{"product_id":"taiwanese-a-rambling-reflection-on-the-recipes-cultures-and-people-defining-this-island","title":"Taiwanese? A Rambling Reflection on the Recipes, Cultures, and People Defining this Island","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhat makes a dish Taiwanese? For Eric Sze, the Taipei-born chef behind New York’s Wenwen and the now-closed 886, the question is more complicated than it first appears. Taiwanese cooking has absorbed influences from China, Japan, and elsewhere, developing through successive waves of migration, colonization, and local invention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eTaiwanese?\u003c\/em\u003e, written with Elyse Inamine, Sze explores this evolving culinary identity through 75 recipes, personal essays, and accounts of his travels around the island. Rather than attempting to establish a definitive Taiwanese cuisine, he makes a case for its adaptability. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book’s first half focuses on the food Sze grew up eating, from street-food favorites like popcorn chicken, \u003cem\u003egua bao,\u003c\/em\u003e and\u003cem\u003e lu rou fan\u003c\/em\u003e, or braised pork rice, to family dishes including sesame spinach salad and steamed fish head. In one particularly revealing account, Sze travels around Taiwan sampling different versions of lu rou fan, hoping to establish what makes the dish authentic, only to discover how freely cooks reinterpret it. The second half turns to the cooking he developed in New York, with playful combinations like basil clams with instant noodles and a burger inspired by Taiwanese beef noodle soup. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlongside the recipes are essays on ingredients and food traditions, suggested Taipei itineraries, and even a choose-your-own approach to scallion pancakes. Sze’s reflections on his upbringing and his experiences cooking in New York connect the food of his childhood to the possibilities of his adopted city. The question mark in the title is deliberate: Taiwanese cooking, as he presents it, is not something easily confined to a fixed set of dishes or rules. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHardcover. Color photographs throughout.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HGUS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41994686365829,"sku":"Eric Sze and Elyse Inamine","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0297\/5046\/0549\/files\/SzeTaiwaneseCover.jpg?v=1793811697","url":"https:\/\/www.kitchenartsandletters.com\/products\/taiwanese-a-rambling-reflection-on-the-recipes-cultures-and-people-defining-this-island","provider":"Kitchen Arts \u0026 Letters","version":"1.0","type":"link"}