Lifestyle
Feast your eyes on Taiwan's distinct food (and understand a history of colonization)
Ivy Chen (left) and Clarissa Wei browse Shuixian Gong Market in Tainan, Taiwan, in January.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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Ivy Chen (left) and Clarissa Wei browse Shuixian Gong Market in Tainan, Taiwan, in January.
An Rong Xu for NPR
TAINAN, Taiwan — On a Friday morning in the southern city of Tainan, Shuixian Gong Market overflows with displays of shiny orange and silver fish, stacks of glistening pork ribs and crates of dragon fruit and guavas. Vendors wash out their stands with hoses, and Taiwanese cooks ask for parcels of raw drumsticks or breasts. People on motorized scooters ride carefully through the market’s corridors, laden with bags of dried goods.
It’s easy to think of Taiwanese food as a subset of Chinese food — after all, the island’s food shares many culinary traditions and techniques with those from mainland China. Yet Clarissa Wei and Ivy Chen would argue that Taiwanese food is distinct. They’re the creators of the cookbook Made in Taiwan.
That title declares something: Even though about 90% of people in Taiwan have Chinese ancestry, they have forged a cuisine that is, in many ways, their own.
A set of traditional Taiwanese cuisine staples: oyster omelet, lu rou fan, oyster soup and fish ball soup.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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A set of traditional Taiwanese cuisine staples: oyster omelet, lu rou fan, oyster soup and fish ball soup.
An Rong Xu for NPR
Fresh seafood is sorted at Shuixian Gong Market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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An Rong Xu for NPR
Fresh seafood is sorted at Shuixian Gong Market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
“Taiwanese food is quite distinct in that we have our own pantry items that are made in and unique to Taiwan,” Wei says. “So the way that soy sauce and rice wine and rice vinegar are made in Taiwan are not made similarly elsewhere in the world.”
Another key difference: Taiwanese food is sweet. In Tainan, which used to be a sugar-cane-producing hub, it’s even more pronounced.
Chen also points out that Taiwanese food doesn’t tend to rely on a lot of spices. “When our ancestors moved here, they found we have so many fresh ingredients in this small island, so it’s very easy to get food very fresh, so we don’t over-season it,” she says.
These differences are all products of Taiwan’s unique history.
“Taiwanese food is, I would say, a combination of all of our waves of colonization and governance,” Wei says.
Dried goods on sale at Shuixian Gong Market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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Dried goods on sale at Shuixian Gong Market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
Vendors at Shuixian Gong Market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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Vendors at Shuixian Gong Market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
Take sugar. In the 1600s, the Dutch came to southern Taiwan, where they established a couple of forts and the sugar cane industry, bringing Chinese farmers to help raise the crops. During Japanese occupation from the late 1800s through World War II, Taiwan was Japan’s main source of sugar production.
“At one point, two-thirds of all Taiwanese families were in the sugar cane industry,” Wei says. “So it was a huge part of our culture.”
Sugar is so important in Taiwan that it shows up even in its savory dishes, like Taiwanese sausages or braised pork over rice. It’s also a key ingredient in some of the island’s religious offerings, like ang ku kueh, or “red turtle kueh,” which are bright-pink sticky rice sweets stuffed with fillings like red bean and black sesame and shaped to resemble a turtle’s shell.
And just like sugar, the types of rice help tell the story of colonization on the island.
A bowl of traditional wa gui, a savory steamed rice cake.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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A bowl of traditional wa gui, a savory steamed rice cake.
An Rong Xu for NPR
Tapiocas on sale at Shuixian Gong Market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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Tapiocas on sale at Shuixian Gong Market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
“The type of rice that Taiwanese people eat on a daily basis has changed really depending on who has governed Taiwan, which I find is a really fascinating reflection of Taiwanese colonial history,” Wei says. “Taiwan is the only subtropical country in the world where short-grain rice are the grain of choice.”
Wei explains that early Chinese settlers who came to Taiwan hundreds of years ago brought over long-grain rice, which was commonly grown in mainland China. When Japanese colonizers came, she says, they craved the short-grain rice they were accustomed to eating. The problem: Short-grain rice doesn’t grow very well in Taiwan’s subtropical climate.
“They spent 10 years trying to cultivate short-grain rice on Yangmingshan, which is a mountain hill-ish area in Taipei,” Wei says. “After 10 years, they finally succeeded, and that has become our rice of choice.”
Order a rice dish from any restaurant in Taiwan, and your bowl will be filled with bright, sticky, short-grain rice. “And that was really through the efforts of the Japanese,” says Wei.
A selection of pastries on sale at the market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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A selection of pastries on sale at the market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
Fresh wheel cakes being made at Shuixian Gong Market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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Fresh wheel cakes being made at Shuixian Gong Market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
Foods like kueh are made using time- and labor-intensive crops, like sugar and sticky rice, so that makes them special and a worthy offering to one’s gods and ancestors. Chen says food culture in Taiwan is inextricable from religion.
“During the worship time [which could be] two or three hours, people are hungry, so they are hanging out in the neighborhood and looking for food. And that’s [why] the many small vendors [began] gathering in the neighborhood and start doing their business,” she said.
In fact, in Taiwan, temples and food markets often appear side by side. Shuixian Gong Market is also home to Shuixian Temple — a structure that is hundreds of years old. The temple is dedicated to water gods, with intricately carved stone pillars, red-painted wooden beams and gold dragons flanking its entrance. Paintings above the temple’s entrance depict scenes of maritime life, paying homage to the ocean that surrounds the island.
Just a few yards away from the temple stands a fish ball vendor. Trays of ice in front of her display neat rows of balls made from varieties of seafood: shrimp, flounder and milkfish.
Fish balls vendors serve up the goods at Shuixian Gong Market.
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Fish balls vendors serve up the goods at Shuixian Gong Market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
Just some of the fresh fish on display at the market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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Just some of the fresh fish on display at the market.
An Rong Xu for NPR
“The milkfish is a very important aquaculture in the Tainan area,” Chen explains. The bony white fish also has a connection to the Dutch colonization of the island.
“The milkfish [has] been here for centuries,” Wei says. “When the Dutch came in, they started the aquaculture industry where they were breeding the fish, and this has become a staple of the Taiwanese diet ever since.”
Seafood makes up a huge portion of the Taiwanese diet — from fish balls in soups, to a dried flounder used by many Taiwanese cooks to make stock, to Pacific oysters, which are found in a variety of dishes.
Chinese migrants started farming these oysters along the island’s west coast hundreds of years ago. They’re smaller than the oysters seen in North America, and most of the time, they are not eaten raw. Most farmers lack the infrastructure to closely monitor the water quality, so they show up in cooked dishes, like o-a-tsian, oyster omelets.
These eggs are thickened with sweet potato starch and studded with oysters before being slathered in a sweet and tangy sauce made from pickled vegetables. Wei says the ingredients in this dish can show a lot about the island.
An oyster omelet.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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An oyster omelet.
An Rong Xu for NPR
Clarissa Wei and Ivy Chen share wa gui, a savory steamed rice cake.
An Rong Xu for NPR
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An Rong Xu for NPR
Clarissa Wei and Ivy Chen share wa gui, a savory steamed rice cake.
An Rong Xu for NPR
“It describes what Taiwanese food was 200, 300 years ago. It’s very simple. The bulk of it really is sweet potato starch, because sweet potatoes thrive [here in Taiwan] — it’s kind of like a weed,” she says. “And this isn’t a dish you associate with Chinese food at all. It’s something that’s very, very Taiwanese and unique to Taiwan.”
What distinguishes Chinese food from the unique flavors in Taiwanese food is a bit of a nebulous thing. Chen is a cooking instructor and has taught students from all over the world. She says they’d often ask her, “What is Taiwanese food? What is Chinese food? What’s the difference?” Figuring out the difference was a process for her.
“I can tell [the difference],” Chen says. “But I never think that people will ask me that way, that I need to give a definition about Chinese food and Taiwanese food.”
There isn’t a black-and-white definition of Taiwanese food. Wei and Chen argue that the food is unique because the flavors in Taiwan’s cooking, as well as its produce and seafood, are the historical record of colonialism and migration on this island.
And to them, that means the island’s cuisine deserves to stand on its own.
Bruce Campbell
I’m Battling Cancer
Published
Bruce Campbell has revealed he has cancer, but says it’s a type that’s treatable, though not curable.
“The Evil Dead” actor shared the news Monday in a message to fans, writing, “Hi folks, these days, when someone is having a health issue, it’s referred to as an ‘opportunity,’ so let’s go with that — I’m having one of those.” He continued, “It’s also called a type of cancer that’s ‘treatable’ not ‘curable.’ I apologize if that’s a shock — it was to me too.”
Campbell said he wouldn’t go into further detail about his diagnosis, but explained his work schedule will be changing. “Appearances and cons and work in general need to take back seat to treatment,” he wrote, adding he plans to focus on getting “as well as I possibly can over the summer.”
As a result, Campbell says he has to cancel several convention appearances this summer, noting, “Treatment needs and professional obligations don’t always go hand-in-hand.”
He says his plan is to tour this fall in support of his new film, “Ernie & Emma,” which he stars in and directs.
Ending on a determined note, Campbell told fans, “I am a tough old son-of-a-bitch … and I expect to be around a while.”
Neve Campbell in Scream 7.
Paramount Pictures
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Paramount Pictures
The OG Scream Queen Neve Campbell returns. Scream 7 re-centers the franchise back on Sidney Prescott. She has a new life, a family, and lots of baggage. You know the drill: Someone dressing up as the masked slasher Ghostface comes for her, her family and friends. There’s lots of stabbing and murder and so many red herrings it’s practically a smorgasbord.
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Abriana Vicioso is the host of the Flower Hour, which takes place monthly.
(Jennifer McCord / For The Times)
Each flower carries a personal history. For Abriana Vicioso, the calla lily was her parents’ wedding flower — a symbol of her mother’s beauty. “She had this big, beautiful white calla lily in her hair,” Vicioso says. “I love my parents. They’re the reason I’m here. I’ll never forget where I came from.”
The Flower Hour begins with Vicioso announcing, with a warm smile: “Today is about touching grass.” The florist-by-trade gestures behind her to hundreds of flowers contained in buckets — blue thistles, ivory anemones and calla lilies painted silver — all twisted and unfurling into the air. “Tonight is going to be so sweet and intimate,” Vicioso says, eyeing the beautiful chaos at her feet. A grin buds across her face.
Moments before the workshop, participants sit at candlelit tables exchanging horoscopes and comparing their favorite flowers. A mention of the illustrious bird-of-paradise flower elicits coos and awe from the women. Izamar Vazquez, who is from Jalisco, Mexico, reveals her fondness for roses, which make her feel connected to her Mexican roots.
Vicioso hosts her flower-themed wellness workshop near the iconic Original Los Angeles Flower Market in downtown L.A. In January, the first Flower Hour event sold out, prompting her to make it a monthly series. Vicioso describes the event as a “three-part journey” where participants are invited to drink herbal tea, smoke rose-petal-rolled cannabis joints and create a floral arrangement. “The guide is to connect with the medicine of flowers,” Vicioso says.
Rose petal joints, tea and flower arranging are all part of The Flower Hour event’s offerings.
The event is hosted at the Art Club, a membership-based co-working space. “The Flower Hour is really beautiful. Everyone gets to explore their creativity while meeting new people,” says Lindsay Williams, the co-owner of the Art Club.
The idea for Flower Hour came to Vicioso during a conversation with her mother. “We joke all the time that flowers were destined to make their way into my life,” she says. She works as a florist and models on the side, even appearing in the pages of Vogue. Vicioso grew up in a Caribbean household, where flowers and offerings were part of daily life. “In my culture and religion, a lot of my family practices — an Afro-Caribbean religion — we build altars.”
Like many cultures, flowers carry sentimental value in her religion. “I’m Caribbean, so a lot of my family practices a Yoruba religion, which comes from Africa. In the Caribbean, it’s well known as Santería.”
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After a difficult year and a breakup, Vicioso wanted to marry her love of flowers with community building. Because Vicioso uses cannabis medicinally, the workshop naturally includes a smoking component. “My family has smoked cannabis for a lot of reasons for a long time. It’s a really healing plant,” she explains.
In the workshop, even the cannabis gets the floral treatment. Vicioso presents her rose-petal-wrapped joints on a silver platter at each table. She rolled each by hand. “If you’ve never smoked a rose-petal-rolled joint, the difference with this is it’s going to have roses that have a slight tobacco effect,” she announces.
During the workshop, Vicioso stresses the importance of buying cannabis from local vendors. The cannabis provided was purchased from a Northern Californian vendor. The wellness workshop aims to reclaim the healing ritual of smoking cannabis. “This is a plant that has been commercialized,” Vicioso says. “There’s a lot of Black and Brown people who are in jail for this plant.”
The resulting workshop is what Vicioso describes as “an immersive wellness experience that is the intersection of wellness, creativity, community and an appreciation of flowers.” The workshop serves as a reminder to enjoy Earth’s innate beauty in the form of flowers — including cannabis. “It’s this gift that the universe gave us for free and that I have this deep connection with,” Vicioso says.
Conversation cards to generate discussion among participants (top, letf). The workshop serves as a “third space” for Angelenos to engage in tactile creativity and community building outside of traditional nightlife settings.
After enjoying lavender chamomile tea and smoking a joint, Vicioso introduces the flowers to the group before inviting them to pick their own. She emphasizes each flower’s personality traits, describing green dianthus as a “Dr. Seuss” plant. Then, there are calla lilies with their “main character moment.” It gets personal. “Start thinking of a flower in your life that you can discover,” she says. “If you’re feeling like you need inspiration, you can always remember that these flowers have stories.”
Vicioso infuses wisdom into her instruction on floral arrangements: There are no mistakes. Let the flowers tell you where they want to go, she urges. Intuition will be your guide — the wilder, the better.
“Hecho in Mexico” reads a sticker on a bunch of green stems. “Like me,” says Vazquez with a laugh. “They’re all doing their own thing. Like a family,” she says later, arranging stems.
The Flower Hour participants and Vicioso, center, chat as they build their own floral arrangements at the sold-out event.
Two participants — Vazquez and Rebeca Alvarado — are friends who run a floral design company together called Izza Rose. Like Vicioso, the friends have a connection to flowers through their Latin American culture. They met Vicioso in the floral industry and were overjoyed to discover her workshop.
“This is a great way to connect with other people,” says Vazquez.
Alvarado agrees, adding: “You’re getting to know people outside of going to bars. You can connect in different ways when there’s an activity.”
Vazquez uses flowers to stay connected to her Mexican heritage, adding that she prefers to support Mexican vendors. In recent months, the downtown L.A. flower market has struggled to recover from ongoing ICE raids. “Some are scared to come back,” says Vazquez.
Hand-rolled cannabis joints wrapped in rose petals are presented on a silver platter at The ArtClub (top, right). The Flower Hour aims to reclaim the healing rituals of cannabis and flowers.
Another participant, Barbara Rios, was attracted to the workshop for stress relief. “You can hang out with your friends, but it’s nice to do things with your hands,” she says. “I work a stressful job, and it’s nice to have that third space that we’re all craving.”
On this February night, the participants were predominantly women, save for one man. In the future, Vicioso hopes that more men learn to engage with flowers. “There’s a statistic about men receiving flowers for the first time at their funerals, and I think we have changed that,” she says.
To conclude the workshop, Vicioso encourages participants to build lasting friendships and incorporate flower arranging into their daily practice — even if it’s just with a small, inexpensive bouquet.
“Get some flowers together, go to the park, hang out with each other and hang out with me,” she says. Participants leave with flower arrangements in hand. In the darkness of the night air, it briefly looks as though the women carry silver calla lilies that are blooming from their palms.
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