Taiwan recipes
Recipes from Taiwan: home cooking with cultural background, ingredient substitutes and step-by-step instructions.
Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup: Red-Braised with Doubanjiang and Star Anise
A recipe for hong shao beef noodle soup, Taiwan's signature noodle dish, braised for 2 hours with beef shank, doubanjiang, star anise, and soy sauce. The theories of its origin in the military villages of Gangshan, Kaohsiung, the three styles (red-braised, clear-simmered, tomato), the heat that keeps the beef tender, and pairing with noodles and bok choy.
Xian Su Ji (鹹酥雞): Taiwanese Night Market Fried Chicken with Five-Spice and Sichuan Pepper Salt
A recipe for xian su ji, the signature night market snack of Taiwan, made with chicken thigh, five-spice, Shaoxing wine, sweet potato starch, and basil. Learn about night-snack culture, the oil temperature for a crisp double fry, how to make the Sichuan pepper salt, and how to check that the chicken is cooked through.
Taiwanese Barrel Chicken (Wengzai Ji, 甕仔雞): Whole Roast Chicken at Home
Taiwanese barrel chicken (甕仔雞) in a home oven, with no clay jar or charcoal. How to dry the skin, build five-spice and dark soy flavor, render the chicken fat, check the internal temperature, shop for it, store it and fix common failures.
Danbing: Taiwan's Breakfast Egg Crepe
Danbing (蛋餅) is the egg crepe of Taiwanese breakfast shops. A home recipe covering the batter thin enough to cook as a wrapper, what tapioca starch does, how to fuse the egg to the crepe, a soy-paste-style sauce, and storing and reheating.
Lu Rou Fan: Taiwan's Braised Pork Rice from the Night Market
Taiwanese lu rou fan (braised pork rice) made at home: why the pork belly is cut into 1.5 cm cubes, where to stop with star anise and dark soy, the difference between northern lu rou fan and southern rou zao fan, the heat that gets the braising liquid to cling to rice, storage, substitutions, and what to buy first.