Monday, August 29, 2016

鹿港尋味


I was quite taken by Xin Dai's (心岱) essay about stewed ducks, her parents and herself in a separate compilation. Went out to buy her recently published book 《鹿港尋味》(loosely translated into 'Searching for Flavors in Lugang', or Lukang, a township in Changhua County, Taiwan).

I like this sort of books about food when it also takes the trouble to introduce the historical development of cuisines. Xin Dai explains how Lugang got its notable dishes and how the town built its bonds with homegrown chefs and foods. She talks more about her father who is a learned businessman, and how she became intimately acquainted with foods and flavors as a young child following her father around in the kitchen and restaurants, and observing his friendship flourish with his friends who were chefs.

我的父親沒有買過玩具給我,我的童年除了墨香與貓咪外,難忘的就是食物的滋味,他從未希望我成就什麼,只是揭露了一個好玩的角落、讓我窺見人間有天堂,想來,父親影響我的就是讓我分享了他的浪漫與祕密。

Her book holds photos of the dishes she talks about, together with recipes. Hahaha. Definitely saved me from a lot of googling for food photos while reading. Often, I have no idea of what the foods are till I see the images online, and the recipes give it an additional boost in case I somehow feel like re-creating any of the dishes. :P

In 《最草根的筵席文化:辦桌》, it's quite an educational read about those 'town banquets' (辦桌) that temples or village heads host. The chefs who provide the food are often cooking in open-air kitchens over charcoal stoves. I guess this is a familiar sight in Singapore about a decade ago? I've seen those Chinese temples' festivities which do banquets that way. Too young to have known kampung feasts which would have been similar. Now because of the convenience of catering and hygiene, it's easy to simply cater from a central kitchen. The last time I ate a meal like that, was in northern Yunnan during a village festival. There's something really charming about it, and those memories last a lifetime.


Lugang is next to the sea, so seafood is plentiful. Mantis shrimp (蝦蛄) are in season during spring festival but mainly eaten by the poorer folks with porridge because of its natural saltiness, discussed at length in the chapter 《非蝦非蟹:蝦蛄(蝦猴)》. Apparently prawn balls and shrimp cakes (用沙蝦做蝦丸、閩南語稱‘熗蝦’) are popular in Lugang. Those make interesting points to know. But I'm hot about deep fried items. Not even if they're done in an air-fryer. Also less keen on the noodle or pork dishes. Of course the local small oysters are popular too, not eaten raw, but cooked in all forms of soup, omelette, noodles and fried patties (蚵仔煎、蚵仔湯). The stomach of the drum fish (鮸魚) is a delicacy, meticulously recounted in 《乾貨中的鑽石:鮸魚肚》. 

台灣俗語說:「有錢吃鮸,無錢免吃。」古人認為有錢的時候,寧可捨棄鮑魚、龍蝦,也要選擇鮸魚,這意味著鮸魚肉的美味是人間極品,不可錯過。另有美食排行俗語這樣說:「一午、二鮸、三家鱲。」鮸魚雖然排行第二,但「鮸魚肚」卻是乾貨中的鑽石。

There's a number of other dishes that piqued my interest. In this book, Xin Dai talks about stewed duck (燉鴨) again, and gave a detailed recipe on how to cook it. It's the same essay as the one published in Jiao Tong and Hong Huishan's 'Best Taiwanese Food Writing 2015', 焦桐和洪珊慧主編的《飲食文選》. In this book, she wrote  a variation with a ginger-based gravy as well, 薑母鴨. Those look good. Unfortunately I don't get very good quality ducks in Singapore, unless I order them specially from say...Huber's and other similar butchers. The cost of the ingredients is going to be slightly daunting; that means I can't afford to screw up the cooking process. Ugh.

姑婆曾交代我,燉煮薑母鴨不難,這是運用時間來入味的料理,時間等同調味料,不能糟蹋了。 
是不能糟蹋時間,還是不能糟蹋食材?當時,我不明白姑婆的意思,也不敢問,直到磨薑時殘留沁入手指的辛辣味完全消失時(每天洗手百來次,洗了三個多月,幾乎罹患強迫症),我才懂得這道辛酸的料理,正是我的「心經」。


Then there's the chapter 《一年一次的天賜佳餚:烏魚子》which talks about Taiwan's high quality mullets (烏魚). Or rather their roe烏魚子 or what we call 'bottarga'. The fish is in season for the 10 days before and after winter solstice, and Lugang is right along the southwest Taiwan seas where they spawn. The fish is bursting with rich roe by the time they move into the seas off Lugang. The chapter included a paragraph on how to bake/grill your roe. Mmmmm, what I love, karasumi. I make a note to hit Japanese restaurants during this season to eat all I want, and I try to get a few pieces from Taiwan as well to prep it at home for awesome nibbling. The Taiwanese make expensive gifts out of this luxury product. The author also mentioned about rampant corruption in the town in the early days when she was a child, by way of trading in mullet roe.

記得小時候有一陣子,常會在午夜聽到有人敲門,聽說是稅務機關人員來盤查。為何在午夜查稅?其實擺明了就是來索賄,查稅只是讓商家恐懼的藉口罷了,這在1940、1950年代的台灣是常見的事。那時媽媽一邊哭,一邊與父親大吵,大家都難以入睡;讓我更難忘的是,次日媽媽就會去南北乾貨店訂烏魚子,一訂就是兩打-表示有許多人頭需要打點。在那個黑暗時代,小民為了營生,只能忍辱付出昂貴代價買平安。

The book included a map of Lugang. I'm almost tempted to make a trip to visit the area. I'm still not impressed with what I ate in Taipei on all those trips. Perhaps I wasn't looking hard enough because these books about Taiwanese food have told me all about those yummy food that I couldn't easily find in Taipei if routes on work trips don't lead me there. Somehow, I feel that the best Taiwanese dishes (especially non-pork based) are found in the small towns.

No comments: