A Culinary History of Taiwan: Dutch Missionaries' Bread, Qing Dynasty Canned Salmon, and Japanese-Era Beef Dishes – Tracing Taiwan's Food Culture History

There's a good reason Taiwan is known as a culinary kingdom!
 
Tsao Ming-Tsung, author of "The Story of Oyster Omelet," and Taiwanese history expert Weng Chia-Yin,
take you back to the beginning to understand the history of how Taiwanese people eat.

How did this culinary kingdom come to be?
Taiwanese cuisine enjoys international renown, backed by a delicious history worth exploring. Situated at the crossroads of Eurasia and the Pacific, Taiwan boasts a dual nature of biological and cultural diversity. Over centuries, from the Austronesian seafaring exchanges to the introduction and improvement of agricultural products by foreign immigrants, the island has been home to indigenous specialties, European ingredients from the Dutch era, dishes from Zhangzhou, Quanzhou, and Chaoshan during the Qing dynasty, Japanese and Western cuisine, and post-war military眷村 cuisine. Taiwan has thus truly become a culinary kingdom.
 
Why are dishes always "invented" after the war? Putting food back into historical context
We often attribute certain eating habits to the Japanese colonial period or even post-war. In reality, Taiwan and other Southeast Asian islands had already formed an Austronesian cultural sphere, and some produce and eating habits can be traced back even further than the 16th century, such as the long history of using stone weirs to cultivate milkfish. During the Dutch era, many European, American, and South Asian foods were introduced. There are records of Chinese people being employed to make bread at that time, and Chinese laborers and cattle were also brought in to produce and export sugar and rice to Japan and other places, developing the earliest agricultural economy.
 
The 400-year history of Taiwanese eating beef!
Commonly referred to as "post-war inventions," besides noodles, is the eating of beef. Eating beef is seen as an eating habit brought by mainland Chinese immigrants after the war. However, documents from the Japanese colonial period record that while people at the time might not have openly eaten working cattle, they knew how to eat imported "wagyu"! And the steles from the Qing dynasty prohibiting the slaughter of cattle also indicate that people really did eat beef at that time, and this habit can even be traced back to dried beef from the Dutch era! Just as beef is often misunderstood, curry and satay, which are thought to be Western dishes introduced during the Japanese era and hotpot accompaniments from after the war, can actually all find clues in the Qing dynasty.
 
Taiwan: A Culinary Inventor
Taiwan has not only adopted foreign eating habits but has also invented many local delicacies that seem to have come from abroad. For example, Wenzhou wontons that don't exist in Wenzhou, Sichuan-style beef noodles that don't exist in Sichuan, and Mongolian BBQ that isn't from Mongolia, are all uniquely Taiwanese. These Taiwanese inventions also demonstrate Taiwan's inclusive and creative characteristics.
 
Eating is a matter of livelihood, affecting the national economy and subtly influencing society and culture. This book will focus on the favorite foods of Taiwanese people, introducing how these foods and eating methods were introduced and transformed. Through detailed investigation and tracing, it will answer the historical roots of why we eat what we eat today and why we find certain ways of eating delicious.
 

◎Delicious Recommendations (in order of stroke count of surnames)
Wang Hao-yi, writer and lifestyle program host
Dong Nian, novelist
Lin Yi-cheng, Chef of Fengshi Public Food Culture Education Foundation
Hung Ai-chu, writer
Chuang Te-jen, PhD in History from National Taiwan Normal University, history teacher at Jian Kuo High School
Chen Yao-chang, doctor/novelist/elder of Tainan cuisine
Jiao Tong, food culture expert
Shu Kuo-chih, writer
Huang Chen-nan, bibliophile
Tsai Chu-er, writer

2021-10-09

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