A family feast -Taiwan style!

 

Farm to Table.

There is nothing quite like a family feast! Especially after 2+ years of lockdown. My Dad's little brother, Taka, and his wife Huixun,  pulled out all the stops and took us to Zhang Jia Chicken Farm and Kitchenette, just on the outskirts of Taoyuan. 

Inside this humble exterior is unmatched wonderful cooking, old school Taiwan style.

This might be a family chicken farm converted to a restaurant, but there were Lexuses and Mercedes parked outside. The word is clearly out on this place...

And what a table!

Broiled chicken with soy, sesame, chile, and garlic dipping sauce. 

Crispy chicken rolls, these are good in the dipping sauce too.

No Taiwanese meal is complete without an array of vegetables, like this cabbage and a seasonal squash dish. They were swimming in a light, savory sauce.

This soup had beef bits, sweet red dates, and thick chunks of shan yao (山藥), a variety of sweet potato that grows wild in the mountains of Asia. This unassuming root is beloved in soups for its delicate sweetness and melt in your mouth texture. The Japanese shan yao, which grows wild, is considered best.

The crowning glory of the meal: a large rock cod or grouper, called shi ban yu (石斑魚). This amazing fish is steamed with garlic, ginger, and topped with fresh crunchy scallions. It is a great favorite of Chinese and Taiwanese everywhere!

Auntie Huixun, Uncle Taka, Dad, and Clint, vibin' Asia eats! 

Full - and grateful.

In bygone times people would greet each other with "chi fan le ma?" (你吃飯了嗎)? Have you eaten? When people have known real hunger, as my Dad's generation has, a gathering like this is truly special!

Autumn is soup time.

Soup's on!

Since I arrived in Taiwan we have been enjoying a variety of soups. (Now, before I go further, full disclosure: when eating in riotous Asian family groupings it's really hard to stay vegetarian, let alone vegan.)

OK, back to soup. The first settlers to arrive on Taiwan from China in the late 16th and early 17th centuries were from the southeast coast, in what is now Fujian Province. They were and remain seafood specialists, and rice is the main crop. 

A tiny beef noodle soup joint on Wuquan South Street, a couple blocks from Dad's place. A customer favorite.

Homesick Newcomers 

But soldiers fleeing the victorious Communist government in 1949 were raised in China's cooler, drier heartland, on wheat based noodles, beef, and scallions. From these homesick Guomintang soldiers, most of whom never returned, was born Taiwan's beef noodle soup.  

Taiwan's beloved national soup: Niu Rou Mian, 牛肉麵.

Beef is stewed for days in a rich broth that is informed by garlic, ginger, and a version of five spice flavors until it literally falls apart on your chopsticks. Fresh noodles are boiled al dente, and doused with the beef broth and big chunks of beef, as well as greens like baby bok choi. The bowlful is topped off with fresh scallions. It's customary to offer pickled turnips or radishes as a tangy side dish to wake up your taste buds. 

Just the thing for a cool, breezy autumn evening, with leaves rattling and a full moon rising...

Snails!

Beefy. 

A little escargot, anyone? Yep, this is a giant 'beef snail' (蛞牛 or kuo niu), that Dad is holding. 

This snail probably weighs about 1/4 pound! Dad for scale.

As kids hiding in the mountains from American P-38 bombers, he and his siblings would gather several, smash and remove the shells, then roll them around in hot ashes to neutralize the bitter slime. After opening and removing the guts, they can be boiled, fried, or cooked however you please - just like beef strips. Dad remembers giant snail stirfry with fondness. 

These giant snails now wander all over Taiwan, from remote mountain wilderness to urban areas like this library parking lot. They were introduced in 1932 by a Japanese scientist for a protein source, but haven't really caught on as a mainstream food because they harbor a dangerous parasite that has to be cooked at high heat. In spite of all this, the snails certainly made a difference to hungry Taiwanese families during WWII. 

What we think of as food...

The beef snails might seem exotic, gross, or even laughable to contemporary Americans. But we've been down this road, too.

Don't knock it till you've tried it...

The humble armadillo that makes its home in Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida might not look like food to you. But it was so common on dinner tables during the starvation times of the Dust Bowl it was called 'Depression Pork'. Yes, I've eaten them (while doing fieldwork in Venezuela). We rolled them in hot ashes to remove the hair, scraped them with the back of a knife, gutted and quartered them, and roasted or made them into a savory soup. And yes, they do taste sweet and fatty  like pork!

Cultivating an open mind about unconventional or unfamiliar foods can stave off hunger in lean times, and today it might be one way to diversify our diets and restore our ecosystems. I'm just sayin'.

 

Blue Collar Breakfast, Taichung Style.

It's important to have rituals, especially for breakfast.

Everytime I visit my Dad in the little university neighborhood along Wuquan South Road in Taichung, breakfast that first morning has just gotta be at the tiny, busy little sidewalk eatery across the street. 

I think I started coming here in 2011. That's Dad behind me.

This Saturday morning I walked under puffy clouds through scooter traffic and birdsong, past a Buddhist funeral. The breakfast crew were hard at work cooking on piping hot griddles three feet across as well as a stirring a cauldron of steaming hot soy milk. 

Sleepy college students, weekend workers and families with little kids lined up or ate at tiny tables. Others did grab-and-go, balancing bags and boxes on their scooters. On weekdays you'll see nice suits and high heels on customers, who then pop their helmets on and scoot away.

I like Taichung.

Unlike sleek, modern, breathtaking Taipei, Taichung is a bit more chill. Old folks still speak Taiwan hua here, and half the street businesses seem to be scooter mechanics and eateries to feed those mechanics. If Chicago and pre-Rust Belt Detroit had a kid, it might look like Taichung. 

My grandfather the rice scientist went to the big Ag University here in the 1920s when it was run by the Japanese colonial government.  Today, Taichung is busy yet un-assuming, a mix of working class, government, and university folk, with roots deeply in agricultural traditions.

Potsticker, fried egg, and turnip cake with hot soy milk. McDonalds can suck it. 

Blue Collar Breakfast

I'm buying for Dad and me this morning, so let's see: fried eggs with Taiwanese catsup (a little tangier and translucent than USA style), enormous potstickers, delicate scallion pancakes, and luo bo gao or savory turnip cakes.  Warm and only slightly sweet, a cup of soy milk is very nice with this breakfast.

Textures and colors of comfort food...

I lug it all back to his tiny apartment and we munch and enjoy the early morning sun. Now we're fortified and ready for whatever the day brings!

 

An airport surprise...

OMG.

That was the best, and I mean the best, bowl of wonton noodle soup I have ever eaten! In an airport!!

I was all ready to write something snarky about airport food. But, this being in San Francisco I should have known better. 

20 minutes ago.

The bowl of soup looked like this. Huge cloudy wontons wrapped around super fresh sweet bouncy shrimp, chewy hand pulled noodles with a hint of baking soda tang, crispy emerald green broccoli, in a broth with all the salty sweet richness one could desire. Adding soy sauce or chili sauce would demean this soup.

Consistent awesomeness.

At Koi Palace Express in the SFO international terminal the ladies were friendly, remarking on my dragon tee-shirt. The chef had no time to chit chat because he was channeling a busy octopus back at the multiple stoves, steamers, and deep fryer, whipping up any one of 40+ dishes (this is a dim sum joint). 

They will do the Panda Express thing and ladle stuff from the warmer onto your plate, but don't do that. Anytime there's an opportunity to get excellent made to order Chinese food, count those extra 10 minutes as well spent! 

The quality and freshness of good fast Chinese food just can't be argued with. This feels like a lucky start to my Asian trip.

家: Family!

Taiwan Roots. 

Before launching into more food journeys: a few family introductions. On Dad's side of the family, there are deep roots in Taiwan.  

These are my Ah-ma or Grandmother (Yu Jiaojiao e) and Ah-gong or Grandfather (Yu Qingdong). The family is considered 本省人, benshengren or a longtime Taiwanese family. 

My grandfather was a rice scientist in the 1930s-50s and very well regarded by local farmers, whom he helped with cross-pollinating to improve local strains. Dad has childhood memories of farmers bringing so many gifts at holiday time the family didn't know where to put them!  

The above photos of Ah-Gong and Ah-ma are from the early 1960s when Dad immigrated to the US; he carefully kept these photos in a little red leatherette notebook.  

Dad (Jiunn Shang Yu) and his siblings and friends grew up in Taichung, in a time when agriculture was a major way of life. He is in the middle of this group photo from around 1954. Note the man planting rice in a paddy in the background.

Bridging to the USA.

Mom (Terry Yu) and Dad met in New York City and were married in 1963 in Memphis, Tennessee. Interracial marriage was illegal in most southern states back then...let alone half Asian kids like us...

Dad in Ohio, c. 1964, carving up a Christmas chicken. He and Mom swapped cooking styles and it was normal in our house for Taiwanese, Japanese, and American recipes to alternate on the dinner table. 

 

A blended household.

Mom, my little sister San, our Ah-ma, and myself holding Goggles. This photo was taken in 1973, our sister Bea Hsiao is technically in the picture as Mom was pregnant with her at the time! Ah-ma brought a huge battle-scarred wok in its own suitcase, and whipped up wonderful Taiwanese dishes. Three Cup Chicken, which I'll talk about later, was one of her go-to's.

Mom and Bea-Hsiao, around 1994.

Bea was raised part-time by Ah-ma during her first year, while Mom was in law school. Ah-ma used to hold her on her lap while powdering her nose and otherwise making herself beautiful, and Bea tried to imitate her. Ah-ma returned to Taiwan in 1974 and sadly, we never saw her again.  

Jiao-Jiao e's food knowledge and skill set the stage for my hungry appreciation of Asian food for years to come! 

OMG it's really happening! Of oyster omelettes and journey's beginning.

So, let's talk about Asian Eats!! We'll start with a favorite of mine from Taiwan...

Creation.

The night market chef who created this humble yet fabulous 'oa jian,' 蚵仔煎 or oyster omelette, in a Taichung night market in 2016 blended sweet, plump little Taiwan oysters with egg, a little sweet potato starch, crispy green scallions, fried it up on a hot griddle, and ladled a mysterious sweet sauce over the whole thing. 

The delicate, fluffy, mouthwatering treat has been a staple of Taiwan cuisine for decades if not 100s of years! It is a favorite of my Dad's from childhood: at 86, he still loves to wash it down with a bottle of cold Coke. Some enterprising night market chefs tuck it into a steamed bun, which Dad is scarfing down in this photo.

Vibin' ancient eats.

If you think about deep time, things get interesting: the little oysters hail from Taiwan's 6.000+ year old seafood traditions, the sweet potato starch and chicken eggs from China's great crop domestication experiments 10,000 years back. Scallions have likely been in recipes since the Ice Age (would Madame like some scallions with the mastodon filet?). The mystery sauce certainly includes soy sauce of fermented soybeans and also borrows a tangy sweet punch from good old ketchup...

What's in a flavor?

This oyster omelette is an amazing dish with origins shrouded in time. It blends elements of water, earth, air, fire, and even metal to get it cooked up and on your plate - as this hardworking night market chef is doing.

So yeah, I know: the street food of Asia has been blogged out the yin-yang, so to speak. But is there still a lot more to discover? How do time and local culture factor in? Have things changed since the Covid shutdown?? I'll soon be headed for Asia after a three years absence to see how Dad is doing, check out what's going on foodwise, and start a research project: please stay tuned and drop in often!