Consider This from NPR - Taiwan's History of Colonialism Forged Its Distinct Cuisine

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

Tainan is considered the culinary capital of Taiwan. At one of the oldest wet markets in that Southern city, Shuixian Gong Market, the island's vibrant cuisine is on the display.There are displays of shiny orange and silver fish, bright rows of glistening pork ribs and overflowing crates of dragon fruit and guava.It's the place for everyday grocery shopping for cooks around here.But it's much more it's a portrait of all the forces – both indigenous and colonial – that have shaped modern Taiwan. In essence, Taiwan's cuisine is a reflection of its long history of influences.NPR's Ailsa Chang tours the market with "Made in Taiwan" cookbook authors Clarissa Wei and Ivy Chen.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I am in what is considered the culinary capital of Taiwan, the southern city of Tainan. And inside one of Tainan's oldest wet markets, you will quickly see how vibrant Taiwanese cuisine is. There are displays of shiny orange and silver fish, bright rows of glistening pork ribs, and overflowing crates of dragon fruit and lava. You know, this place is just everyday grocery shopping for cooks around here. But it's also a portrait of all the forces, both indigenous and colonial, that have shaped modern Taiwan. Consider this. Taiwan has endured a long history of colonization. So what makes Taiwanese food, well, Taiwanese? And how does the island's history contribute to its culinary culture? From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Thursday, January 11th.

It's Consider This from NPR. My team and I here are at Shui Sheng Gong Market in Tainan to meet Clarissa Wei and Ivy Chen. They've just written a cookbook called Made in Taiwan. Now, that title declares something. Even though about 90% of the people here have Chinese ancestry, they have forged a cuisine that is all their own, which is something I didn't really know growing up. My mom cooked both Taiwanese and Chinese food, so I always thought both cuisines were the same thing when I was a kid. But Clarissa Wei says there is a difference. So in terms of like cooking techniques and

ingredients, it's very similar. But Taiwanese food is quite distinct in that we have our own pantry items that are unique to Taiwan. Taiwanese cuisine tends to be more sweet. Here in Tainan, the food is very, very sweet because this used to be a sugarcane producing hub. And when Taiwan was a Japanese colony, Taiwan produced most of the sugar for the Japanese empire. And at one point, like two-thirds of all Taiwanese families were in the sugarcane producing business. So it was a huge part of our culture. To show us this Taiwanese love of sugar, Ivy leads us to a stand full of bright pink sweets. It's a fixture at this market.

They established 100 years. You have been here 100 years? Third generation. Ivy hands me a hot pink gooey pancake. That's ang gu gui. It's called ang gu gui. They're decorated to look like the top of a turtle shell. I want to try ang da wa, red bean.

Oh, I love how sticky this is. That is from sticky rice, which is a short grain rice. Clarissa says short grain rice had to fight its way onto this island after Chinese settlers had been growing long grain for centuries. When the Japanese came, they sort of craved their short grain rice. It's the rice you have in sushi, which is really sticky. But short grain rice does not grow well in a subtropical climate, so they spent 10 years trying to cultivate a short grain rice on Yangming San, which is a mountain hill-ish area in Taipei.

After 10 years, they finally succeeded, and that has become our rice of choice. And because it's so laborious to cultivate rice, it was deemed a worthy offering to the gods and ancestors. That's why people will take sticky rice sweets like Angu Gui to temples, such as one just steps away from this vendor. It's called Shui Shen Gong Temple. And you know, you will often see temples and food markets appear side by side in Taiwan. During the worship time, two, three hours, people are hungry. So they are hanging out in the neighborhood. They're looking for food. And that's how many small vendors gathering in the neighborhood and start doing their business. I love how like mopeds

and motorcycles and scooters are just driving through the market. Yeah, it's chaos. Shui Shen Gong Temple is hundreds of years old. It's dedicated to the water gods and paintings above the entrance pay homage to the ocean that surrounds this island. Yeah, you see one man pulling an octopus from the sea. Yeah, it looks like it, or a squid and all. To the left, there's like an old man fishing. And then, I spot one of my favorite delicacies of the ocean, fish balls. Oh, it smells so good. What are the different fish here?

They have frondal fish ball, they have shrimp ball. So on the top left, that's the milkfish bowl. So the milkfish is very important agriculture in Tainan area. Milkfish. Milkfish. And milkfish also has a connection to the Dutch colonization on this island, right, Clarissa?

Yeah, so the milkfish, it's been here for centuries. The indigenous, their name for it was mata because of their beady eyes. And when the Dutch came, they started the aquaculture industry where they were breeding the milkfish. And it's just become a staple in the Taiwanese diet ever since. To plunge further into the aquaculture of this island, we head closer to the shore to another neighborhood in Tainan called Anping. You can see groups of people shucking oysters on street corners here. Taiwanese oysters.

Chinese migrants started growing these along the west coast of this island more than 200 years ago. And these oysters, they show up in a dish my mom used to cook all through my childhood. Oajen. We order some at a small street restaurant. This place is called Old Dutch Fort with your omelet. And behind us is another Dutch fort. So oajen is basically an omelet that's studded with Taiwanese oysters, which are smaller than those you might see in North America. The omelets thickened with sweet potato starch and then slathered in a sweet and tangy sauce. I take a bite and man, now I'm wondering if my mom's been cooking oajian wrong

my entire childhood. This tastes so different. So as we're like looking at all the different ingredients in this oyster omelet, what do you think these ingredients tell us about the island? Yeah, so I really like this dish because it describes what Taiwanese food was 200, 300 years ago. It's very simple, and the bulk of it really is sweet potato starch because sweet potatoes thrive. There's a little bit of egg for protein, but not much. And then oysters, which grow in abundance because we're located right next to the shore. Some bean sprouts and some greens for texture. And it looks very gooey and gelatinous. I love it. But this is very much poor man's food. It's very filling as well because of all the starch. And this isn't a dish you

associate with Chinese food at all. It's something that is very, very Taiwanese and unique to Taiwan. And I totally grew up thinking this was Chinese. So this is, I'm just kind of like, whoa, right now. And understanding what distinguishes Chinese food from Taiwanese food, well, that was something even Ivy slowly discovered on her own. And she had been a cooking instructor for years. Her students are usually from other parts of the world. My customer keep asking me, what is the Taiwanese food and what is the Chinese food? What's the difference? So then I need to ask myself. So I study and I figure out. Oh, so that was a process for you. It's not like you knew the answer right away. What is the difference between Taiwanese and Chinese? Yeah, I can tell, but I never think that people will ask me that way.

I need to give a definition about the Chinese food and Taiwanese food. Here's the thing, though. There can't be a black and white definition of Taiwanese food. But Clarissa and Ivy argue the food is unique. The flavors, the produce, the seafood, they are the historical record of colonialism and migration on this island. And that's why they say this island's cuisine deserves to stand on its own. This episode was produced by Mallory Yu, Janaki Mehta, and Karen Zamora.

It was edited by Patrick Jaron Watanonan, Vincent Nee, and Courtney Dorney. Our executive producer is Sammy Yannigan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Elsa Cheng.