Profile | ‘What Taiwanese food really is’: cookbook writer on a return to her roots to explore the island’s complex cuisine and unique culture
- The realisation that Taiwanese food is often lumped in with other Chinese cuisines led Taiwanese-American writer Clarissa Wei to coax out what makes it special
- The result is Made in Taiwan, a cookbook that shines a light on the island’s food and history. Wei talks of her love of Taiwanese culture and shares a recipe
For those unfamiliar with Taiwan, it’s easy to group the island’s cuisine under the “Chinese food” umbrella. But the unique history and distinct flavours of Taiwanese dishes call for their own place in the spotlight.
That’s how Clarissa Wei came up with the idea for her debut cookbook, Made in Taiwan, which comes out on September 19. “I really wanted to coax out the difference or figure out the difference [between Taiwanese food and other Chinese cuisines],” Wei says.
Wei, who is a Taiwanese-American freelance journalist by trade, is no stranger to writing about Taiwanese food and culture. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker and Los Angeles Times, among others.
So what is Taiwanese food, exactly? According to Wei, the answer is different depending on who you ask. “What’s traditional to one family differs vastly from the traditions of the next,” she writes in the book.
To understand Taiwanese cuisine, however, it is vital to understand the island’s history. During much of the 17th century, Taiwan was partly ruled by the Dutch, before the Europeans were driven out.