After spending around two decades in Taiwan, three years ago TOPICS contributor Mark Caltonhill returned to live in the UK. Within weeks, he was missing “three-cups” slow cooking, kongxin cai (空心菜), and perhaps most of all, stinky tofu (臭豆腐). Here is his report. Arriving at Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport in the 1990s after each annual…
The evolution of Taiwan’s mass market eating establishments has speeded up over the past decade to meet developing tastes and higher expectations. In recent years the long and colorful tradition of food vendors setting up roadside stalls has become less common, as hygiene requirements and city ordinances tighten up. Taking its place is a multitude…
Chefs have toned down the spiciness to accommodate local taste. Cuisine from China’s southwestern Sichuan province has a well-deserved reputation for intense flavors given its frequent use of chili peppers, numbing Sichuan peppercorns, bean paste, and garlic. Many aficionados of the cuisine insist that the spicier, the better. Anything less than fiery is considered pedestrian….
Taiwan has a long history of growing a wide variety of mushrooms, and was once a major exporter. BY STEVEN CROOK AND KATY HUI-WEN HUNG We eat too much of what is bad for us, experts say, and not nearly enough fruits and vegetables. But one positive trend is visible in some parts of the…
More Muslim tourists means more demand for halal-certified restaurants. Applications are surging in Taiwan for halal (清真) certification – assurance that a restaurant’s food preparation strictly follows Muslim law. This growth likely helped Taiwan achieve its ranking as the world’s seventh-most Muslim-friendly travel destination among non-Muslim countries, according to the “Global Muslim Travel Index 2016”…
Famous foreign personalities like Jamie Oliver bring business expertise, but in the long run it is local master chefs like André Chiang who will carry the torch. Celebrity chefs spread stardust over a nation’s food scene. They take the spotlight and make the headlines, introduce new ingredients and food preparation styles to give cooking an…
The number of breweries, and pubs offering their product, has been growing rapidly. Only a few years ago finding craft beer in Taipei was a bit of a challenge. Only a handful of bars had them in stock, and even fewer offered craft beer brewed in Taiwan. Nowadays, you could hardly throw a rock in…
Taiwan’s steakhouse market has moved upmarket with the arrival of some new restaurants. High-end Western food has long struggled to gain a footing in Taipei. Celebrity chefs known for fusion cuisine, like Singapore’s Justin Quek, have come and gone. Yet one type of pricey Western restaurant has been successful here: the American steakhouse and other…
The drink of choice is usually Japanese whiskey, sometimes in innovative cocktails. Nestled deep in the labyrinthine lanes east of AnHe Road, a luminescent sign in the shape of a target glows red, white, and blue. Look closer and you’ll see that the sign indicates the entrance to a partially hidden bar. Push open the…
By Steven Crook & Katy Hui-wen Hung Compared to the cult-like veneration of beef noodles, hot pot, and stinky tofu in Taiwan, the guabao (割包 or 刈包) is an underappreciated snack. What English-speakers often call “the Taiwanese hamburger” is available in every town and city, but certainly not on every street, nor even in many…
