and side dishes from early afternoon to early in the morning. "Many people feel a need to get away from eating too much heavy food. They want lighter and healthier meals now," says Wang Li-ling, manager of one of the restaurants. "People came to our restaurant just for midnight snacks in the past, but now more and more people drop by for a real meal."

Healthy Hakka

After opening four years ago, Natural Hakka, a three-restaurant chain featuring Hakka cuisine in , central , responded to the growing emphasis on nutritious food by altering its offerings. "Traditional Hakka restaurants in the countryside serve food that is quite salty, but the dishes we make here are lighter because we are patronized mostly by city people," says Yang Poh-wei, manager of one of the chain's restaurants, which are known for their impressive decor.

Yang also experiments with new recipes to win over gourmets and attract repeat customers. The chain began serving up new dishes such as pork with cumquat sauce--a common Hakka dip--soon after it started to operate. In 2007, Natural Hakka began offering spring rolls containing 's signature-style pig's intestines with ginger. Yang says that more than 30 new recipes were developed in 2007 alone, and the restaurant has put about 10 of them on its menu. "We create new dishes but insist that they retain the true flavor of Hakka food," Yang says.

Not content with just developing new culinary creations, managers of Taiwanese restaurants have also begun to focus more on how food is presented. Before the nation's rapid economic development began, people were more concerned about getting enough to eat than about the aesthetics of their food. "But now we are modifying Taiwanese foods in this respect," Shin Yeh's Steve Shih says. The restaurant has developed dishes that are not only rich in Taiwanese flavors and traditional ingredients, but also pleasingly arranged.

For example, Shin Yeh restaurant is currently developing a way to present pig's blood pudding--a traditional Taiwanese snack that has a firm consistency and is often served with peanut powder--in a manner suitable for formal banquets. "What we are working on is serving each guest only two small pieces of the pudding, to be eaten with a knife and fork," he says.

Of course, there is a story behind pig's blood pudding, even when it is presented in such a refined form. In the past, Taiwanese families raised only a few pigs each. After slaughtering a pig, thriftiness led them to utilize as much of the animal as possible, including the blood. As Shih sees it, a banquet host could entertain guests who know little of Taiwan's past by filling them in on the background of the dish, which would help them understand that, although it has changed over time, Taiwanese cuisine is still inextricably tied to the rich culture that spawned it.

Write to Oscar Chung at oscar@mail.gio.gov.tw