When Huang Su-chiung moved to Paris in 2002 with her French husband, fried leek dumplings helped her fit in.
A native of southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City, Huang, who was 42 at the time, did not speak French and did not know what to do with herself in the first few months. Her husband, aware of her lifelong passion for aerobics, introduced her to a local club in hopes of helping her integrate into French life.
“Everyone else in the club was French,” Huang recounted. “My classmates thought I would leave after a few days because the high-intensity strength training made us really sore, but I stayed on and performed well in class.
“I kept up with every move the teacher made, including the splits and back-bending, even though I couldn’t understand the language,” she continued. “What they didn’t know was that I was a certified aerobics instructor in Taiwan.”
Given her lack of French, she could only try to communicate with her classmates in English. “But few bothered to strike up a conversation with me when I spoke to them in English, except for one or two who were more enthusiastic. So, I invited them over for dinner.”
Huang’s cooking made a good impression on her guests and she soon became popular among her classmates. “I came to understand that food is a good way to befriend others,” she said. After tasting her Taiwanese meals, people asked, “You’re from Taiwan? Where is Taiwan?”
“They might have heard of Thailand, Japan and mainland China, but never of Taiwan. To them, Asians all look the same,” she said. “Their first impression of my food was that it was different from the local Chinese fare, but they couldn’t say how. So I decided to open a workshop on Taiwanese cuisine.”
According to Huang, the food in French Chinese restaurants is often greasy. “Most such eateries have been run for many decades, from the first generation of overseas Chinese to the second generation, with few changes in how the food is prepared,” she said. In earlier days of hardship in China, she explained, only well-off families could afford to use a lot of oil, and greasy food was thus a symbol of wealth.
To help her students differentiate Taiwanese cuisine from its mainland Chinese counterpart, Huang chose to teach dishes such as danzai noodles, dried radish frittata, steamed and flavored glutinous rice—known as “oil rice”—stir-fried rice vermicelli, salted crispy chicken and three-cup chicken. “I don’t deny that I am from the broader Chinese culture, but these dishes are what we Taiwanese eat and cannot be found in mainland China.”
Of course, not all the necessary ingredients and seasonings can be found in local markets, and not all types of Taiwanese food presentation can be accepted by the French, as Huang discovered while working as sous-chef at Zen Zoo Restaurant in Paris in the first few years after the aerobics class helped her fit in.
“Some French don’t eat spicy food, while others don’t like to see a whole fish on the table or eat fish with bones. Still others don’t eat pork, red meat or seafood due to their ethnic customs or religion,” she said.
Hence, whenever an ingredient cannot be found or there is something that her guests do not eat, she replaces it with something else. A notable example is the dried radish frittata, Huang said, noting that dried daikon radish is hard to find in France, so she uses fennel bulbs instead.
Another example is bottle gourd with chicken. “Normally, this dish includes bottle gourd, chicken and dried cherry shrimp, while rice vinegar is added to create a better taste,” she continued. “However, as bottle gourd and rice vinegar cannot be found in local markets, and the French don’t eat dried shrimps due to the smell, I replaced these ingredients with zucchini, lemon juice and fresh shrimp.”
Huang’s workshop was so successful that she published a French-language cookbook on Taiwan cuisine in 2010 based on her notes and students’ photos. A second book of recipes, introducing ingredients from Taiwan, was released in 2011, while a third, which uses local folklore to introduce snacks from different cities such as Tainan, will be available to the public in 2013. It will be in Chinese and French, she said.
To further promote Taiwanese cuisine in France, Huang is working on a project in which five Frenchmen between the ages of 15 and 20, with a passion for cooking, will be trained in the island’s culinary arts. “If I can find resources from the public or private sectors, I will take these young men to Taiwan to learn the requisite knowledge and skills,” she said, adding that if possible the course, food and board will all be free of charge.
“I hope this plan can be implemented after I’ve finished with all my cookbooks,” she continued.
According to Huang, food is a kind of soft power that allows people to understand more about a country and its people. “I arrived in France 10 years ago, and I’m 52 now. Who knows how long one can live? The least I can do is use my cooking to let the people of France, and hopefully throughout Europe in the future, know about Taiwan and its place in the world.” (THN)
Write to Grace Kuo at mlkuo@mofa.gov.tw