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Notes on Star Anise as a Central Actor in Taiwanese Cooking
The source of a scent that feels medicinal Walking through the streets of Taiwan,a sweet, slightly herbal smell drifts in from nowhere in particular. You do not need to stand in front of a specific shop.It does not require a night market... -
Notes on the Scent of Star Anise in Taiwan
What Drifts Out the Moment the Plane Door Opens When I arrive in Taiwanand step onto the boarding bridge,there is a smell that arrives first. With the humidity,something sweet, slightly medicinal,wraps around the air. Before the city com... -
Notes on Four Invisible Pillars of Taiwanese Flavor
A structure behind the island’s shared scent When I step off the plane and pass through the terminal doors, when a convenience store opens its automatic glass late at night, when street stalls across a night market ignite their flames at... -
Notes on a Breakfast Shop in Taiwan
When Morning Offers Too Many Choices I walk through Yancheng District in Kaohsiung before the sun climbs too far.This area near the port wakes early.People heading to the market.Others trying to put something in their stomach before work... -
Notes on Taiwan’s 1949 Retreat
Two Million Stomachs Crossing the Sea, and the Rewriting of Taste In 1949, the Chinese Civil War came to an end on the mainland.The Nationalist government was defeated and retreated to Taiwan. It was a political movement.At the same time... -
Notes on Fried Shallots in Taiwan
Brown Crumbs That Hold the Table Together In some Taiwanese eateries, a faint smell of sweet browning drifts through the room.It is not meat.It is not soy sauce. It is lighter than both.Drier, too. On the edge of a bowl, small brown crum... -
Notes on Shacha Sauce as a Daily Engine in Taiwan
A rice thief, and its partner in water spinach In Taiwanese diners, a brown paste often sits on the table.It looks cloudy, almost unfinished. Shacha sauce (shacha jiang) is not there to decorate anything.It is there to thicken bland ingr... -
Notes on Sha Cha Sauce as a Crossroads in Taiwan
A silver tin on the table, and the texture of sand on the tongue In Taiwanese eateries, when I glance at the bottles set on the table, there is often a brown, clouded paste resting there. It is mixed into stir-fries, dissolved into hot p... -
Notes on Guan Tang Bao
A soup bun that returned as something to drink In Tamsui, in Shilin Night Market, and sometimes in Shanghai’s Yuyuan, I see the same scene. Tourists hold a bun the size of a fist.They push a straw into it.They drink. It is called tangbao... -
Notes on the Xiaolongbao New Wave in Taiwan
Color, tea leaves, and the extra fold Xiaolongbao began as a local form, then traveled outward. Din Tai Fung led that movement.In Los Angeles, in London, in Singapore, the same sign appears.Steamers stack up.The same shape arrives at the...
