TiT Festivals: The Nostalgia of Taiwanese Cuisine from 50 Years Ago

The 1995 Taipei Chinese Food Festival

By Cliff Vost Photos by Sung Chih-hsiung Illustrations by Tony Huang

The Taipei Chinese Food Festival will present various regional styles of Chinese food. Taiwanese cuisine will be the paramount focus; the theme of the 1995 show is the nostalgia of Taiwanese cuisine from 50 years ago, and particularly banquets for weddings, birthdays, and winehouses.

The purpose of this show is to revive and preserve those delicacies popular in the past and to develop new ideas from the old. When banquets are served at the festival, they will be matched with a nostalgic ambiance, and the old-time etiquette will be duly observed. Almost without exception, the dishes have fancy or auspicious names; they are appealing to the palate and eye, as well as to the imagination.

Wedding Banquets

The Chinese fully understand the essence of a marriage--that two halves make a whole--hence, in a wedding, the Chinese character Ьі (literally "double happiness") is ubiquitous.

Swimming Goldfish

This seafood dish is delicious as well as visually appealing with the ingredients in the shape of 12 golden fish surrounding the character for double happiness.

Yuanyang Snack
This course of shrimp cookies and taro paste is so named because the yuanyang (mandarin duck) is traditionally symbolic of faithful lovers.

Birthday Banquets

In the China of old, people seldom celebrated birthdays; but when they did, they were huge affairs, usually for people turning 50 and for each tenth year after that. For perfectionists, the number of diners at the birthday banquet must be 12, collectively belonging to all the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. The number of dishes must also be 12.

The Long-Life Crane
A giant cabbage is carved in the shape of a crane, a symbol of longevity; included in the display are shrimp, shredded pork, and bean noodles, and 12 scallops and 12 mushrooms are placed on the side.

Long-Life Cranes Arranged in the shape of the Chinese character of longevity, (two are imprinted on the plate), this delicacy is made of radishes, beans, shredded pork, and several varieties of seaweed.

Winehouse Banquets

In the old days, the most exquisite dishes were those of the winehouse banquet, which only high officials and the rich could afford.

High Officials' Meal
So named, obviously, because this course could be enjoyed only by the elite in the old feudal days. It is huge (the bowl is 18" in diameter) and rich (it contains abalones, scallops, ginseng, chicken, pork, and ham, among other ingredients).

Green Jade and Auspicious Shellfish
A huge cabbage (representing green jade) lies in the center of delicacies of abalone, ham, chicken, and carrots, and is bordered with scallops.

Get Involved In the Fun

Cook-offs
The cook-offs will be of two categories: professional emphasizing creativity, and amateur, for special tests of skill. The preliminaries will be held on the first three days, and the final on the fourth. Gold medals await the champions at the closing ceremony.

Beer-drinking Bouts
The Chinese like to drink beer when dining, and Taiwan brews pretty good beer. Many other similar competitions will be held as well.

Star Chef Demonstrations
Twenty-four chefs from Taiwan's major hotels will show off their expertise--one in Japanese cuisine, one in western cuisine, and 22 in Chinese cuisine.

A "Learn Cooking from Star Chefs" program will be offered to visitors who have eaten the dishes cooked by the 24 chefs at the festival. Visitors may register for this program by presenting their admission ticket.

Cooking Craft Shows
Lively noodle pulling, lamien, will be demonstrated along with many other cooking crafts, native and foreign.

Exhibits of Regional Chinese Cuisine
Five-star hotels will exhibit dishes of the eight Chinese regional cuisines in 60 booths, and nine trophies will be awarded to the winning contestants. The exhibits give insights into the essence of Chinese culinary arts.

Taiwanese Snacks
Snacks from around Taiwan will be displayed, and you will be able to sample a fascinating array of regional Taiwanese snacks at 25 booths.

Cooking Workshops
Concentrating on home-cooking, these workshops will be conducted by famous chefs who will share their rich experience with you.

Academic Culinary Achievements
For the first time in festival history--thanks to an idea proposed by the French--academic achievements in culinary arts will be exhibited.

Banquet of a Hundred Fish Dishes
Shanghai (Chiangche) cuisine is famous for its seafood. A team of seven well-known chefs from Huchou (near Shanghai) will demonstrate a "hundred fish dishes" at the festival. The chefs were the champions of a 1992 Peking cooking competition.

Lucky Draw
A lucky draw will be held on the last day of the festival and many valuable prizes will be awarded to the winners.