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Cuisine Glossary
| You have reached our International Cuisines and information on all aspects of a countries cuisine.
We will try to explain the culture, significant influences, climate, and other factors that have come together to create a distinct style. For example: Spanish, Mexican or Japanese. |
Taiwanese Cuisine
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Taiwanese cooking is an interesting branch of the Eastern style, with a strong Japanese and Chinese influence. Taiwanese Food is light, simple, easy to prepare, and is often liberally spiced with ginger; fried dishes are frequently cooked in pork fat. Taiwanese cuisine features excellent seafood. Two basic influences have driven the development of Taiwanese cuisine: the unique geography of Taiwan, and international influences.
Natural resources have always been limited in Taiwan. The island's population density of 582 people per square kilometer is even more staggering considering that only 20% of the land is arable, with the rest being mountainous terrain. With such limited farmland, people rely on the sea to provide the essential proteins. The dominant role of fish and other seafood continues in contemporary Taiwanese bill of fare. The scarcity of natural resources has made for hard living on the island. Taiwanese people as young as 30 years old can often recall their childhoods in which there was not enough rice to go around--so sweet potatoes or taro roots had to be used as a &supplement making a soupy rice in order to fill everyone's bowl. This congee with root vegetables is a classic Taiwanese dish. Many traditional dishes show similar innovation: A soup with pork bones, pineapple, and bitter melon, for example. As the Taiwanese had to make do with very little, they showed remarkable adaptiveness and creativity when it came to cuisine. Source: HungryMonster Writers |