Book Review: The Food of Taiwan by Cathy Erway

Pork Meat Sauce over Rice (Lu Rou Fan) 滷肉飯

If you know me, you know I love Taiwanese food and of course, when I first heard that this book was going to be published, I knew I had to get it! This is Cathy Erway's second published book, but first cookbook (although I think her first book had some recipes).   I miss the food in Taiwan and this gave me the motivation to make some of the dishes that I crave. 

The book contains 100 recipes, many are simple traditional dishes that you'd find at many local restaurants in Taiwan and some staple night market dishes as well. Some dishes have origins from China (as many people in Taiwan have ancestry from China), but have become more of a local dish over the years.  Erway does note in the book that she had to keep asking herself" what makes the dish distinctly Taiwanese?  Meaning, not something that's merely a riff or extension of something you'd find in some part of mainland China, nor an attempt at something from an even more far-flung locale".  I like this about her book as she really does attempt to showcase many dishes that would be considered Taiwanese.  She briefly looks at how social factors have led to the formation of Taiwanese cuisine as well as overseas influences.

It's not an indepth look at Taiwanese culture and cuisine, but does touch on many significant areas that gives some good background info about Taiwan.

The recipes I tried:

Pan-Fried Rice Noodles with Pork and Vegetables (Chao Mi Fen) 炒米粉
Noodles with Minced Pork and Fermented Bean Sauce (Zha Jiang Mian) 炸醬麵
Pork Meat Sauce over Rice (Lu Rou Fan) 滷肉飯
Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) 三杯雞
Mochi (Ma Ji) 麻糬 - this was actually filled with peanut but I didn't use peanut (for this recipe, I have made a comment about it here)

There are still so many recipes that I'm interested in making (like one for Pepper Pork Buns (Hu Jiao Bing 胡椒餅) but just haven't had the time.


What I liked...

- Lots of interesting recipes
- Recipes aren't altered to cater to western palates but does try to present recipes where ingredients could be easily purchased in North America. 
- Each recipe is introduced with a little info or personal story
- A range of recipes from very easy recipes to more challenging ones
- Summarizes the food in Taiwan and the people very well


What could be improved...

- I wanted to love the book and find nothing that I could constructively critique, but there was something that I was unfortunately surprised to find...a number of the dishes I tried seemed too salty.  Maybe it is the brand of soy sauce I used but I had to reduce the quantity of soy sauce (by a quarter)for almost all the recipes I tried except one, the fried rice noodles "chao mi fen".  I used a Lee Kum Kee Soy Sauce but I think in Taiwan, a popular brand is Kimlan which I've used in the past.  This might be a less salty soy sauce.  Aside from this, the recipes were great in terms of method and other ingredients.

- There other thing I want to comment on is the small section on tea.  Taiwan is famous for tea, particularly oolong tea and the term "fermented"is used in the book instead of oxidized.  I don't believe this is Erway's error as I've seen the use of the word "fermented" in text from Taiwan.  Fermenting is a different process and this term was erroneously used in the past to describe the oxidation process that occurs when oolong (and red/black) tea is made.  So, some people will still use fermenting to describe the processing of tea.

Noodles with Minced Pork and Fermented Bean Sauce (Zha Jiang Mian) 炸醬麵

Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Ji) 三杯雞 (I forgot to take a picture right after cooking so you'll have to settle for this one)

Pan-Fried Rice Noodles with Pork and Vegetables (Chao Mi Fen) 炒米粉

Overall, I think this book is well written and does deliver on pretty authentic recipes.  Except for the quantity of soy sauce, all the other measurements were pretty good and the instructions were great.  I know that there are some foods that just can't be replicated exactly, especially when it comes to freshness of ingredients, but I think most people will find at least a few recipes that will become standard dishes in their home.