Fukien is mountainous as well as maritime, rich in both mountain produce and seafood. When the multiple varieties of indigenous ingredients met and blended with the advanced culinary products from Hangchou and Ningpo, the result was Fukienese cuisine--now one of eight major Chinese regional cuisines.
Fukien cuisine can further be divided into the northern Fukienese cuisine(around Fuchou) and the southern Fukienese (around Chuanchou, Changchou, and Amoy.) Most of Taiwan's Han Chinese immigrants were from southern Fukien, so southern Fukienese cuisine became Taiwanese mainstream cuisine.
As in other colonies, the newcomers in Taiwan subsisted on simple foods until they were well settled and prosperous; survival was more important than being fussy about taste. At the end of World War II, Taiwan was basically an agricultural society, and the best foods were eaten by top officials and the rich only. Taiwanese cuisine evolved gradually over hundreds of years. Japanese cuisine(the Japanese occupied Taiwan from 1895 to 1945) left some traces as well, like the use of miso(salty soybean paste), sashimi(raw fish), and takuan(preserved radish.)
Taiwanese food tends to be simple and light, with most of the flavors of the ingredients preserved. Regional snacks abound, like Hsinchu kungwan, Tainan tan-tzu-mien and kuantsaiban, Wanluan port feet, Chiayi mushrooms and shark-fin stew. Nineteen forty-nine was a dramatic turning point for Taiwanese cuisine. That year, when the communists took over the mainland, over two million people from all parts of China fled to Taiwan, bringing with them, among many other things, their cooking skills and tastes.
In a few years, restaurants, small street eateries, and food stalls of various Chinese regional tastes--from Canton, Shanghai, Peking, Hunan, Shanhsi, Chaochou, Fuchou, Szechuan, Chianghsi, and Shantung, as well as Mongolia, sprang up all over the island. Throughout history, there has never been any other place in China where so many styles of Chinese cuisine have existed side by side. This situation has infused Taiwanese cui-sine with new substances and spirits, and Taiwanese cuisine has undergone even further change since. Taiwanese chefs have been willing and eager to learn from other chefs. The result is a greatly enriched Taiwan-ese cuisine, full of outside influences while at the same time maintaining its own character. Today, Taiwanese restaurants offer dishes derived from regional Chinese and indigenous cuisines--and even foreign dishes.
Seafood Superb
Like Fukien, Taiwan is rich in fish, rice, and mountain produce. With plenty of rainfall, the island harvests hundreds of thousands of tons of salt- and fresh-water fish and other seafood. Crustaceans, mollusks, and eels are considered delicacies by the Taiwa-nese; oysters and clams are a regular part of the diet, with clams being eaten raw or cooked. A popular side dish is raw clams soaked in a mixture of soy sauce, rice wine, vinegar, and hot pepper. Oysters have multiple uses in dishes from oyster soup to various kinds of stir-fried oysters. O-a-chian (.............), an omelet made of oysters, eggs, and corn starch mixed, fried, and served with sweet and sour sauce, is very popular.
Pork and poultry are widely used in Taiwanese cuisine; beef and lamb are becoming popular too. The order of prestige of poultry now is goose, duck, and chicken, while 30 years ago it was chicken, duck, and goose. However, chicken has firmly established its position in Chinese cuisine in general and is often used as a secret weapon in a Chinese kitchen. Sometimes a whole chicken is used along with other ingredients for a single dish, but diners don't see any trace of chicken in the final product--the chef uses only its broth. Chicken is roughly divided into two categories: grain-fed and indigenous. It is graded this way because the grain-fed bird is confined, raised en mass, and of foreign variety, while the indigenous kind runs loose and is said to taste sweeter, juicier, and more solid than the grain-fed type. Well-trained taste buds can tell the difference. Also, some consider that chicken with black skin or feet tastes better than that with white skin or feet.
Health or 'tonic' foods, like ginseng chicken and tangkuei duck, are also popular in Taiwanese cuisine. As the people of Taiwan become more affluent and health conscious, they emphasize such foods more than ever. Rice is widely used in Taiwan to make snacks. The most popular of these is kuei(...). It appears in many forms and tastes: salty or sweet, leavened or unleavened, plain or otherwise. Lopokao(.....) is a beloved food made of rice, radish, and shrimp.
Taiwan doesn't produce wheat, but this grain has nevertheless played a role in Taiwanese cuisine. In Taiwan, people eat ti-kha mi-soan(pork feet with fine noodles) especially after they have had bad luck; back in the old days, poor folks even made a delicious noodle soup to go with plain rice and make the whole meal more palatable. O-a mi-soan(oysters and fine noodles) and tan-tzu mien(noodles with fermented pork sauce) are Taiwanese favorites.
Where to Eat
To taste the result of the great Taiwanese cuisine revolution, one can go to one of Shin Yeh's four Taiwanese restaurants in Taipei. (The chain also operates two Japanese eateries and a Mongolian barbecue restaurant.) In 1976, Shin Yeh opened its first Taiwanese restaurant on Shuangcheng Street(No. 34-1; Tel: 596-3255); and in the ensuing 19 years it has been elevanted to a leadership position in Taiwanese cuisine. Evidently, its chefs have been willing to learn from other regional Chinese cuisines and have tried hard to innovate. The result is a menu that boasts 150 items for patrons to choose from.
For those who prefer good Taiwanese food in a fine hotel, they can go to the Lai Lai Sheraton's Happy Garden (12 Chunghsiao E. Rd., Sec. 1; Tel: 321-5511, ext. 8011) to enjoy master chef T.W. Chang and company's dishes. The restaurant offers cordial service, and even has recitals on traditional Chinese musical instruments like the pipa and ku cheng. There, traditional Taiwanese dishes like scrambled eggs with peserved turnips and sauteed oysters in black bean sauce are served along with the prestigious fo tiao chiang (a stew of sea and vegetable delicacies) in one-person portions instead of the usual six-person size.
Located at the canopied Huahsi Street night market, Tainan Tan-tzu-mien (31 Huahsi St.; Tel: 308-1123) is a huge sprawling restaurant with five dining areas that have elegant European ambiance, including brightly lit candeliers and French Christofle and English Wedgewood settings. The kitchen is at the front of the shop and customers can watch the chefs work while choosing ingredients from the nearby aquariums and refrigerated shelves.
All this started 38 years ago as a peddler's shoulder-pole load (two loads balanced on the ends of a pole, called a tan-tsu) containing all the fixings for a single noodle soup flavored with fermented pork sauce--tan-tzu-mien(-----), which is the shop's name as well as the first and foremost dish of the restaurant.
Seafood commands here; and the chefs, besides keeping their indigenous style, have adopted culinary techniques from other regional Chinese cuisines as well as foreign ones. Except for group set meals, no menu is used; customers just watch and order. Prices fit all, from a pauper to a prince. The minimum consumption is a bowl of tan-tzu-mien for NT$50.
Of course there are countless Taiwanese eateries around the island, some of them specializing in only a few dishes or even a single item. Besides, each region of Taiwan has its own food specialties. How to find them? Ask, and the door will be shown unto you.