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"title": "Growing Asian Produce Helped This Sonoma Farmer Connect With Her Taiwanese Heritage",
"headTitle": "Growing Asian Produce Helped This Sonoma Farmer Connect With Her Taiwanese Heritage | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897763\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897763\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle.jpg\" alt=\"Leslie Wiser pushes a plow in a field; the backdrop of the field is shaded blue.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>(Photo by Sarah Deragon; design by Rebecca Kao)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]A[/dropcap]cross from a few sheep bleating and baaing behind a fence, rainbow pride and Black Lives Matter flags softly wave in the wind. A “Stop Asian Hate” poster is propped against a wall. Around the corner, the property opens up to a 1.5-acre farm filled with trellises of bitter melon, rows of napa cabbage, and hoophouses holding dozens of other Asian herbs and vegetables. All signs, perhaps, that this is a farm with a strong sense of its own identity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when Leslie Wiser founded Sebastopol’s Radical Family Farms in 2018, she didn’t necessarily feel very connected to her Taiwanese and Chinese heritage. Over the course of the past three years, however, she has become one of the go-to local farmers for Asian produce—and she’s learned a lot about her roots in the process. Wiser runs the farm, and her partner, Sarah Deragon, grows flowers there. It is, as Wiser describes it, a chemical-free, low-till small farm specializing in Asian heritage vegetables and herbs. Wiser says her Chinese-Taiwanese background informs her choices, and in turn, she is also giving back to the culture here in the Bay Area through farming, food and education.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The farm has been great in terms of personal exploration of this side of me that I didn’t know about,” Wiser, who is in her early 40s, says. Her mom grew up in Taiwan as part of the generation of people who left mainland China during the Communist war (a group known, collectively, as “waishengren” or the “1949’ers”); her father’s side of the family is German and Polish-Jewish.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Growing up in the Midwest—in Chicago, Cleveland, Minnesota and Indiana—Wiser says she never celebrated Chinese or Taiwanese holidays such as Lunar New Year. Her family did hold on to a few aspects of Taiwanese culture, including ordering a thousand copies of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/11/17/21570459/radical-family-farms-fu-pei-mei-chinese-cookbook-taiwan-cook-off\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fu Pei Mei’s popular cookbook from Taiwan in the early ’80s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and her mom sometimes cooked Chinese dishes. By and large, though, Wiser didn’t have much contact with the Chinese and Taiwanese sides of her identity in her day-to-day life. Before growing them herself, she had never even tried some of the vegetables on the farm, such as bitter melon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“[The farm is]…a way for me and my kids to hold on to our Asian heritage that has, for the most part, been assimilated,” notes Wiser, whose children have Chinese, Korean, Scandanavian, German and Polish-Jewish ancestry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for the “radical” in the farm’s name, Wiser says that’s a nod to her family story: Her parents married shortly after the Loving Act of 1967, during a time when interracial marriages in the Midwest were not the norm. Wiser, who is queer, is mixed race, as are her children, and the farm takes an intersectional stance on social justice issues—hence all of the flags waving proudly out front.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897804\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1613px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897804\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen.jpg\" alt=\"A family portrait of Leslie Wiser, her wife Sarah Deragon and their two children, standing in front of the lush green backdrop of their farm.\" width=\"1613\" height=\"1075\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen.jpg 1613w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1613px) 100vw, 1613px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wiser (back right) started Radical Family Farms in part because she wanted to give her kids the experience of growing up on a farm. \u003ccite>(Paige Green)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">None of Wiser’s family members in Taiwan have been farmers, but there is a rich history of agriculture in Taiwan, from its tea farms to its lush fields of sweet potatoes, pineapples and rice. Her own path to farming was somewhat circuitous: The summer after her sophomore year in college, after taking a class on food and farming, Wiser worked on a farm in Alaska for one season, staying with a family with young children who also helped out on the farm. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though Wiser enjoyed the experience, she never envisioned that she would pursue farming as a career. “I never thought I could…have the land access,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead, she finished college, then graduate school, and started working in digital media, marketing, animation and project management. After having children, though, she started to dream of raising her kids on a farm the way she’d seen that family in Alaska do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It took years of thinking about it and wanting to do it,” Wiser says. She looked for land in the Midwest, but eventually moved to Sonoma, completing a master gardeners program there, and eventually found the three-acre farm in Sebastopol.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the Bay Area, more small-scale, Asian American-run farms specializing in Asian vegetables have cropped up in recent years: Namu Farm led by Kristyn Leach in Winters, CA; Shao Shan Farm in Bolinas; and Mai Nguyen in Sonoma, who also founded the Asian American Farmers Alliance.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wiser’s farm grows as many as 50 different crop varieties on the 1.5 acres that she currently uses: Japanese eggplants, Thai and Italian basil, si gua (aka sponge gourd or loofah), rau ram (Vietnamese coriander), kabocha squash, bitter melon, winter melon, sweet corn, Chinese broccoli, perilla leaves—and a lot more. Wiser is even experimenting with planting things that likely have never been farmed commercially in the Bay Area—red quinoa, a grain eaten by indigenous Taiwanese people, for instance. Most of the seeds are from Oakland-based Kitazawa Seed Company, which was started more than 100 years ago by a Japanese American man named Gijiu Kitazawa and specializes in Asian vegetable seeds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The farm reminds me of my wai po’s—my maternal grandmother’s—backyard trees in Southern California, as well as my parents’ backyard, where they planted Asian fruits and vegetables that were hard to find in markets here in the United States. For immigrants from Taiwan, these fruits—persimmons, guavas, longans and Taiwanese mountain apples shaped like bells—are reminders of home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Radical Family Farms isn’t \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a tribute to the farmer’s family ancestry—it’s also a business. It mostly operates under a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model during its May-through-November growing season. The every-other-week \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.radicalfamilyfarms.com/farmstore\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CSA produce and herb box\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is delivered throughout the Bay Area, with pickup points at many popular, Asian American–run restaurants. (There’s currently a waiting list to join.) Wiser’s partner, Sarah Deragon, manages a flower CSA box, which can be delivered together or separately with the produce.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Harvesting began this month, and Wiser and her small staff are busy checking on the seedlings, chasing away gophers and admiring some of the produce that’s already flourishing. In a matter of a few days, the gophers have eaten more than a dozen cabbage heads. “You can do your best to plan ahead but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897806\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897806\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two hands cupped together holding a large quantity of tiny quinoa seeds.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Quinoa seeds from Taiwan are among the Asian varietals grown on the farm. \u003ccite>(Momo Chang)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n many ways, Radical Family Farms’ exploration of Taiwanese identity has extended far beyond the borders of the farm itself. While the farm is only starting its third season, Wiser has already established working relationships with a number of Taiwanese and other Asian American restaurants in the Bay Area such as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.liondancecafe.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lion Dance Cafe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.taiwanbento.us/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwan Bento\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodtoeatdumplings.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Good-to-Eat Dumplings\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which all source from the farm and have become collaborators of sorts. (They are also CSA pickup points.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oakland’s Good-to-Eat Dumplings specializes in handmade Taiwanese potstickers. Co-founded by Tony Tung and Angie Lin, the restaurant, based at Original Pattern Brewing in Oakland’s Jack London neighborhood, had been looking for locally grown, Asian produce to use for their Taiwanese-style pan-fried dumplings and gua bao. Instead of buying packaged fermented mustard greens, which are readily available at most Chinese markets, Good-to-Eat Dumplings ferments their own version using mustard greens grown on Radical Family Farms. The fermented greens are used in their pork belly gua bao, “one of the most famous Taiwanese street food staples,” Lin notes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside tag='eating-taiwanese' label='Eating Taiwanese']Starting this year, the farm will sun-dry the mustard greens for the restaurant on new drying racks, an idea inspired by a Radical Family Farms CSA member, Henry Hsu.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Through the partnership with Leslie, we learned a lot too,” Lin, an immigrant from Taiwan, says about figuring out which Taiwanese fruits and vegetables can grow in the Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christopher Yang, whose parents were born in Taiwan, began sourcing produce from the farm for his two Taiwanese-inspired pop-ups, Hén-zhi and El Chino Grande, in 2019. Yang turns the farm’s wax gourd, or winter melon, into a syrup by cooking it with sugar, then strains it into black tea. Or he’ll braise the winter melon with smoked shoyu dashi broth, serving it with a shrimp coconut leche de tigre. The relationship between restaurant and farm is “symbiotic,” Yang says. “I love to develop menu items with products [Leslie] is excited about.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even the farm’s CSA members get more than just a box of produce; they, too, have an opportunity to learn more about Taiwanese food culture. And here’s where the farm really puts “radical” front and center—where farming and activism intersect. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Two years ago, for instance, members gathered for a reading of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://gracelin.com/the-ugly-vegetables/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ugly Vegetables\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a children’s book by Grace Lin. The family-friendly event started with a land acknowledgment by Christine Su, a CSA member and one of the farm’s first customers, honoring the coastal Miwok and Pomo people, who still live in the area. “We are grateful to be settlers on this land, and also are responsible for stewarding it carefully while sharing our own cultural traditions,” Su told the audience. The book reading was bilingual in Mandarin—by Su, whose family is from Taiwan—and in English, by Adrian Chang of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mykitsunecafe/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My Kitsune Cafe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. After the reading, children had the opportunity to look at and eat some of the vegetables from the book. Many of the plants were labeled, so that kids could see how a bitter melon, for instance, grows on the vine. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many Asian Americans at the event, this celebration of vegetables not found in many Western grocery stores felt incredibly moving. “I never imagined sitting on a haystack, reading to kids in Mandarin about our vegetables, and then touring the same veggies like bitter melon and A-choy growing a few feet away, with the same kind of reverence I feel like is often reserved for heirloom tomatoes in the Bay,” Su says. “I really wish that I had had that growing up here in America.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of the CSA members, 70% of whom Wiser estimates to be Asian American, have become friends and co-conspirators. “We all want to learn more about our own Asian American culture and heritage,” Wiser says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is a lot to learn. Not everyone knows how to cook a winter melon, after all. One CSA member, Linda Tay Esposito, a food business consultant and a cooking instructor, has created a monthly itinerary based on the seasonal produce that comes in the boxes, including a Zoom cooking class that started this month. “The CSA is a community; we’re all tied together through food,” says Esposito, who was previously the director of La Cocina’s Municipal Marketplace in SF’s Tenderloin district. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last year, the names of the vegetables in each box were written on beautiful hand-lettered cards created by artist Jess Wu, which were made available to CSA members on the farm’s website. The cards were written in pinyin, bopomofo (the phonetic alphabet used in Taiwan) and Chinese characters, and some were also translated into Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese. CSA members also get access to a website full of recipes, many of them submitted by fellow customers, such as Chinese sweet and spicy pickles and winter melon soup.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897807\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2153px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897807\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The vegetables from a CSA produce box, including long beans, okra and several varieties of eggplant, arranged artfully on a white wooden board.\" width=\"2153\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-scaled.jpg 2153w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-800x951.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-1020x1213.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-160x190.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-768x913.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-1292x1536.jpg 1292w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-1723x2048.jpg 1723w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-1920x2282.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2153px) 100vw, 2153px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The produce from one of last year’s CSA boxes, each vegetable labeled with its Chinese name. \u003ccite>(Sarah Deragon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While most of the farm’s focus is on the family’s Asian roots, Wiser is also exploring her father’s ancestry. She lived for some time with her paternal grandparents in Indianapolis, Indiana. She saw how her grandmother, an immigrant of German and Polish-Jewish ancestry, yearned for her own homeland—the way she shopped for vegetables, baked goods and pantry items that were tied to her culture. “I learned sourcing from my grandmother,” Wiser notes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last season, Wiser began planting varieties of gooseberries, currants and kohlrabi in honor of her grandmother, who passed away in October before she could taste the fruits of her granddaughter’s labor. When I visited the farm in April, Wiser showed me one of the gooseberry plants—waist-high scrubs that will eventually have little green orbs popping out. “I think my grandmother would be very proud.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Near the gooseberry bush are a few other berry plants that speak to the farm’s mission and identity: Sichuan peppercorns, with their prickly heat that helps form the foundation for Taiwan’s national dish of beef noodle soup, and sweet goji berries, whose medicinal qualities infused the soups my own mother made for me after I gave birth to my daughter—part of a rich tradition of taking care of each other through food.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897264\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-160x25.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-768x122.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.momochang.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Momo Chang\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a freelance writer based in the East Bay and the alumni coordinator for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandvoices.us/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oakland Voices\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a project of the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://mije.org/\">Maynard Institute for Journalism Education\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Follow her on Twitter \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/_momo_chang\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">@_momo_chang\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Now, Radical Family Farms' Leslie Wiser is one of the Bay Area's go-to farmers for Asian produce.",
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"title": "Growing Asian Produce Helped This Sonoma Farmer Connect With Her Taiwanese Heritage | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897763\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897763\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle.jpg\" alt=\"Leslie Wiser pushes a plow in a field; the backdrop of the field is shaded blue.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_InArticle-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>(Photo by Sarah Deragon; design by Rebecca Kao)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>cross from a few sheep bleating and baaing behind a fence, rainbow pride and Black Lives Matter flags softly wave in the wind. A “Stop Asian Hate” poster is propped against a wall. Around the corner, the property opens up to a 1.5-acre farm filled with trellises of bitter melon, rows of napa cabbage, and hoophouses holding dozens of other Asian herbs and vegetables. All signs, perhaps, that this is a farm with a strong sense of its own identity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when Leslie Wiser founded Sebastopol’s Radical Family Farms in 2018, she didn’t necessarily feel very connected to her Taiwanese and Chinese heritage. Over the course of the past three years, however, she has become one of the go-to local farmers for Asian produce—and she’s learned a lot about her roots in the process. Wiser runs the farm, and her partner, Sarah Deragon, grows flowers there. It is, as Wiser describes it, a chemical-free, low-till small farm specializing in Asian heritage vegetables and herbs. Wiser says her Chinese-Taiwanese background informs her choices, and in turn, she is also giving back to the culture here in the Bay Area through farming, food and education.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The farm has been great in terms of personal exploration of this side of me that I didn’t know about,” Wiser, who is in her early 40s, says. Her mom grew up in Taiwan as part of the generation of people who left mainland China during the Communist war (a group known, collectively, as “waishengren” or the “1949’ers”); her father’s side of the family is German and Polish-Jewish.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Growing up in the Midwest—in Chicago, Cleveland, Minnesota and Indiana—Wiser says she never celebrated Chinese or Taiwanese holidays such as Lunar New Year. Her family did hold on to a few aspects of Taiwanese culture, including ordering a thousand copies of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2020/11/17/21570459/radical-family-farms-fu-pei-mei-chinese-cookbook-taiwan-cook-off\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fu Pei Mei’s popular cookbook from Taiwan in the early ’80s\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and her mom sometimes cooked Chinese dishes. By and large, though, Wiser didn’t have much contact with the Chinese and Taiwanese sides of her identity in her day-to-day life. Before growing them herself, she had never even tried some of the vegetables on the farm, such as bitter melon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“[The farm is]…a way for me and my kids to hold on to our Asian heritage that has, for the most part, been assimilated,” notes Wiser, whose children have Chinese, Korean, Scandanavian, German and Polish-Jewish ancestry. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As for the “radical” in the farm’s name, Wiser says that’s a nod to her family story: Her parents married shortly after the Loving Act of 1967, during a time when interracial marriages in the Midwest were not the norm. Wiser, who is queer, is mixed race, as are her children, and the farm takes an intersectional stance on social justice issues—hence all of the flags waving proudly out front.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897804\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1613px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897804\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen.jpg\" alt=\"A family portrait of Leslie Wiser, her wife Sarah Deragon and their two children, standing in front of the lush green backdrop of their farm.\" width=\"1613\" height=\"1075\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen.jpg 1613w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarm_paigegreen-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1613px) 100vw, 1613px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wiser (back right) started Radical Family Farms in part because she wanted to give her kids the experience of growing up on a farm. \u003ccite>(Paige Green)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">None of Wiser’s family members in Taiwan have been farmers, but there is a rich history of agriculture in Taiwan, from its tea farms to its lush fields of sweet potatoes, pineapples and rice. Her own path to farming was somewhat circuitous: The summer after her sophomore year in college, after taking a class on food and farming, Wiser worked on a farm in Alaska for one season, staying with a family with young children who also helped out on the farm. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though Wiser enjoyed the experience, she never envisioned that she would pursue farming as a career. “I never thought I could…have the land access,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead, she finished college, then graduate school, and started working in digital media, marketing, animation and project management. After having children, though, she started to dream of raising her kids on a farm the way she’d seen that family in Alaska do. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It took years of thinking about it and wanting to do it,” Wiser says. She looked for land in the Midwest, but eventually moved to Sonoma, completing a master gardeners program there, and eventually found the three-acre farm in Sebastopol.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the Bay Area, more small-scale, Asian American-run farms specializing in Asian vegetables have cropped up in recent years: Namu Farm led by Kristyn Leach in Winters, CA; Shao Shan Farm in Bolinas; and Mai Nguyen in Sonoma, who also founded the Asian American Farmers Alliance.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wiser’s farm grows as many as 50 different crop varieties on the 1.5 acres that she currently uses: Japanese eggplants, Thai and Italian basil, si gua (aka sponge gourd or loofah), rau ram (Vietnamese coriander), kabocha squash, bitter melon, winter melon, sweet corn, Chinese broccoli, perilla leaves—and a lot more. Wiser is even experimenting with planting things that likely have never been farmed commercially in the Bay Area—red quinoa, a grain eaten by indigenous Taiwanese people, for instance. Most of the seeds are from Oakland-based Kitazawa Seed Company, which was started more than 100 years ago by a Japanese American man named Gijiu Kitazawa and specializes in Asian vegetable seeds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The farm reminds me of my wai po’s—my maternal grandmother’s—backyard trees in Southern California, as well as my parents’ backyard, where they planted Asian fruits and vegetables that were hard to find in markets here in the United States. For immigrants from Taiwan, these fruits—persimmons, guavas, longans and Taiwanese mountain apples shaped like bells—are reminders of home.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Radical Family Farms isn’t \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">just \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a tribute to the farmer’s family ancestry—it’s also a business. It mostly operates under a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model during its May-through-November growing season. The every-other-week \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.radicalfamilyfarms.com/farmstore\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">CSA produce and herb box\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is delivered throughout the Bay Area, with pickup points at many popular, Asian American–run restaurants. (There’s currently a waiting list to join.) Wiser’s partner, Sarah Deragon, manages a flower CSA box, which can be delivered together or separately with the produce.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Harvesting began this month, and Wiser and her small staff are busy checking on the seedlings, chasing away gophers and admiring some of the produce that’s already flourishing. In a matter of a few days, the gophers have eaten more than a dozen cabbage heads. “You can do your best to plan ahead but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way,” she says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897806\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897806\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Two hands cupped together holding a large quantity of tiny quinoa seeds.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_hands_MC-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Quinoa seeds from Taiwan are among the Asian varietals grown on the farm. \u003ccite>(Momo Chang)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n many ways, Radical Family Farms’ exploration of Taiwanese identity has extended far beyond the borders of the farm itself. While the farm is only starting its third season, Wiser has already established working relationships with a number of Taiwanese and other Asian American restaurants in the Bay Area such as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.liondancecafe.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lion Dance Cafe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.taiwanbento.us/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwan Bento\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodtoeatdumplings.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Good-to-Eat Dumplings\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which all source from the farm and have become collaborators of sorts. (They are also CSA pickup points.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oakland’s Good-to-Eat Dumplings specializes in handmade Taiwanese potstickers. Co-founded by Tony Tung and Angie Lin, the restaurant, based at Original Pattern Brewing in Oakland’s Jack London neighborhood, had been looking for locally grown, Asian produce to use for their Taiwanese-style pan-fried dumplings and gua bao. Instead of buying packaged fermented mustard greens, which are readily available at most Chinese markets, Good-to-Eat Dumplings ferments their own version using mustard greens grown on Radical Family Farms. The fermented greens are used in their pork belly gua bao, “one of the most famous Taiwanese street food staples,” Lin notes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Starting this year, the farm will sun-dry the mustard greens for the restaurant on new drying racks, an idea inspired by a Radical Family Farms CSA member, Henry Hsu.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Through the partnership with Leslie, we learned a lot too,” Lin, an immigrant from Taiwan, says about figuring out which Taiwanese fruits and vegetables can grow in the Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christopher Yang, whose parents were born in Taiwan, began sourcing produce from the farm for his two Taiwanese-inspired pop-ups, Hén-zhi and El Chino Grande, in 2019. Yang turns the farm’s wax gourd, or winter melon, into a syrup by cooking it with sugar, then strains it into black tea. Or he’ll braise the winter melon with smoked shoyu dashi broth, serving it with a shrimp coconut leche de tigre. The relationship between restaurant and farm is “symbiotic,” Yang says. “I love to develop menu items with products [Leslie] is excited about.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even the farm’s CSA members get more than just a box of produce; they, too, have an opportunity to learn more about Taiwanese food culture. And here’s where the farm really puts “radical” front and center—where farming and activism intersect. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Two years ago, for instance, members gathered for a reading of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://gracelin.com/the-ugly-vegetables/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ugly Vegetables\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a children’s book by Grace Lin. The family-friendly event started with a land acknowledgment by Christine Su, a CSA member and one of the farm’s first customers, honoring the coastal Miwok and Pomo people, who still live in the area. “We are grateful to be settlers on this land, and also are responsible for stewarding it carefully while sharing our own cultural traditions,” Su told the audience. The book reading was bilingual in Mandarin—by Su, whose family is from Taiwan—and in English, by Adrian Chang of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mykitsunecafe/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My Kitsune Cafe\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. After the reading, children had the opportunity to look at and eat some of the vegetables from the book. Many of the plants were labeled, so that kids could see how a bitter melon, for instance, grows on the vine. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many Asian Americans at the event, this celebration of vegetables not found in many Western grocery stores felt incredibly moving. “I never imagined sitting on a haystack, reading to kids in Mandarin about our vegetables, and then touring the same veggies like bitter melon and A-choy growing a few feet away, with the same kind of reverence I feel like is often reserved for heirloom tomatoes in the Bay,” Su says. “I really wish that I had had that growing up here in America.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of the CSA members, 70% of whom Wiser estimates to be Asian American, have become friends and co-conspirators. “We all want to learn more about our own Asian American culture and heritage,” Wiser says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is a lot to learn. Not everyone knows how to cook a winter melon, after all. One CSA member, Linda Tay Esposito, a food business consultant and a cooking instructor, has created a monthly itinerary based on the seasonal produce that comes in the boxes, including a Zoom cooking class that started this month. “The CSA is a community; we’re all tied together through food,” says Esposito, who was previously the director of La Cocina’s Municipal Marketplace in SF’s Tenderloin district. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last year, the names of the vegetables in each box were written on beautiful hand-lettered cards created by artist Jess Wu, which were made available to CSA members on the farm’s website. The cards were written in pinyin, bopomofo (the phonetic alphabet used in Taiwan) and Chinese characters, and some were also translated into Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese. CSA members also get access to a website full of recipes, many of them submitted by fellow customers, such as Chinese sweet and spicy pickles and winter melon soup.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897807\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2153px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897807\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The vegetables from a CSA produce box, including long beans, okra and several varieties of eggplant, arranged artfully on a white wooden board.\" width=\"2153\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-scaled.jpg 2153w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-800x951.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-1020x1213.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-160x190.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-768x913.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-1292x1536.jpg 1292w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-1723x2048.jpg 1723w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/RadicalFamilyFarms_CSA_SD-1920x2282.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2153px) 100vw, 2153px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The produce from one of last year’s CSA boxes, each vegetable labeled with its Chinese name. \u003ccite>(Sarah Deragon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While most of the farm’s focus is on the family’s Asian roots, Wiser is also exploring her father’s ancestry. She lived for some time with her paternal grandparents in Indianapolis, Indiana. She saw how her grandmother, an immigrant of German and Polish-Jewish ancestry, yearned for her own homeland—the way she shopped for vegetables, baked goods and pantry items that were tied to her culture. “I learned sourcing from my grandmother,” Wiser notes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Last season, Wiser began planting varieties of gooseberries, currants and kohlrabi in honor of her grandmother, who passed away in October before she could taste the fruits of her granddaughter’s labor. When I visited the farm in April, Wiser showed me one of the gooseberry plants—waist-high scrubs that will eventually have little green orbs popping out. “I think my grandmother would be very proud.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Near the gooseberry bush are a few other berry plants that speak to the farm’s mission and identity: Sichuan peppercorns, with their prickly heat that helps form the foundation for Taiwan’s national dish of beef noodle soup, and sweet goji berries, whose medicinal qualities infused the soups my own mother made for me after I gave birth to my daughter—part of a rich tradition of taking care of each other through food.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897264\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-160x25.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-768x122.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.momochang.com/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Momo Chang\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a freelance writer based in the East Bay and the alumni coordinator for \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://oaklandvoices.us/\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oakland Voices\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a project of the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://mije.org/\">Maynard Institute for Journalism Education\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Follow her on Twitter \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/_momo_chang\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">@_momo_chang\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How the Pandemic Brought Taiwanese Food Back to Me",
"headTitle": "How the Pandemic Brought Taiwanese Food Back to Me | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897689\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897689\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of Pintung cold noodles with peanut sauce, garnished with slivers of cucumber, against a blue backdrop.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>(Photo by Esmé Weijun Wang; design by Rebecca Kao)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]I[/dropcap] grew up as the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants—first in San Jose, and later in a South Bay suburb clocked as having only a 5.1% Asian population in 1990, when I was in elementary school. Other Asian American students were rare, and Taiwanese American students were even rarer; there were no Taiwanese American kids in my day-to-day life, as far as I knew. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese cuisine, on the other hand, remained a large part of my childhood. At home I ate light meals of vegetables and fish, with little oil, cooked by my mother. On weekends, my family went to Marina Foods or Ranch 99 for groceries after lunch at Cupertino Village, a mostly Asian shopping and restaurant center where we’d feast on soup dumplings and beef noodle soup, leaf-wrapped zhongzi and spicy string beans limp on the plate. At the end of every meal, we’d go to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/FantasiaCupertino/\">boba tea cafe called Fantasia\u003c/a> for thick, buttered toast and boba. Even back then, before boba had been widely recognized by the non-Taiwanese palate, the place was already popular among high school students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These days, as a San Francisco resident, I am sometimes asked about where to best enjoy Chinese food in the city, and my answer is usually a verbal shrug. Whereas San Francisco’s famous Chinatown is historically working-class Cantonese, most Taiwanese immigrants to the Bay Area ended up in places like Cupertino, Milpitas, Foster City and Fremont, which is why so many of the region’s Taiwanese restaurants opened there. After I moved to San Francisco, my consumption of Chinese food dropped dramatically—to say nothing of Taiwanese food, which became nonexistent. Approximately a decade had passed since I’d lived in the South Bay, and I didn’t know where to find the dishes that I had grown up eating; visiting Cupertino was no longer a regular part of my schedule. In San Francisco, I was even confused about where to find the Taiwanese grocery brands with which I was so familiar, and relied on my brother and his wife for deliveries of Bull Head barbecue sauce and pink net–wrapped packages of made-in-Taiwan rice noodles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Near the beginning of the pandemic, a friend sent me a link to \u003ca href=\"https://liangsvillage.com/pages/menu#\">Liang’s Village\u003c/a>, a Cupertino-based Taiwanese restaurant that had newly begun advertising Bay Area-wide delivery ever since it halted dine-in service during lockdown. I was delighted to find that their menu offered so many familiar dishes: preserved egg and tofu with pork sung and scallions, fried pork chop rice, beef and tendon noodle soup, and black bean with pork and bean curd noodles. These were dishes that my mother had made at home, or that I’d eaten during those weekend excursions to Cupertino.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897688\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2397px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897688\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW.jpg\" alt=\"Against a white background, a bowl of braised tofu topped with chili sauce; a spoon cuts into the tender tofu.\" width=\"2397\" height=\"1595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW.jpg 2397w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2397px) 100vw, 2397px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The stewed tofu with oyster sauce from Liang’s Village provided comfort during the pandemic. \u003ccite>(Esmé Weijun Wang)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over time, I began to order from Liang’s Village on a regular basis, rediscovering my favorites easily as the restaurant dropped large boxes of food on my doorstep. I’ve ordered four or five servings of the stewed tofu with oyster sauce at a time, enjoying the silken tofu wrapped in a wrinkled bean curd skin anytime I felt like it. When the package of Pingtung cold noodles arrived at my door—called “Cold Peanut Noodle” on the Liang’s Village menu—I dumped the entire mixture of slippery noodles, peanut-sesame sauce and julienned cucumbers into a bowl, which I gleefully enjoyed in bed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pingtung, a city located in Southern Taiwan, is where the proprietors of Liang’s Village are from. As it happens, it’s also where my mother is from; I was supposed to visit family in the Pingtung countryside in 2020 before COVID derailed those plans. Eating Pingtung-style chilled noodles in peanut sauce was one way of nearing that experience. The Liang’s noodles were almost identical to the ones my mother made when I was growing up, minus the shredded chicken breast that she added along with the slender toothpicks of cucumber. It was a dish to be enjoyed in the summer, when the temperatures sometimes reached the triple digits and we couldn’t fathom eating a hot dish. My mother would summon us with the Taiwanese call, jia bng o’ (“come to eat”). We’d gather around the dining table, waiting for my father to dine first before we all slurped and sighed with gratitude.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside tag='eating-taiwanese' label='Eating Taiwanese']Another dish that brought a flood of memories was the stewed duck wings, which Liang’s delivered frozen. My father used to bring home warm baggies of these wings from the hot dish section of Marina Foods throughout my adolescence, stashing them in the fridge for late-night snacking. It was known within the family that the wings belonged primarily to him and me, because my mother and brother didn’t enjoy them. Now, years later, living in San Francisco, I placed the frozen, vacuum-sealed packet from Liang’s Village inside our fridge. Once defrosted, the duck wings had a chewy, occasionally gelatinous texture. Without my father to share them with me, I enjoyed the wings slowly, over a period of several days, though I missed the communal joy that he and I had shared. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of my favorite things from Liang’s is a fresh-squeezed, bottled beverage called \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/B_dtcrOF_f9/\">Honey Grape Fruit Squeeze\u003c/a>. Like many fresh-squeezed juices in Taiwan, this one is cut with tea, and arrives with gorgeous jewels of pulp and chunks of peeled grapefruit that can be forked through the opening. It’s a pleasure that I enjoy by itself like a dessert—a final delight to follow the assortment of familiar dishes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It feels strange that it took a catastrophic, international pandemic—and a restaurant’s need to pivot its business during lockdown—to bring Taiwanese food back into my life. But I’ve been grateful for these familiar comforts. Being able to take solace in a spicy bowl of wrinkly bean curd has brought me closer not only to my family, but also to a culinary lineage of my ancestors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My parents moved back to Taiwan approximately a decade ago. Only recently did I talk with my mother on the LINE app about visiting near the end of the year. I’ve reached the fabled two-week point after my second dose of the Moderna vaccine; I’ve been able to dream of getting on that thirteen-hour flight again. Meanwhile, however, I have a frozen package of duck wings in the fridge, waiting for me to snip it open and enjoy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897264\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-160x25.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-768x122.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Esmé Weijun Wang is a Taiwanese American writer. She is the author of \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Border of Paradise\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">New York Times\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> bestseller \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Collected Schizophrenias\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897689\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897689\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of Pintung cold noodles with peanut sauce, garnished with slivers of cucumber, against a blue backdrop.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/PandemicTaiwanese-InArticle-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>(Photo by Esmé Weijun Wang; design by Rebecca Kao)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp> grew up as the daughter of Taiwanese immigrants—first in San Jose, and later in a South Bay suburb clocked as having only a 5.1% Asian population in 1990, when I was in elementary school. Other Asian American students were rare, and Taiwanese American students were even rarer; there were no Taiwanese American kids in my day-to-day life, as far as I knew. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese cuisine, on the other hand, remained a large part of my childhood. At home I ate light meals of vegetables and fish, with little oil, cooked by my mother. On weekends, my family went to Marina Foods or Ranch 99 for groceries after lunch at Cupertino Village, a mostly Asian shopping and restaurant center where we’d feast on soup dumplings and beef noodle soup, leaf-wrapped zhongzi and spicy string beans limp on the plate. At the end of every meal, we’d go to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/FantasiaCupertino/\">boba tea cafe called Fantasia\u003c/a> for thick, buttered toast and boba. Even back then, before boba had been widely recognized by the non-Taiwanese palate, the place was already popular among high school students.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These days, as a San Francisco resident, I am sometimes asked about where to best enjoy Chinese food in the city, and my answer is usually a verbal shrug. Whereas San Francisco’s famous Chinatown is historically working-class Cantonese, most Taiwanese immigrants to the Bay Area ended up in places like Cupertino, Milpitas, Foster City and Fremont, which is why so many of the region’s Taiwanese restaurants opened there. After I moved to San Francisco, my consumption of Chinese food dropped dramatically—to say nothing of Taiwanese food, which became nonexistent. Approximately a decade had passed since I’d lived in the South Bay, and I didn’t know where to find the dishes that I had grown up eating; visiting Cupertino was no longer a regular part of my schedule. In San Francisco, I was even confused about where to find the Taiwanese grocery brands with which I was so familiar, and relied on my brother and his wife for deliveries of Bull Head barbecue sauce and pink net–wrapped packages of made-in-Taiwan rice noodles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Near the beginning of the pandemic, a friend sent me a link to \u003ca href=\"https://liangsvillage.com/pages/menu#\">Liang’s Village\u003c/a>, a Cupertino-based Taiwanese restaurant that had newly begun advertising Bay Area-wide delivery ever since it halted dine-in service during lockdown. I was delighted to find that their menu offered so many familiar dishes: preserved egg and tofu with pork sung and scallions, fried pork chop rice, beef and tendon noodle soup, and black bean with pork and bean curd noodles. These were dishes that my mother had made at home, or that I’d eaten during those weekend excursions to Cupertino.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897688\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2397px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897688\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW.jpg\" alt=\"Against a white background, a bowl of braised tofu topped with chili sauce; a spoon cuts into the tender tofu.\" width=\"2397\" height=\"1595\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW.jpg 2397w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LiangsTofu_EsmeWW-1920x1278.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2397px) 100vw, 2397px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The stewed tofu with oyster sauce from Liang’s Village provided comfort during the pandemic. \u003ccite>(Esmé Weijun Wang)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over time, I began to order from Liang’s Village on a regular basis, rediscovering my favorites easily as the restaurant dropped large boxes of food on my doorstep. I’ve ordered four or five servings of the stewed tofu with oyster sauce at a time, enjoying the silken tofu wrapped in a wrinkled bean curd skin anytime I felt like it. When the package of Pingtung cold noodles arrived at my door—called “Cold Peanut Noodle” on the Liang’s Village menu—I dumped the entire mixture of slippery noodles, peanut-sesame sauce and julienned cucumbers into a bowl, which I gleefully enjoyed in bed. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pingtung, a city located in Southern Taiwan, is where the proprietors of Liang’s Village are from. As it happens, it’s also where my mother is from; I was supposed to visit family in the Pingtung countryside in 2020 before COVID derailed those plans. Eating Pingtung-style chilled noodles in peanut sauce was one way of nearing that experience. The Liang’s noodles were almost identical to the ones my mother made when I was growing up, minus the shredded chicken breast that she added along with the slender toothpicks of cucumber. It was a dish to be enjoyed in the summer, when the temperatures sometimes reached the triple digits and we couldn’t fathom eating a hot dish. My mother would summon us with the Taiwanese call, jia bng o’ (“come to eat”). We’d gather around the dining table, waiting for my father to dine first before we all slurped and sighed with gratitude.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Another dish that brought a flood of memories was the stewed duck wings, which Liang’s delivered frozen. My father used to bring home warm baggies of these wings from the hot dish section of Marina Foods throughout my adolescence, stashing them in the fridge for late-night snacking. It was known within the family that the wings belonged primarily to him and me, because my mother and brother didn’t enjoy them. Now, years later, living in San Francisco, I placed the frozen, vacuum-sealed packet from Liang’s Village inside our fridge. Once defrosted, the duck wings had a chewy, occasionally gelatinous texture. Without my father to share them with me, I enjoyed the wings slowly, over a period of several days, though I missed the communal joy that he and I had shared. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of my favorite things from Liang’s is a fresh-squeezed, bottled beverage called \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/B_dtcrOF_f9/\">Honey Grape Fruit Squeeze\u003c/a>. Like many fresh-squeezed juices in Taiwan, this one is cut with tea, and arrives with gorgeous jewels of pulp and chunks of peeled grapefruit that can be forked through the opening. It’s a pleasure that I enjoy by itself like a dessert—a final delight to follow the assortment of familiar dishes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It feels strange that it took a catastrophic, international pandemic—and a restaurant’s need to pivot its business during lockdown—to bring Taiwanese food back into my life. But I’ve been grateful for these familiar comforts. Being able to take solace in a spicy bowl of wrinkly bean curd has brought me closer not only to my family, but also to a culinary lineage of my ancestors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My parents moved back to Taiwan approximately a decade ago. Only recently did I talk with my mother on the LINE app about visiting near the end of the year. I’ve reached the fabled two-week point after my second dose of the Moderna vaccine; I’ve been able to dream of getting on that thirteen-hour flight again. Meanwhile, however, I have a frozen package of duck wings in the fridge, waiting for me to snip it open and enjoy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897264\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-160x25.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-768x122.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Esmé Weijun Wang is a Taiwanese American writer. She is the author of \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Border of Paradise\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">New York Times\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> bestseller \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Collected Schizophrenias\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Searching for Lu Rou Fan",
"headTitle": "Searching for Lu Rou Fan | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-13897507 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01.jpg\" alt=\"Comic panel of a bowl of braised pork over rice; the title reads "Searching for Lu Rou Fan."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897509\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02.jpg\" alt=\"A subway train is traveling above ground in the rain. The narration reads, "One of my most memorable meals in the past few years was a bowl of lu rou fan; Taipei, Taiwan 2018." 1st speech bubble: "You sure this is a good idea, bro?" 2nd speech bubble: "Yeah! Don't worry..."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897512\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03.jpg\" alt=\"The two protagonists are seated in a train car; one of them checks his watch. 1st speech bubble: "I mean we have a 3 hour layover here in Taipei. That gives us like..." 2nd speech bubble: "...what, an hour?"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897515\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04.jpg\" alt=\"The blue-and-green facade of a small restaurant that opens out onto the street; rain is coming down. 1st speech bubble: "There it is! Jin Feng." 2nd speech bubble: "This cramped little place?" 3rd speech bubble: "This tiny restaurant has been selling the same dish, lu rou fan, for over 30 years!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897516\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05.jpg\" alt=\"The two protagonists stand in front of the counter while a woman scoops meat over a bowl of rice. 1st speech bubble: "Lu rou fan is peasant food, chunks of hand-cut pork belly braised in soy sauce and aromatics, then ladled over rice." 2nd speech bubble: "All that for two dollars?!?"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897517\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06.jpg\" alt=\"The two protagonists, both bespectacled men, sit at a table devouring their lu rou fan, chopsticks in hand. Speech bubble: "I can't believe I've never had this. It's amazing! The pork is so tender! Mmm"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897520\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07.jpg\" alt=\"The two protagonists have finished their meal; one holds his stomach, stuffed. Speech bubble #1: "Lu rou fan is just something the Taiwanese side of my family grew up with." Speech bubble #2: "So good..." Speech bubble #3: "This reminds me of a story my uncle used to tell:"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897521\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08.jpg\" alt=\"The scene shifts to a flashback; a Taiwanese family sits around the dinner table, including an older gentleman in a white tank top. Speech bubble #1: "You know when we were younger our family didn't always have enough money to buy meat." Speech bubble #2: "This story again?" Speech bubble #3: "So we would go to the lu rou fan stall and ask:"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897523\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09.jpg\" alt=\"Scene shifts to an even earlier time. A young boy and girl stand in front of a food stall with their arms outstretched while the owner ladles meat onto a bowl of rice. Speech bubble 1: "This is all we have. Can you just scoop us some fat over rice?" Speech bubble #2: "PLEEEAASE???" \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897524\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10.jpg\" alt=\"The scene shifts back to the old uncle telling his story, holding his chopsticks over a bowl of rice. Speech bubble #1: "That bowl of lu rou fan with no meat, just the fat..." Speech bubble #2: "...would be the best thing we ate all week!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897528\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11.jpg\" alt=\"Three side-by-side panels show Luke tasting different versions of lu rou fan with an irritated expression on his face. The narration reads: "Here in the Bay Area I've spent years searching for a decent bowl of lu rou fan." Speech bubble #1: "So dry!" Speech bubble #2: "Why would they use ground pork?!?" Speech bubble #3: "Why is this one so sweet?!!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897544\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1.jpg\" alt=\"A yellow food truck with the name "Mama Liu Taiwanese Street Food" painted in red above its awning. The narration reads: "But nothing really scratched that itch until a recent trip to Milpitas." \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897530\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13.jpg\" alt=\"View from inside the truck, as an older woman passes food to Luke, who is waiting outside. Overhead narration: "Where Mama Liu was selling lu rou fan, stinky tofu, and other Taiwanese street foods." Speech bubble: "Just heat it up at home!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897531\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14.jpg\" alt=\"Scene shifts to the front of a house on a rainy day; Luke stands in the window while Thien rushes over with his hand shielding his head. Speech bubble #1: "Sorry bro, we have to eat outside!" Speech bubble #2: "But I'm vaccinated! And it's raining!" \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897532\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15.jpg\" alt=\"The two protagonists are sitting on the porch eating. The narration reads: "This was the old style lu rou fan we'd been craving." Speech bubble #1: "I love this hand-cut pork belly..." Speech bubble #2: "The sauce is just right!" Speech bubble #3: "And that egg!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897533\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16.jpg\" alt=\"A zoomed out view of the two friends sitting on the porch. The narration reads: "And just like that it was like we were back in Taiwan again, swapping stories, eating our nostalgia." Speech bubble: "You know this dish reminds me of the time..."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897264\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-160x25.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-768x122.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Thien Pham is a graphic novelist and high school teacher in Oakland. His food-based memoir about his family’s immigration story will be out in 2023 from First Second Books.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Luke Tsai is KQED’s food editor.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A comic about friendship, nostalgia and the search for the perfect Taiwanese braised pork belly rice.",
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"socialTitle": "Comic: Searching for Lu Rou Fan in the Bay Area %%page%% %%sep%% KQED",
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"description": "A comic about friendship, food nostalgia and the search for the perfect bowl of Taiwanese braised pork belly rice.",
"socialDescription": "A comic about friendship, food nostalgia and the search for the perfect bowl of Taiwanese braised pork belly rice.",
"title": "Comic: Searching for Lu Rou Fan in the Bay Area | KQED",
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"headline": "Searching for Lu Rou Fan",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-13897507 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01.jpg\" alt=\"Comic panel of a bowl of braised pork over rice; the title reads "Searching for Lu Rou Fan."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan01-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897509\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02.jpg\" alt=\"A subway train is traveling above ground in the rain. The narration reads, "One of my most memorable meals in the past few years was a bowl of lu rou fan; Taipei, Taiwan 2018." 1st speech bubble: "You sure this is a good idea, bro?" 2nd speech bubble: "Yeah! Don't worry..."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan02-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897512\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03.jpg\" alt=\"The two protagonists are seated in a train car; one of them checks his watch. 1st speech bubble: "I mean we have a 3 hour layover here in Taipei. That gives us like..." 2nd speech bubble: "...what, an hour?"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan03-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897515\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04.jpg\" alt=\"The blue-and-green facade of a small restaurant that opens out onto the street; rain is coming down. 1st speech bubble: "There it is! Jin Feng." 2nd speech bubble: "This cramped little place?" 3rd speech bubble: "This tiny restaurant has been selling the same dish, lu rou fan, for over 30 years!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan04-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897516\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05.jpg\" alt=\"The two protagonists stand in front of the counter while a woman scoops meat over a bowl of rice. 1st speech bubble: "Lu rou fan is peasant food, chunks of hand-cut pork belly braised in soy sauce and aromatics, then ladled over rice." 2nd speech bubble: "All that for two dollars?!?"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan05-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897517\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06.jpg\" alt=\"The two protagonists, both bespectacled men, sit at a table devouring their lu rou fan, chopsticks in hand. Speech bubble: "I can't believe I've never had this. It's amazing! The pork is so tender! Mmm"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan06-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897520\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07.jpg\" alt=\"The two protagonists have finished their meal; one holds his stomach, stuffed. Speech bubble #1: "Lu rou fan is just something the Taiwanese side of my family grew up with." Speech bubble #2: "So good..." Speech bubble #3: "This reminds me of a story my uncle used to tell:"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan07-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897521\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08.jpg\" alt=\"The scene shifts to a flashback; a Taiwanese family sits around the dinner table, including an older gentleman in a white tank top. Speech bubble #1: "You know when we were younger our family didn't always have enough money to buy meat." Speech bubble #2: "This story again?" Speech bubble #3: "So we would go to the lu rou fan stall and ask:"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan08-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897523\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09.jpg\" alt=\"Scene shifts to an even earlier time. A young boy and girl stand in front of a food stall with their arms outstretched while the owner ladles meat onto a bowl of rice. Speech bubble 1: "This is all we have. Can you just scoop us some fat over rice?" Speech bubble #2: "PLEEEAASE???" \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan09-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897524\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10.jpg\" alt=\"The scene shifts back to the old uncle telling his story, holding his chopsticks over a bowl of rice. Speech bubble #1: "That bowl of lu rou fan with no meat, just the fat..." Speech bubble #2: "...would be the best thing we ate all week!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan10-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897528\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11.jpg\" alt=\"Three side-by-side panels show Luke tasting different versions of lu rou fan with an irritated expression on his face. The narration reads: "Here in the Bay Area I've spent years searching for a decent bowl of lu rou fan." Speech bubble #1: "So dry!" Speech bubble #2: "Why would they use ground pork?!?" Speech bubble #3: "Why is this one so sweet?!!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan11-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897544\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1.jpg\" alt=\"A yellow food truck with the name "Mama Liu Taiwanese Street Food" painted in red above its awning. The narration reads: "But nothing really scratched that itch until a recent trip to Milpitas." \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan12-1-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897530\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13.jpg\" alt=\"View from inside the truck, as an older woman passes food to Luke, who is waiting outside. Overhead narration: "Where Mama Liu was selling lu rou fan, stinky tofu, and other Taiwanese street foods." Speech bubble: "Just heat it up at home!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan13-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897531\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14.jpg\" alt=\"Scene shifts to the front of a house on a rainy day; Luke stands in the window while Thien rushes over with his hand shielding his head. Speech bubble #1: "Sorry bro, we have to eat outside!" Speech bubble #2: "But I'm vaccinated! And it's raining!" \" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan14-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897532\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15.jpg\" alt=\"The two protagonists are sitting on the porch eating. The narration reads: "This was the old style lu rou fan we'd been craving." Speech bubble #1: "I love this hand-cut pork belly..." Speech bubble #2: "The sauce is just right!" Speech bubble #3: "And that egg!"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan15-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897533\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16.jpg\" alt=\"A zoomed out view of the two friends sitting on the porch. The narration reads: "And just like that it was like we were back in Taiwan again, swapping stories, eating our nostalgia." Speech bubble: "You know this dish reminds me of the time..."\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1590\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16-800x663.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16-1020x845.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16-160x133.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16-768x636.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/LuRouFan16-1536x1272.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897264\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-160x25.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-768x122.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" />\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Thien Pham is a graphic novelist and high school teacher in Oakland. His food-based memoir about his family’s immigration story will be out in 2023 from First Second Books.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Luke Tsai is KQED’s food editor.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "taiwanese-food-texture-q-boba-love-boat",
"title": "An Ode to Q",
"publishDate": 1621526401,
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"headTitle": "An Ode to Q | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897434\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897434\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle.jpg\" alt=\"A collage of Taiwanese foods (ba-wan, beef noodle soup, and boba milk tea) on a blue background.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>(Photos by ugurv/insjoy/bonchan/iStock; design by Rebecca Kao)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n 1994, after I returned from a study abroad program in Taiwan, the very first question my father asked wasn’t about the flight or what I’d learned in my language and culture classes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Did you meet any boys?” he asked, his expression hopeful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I couldn’t blame him for asking. The six-week program—subsidized by the island government to increase awareness and support for Taiwan—was unofficially known as the “Love Boat.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">None of the hundreds of college students that summer—hailing from the United States, Canada and elsewhere in the Chinese diaspora—boarded a luxury ocean liner like the one from the television rom-com. Instead, the nickname referred to the relationships that blossomed in the steamy subtropical heat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sneaking out past curfew with my newfound friends, we’d get late night snacks from the endless stalls at the Shilin Night Market, the country’s largest and most famed street food destination. Fish balls bobbing in steaming cauldrons of hot pot; tendons in big bowls of beef noodle soup; and grass jelly drinks, jiggly cubes that you chewed \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">while\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> you sipped.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside tag='eating-taiwanese' label='Eating Taiwanese']As the Communists came to power in 1949, my parents—then children—had fled with their families to the island. Later they would attend graduate school in the United States, where they would marry and settle down.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As much as my parents embraced the opportunities here, they hoped their children might retain a connection to what they’d left behind. The study tour, which began in 1967 and had its heyday during the 1990s, deployed potent political soft power, vital because Taiwan’s government\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">known officially as the Republic of China\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lacked diplomatic recognition by most countries.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That summer, I learned why: During the Cold War, the United States favored the regime in Taiwan and didn’t formally recognize Beijing’s. When diplomatic relations opened with the Communists in 1979, the U.S severed ties with Taiwan, which China still views as one of its provinces.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over the decades, tens of thousands of students have participated in the study tour, including celebrity chef Eddie Huang, who writes about it in his memoir, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fresh Off the Boat. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although I didn’t find romance, I left with lifelong friends and a lifelong love for the cuisine I encountered on my trip—especially the springy, bouncy yet gooey texture known as Q. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size='large']“It’s food that fights back, that takes the energy of your bite and returns it to you.”[/pullquote]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The term Q is derived from the word k’iu in the Taiwanese Hokkien dialect for something wavy, curvy and bendy—say, in the shape of grilled squid. Q foods, both savory and sweet, often involve glutinous rice flour, yam flour, potato or corn starches. The texture has been compared to al dente pasta, gummy bears and marshmallows in Western cuisine, but to my mind, Q is even more liminal, with a this-and-that, here-and-there quality. Items exemplifying this texture are known as QQ—that is, very Q.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Culinary History of Taipei: Beyond Pork and Ponlai\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Steven Crook and Katy Hui-Wen Hung, Q foods are “more substantial than melt-in-the mouth and [have] a delectable chewiness without being gummy.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s food that fights back, that takes the energy of your bite and returns it to you. Q is nothing like the smooth, processed American foods that go down easy, eaten mindlessly: soft serve ice cream, huge cups of soda to guzzle at red lights or boneless Buffalo wings. With Q, you pay more attention—not only to prevent choking but because your delight in it makes you more mindful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On humid nights in Taipei, steamy as the inside of a teakettle, I chomped into chewy balls of glutinous rice flour rolled in powdered peanuts and relished deep-fried fish balls on a stick. Just thinking about Q makes me crave it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During my summer in Taiwan, boba tea drinks—with the addictive Q of their tapioca pearls—hadn’t yet widely caught on, but would soon skyrocket in popularity before sweeping onto other shores, first in Asian enclaves and later in suburbia. Boba teas are now so popular that recent rumors of shortages due to shipping issues from Asia have led to collective bemoaning among fans. Those craving Q should consider its myriad forms available in the Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stir fried rice cakes with mustard greens and slivers of pork at China Bee \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> San Mateo have been a favorite at our Love Boat reunions.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though we’ve known each other more than half our lives, each time we meet it’s like no time has passed at all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ba-wan is another beloved treat, a gigantic mochi meatball that is \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a traditional southern Taiwanese snack: a fistful of pork, bamboo shoots and mushrooms, surrounded by a chewy, gelatinous wrapper—often made with rice or tapioca flour, potato and corn starches—and doused in a tangy sauce made with ketchup, rice vinegar and soy sauce. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Cafe-Taiwan-%E6%9E%97%E5%AE%B6%E8%90%AC%E5%B7%92%E8%B1%AC%E8%85%B3-Pleasanton-685514224889526/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Café Taiwan\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Pleasanton offers a glistening version for takeout. While you’re there, also get the Hakka dumpling soup, which has the look of the Frog Lady’s eggs from \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Mandalorian\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">; Grogu surely would approve of its ooey, chewy goo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/taiwancafemilpitas\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwan Café\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Milpitas recently began shipping its frozen ba-wan, five spice rolls and wan luan pork hock (named for a rural eastern township known for its unctuous pork knuckles). You can also pick up these items and more on weekends via an ordering form through its \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/taiwancafemilpitas\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Facebook group\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beef noodle soup is now considered Taiwan’s national dish—tender shank, tendons with a delicate Q texture, and broth punched up with ginger, star anise and red chilis. It arrived in the aftermath of WWII, the creation of former soldiers who became food vendors in a time marked by turmoil. Locals chafed against the Nationalist government, which violently cracked down on and imprisoned political dissidents. At the same time, in the military villages, an influx of newcomers from across the straits brought their taste for wheat-based noodles, soup dumplings and more.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Food was one of the first ways of bridging conflicting groups on the island,” notes Cathy Erway in her cookbook, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Food of Taiwan: Recipes from the Beautiful Island\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here in the Bay Area, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://liangsvillage.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Liang’s Village \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in Cupertino makes a stellar beef noodle soup, with loads of tender yet springy tendon. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mumumeals.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mumu Meals\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—founded last year by Bay Area brothers Jeffrey and Daniel Hsu—ships and delivers a frozen adaptation of their mother’s recipe. “We hope that someday, this dish is just as well known as Japanese ramen or Vietnamese pho,” Daniel Hsu says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 828px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13897471 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/tigersugar_vanessahua.jpg\" alt=\"A black sugar boba ice cream pop, streaked with caramel, against a leafy green backdrop.\" width=\"828\" height=\"830\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/tigersugar_vanessahua.jpg 828w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/tigersugar_vanessahua-800x802.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/tigersugar_vanessahua-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/tigersugar_vanessahua-768x770.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Q to the max: a black sugar boba ice cream pop. \u003ccite>(Vanessa Hua)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To finish off a meal, I’m a fan of \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">black sugar boba milk ice cream bars, which went viral on Instagram and TikTok with their photogenic, psychedelic swirls. In late May of last year—the first time I’d ventured into a Ranch 99 since the lockdown began—I raced down the aisles, double-masked, frantically grabbing items as if I were in some kind of game show.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the freezer case, I picked up two boxes of Tiger Sugar bars—“brave as a tiger,” its motto proclaims—but had no inkling of their popularity until I got to the checkout and realized the woman in front of me was buying five. (The treat is also available at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.toasttab.com/tigersugarcupertino/v3/?mode=fulfillment\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tiger Sugar\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an outpost of the Taiwanese boba shop which opened last October \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in Cupertino.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The bar itself was creamy, with the taste of whole milk, and not too sweet despite ribbons of caramel-y brown sugar, and the black boba tender—the epitome of Q—and not the frozen marbles that I feared. It was pure indulgence on a stick. As soon as I finished it, I wanted another; I wished I’d bought more boxes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">t that early stage of the pandemic, when our choices\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and our reality\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">felt so constrained, certain fads spread across social media: sourdough bread, chickpea stew, and whatever else floated across our feed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some foods we tried once, but never ate again. Now as we haltingly emerge on the other side of it, my pulse still quickens for Q.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897264\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-160x25.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-768x122.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vanessa Hua is a columnist for the \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the author of \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Deceit and Other Possibilities\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A River of Stars\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the forthcoming novel \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Forbidden City\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897434\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897434\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle.jpg\" alt=\"A collage of Taiwanese foods (ba-wan, beef noodle soup, and boba milk tea) on a blue background.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/QQ_InArticle-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>(Photos by ugurv/insjoy/bonchan/iStock; design by Rebecca Kao)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n 1994, after I returned from a study abroad program in Taiwan, the very first question my father asked wasn’t about the flight or what I’d learned in my language and culture classes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Did you meet any boys?” he asked, his expression hopeful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I couldn’t blame him for asking. The six-week program—subsidized by the island government to increase awareness and support for Taiwan—was unofficially known as the “Love Boat.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">None of the hundreds of college students that summer—hailing from the United States, Canada and elsewhere in the Chinese diaspora—boarded a luxury ocean liner like the one from the television rom-com. Instead, the nickname referred to the relationships that blossomed in the steamy subtropical heat.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sneaking out past curfew with my newfound friends, we’d get late night snacks from the endless stalls at the Shilin Night Market, the country’s largest and most famed street food destination. Fish balls bobbing in steaming cauldrons of hot pot; tendons in big bowls of beef noodle soup; and grass jelly drinks, jiggly cubes that you chewed \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">while\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> you sipped.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As the Communists came to power in 1949, my parents—then children—had fled with their families to the island. Later they would attend graduate school in the United States, where they would marry and settle down.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As much as my parents embraced the opportunities here, they hoped their children might retain a connection to what they’d left behind. The study tour, which began in 1967 and had its heyday during the 1990s, deployed potent political soft power, vital because Taiwan’s government\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">known officially as the Republic of China\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">lacked diplomatic recognition by most countries.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That summer, I learned why: During the Cold War, the United States favored the regime in Taiwan and didn’t formally recognize Beijing’s. When diplomatic relations opened with the Communists in 1979, the U.S severed ties with Taiwan, which China still views as one of its provinces.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over the decades, tens of thousands of students have participated in the study tour, including celebrity chef Eddie Huang, who writes about it in his memoir, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fresh Off the Boat. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although I didn’t find romance, I left with lifelong friends and a lifelong love for the cuisine I encountered on my trip—especially the springy, bouncy yet gooey texture known as Q. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "“It’s food that fights back, that takes the energy of your bite and returns it to you.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The term Q is derived from the word k’iu in the Taiwanese Hokkien dialect for something wavy, curvy and bendy—say, in the shape of grilled squid. Q foods, both savory and sweet, often involve glutinous rice flour, yam flour, potato or corn starches. The texture has been compared to al dente pasta, gummy bears and marshmallows in Western cuisine, but to my mind, Q is even more liminal, with a this-and-that, here-and-there quality. Items exemplifying this texture are known as QQ—that is, very Q.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A Culinary History of Taipei: Beyond Pork and Ponlai\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Steven Crook and Katy Hui-Wen Hung, Q foods are “more substantial than melt-in-the mouth and [have] a delectable chewiness without being gummy.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s food that fights back, that takes the energy of your bite and returns it to you. Q is nothing like the smooth, processed American foods that go down easy, eaten mindlessly: soft serve ice cream, huge cups of soda to guzzle at red lights or boneless Buffalo wings. With Q, you pay more attention—not only to prevent choking but because your delight in it makes you more mindful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On humid nights in Taipei, steamy as the inside of a teakettle, I chomped into chewy balls of glutinous rice flour rolled in powdered peanuts and relished deep-fried fish balls on a stick. Just thinking about Q makes me crave it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During my summer in Taiwan, boba tea drinks—with the addictive Q of their tapioca pearls—hadn’t yet widely caught on, but would soon skyrocket in popularity before sweeping onto other shores, first in Asian enclaves and later in suburbia. Boba teas are now so popular that recent rumors of shortages due to shipping issues from Asia have led to collective bemoaning among fans. Those craving Q should consider its myriad forms available in the Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stir fried rice cakes with mustard greens and slivers of pork at China Bee \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> San Mateo have been a favorite at our Love Boat reunions.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even though we’ve known each other more than half our lives, each time we meet it’s like no time has passed at all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ba-wan is another beloved treat, a gigantic mochi meatball that is \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">a traditional southern Taiwanese snack: a fistful of pork, bamboo shoots and mushrooms, surrounded by a chewy, gelatinous wrapper—often made with rice or tapioca flour, potato and corn starches—and doused in a tangy sauce made with ketchup, rice vinegar and soy sauce. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Cafe-Taiwan-%E6%9E%97%E5%AE%B6%E8%90%AC%E5%B7%92%E8%B1%AC%E8%85%B3-Pleasanton-685514224889526/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Café Taiwan\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Pleasanton offers a glistening version for takeout. While you’re there, also get the Hakka dumpling soup, which has the look of the Frog Lady’s eggs from \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Mandalorian\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">; Grogu surely would approve of its ooey, chewy goo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/taiwancafemilpitas\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwan Café\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Milpitas recently began shipping its frozen ba-wan, five spice rolls and wan luan pork hock (named for a rural eastern township known for its unctuous pork knuckles). You can also pick up these items and more on weekends via an ordering form through its \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/taiwancafemilpitas\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Facebook group\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Beef noodle soup is now considered Taiwan’s national dish—tender shank, tendons with a delicate Q texture, and broth punched up with ginger, star anise and red chilis. It arrived in the aftermath of WWII, the creation of former soldiers who became food vendors in a time marked by turmoil. Locals chafed against the Nationalist government, which violently cracked down on and imprisoned political dissidents. At the same time, in the military villages, an influx of newcomers from across the straits brought their taste for wheat-based noodles, soup dumplings and more.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Food was one of the first ways of bridging conflicting groups on the island,” notes Cathy Erway in her cookbook, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Food of Taiwan: Recipes from the Beautiful Island\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here in the Bay Area, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://liangsvillage.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Liang’s Village \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in Cupertino makes a stellar beef noodle soup, with loads of tender yet springy tendon. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mumumeals.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mumu Meals\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—founded last year by Bay Area brothers Jeffrey and Daniel Hsu—ships and delivers a frozen adaptation of their mother’s recipe. “We hope that someday, this dish is just as well known as Japanese ramen or Vietnamese pho,” Daniel Hsu says.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 828px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13897471 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/tigersugar_vanessahua.jpg\" alt=\"A black sugar boba ice cream pop, streaked with caramel, against a leafy green backdrop.\" width=\"828\" height=\"830\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/tigersugar_vanessahua.jpg 828w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/tigersugar_vanessahua-800x802.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/tigersugar_vanessahua-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/tigersugar_vanessahua-768x770.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 828px) 100vw, 828px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Q to the max: a black sugar boba ice cream pop. \u003ccite>(Vanessa Hua)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To finish off a meal, I’m a fan of \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">black sugar boba milk ice cream bars, which went viral on Instagram and TikTok with their photogenic, psychedelic swirls. In late May of last year—the first time I’d ventured into a Ranch 99 since the lockdown began—I raced down the aisles, double-masked, frantically grabbing items as if I were in some kind of game show.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the freezer case, I picked up two boxes of Tiger Sugar bars—“brave as a tiger,” its motto proclaims—but had no inkling of their popularity until I got to the checkout and realized the woman in front of me was buying five. (The treat is also available at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.toasttab.com/tigersugarcupertino/v3/?mode=fulfillment\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tiger Sugar\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, an outpost of the Taiwanese boba shop which opened last October \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in Cupertino.) \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The bar itself was creamy, with the taste of whole milk, and not too sweet despite ribbons of caramel-y brown sugar, and the black boba tender—the epitome of Q—and not the frozen marbles that I feared. It was pure indulgence on a stick. As soon as I finished it, I wanted another; I wished I’d bought more boxes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">t that early stage of the pandemic, when our choices\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and our reality\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">felt so constrained, certain fads spread across social media: sourdough bread, chickpea stew, and whatever else floated across our feed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some foods we tried once, but never ate again. Now as we haltingly emerge on the other side of it, my pulse still quickens for Q.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897264\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-160x25.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-768x122.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vanessa Hua is a columnist for the \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the author of \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Deceit and Other Possibilities\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A River of Stars\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the forthcoming novel \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Forbidden City\u003c/span>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Bay Area’s Taiwanese Food Scene Comes Into Its Own",
"headTitle": "The Bay Area’s Taiwanese Food Scene Comes Into Its Own | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897273\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897273\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main.jpg\" alt=\"A crowded night market in Keelung, Taiwan, lined with brightly lit food stalls\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>(Photo by stockinasia/iStock; design by Rebecca Kao)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or as long as I’ve lived in the Bay Area, I’ve spent more time searching for Taiwanese food than I have actually eating it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve driven 90 minutes in traffic to snag a so-so plate of stinky tofu. I’ve stood in line for four hours for takeout Taiwanese breakfast. And who knows how long I’ve spent scouring online discussion forums and Yelp listings for even the briefest mention of lu rou fan or beef noodle soup?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many of the 30,000-plus Taiwanese Americans who live in the Bay Area, Taiwanese food is largely a cuisine of nostalgia. It’s a cuisine of memories from 10 or 20 years ago and 6,000 miles away. It’s the 24-hour shao bing and you tiao joint around the corner from my grandma’s apartment in Taipei, or the night market stall where my uncle first goaded me into trying stinky tofu, or the mango shaved ice that damn near saved my life on a sweltering mid-summer afternoon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What it \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">isn’t\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a cuisine I get to experience much of in my day-to-day. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Notwithstanding a handful of suburban enclaves in places like Fremont and Cupertino, the Bay Area has never really been known as a stronghold for Taiwanese food. In wide swaths of the region, you’d be lucky to find even \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese restaurant—and even then, the food might be a pale approximation of the real deal. As Christopher Lam, a San Francisco native who co-runs the beef noodle soup pop-up \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yilanfoods/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yilan Foods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, puts it, “When was the last time you could walk around the corner and find Taiwanese food?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are signs, however, that things are changing. One of the pleasant surprises of the pandemic has been the many new Taiwanese-inspired pop-ups and Instagram-based food businesses cropping up all over the Bay, many of them to much acclaim. Yilan Foods got a full write-up in the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/New-Bay-Area-pop-up-is-delivering-on-a-Taiwanese-15883184.php\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">; during the (now-paused) weekly pop-up’s tenure on Piedmont Avenue, it routinely sold out of its beef noodle soup, aka niu rou mian, just hours—sometimes even minutes—after opening online pre-orders for the week. An East Bay pop-up called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/home_flavory_eats/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Home Flavory Eats\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> offering Taiwanese pineapple cake, or feng li su, became \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/2/9/22273464/home-flavory-eats-taiwanese-pineapple-cakes-lunar-new-year-washington-bakery\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">so popular\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that it had a weeks’ long waiting list at various points this past winter. And last month, when Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.taiwanbento.us/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwan Bento\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> served up boxes of dan bing and fan tuan at the restaurant’s first ever \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/2/19/22290174/taiwan-bento-dan-bing-scallion-egg-pancake-taiwanese-breakfast\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese breakfast\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> pop-up, the line of customers wound all the way around the block, all morning long.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897347\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1981px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897347\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021.jpg\" alt=\"Stacy Tang holds a steamed bun in the kitchen at her restaurant, Taiwan Bento.\" width=\"1981\" height=\"1321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021.jpg 1981w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1981px) 100vw, 1981px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stacy Tang (left) prepares some steamed bao at her Oakland restaurant, Taiwan Bento. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, the demand is clearly there. There are signs, in fact, that the Bay Area is on the cusp of a Taiwanese food “moment,” as a new generation of Taiwanese American cooks joins the established South Bay mom-and-pop scene. These restaurants and pop-ups have brought the cuisine of their homeland into the spotlight—and given a flicker of hope to the stinky tofu lovers and niu rou mian connoisseurs among us, who walk around in a state of perpetual longing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>One of the World’s Greatest Food Destinations\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of the problem is that in much of the United States, there still isn’t a tremendous amount of awareness about Taiwanese cuisine—or, for that matter, Taiwan itself—outside of the Taiwanese American community. The small island nation, located some 100 miles off the eastern coast of China, isn’t a member of the United Nations—and doesn’t, in fact, have official diplomatic relations with the vast majority of the countries in the world, including the United States. China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, is perpetually \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/14/is-there-really-a-risk-that-china-will-go-to-war-with-taiwan\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">threatening to invade the island\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite those thorny geopolitics, Taiwan has garnered a reputation as one the world’s greatest food destinations. But that doesn’t mean its most famous dishes have really entered the mainstream food vernacular. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stacy Tang, who runs Taiwan Bento along with her husband Willy Wang, says that when she first opened her restaurant in Oakland in 2014, many customers hadn’t even heard of Taiwan; they were just as likely to ask if the restaurant was serving Thai food. “A couple of people every week would ask, ‘What is Taiwan?’ or ‘Does Taiwan have anything to do with Japan?’” Tang says. On the menu, they listed their gua bao as a “Taiwanese sandwich” for fear that people wouldn’t understand what it was. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As recently as three years ago, when Angie Lin and Tony Tung opened \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodtoeatdumplings.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Good to Eat Dumplings\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as a permanent pop-up inside Original Pattern Brewing in Oakland’s Jack London district, the wife-and-wife duo didn’t think the cuisine had enough name recognition for them to even use the word “Taiwanese” in their branding—even though the potstickers and other dumplings they sell are distinctly Taiwanese in style. “If it’s Thai style or Vietnamese style, there’s some sort of stereotype or general public perception,” Lin says. “For us, if we mention ‘Taiwanese,’ there’s \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">no\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> general perception.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even restaurants that do explicitly self-identify as Taiwanese are often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://projects.sfchronicle.com/guides/bay-area-chinese-cuisine/cuisines/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">miscategorized, in local food coverage, as “regional Chinese”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—a politically fraught assertion that could be grounds for a fistfight if you make it in the wrong company. Though calling it a miscategorization might also be a bit too simplistic: As Lin explains, Taiwanese cuisine is a hodgepodge of influences that include the food of Taiwan’s aboriginal peoples, 50 years of Japanese occupation, dishes from many different regions of China (a result of the influx of transplants after the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949), hybridized dishes like beef noodle soup that were created by the defeated Nationalist soldiers who had fled to Taiwan, and the island’s ever-evolving street food culture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ultimately, it’s all of those influences, combined with the island’s incredible wealth of fresh produce, that give Taiwanese cuisine its own uniquely delicious character—with flavors that lean heavily on sesame oil, black bean paste and Taiwanese soy sauce, Lin explains. These are the tastes that so many Taiwanese Americans in the Bay Area have been missing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fueled by Nostalgia\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What do you do, then, if you’re a second-generation Taiwanese American kid in Oakland or San Francisco who has acquired a taste for beef noodle soup, but can’t find a bowl here that measures up to the ones you slurped down on Yongkang Street in Taipei? Maybe you try to reverse-engineer your own version.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That impulse, as much as anything, has driven the Bay Area’s new wave of Taiwanese food entrepreneurs. Fueled by nostalgia (and perhaps a little bit of desperation), these young Taiwanese American cooks are determined to replicate—and then elaborate on—the tastes and textures of whatever elusive dish first captured their imagination.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You have this memory set in your head,” says Eric Sim, who founded Yilan Foods along with Christopher Lam, Alex Tong and Itthisak “TT” Rampaiyakul. Searching for Taiwanese food in the Bay Area, Sim says, “it always felt like it was lacking something.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sim still thinks about the beef noodle soup stall outside his aunt’s apartment from a trip he took to visit his mother’s native Yilan, just southeast of Taipei, more than a decade ago. “I vividly remember which stall number it is on the street, and I can tell you that there’s a stinky tofu shop a block and a half away that serves potstickers that are amazing,” he says. “My fondest memories of Taiwan are food-related.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897357\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1125px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897357\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of lu rou fan, or braised pork rice, garnished with cilantro and yellow daikon pickles.\" width=\"1125\" height=\"1115\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan.jpg 1125w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-800x793.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-1020x1011.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-160x159.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-768x761.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1125px) 100vw, 1125px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Yilan Foods pop-up’s signature lu rou fan. \u003ccite>(Yilan Foods)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the only person of Taiwanese descent on the Yilan Foods team, Sim says the business was inspired by his family’s recipes: a beef noodle soup that’s meant to make customers think, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This brings me back to Taiwan\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and a version of lu rou fan, or braised pork rice, that’s made with hand-cut pork belly, just as all the best spots in Taiwan do. By all accounts, the pop-up has been wildly successful—enough so that its founders are in the process of securing a location for a full-fledged restaurant, most likely in San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other efforts have been more localized in scale. Ashley Yan, who started an informal lu rou fan delivery service called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://asyan77.wixsite.com/ashyansfood\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ashyan’s Lu Rou Fan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in San Francisco’s Richmond district this past winter, says her frustration with the local Taiwanese food scene, especially in SF proper, was the biggest motivation to perfect her own recipe—though getting laid off from her day job due to the pandemic also played a part: “I think it was a perfect storm,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Initially, Yan just gave away portions of her lu rou fan for free via her neighborhood’s “Buy Nothing” Facebook group. But the response was so overwhelmingly positive, Yan says, that she started taking orders and running deliveries all over the western part of the city. Each time, she’d sell out within a couple of hours. Yan has since stopped the pop-up for the time being, but her experience convinced her that the demand for Taiwanese food is as high as it has ever been: “I definitely think the Bay Area is ready for it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, Daniel and Jeffrey Hsu say their ambitions aren’t limited to the Bay Area. In August, the brothers founded \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mumumeals.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mumu\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a San Francisco-based frozen beef noodle soup delivery service that currently ships all over the West Coast. But the company’s long-term goal is to ship to anywhere in the U.S. As Jeffrey puts it, “I want to bring Taiwanese food to the national scene.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of the appeal of Mumu’s heat-and-eat niu rou mian is that it provides convenient access to a dish that so many Taiwanese Americans are homesick for. In parts of the country without a sizable Taiwanese population, it has the potential to be the best option available. But a broader sign of the company’s success is that it’s now reaching an audience that isn’t just Taiwanese—or even necessarily Asian, Jeffrey notes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That shift, perhaps as much as anything, shows the change in how Taiwanese food is now perceived—from something of a niche product, sold by immigrant chefs within their own communities, to a cuisine with recognizable mainstream appeal. In places like Los Angeles and New York, the nascent movement has already reached an even more advanced stage—to the point that many of the cities’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pineandcrane.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">trendiest\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/22412142/eric-sze-video-new-guard\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">name chef\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> restaurants are Taiwanese. Los Angeles now even has a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.katorestaurant.com/menu\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese-inspired fine dining\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> spot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Taiwanese Food Moment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">is\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taiwanese food having a bit of a moment here in the Bay Area? To an extent, the question itself feels slightly disrespectful, as though the cuisine were in need of outside validation—to say nothing of the many, many mom-and-pop Taiwanese restaurants that have been holding it down for years in the South Bay. But, for both the old standbys and the newcomers to the scene, there is a sense that more people are getting excited about Taiwanese food than ever before.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of those mainstays is the South Bay food truck \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Mama-Liu-Taiwanese-Street-Food-424857264260232/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mama Liu\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which George Fan has run since 2014 along with his mother, Mimi Liu. During the pandemic, the truck has sold its menu of traditional Taiwanese street food dishes, including what many consider to be one of the best versions of stinky tofu available in the Bay, just once a week, almost exclusively to Taiwanese customers. Its pre-order form, accessible via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Mama-Liu-Taiwanese-Street-Food-424857264260232/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the truck’s Facebook page\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, isn’t even available in English.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For businesses like Mama Liu, there’s no question that Taiwanese immigrants are the primary customer base. But these days, Fan says that he, too, is hopeful that customers of all different ethnicities might start to embrace his food. Lately, he says, he’s been asking himself, “How come Taiwanese beef noodle is not as popular as pho?” Maybe 2021 will be the year that becomes a legitimate debate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897361\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897361\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a bowl of beef noodle soup, garnished with bok choy and chopped scallions, on a wood table.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mumu’s frozen beef noodle soup may soon be available to ship anywhere in the U.S. \u003ccite>(Grace Lee)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What I know is this: All of my earliest and most consequential food memories are from the trips my family took to Taipei when I was a kid. I remember the giddy feeling of walking around the Shilin night market for the first time with a fried chicken cutlet the size of a child’s baseball mitt. I remember the specific brand of instant noodle we used to buy at the convenience store. And I remember sitting at the table with my grandmother, long after everyone else had finished eating, bonding with her over our shared dedication to picking every last morsel of meat off a steamed fish head.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ever since the start of the pandemic—or, really, since the last time I visited—I’ve been thinking about when I’d be able to board a plane to get back to Taiwan. But now, for maybe the first time, I’m also thinking about where I might eat Taiwanese food this weekend, here in the Bay Area—and wondering which dish will make me feel like I’ve gone home again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13897264\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"127\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-160x25.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Taiwan.logobreak.greyish-768x122.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Fueled by nostalgia, a new generation of Taiwanese restaurants and pop-ups are shining a spotlight on the once-overlooked cuisine.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897273\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897273\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main.jpg\" alt=\"A crowded night market in Keelung, Taiwan, lined with brightly lit food stalls\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-768x511.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/EatingTaiwanese_main-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u003cem>(Photo by stockinasia/iStock; design by Rebecca Kao)\u003c/em>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\">KQED’s \u003c/i>\u003c/em>Eating Taiwanese in the Bay\u003cem>\u003ci data-stringify-type=\"italic\"> is a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/eatingtaiwanese\">series of stories\u003c/a> exploring Taiwanese food culture in all of its glorious, delicious complexity.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">F\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>or as long as I’ve lived in the Bay Area, I’ve spent more time searching for Taiwanese food than I have actually eating it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve driven 90 minutes in traffic to snag a so-so plate of stinky tofu. I’ve stood in line for four hours for takeout Taiwanese breakfast. And who knows how long I’ve spent scouring online discussion forums and Yelp listings for even the briefest mention of lu rou fan or beef noodle soup?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many of the 30,000-plus Taiwanese Americans who live in the Bay Area, Taiwanese food is largely a cuisine of nostalgia. It’s a cuisine of memories from 10 or 20 years ago and 6,000 miles away. It’s the 24-hour shao bing and you tiao joint around the corner from my grandma’s apartment in Taipei, or the night market stall where my uncle first goaded me into trying stinky tofu, or the mango shaved ice that damn near saved my life on a sweltering mid-summer afternoon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What it \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">isn’t\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a cuisine I get to experience much of in my day-to-day. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Notwithstanding a handful of suburban enclaves in places like Fremont and Cupertino, the Bay Area has never really been known as a stronghold for Taiwanese food. In wide swaths of the region, you’d be lucky to find even \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">one \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese restaurant—and even then, the food might be a pale approximation of the real deal. As Christopher Lam, a San Francisco native who co-runs the beef noodle soup pop-up \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/yilanfoods/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yilan Foods\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, puts it, “When was the last time you could walk around the corner and find Taiwanese food?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There are signs, however, that things are changing. One of the pleasant surprises of the pandemic has been the many new Taiwanese-inspired pop-ups and Instagram-based food businesses cropping up all over the Bay, many of them to much acclaim. Yilan Foods got a full write-up in the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/New-Bay-Area-pop-up-is-delivering-on-a-Taiwanese-15883184.php\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">; during the (now-paused) weekly pop-up’s tenure on Piedmont Avenue, it routinely sold out of its beef noodle soup, aka niu rou mian, just hours—sometimes even minutes—after opening online pre-orders for the week. An East Bay pop-up called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/home_flavory_eats/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Home Flavory Eats\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> offering Taiwanese pineapple cake, or feng li su, became \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/2/9/22273464/home-flavory-eats-taiwanese-pineapple-cakes-lunar-new-year-washington-bakery\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">so popular\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that it had a weeks’ long waiting list at various points this past winter. And last month, when Oakland’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://www.taiwanbento.us/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwan Bento\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> served up boxes of dan bing and fan tuan at the restaurant’s first ever \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.eater.com/2021/2/19/22290174/taiwan-bento-dan-bing-scallion-egg-pancake-taiwanese-breakfast\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese breakfast\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> pop-up, the line of customers wound all the way around the block, all morning long.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897347\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1981px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897347\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021.jpg\" alt=\"Stacy Tang holds a steamed bun in the kitchen at her restaurant, Taiwan Bento.\" width=\"1981\" height=\"1321\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021.jpg 1981w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/048_KQEDArts_TaiwanBento_05082021-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1981px) 100vw, 1981px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stacy Tang (left) prepares some steamed bao at her Oakland restaurant, Taiwan Bento. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, the demand is clearly there. There are signs, in fact, that the Bay Area is on the cusp of a Taiwanese food “moment,” as a new generation of Taiwanese American cooks joins the established South Bay mom-and-pop scene. These restaurants and pop-ups have brought the cuisine of their homeland into the spotlight—and given a flicker of hope to the stinky tofu lovers and niu rou mian connoisseurs among us, who walk around in a state of perpetual longing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>One of the World’s Greatest Food Destinations\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of the problem is that in much of the United States, there still isn’t a tremendous amount of awareness about Taiwanese cuisine—or, for that matter, Taiwan itself—outside of the Taiwanese American community. The small island nation, located some 100 miles off the eastern coast of China, isn’t a member of the United Nations—and doesn’t, in fact, have official diplomatic relations with the vast majority of the countries in the world, including the United States. China, which regards Taiwan as a renegade province, is perpetually \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/14/is-there-really-a-risk-that-china-will-go-to-war-with-taiwan\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">threatening to invade the island\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite those thorny geopolitics, Taiwan has garnered a reputation as one the world’s greatest food destinations. But that doesn’t mean its most famous dishes have really entered the mainstream food vernacular. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stacy Tang, who runs Taiwan Bento along with her husband Willy Wang, says that when she first opened her restaurant in Oakland in 2014, many customers hadn’t even heard of Taiwan; they were just as likely to ask if the restaurant was serving Thai food. “A couple of people every week would ask, ‘What is Taiwan?’ or ‘Does Taiwan have anything to do with Japan?’” Tang says. On the menu, they listed their gua bao as a “Taiwanese sandwich” for fear that people wouldn’t understand what it was. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As recently as three years ago, when Angie Lin and Tony Tung opened \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.goodtoeatdumplings.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Good to Eat Dumplings\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as a permanent pop-up inside Original Pattern Brewing in Oakland’s Jack London district, the wife-and-wife duo didn’t think the cuisine had enough name recognition for them to even use the word “Taiwanese” in their branding—even though the potstickers and other dumplings they sell are distinctly Taiwanese in style. “If it’s Thai style or Vietnamese style, there’s some sort of stereotype or general public perception,” Lin says. “For us, if we mention ‘Taiwanese,’ there’s \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">no\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> general perception.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even restaurants that do explicitly self-identify as Taiwanese are often \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://projects.sfchronicle.com/guides/bay-area-chinese-cuisine/cuisines/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">miscategorized, in local food coverage, as “regional Chinese”\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">—a politically fraught assertion that could be grounds for a fistfight if you make it in the wrong company. Though calling it a miscategorization might also be a bit too simplistic: As Lin explains, Taiwanese cuisine is a hodgepodge of influences that include the food of Taiwan’s aboriginal peoples, 50 years of Japanese occupation, dishes from many different regions of China (a result of the influx of transplants after the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949), hybridized dishes like beef noodle soup that were created by the defeated Nationalist soldiers who had fled to Taiwan, and the island’s ever-evolving street food culture.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ultimately, it’s all of those influences, combined with the island’s incredible wealth of fresh produce, that give Taiwanese cuisine its own uniquely delicious character—with flavors that lean heavily on sesame oil, black bean paste and Taiwanese soy sauce, Lin explains. These are the tastes that so many Taiwanese Americans in the Bay Area have been missing.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fueled by Nostalgia\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What do you do, then, if you’re a second-generation Taiwanese American kid in Oakland or San Francisco who has acquired a taste for beef noodle soup, but can’t find a bowl here that measures up to the ones you slurped down on Yongkang Street in Taipei? Maybe you try to reverse-engineer your own version.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That impulse, as much as anything, has driven the Bay Area’s new wave of Taiwanese food entrepreneurs. Fueled by nostalgia (and perhaps a little bit of desperation), these young Taiwanese American cooks are determined to replicate—and then elaborate on—the tastes and textures of whatever elusive dish first captured their imagination.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“You have this memory set in your head,” says Eric Sim, who founded Yilan Foods along with Christopher Lam, Alex Tong and Itthisak “TT” Rampaiyakul. Searching for Taiwanese food in the Bay Area, Sim says, “it always felt like it was lacking something.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sim still thinks about the beef noodle soup stall outside his aunt’s apartment from a trip he took to visit his mother’s native Yilan, just southeast of Taipei, more than a decade ago. “I vividly remember which stall number it is on the street, and I can tell you that there’s a stinky tofu shop a block and a half away that serves potstickers that are amazing,” he says. “My fondest memories of Taiwan are food-related.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897357\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1125px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897357\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan.jpg\" alt=\"A bowl of lu rou fan, or braised pork rice, garnished with cilantro and yellow daikon pickles.\" width=\"1125\" height=\"1115\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan.jpg 1125w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-800x793.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-1020x1011.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-160x159.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/YilanFoods_luroufan-768x761.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1125px) 100vw, 1125px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Yilan Foods pop-up’s signature lu rou fan. \u003ccite>(Yilan Foods)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the only person of Taiwanese descent on the Yilan Foods team, Sim says the business was inspired by his family’s recipes: a beef noodle soup that’s meant to make customers think, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This brings me back to Taiwan\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, and a version of lu rou fan, or braised pork rice, that’s made with hand-cut pork belly, just as all the best spots in Taiwan do. By all accounts, the pop-up has been wildly successful—enough so that its founders are in the process of securing a location for a full-fledged restaurant, most likely in San Francisco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Other efforts have been more localized in scale. Ashley Yan, who started an informal lu rou fan delivery service called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://asyan77.wixsite.com/ashyansfood\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ashyan’s Lu Rou Fan\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in San Francisco’s Richmond district this past winter, says her frustration with the local Taiwanese food scene, especially in SF proper, was the biggest motivation to perfect her own recipe—though getting laid off from her day job due to the pandemic also played a part: “I think it was a perfect storm,” she says. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Initially, Yan just gave away portions of her lu rou fan for free via her neighborhood’s “Buy Nothing” Facebook group. But the response was so overwhelmingly positive, Yan says, that she started taking orders and running deliveries all over the western part of the city. Each time, she’d sell out within a couple of hours. Yan has since stopped the pop-up for the time being, but her experience convinced her that the demand for Taiwanese food is as high as it has ever been: “I definitely think the Bay Area is ready for it.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, Daniel and Jeffrey Hsu say their ambitions aren’t limited to the Bay Area. In August, the brothers founded \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mumumeals.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mumu\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a San Francisco-based frozen beef noodle soup delivery service that currently ships all over the West Coast. But the company’s long-term goal is to ship to anywhere in the U.S. As Jeffrey puts it, “I want to bring Taiwanese food to the national scene.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Part of the appeal of Mumu’s heat-and-eat niu rou mian is that it provides convenient access to a dish that so many Taiwanese Americans are homesick for. In parts of the country without a sizable Taiwanese population, it has the potential to be the best option available. But a broader sign of the company’s success is that it’s now reaching an audience that isn’t just Taiwanese—or even necessarily Asian, Jeffrey notes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That shift, perhaps as much as anything, shows the change in how Taiwanese food is now perceived—from something of a niche product, sold by immigrant chefs within their own communities, to a cuisine with recognizable mainstream appeal. In places like Los Angeles and New York, the nascent movement has already reached an even more advanced stage—to the point that many of the cities’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pineandcrane.com/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">trendiest\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.eater.com/22412142/eric-sze-video-new-guard\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">name chef\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> restaurants are Taiwanese. Los Angeles now even has a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.katorestaurant.com/menu\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Taiwanese-inspired fine dining\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> spot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Taiwanese Food Moment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">is\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Taiwanese food having a bit of a moment here in the Bay Area? To an extent, the question itself feels slightly disrespectful, as though the cuisine were in need of outside validation—to say nothing of the many, many mom-and-pop Taiwanese restaurants that have been holding it down for years in the South Bay. But, for both the old standbys and the newcomers to the scene, there is a sense that more people are getting excited about Taiwanese food than ever before.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of those mainstays is the South Bay food truck \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Mama-Liu-Taiwanese-Street-Food-424857264260232/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mama Liu\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which George Fan has run since 2014 along with his mother, Mimi Liu. During the pandemic, the truck has sold its menu of traditional Taiwanese street food dishes, including what many consider to be one of the best versions of stinky tofu available in the Bay, just once a week, almost exclusively to Taiwanese customers. Its pre-order form, accessible via \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/Mama-Liu-Taiwanese-Street-Food-424857264260232/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">the truck’s Facebook page\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, isn’t even available in English.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For businesses like Mama Liu, there’s no question that Taiwanese immigrants are the primary customer base. But these days, Fan says that he, too, is hopeful that customers of all different ethnicities might start to embrace his food. Lately, he says, he’s been asking himself, “How come Taiwanese beef noodle is not as popular as pho?” Maybe 2021 will be the year that becomes a legitimate debate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13897361\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13897361\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1.jpg\" alt=\"Overhead view of a bowl of beef noodle soup, garnished with bok choy and chopped scallions, on a wood table.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1365\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/05/Mumu_GraceLee-1-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mumu’s frozen beef noodle soup may soon be available to ship anywhere in the U.S. \u003ccite>(Grace Lee)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What I know is this: All of my earliest and most consequential food memories are from the trips my family took to Taipei when I was a kid. I remember the giddy feeling of walking around the Shilin night market for the first time with a fried chicken cutlet the size of a child’s baseball mitt. I remember the specific brand of instant noodle we used to buy at the convenience store. And I remember sitting at the table with my grandmother, long after everyone else had finished eating, bonding with her over our shared dedication to picking every last morsel of meat off a steamed fish head.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ever since the start of the pandemic—or, really, since the last time I visited—I’ve been thinking about when I’d be able to board a plane to get back to Taiwan. But now, for maybe the first time, I’m also thinking about where I might eat Taiwanese food this weekend, here in the Bay Area—and wondering which dish will make me feel like I’ve gone home again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"reveal": {
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"science-friday": {
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