Taiwan
so hot and yet so cold
so tropical and yet so temperate.
The Tropic of Cancer crosses it in the middle.
Its altitude stretches from zero to almost 4000 meters.
Its complex and diverse habitats
varies with time and in climate
conjuring up a very unique
natural environment.
The flavors it produces
have been imprinted in its cultural DNA.
You have 180 minutes for this competition today.
You started at 8:30.
It comes from Hualien.
The native cow of Hualien.
We are using its heel muscle
to cook our starter today.
We've chosen oldhamii bamboo shoots
from Baoshan, Hsinchu.
We've picked some special ingredients
from Tainan
such as red turmeric.
This is rare for most people.
It's wild bitter gourd.
We hope to use local ingredients
in our cooking.
These are the flavors of our youth.
So we encountered these ingredients
very often when we were kids.
Each chef meticulously picks local ingredients.
Through food
they try to figure out the essence of Taiwan.
But what is the real flavor of Taiwan?
Hi. Hello.
Hi, teacher. -Come, come in please.
A habitat supports its people.
A table of food feeds a family.
The specific flavor of a family
is a very early memory for the Taiwanese.
This memory is hard to forget
for love is its sauce.
However the sauce of memory for this family
is their mission.
When we tasted mother's food
we ate a lot of her leftovers.
We ate a lot of her unsuccessful efforts too
while she was trying to get better.
When a dish worked, it would disappear
right off our table.
The kids were like guinea pigs
and the kitchen was the lab.
Angela Cheng's mother won over the world with her spatula.
Her name was Fu Pei-mei.
She was very insistent about Chinese cuisine.
She believed that
there are some rules
and some disciplines in Chinese cuisine
that can't be just casually changed.
Fu taught cooking for forty years
and more than four thousand dishes
from the eight major regional cuisines.
She was insistent about each dish.
However, the daughter has inherited her cooking role.
She goes with the trend
of teaching simplified cooking
with less salt, oil and sugar.
She can't be fully faithful to Fu's recipes
but some traditions
she finds it hard to let go
such as her mother's unique noodles with fried bean sauce
with dried shrimp that gives it flavor
in addition to Chinese leaves.
I reckon that noodles with fried bean sauce
is quite significant in our family.
We are from the northern part of China.
As the saying goes
"Dumplings for mounting, noodles for dismounting."
It means when you're getting on a horse, you're leaving home
so you have to eat dumplings.
When I got married
I bade farewell to my parents.
I had my dumplings and I left.
Then I got married.
But when you go home, you eat noodles.
So when you are back home
you have noodles
and you instantly feel the warmth.
The warm feeling of home.
It reminds me of Mom.
It reminds me of having noodles at home.
The gathering at the dinner table
with Granny and Granddad.
The atmosphere around our dinner table.
Is this noodles with fried bean sauce good? -It's so good.
Have more sauce then.
It tasted of home.
A lot of small things
here and there
remind me of Mom.
Mom passed away more than ten years ago.
I couldn't help
thinking of her.
Fu's insistence on doing fried bean sauce noodles traditionally
has become the flavor of home
for her children.
From this, they figured out Mom's Taiwanese flavor.
She learned cooking from various chefs.
In our home
we could taste the cuisines of different regions.
Taiwan is like a big melting pot.
All the cuisines
of the world
can be found in Taiwan.
We can now say that
a mix of diverse flavors and various cuisines
make up the Taiwanese flavor.
The dining table of a Taiwanese family
is the epitome of our diverse immigration culture.
Take chicken for example.
Hoklo people eat boiled chicken with garlic and soy sauce.
Hakka people have boiled or salty baked chicken
with Hakka kumquat sauce.
As for the aboriginal people
they roast chicken no matter what
with thorny onion to add flavor.
The very common restaurant dish, three cup chicken
is said to originate from Jiangxi.
Due to the genius of adding basil
it has become a signature Taiwanese dish.
If we can trace back
the origins of any food on the table
we can then figure out
Taiwan's historical context.
The term appears for the first time
during the Japanese colonial period.
For them
it was a new flavor from a colonized territory
so they called it
Taiwanese cuisine.
The term "Taiwanese cuisine" first appeared
at the beginning of the Japanese colonial period.
For the colonizers
Taiwanese cuisine was a unique regional one
of their Japanese territory.
But essentially
it was Chinese banquet cuisine.
In the 1920s
Taiwanese cuisine started to have its own voice.
Penglai Pavilion's golden and silver roast pork
at that time
mostly used Chinese seasonings.
So we used fermented bean curd
licorice powder, five spice powder
and a little bit of miso.
Why was miso in there?
Why did it include some exotic seasonings?
There were a lot of immigrants then
such as the Japanese and the Hoklos.
There were a lot of businessmen.
So Taiwanese cuisine is actually
a fusion cuisine.
Based on the recipes and experience of old chefs
they recreated golden and silver roast pork
which is a signature banquet dish of Penglai.
At that time a whole banquet
comprised of twelve dishes.
A soup dish was always followed by a dry one.
The seventh plate would be
a savory snack such as olive flounder spring rolls.
It heralded the end of the banquet's first half
and break time.
The guests could go out
to play pool, have a bath or get a haircut.
After the break, they would continue the second half.
Taiwanese cuisine at that time
was a banquet culture
with a hidden subversiveness.
In Kamg San Lau and Penglai Pavilion
many of the dishes were inspired by
Fujian cuisine
Sichuan cuisine or Cantonese cuisine.
When they arrived in Taiwan
the ingredients they had to use
and the cooking methods
underwent great changes.
It's believed that the dishes
were endowed with Taiwanese characteristics.
Gradually in a way
Taiwanese cuisine was transferred from the third person
to the first person point of view.
This transformation portrayed a sense of frustration.
The owners built fancy restaurants
and imported chic ingredients
to produce a refined cuisine
that carried forward the Chinese cuisine of Taiwan.
All efforts were used to fight against
the Western and Japanese cuisines brought in by the Japanese
to demonstrate the confidence of the colonized.
However because of World War II
Taiwanese cuisine was redefined.
During the Second World War
all ingredients were scarce.
Many could only be obtained rationing
and rationed food was obviously scarce.
So due to
the food shortage
people started to look for local ingredients
to produce indigenous food.
It was all taken by the town council.
Once the paddy was reaped, it was taken away.
All of it had to be donated?
If anyone stole the rice
they had to grind it and pound it.
It was a tough time for our generation.
Did you sell it secretly? -We planted it secretly.
You hid it?
The floor was not cement in those days.
We slept on the old style bed
and we would make a hole under the bed.
Of the traditional Taiwanese culinary methods
boiling and pickling are most common.
The "ke", or pickled seafood
was a very common local food
on the west coast of Taiwan.
This is pickled shrimp. -This is the picked shrimp.
River shrimp from the mountains.
How much salt per shrimp?
Have to weigh it. -Need to weigh it?
150g of salt per 600g of shrimp.
It was not an era abundant in resources.
During World War II
ingredients such as rice, pork, fish and cooking oil
were all rationed.
To substitute
people would fish for shrimps
catch crabs or frogs for food.
Pickled dishes that were once looked down upon
became delicacies on the table.
A war changed the prejudices
the Taiwanese had toward some dishes.
No longer treating imported expensive ingredients as the best
people started to use locally available ingredients
to make indigenous food
inspiring the eateries and restaurants
with the same restrictions.
Founded in 1939
an ethnic Taiwanese restaurant Shangshui Ting
transformed the common local dishes
into banquet cuisine
and thus endowed Taiwanese cuisine with a new local identity.
The founder of Shanshui Ting was Wang Jing-chuan.
He was a member of the elite.
During the war
the elite felt that
because of the impact of imperialism
everyday Taiwanese culture
had gradually disappeared.
They felt this disappearance
was a crisis for the Taiwanese.
So they needed to
do research in order to record
Taiwanese life
and put that into practice.
Research, recording and putting it into practice
resulted in Taiwanese cuisine then reflecting
the common life experience and feelings of the Taiwanese.
It also formed an important basis to construct
Taiwanese culinary culture.
Taiwan had been
ruled by others.
thus it is easy for our cuisine
to accumulate
its own characteristics
but it's easy to forget them too.
This has caused
a cultural inferiority complex.
For historians like us
we look at the origins of a dish
who makes it
on what occasions
how it is made
and its significance.
And then record all of it.
With these records
maybe one day
they will become important cultural resources
to be accepted and adopted
and then promoted.
History can add depth to the flavors of Taiwan.
But historians have to hurry and hustle
to record the experience of the elderly
before they pass away.
After the war ended
Shanshui Ting closed down, and the elite group dispersed.
The written recording of Taiwanese cuisine stopped too.
In Taiwan, after the War
frugal regulations were put in place.
If you went to a restaurant
a person could only order one dish and one soup.
And three dishes and one soup for four to five people.
More than ten people could only have six dishes and one soup.
Restaurant dishes were much simplified.
These various regulations
hastened the decline of the Taiwanese cuisine
that had developed during the Japanese period.
A nostalgia for real Taiwanese flavors
took over.
The Japanese people had left.
The Nationalist Government arrived
with an influx of millions of immigrants
coming into Taiwan.
At that time
the political and cultural elite
were replaced by a new group.
Their consuming preferences and habits
were totally different.
At the same time
there emerged a new group
of restaurant owners and customers.
The cuisines that the Mainlanders brought in
reflected their social classes too.
A lot of government senior officers
came from Jiangsu and Zhejiang
earning Jiangzhe cuisine the title of official cuisine
and causing it to become the dominant trend.
Moreover, as more Taiwanese were starting to dine out
the stronger flavored Sichuan and Hunan cuisines
gradually came to be accepted
by Taiwanese who didn't originally like spicy food.
The Mainlanders' diverse home cooking took root in Taiwan.
By the 1960s
it had started to become mainstream in the Taiwanese culinary scene.
However because of economic development
the Taiwanese flavor faced new challenges.
Due to industrialization, agriculture was greatly affected.
Everything became commercialized.
Commercialization.
The result of commercialization
is a bigger scale of production.
The focus is on profit
which means
lowering costs and raising yields.
Gradually,
the products in the markets became more homogenous
Come quick, was 280, now only 200.
80 for one and 150 for two.
When you go to a butcher's
you smell the meat.
And at the fishmonger's
it is the seafood.
A fishy smell.
When I hear the words
"fish for one hundred"
"ten dollars for two bunches of vegetables"
I know instantly it's a Taiwanese local market.
Kai Ho is a chef.
A bothered chef
for he misses the old flavors.
What's the difference?
Tastewise
this one tastes more buttery.
The yellow one has a stronger taste than the red one.
This is quite rare.
Because that …
that chili is from Mexico.
Wow.
This is Jalapeño.
When you eat at Subway
or have a burger
you can have it with Jalapeño.
But it comes from a can.
This one is fresh.
Mmm, interesting.
No matter who I buy it from…
This vegetable stall
or the next vegetable stall
they sell pretty much the same stuff.
It's all pretty much the same
whether it was ten years ago or now
there's not much difference.
Hey guys.
New order, table 24.
Start two five course.
I got two shrimps.
Two soups.
Two eggs.
Two octopus.
Main course for two men please.
Mechanization has made it more convenient for agriculture.
Labor-intensive crops
have been left in the cold by businessmen and farmers.
Therefore in the market
the diversity of agricultural plant species have become less
and so have food products.
Last year I used black turnip.
The skin was black.
You could find it in Taiwan.
Some farmers grew it in the south.
After they grew it for a year
they found it didn't sell well.
It didn't make economic sense.
Yeah.
Then why would they grow it for me?
Farmers know that
carrots, turnips and black turnips
all have different flavors.
But the reality is cruel.
It's not a good flavor if it has no market.
After a while
consumers get less and less of a choice.
In foreign markets
they write down an item list of plants
very clearly.
For French strawberries, one is called Mara des Bois
while another is called Gariguette.
There are around three or four species.
This is not the case in Taiwan.
Foreigners write down the species type
according to how you use it
and the flavor you like
so you can buy the type you like.
But not in Taiwan.
In Taiwan people prefer the bigger, sweeter varieties.
Consumers like to have
sweeter, bigger, chewier
crispier and prettier ones.
However during this process of finding the perfect one
we might be neglecting something.
Take cabbage for example
sometimes farmers overplant them.
When the price is good
the farmers will follow
this planting trend.
Once this trend happens
to actually
get a better yield
they probably
can't help but
to use pesticides.
Chefs should be the people who understand food most.
Wes Kuo on the other hand
felt frustrated about not being able to control
food safety and resources
What's more frustrating
is an everyday conversation like this.
When we buy vegetables
from a green grocer
we ask her
"Where does it come from?"
This is from Taiwan.
Do you know where exactly?
Somewhere in Taiwan.
Actually, I want to know which mountain it comes from.
The south.
But usually we can't get an answer.
This is an aquaponics system
There are various kinds of aquaponics
but the main structure has
a closed recirculation water system.
The fertilizer comes from
the fish waste water
which nourishes the vegetables.
After the vegetables absorb the fertilizer
the water becomes purified
and then it is returned to the fish.
To soothe his frustration
Wes Kuo in a fit of silly enthusiasm
set up an aquaponics system on the balcony of his restaurant.
So he grows some vegetables and breeds fish
but he also visits local centres of origin
in the hope of constructing a brand new production chain.
Down there the Elsholtzia herb
has already blossomed
near the lawn.
I'm not sure should I cut it through.
I like Wang very much.
As for current state of agriculture
he believes that
agricultural production
should co-exist with nature.
This is a kind of sedge.
It's actually a weed.
But it's pretty.
So I tidy it up a little bit and let it grow wild here.
It was too hard to let go.
We are hoping that
in this ecological environment
we can moderately pick
the plants we need
to enrich our vegetable dishes.
Sustainability means
to merge with nature
instead of rooting out
the natural resources.
With the aim of growing the right plants in the right place
Wes Kuo has become the middle man of his own restaurant.
He asks farmers not to use pesticides
and for crop biodiversity.
He participates from the sowing to the reaping
to ensure the safety of the ingredients
and then purchases at a reasonable price.
He realizes that only one person can't achieve much
and that he needs to gather more idealists.
It is like
throwing a pebble into a pond
in order to arouse some ripples.
So we have pushed
many people to take part in this.
There's one…
Watch out for this one.
This is called Cambodian mint.
Pick one and taste it.
This is cool. Is it cumin?
It tastes a bit like cumin, right?
Yes.
It does, doesn't it? -This is fun.
If everybody keeps
throwing a pebble
maybe
it will cause a wave, you never know.
This is what we hope to achieve.
Chefs go to the centres of origin and exchange ideas.
They get to know the seasonal ingredients through the farmers
and merge this knowledge into their cuisine.
Elsholtzia.
This tastes good.
Yes, it's quite good.
Wang grows this over there.
There's a lot of this over there.
So you grow this?
So we can buy it now?
Not yet?
Can we buy it now, Wang?
Can we buy it soon?
Not yet.
Because there's lamb on my menu
this can go with it.
It certainly can. -Yes.
Yes, I can find this for you.
Lemongrass.
That's it.
We can do something with it.
I know where these ingredients come from.
There weren't any pesticides.
There wasn't any
strange GM stuff going on.
It's not being messed around with.
I've seen its growing environment
and I also know the person who grows it.
So when I serve it
I'm very reassured.
I don't have to worry
about not knowing its source.
They attend to the plants with care.
I can see that they understand
a plant's eco system
and how it grows.
So knowing it has been taken care of
when I use one
I would have more respect for it
and try not to waste it.
Hey, how are you?
Our first snack is
Kueh pie tee (Nyonya top hats)
Inside this Ju Hu Char (fried squid)
are carrots and cuttlefish.
They're the same flavor.
I didn't change it.
As for the prawns
I use the local spot prawns
and then we torch them.
We torch them a little.
and put some herbs on top
to make it refreshing.
What's more important
is to share his ideals with the consumers.
Certainly most consumers
think that
it's okay to eat the same foods all year round.
But it's just that
I feel…
We believe…
We believe an ingredient
should be eaten
at its prime time.
Otherwise why would nature have made
that season its harvest season?
So we want to realize
there are great ingredients in Taiwan too.
We need to share this
with more people.
In another way
it is to encourage the farmers.
It's to pass on the beauty of
locally produced ingredients
in the hope of letting more people get to know
the diversity of Taiwanese ingredients.
This is a small revolution that the catering industry
is bringing to the flavor of Taiwan.
For no matter
where a seed comes from
once it starts growing on Taiwanese land
it means the land has embraced it
and the seed will adapt to it too.
So I think that the flavor of Taiwan
refers to a sense of identity.
Food ingredients can circulate the world
but the habitat of this land
can't be taken away.
However, once it leaves Taiwan
when it becomes international
and does not use indigenous ingredients
can it be described as a flavor of Taiwan?
Taiwanese flavor is prevalent all over the world
but it also comes from the world
for it has no preconceptions.
Any innovation can happen in Taiwan.
I think the reason why
Taiwanese cuisine is so diverse
is because it comes from so many places
and so many people have involved in changing it.
Our tea comes from all over the world.
We use black tea from former British colonies.
When foreign black tea encountered the local tapioca
it resulted in a Taiwanese everyday drink
which has turned into a culture in itself.
Even when it goes across the boundaries of the territory
its essence won't be changed.
Good morning everyone. -Good morning.
I reckon that the Japanese have a great taste in tea.
For a long while, Japanese people
they didn't think bubble tea tasted good.
The milk tea wasn't nice.
There was no fragrance at all
and the tapioca was as hard as rubber.
But after Chun Shui Tang came to Japan
people realized bubble tea tasted great.
They were surprised
and more people got into it.
Sorry to keep you waiting.
This is your spicy Dandan noodles with coriander
and bubble tea.
To transplant this good flavor into Japan
you need to set up a standard procedure.
To faithfully represent Taiwanese flavor
and keep it high quality is a tough task.
I still find it painstaking even now.
The interesting thing is that
with the same recipe, the same amount of sugar
the same amount of tea
and the same procedure
the sweetness may still not be the same.
For example at the end
when you add in the pearls, you have to stir.
There's a certain way to stir it.
The recipe and method can't be changed.
The quality controllers train their taste buds
and stay meticulous about the quality.
They randomly check the drinks everyday
and report back to headquarters.
They work to the finish
to retain the Taiwanese flavor at international standards.
In this diverse immigrant society
with food
there is no you or me.
It's only about being delicious or not.
Fresh or not.
This is something most commonly shared in Taiwan.
We encounter in sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and savory
then reserve tears of history.
Some welcome the new while abandoning the old.
Some trace back to its origins to recreate it.
Some are refined delicacies.
Some are rough common foods.
Vigor and exquisiteness intertwined over time in this unique environment.
Once you understand Taiwanese food
you understand Taiwan
and the flavor of Taiwan.
What is the flavor of Taiwan?
Let's explore it together.
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