while there are some unique things like say, oyster omelets, there are a lot of dishes in taiwanese cuisine that originated on the mainland, which shouldn’t be all that surprising given that the nationalists took over when they got driven off the mainland by the communists. a lot of hakka & fujian live there and a lot of them came after the revolution, and their influence on the cuisine is apparent. granted. a lot of other factors come into play when describing the evolution of taiwanese cuisine, which i’d describe as resulting in dishes that are relatively small in size but more intensely flavored. but overall, i don’t consider it inaccurate to think of taiwanese cuisine as a hodge podge, though i should have originally also acknowledged the aborignes’ influence, as well as the japanese since they were administrators of the island for most of the 20th century before WWII. then you have the impact of taiwanese becoming more westernized which resulted in more wheat being imported. but the immigration of mainlanders after the revolution did have a big impact on taiwanese cuisine.
I’m certainly not an expert on Taiwanese cuisine or history, but, as someone who has family of Han Chinese descent that both lived in Taiwan (some prior to and some only after the Revolution), some (if not most?) of what you’ve written doesn’t sound that familiar to me.
But most of them came before Revolution (Demographics of Taiwan - Wikipedia). The number of migrants during/after the Revolution “only” constituted 15% of the population at that timee.
So, if Taiwanese food is largely a fusion from mainland regions, that was likely established before the Revolution.
This paper (https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1454&context=honorstheses; a very interesting article by an undergrad) explicitly talks about the indigenous and Japanese influence on Taiwanese cuisine.
The author doesn’t state how widespread indigenous cuisine is (but that fact that they had to travel several miles beyond Taipei’s southernmost suburb does imply that the cuisine isn’t exactly common). This article (from a decidedly non-academic source) makes it more clear: https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=12,29,33,45&post=22202
The undergrad-thesis author does mention how widespread (and venerated) Japanese cuisine is, but ubiquity is different than being an integral and seamless part of the cultural identity. I’ll leave to others here who might be more familiar w/ the current cultural climate in Taiwan, but, despite what one food vendor says in the article, I kind of have difficulty believing that younger folks in Taiwan aren’t very aware that tempura originated in Japan, even if they love it.
People of my grandparents’ generation (I imagine most of them are dead) might bristle at your use of such a neutral-sounding word, even if the Taiwanese didn’t have the same experience of Japanese rule as, say, Koreans…
I would point out that Taiwanese food we see now in the US is skewed to street food as well as historic Mainland originated favorites. Taiwanese food over there is more diverse, reflects almost 75 years of evolution since the evacuation, and the adaptation to local ingredients, making the evaluation of current Taiwanese food more complicated. Compare the menu at Eat Joy Food in Rowland Heights to what you get at Sinbala
Warrior: Tried two more dishes. I thought the water boiled fish was fairly standard, but not as spicy as other versions I’ve had (though it was just as numbing). Still, I really liked the complex flavors. For those seeking flavors other than ma la, I loved the “sizzling eggplant.” The waitress told me the sauce is not “fish fragrant” (they have that on the menu too) but said the name for the sauce is just “sizzling.” The core flavor of dark sesame oil made me happy. Overall, I continue to think this is one of the strongest SGV restaurants, though I will need to return to Chengdu Taste and Sichuan Impression soon to compare
absolutely shameless plug and self-aggrandizement, but ya boy was first on this one. Euno >> Matt >> Bill Addison >> David Chang. also don’t quote me on the du zhong in the mapo tofu. he wouldn’t fkn tell me but it definitely tasted like it
I live close to Xiang La Hui and enjoyed a recent lunch there. I tried their mapo tofu, toothpick lamb, and sizzling eggplant. All very good, although I prefer the mapo tofu at Sichuan Impression nearby. In comparison to Sichuan Impression, I find Xiang La Hui’s cooking more savory and saltier
Went for dinner in December based on this thread. Promising though not quite Sichuan impression level. The most overwhelming memory of the dinner was the saltiness of the food. Like, whoever was in kitchen was using a shovel. Pity, because great dishes such as the cold eggplant was diminished by being far too salty.
warrior: we’ve been several times now, and I agree that sometimes the salting is off, including on the cold eggplant. i’d also vote for sichuan impression over xiang la hui, though they both have merit.