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Restaurant on
Yangming Mountain
outside Taipei—where
the prix f ixe menu
includes sticky rice
cakeswithsun-driedmullet roe, andprawn
and lotus root in homemade berry-laven-
der vinegar—you’re looking at Taiwanese
tribal food fused with traditional
kaiseki
,
a Japanese multicourse dinner. At night
markets like Taipei’s popular Shilin, small
plates called
xiao chi
contain elements
from the eight major Chinese traditions
(Sichuan and Hunan being the most well
known among Westerners), along with
local seafood and sauces made from
ginger, kumquats and pickled vegetables
borrowed from Hakka cuisine. These
markets are possibly the only places on
earth where you can find stinky tofu,
pork sausages wrapped in rice sausages,
and fried chicken (see page 36), all within
mere feet of one another.
“Taiwan is a paradise for food lovers,
with an amazing diversity of tastes at
all kinds of prices,” says Nicolas Devaux,
owner of Chamkar, a simple eatery that
elevates Cambodian recipes gleaned from
Devaux’s years in Siem Reap by adding
local produce from a nearby garden. His
dishes—like tofu stuffedwith curry paste
and pumpkin and toppedwith green pep-
percorn sauce—are proof enough of that.
Sowhat other culinary traditionsmesh
well with Taiwanese food? Italian, for one.
“I was catering for a group that included
a woman from one of Taiwan’s aboriginal
tribes,” says Evan Shaw, head chef of Hui
Liu, a vegetarian restaurant and tea shop
in Taipei. “I wanted to make something
special, so I created a vegetable noodle
dish called Aboriginal Pesto Pasta using
ziciong
,” a Taiwanese herb. The stab at
indigenous Taiwanese-Italian food won
Shawa lot of fans, sonaturallyhisnext step
was to do what chefs in Taiwan do best:
start finding new things to mix it with.
FREE SPIRIT
At the trendy Taipei cocktail bar Fourplay,
there is no menu. Patrons simply tell
bartender Allen Cheng (above) what
they’re craving, and he creates a beverage
to their tastes. We asked him to concoct
something using the Taiwanese sorghum
wine known as
kaoliang
.
THE ICE BOAT
INGREDIENTS
›
Lemon wedge
›
Orange wedge
›
1 oz. Kinmen
kaoliang
›
1½ oz. vanilla
liqueur
›
1 oz. lemon juice
›
2
/
3
oz. honey syrup
›
1 oz. absinthe
›
Rosemary stalk
1.
Place the lemon and
orange wedges in the
bottom of a Boston shaker
and add the
kaoliang
, vanilla
liqueur, lemon juice and
honey syrup. Muddle.
2.
Add ice, and shake to
combine.
3.
Strain into a rocks glass over
ice. Top with absinthe and
the rosemary stalk.
4.
Light the stalk on fire. Serve.
34
JUNE 2012
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FOOD&DRINK
OUT OF THEIR
SHELLS
The
classic Taiwanese
dish
ôáchien
, or
oyster omelet