January 2008
Food in Asia But Not Asian Food
by Celia Cheng
Taipei, the city where I grew up, is my home. Though I take a trip back annually, I have never mentioned this Asian city that’s known for its culinary treasures. Year after year, I plan on doing a feature on my home city, but I always hesitate. Sometimes, it’s hardest to present things that are closest to the heart. I fear that I won’t do it justice, or that there’s just too much to talk about.
Another consideration I struggle with is what type of cuisine I should talk about? It would make sense to present Taiwanese cuisine, but what is Taiwanese cuisine these days? Like all evolved food cultures, Taiwan’s mishmash of different cultural influences has led it to excel in many different cuisines. There of course is the indigenous Taiwanese cuisine, which consists mainly of a variety of small dishes, or “little eats” as we say in Chinese, but to me, Taiwanese cuisine is not limited to that. Since my family is Shanghainese, I grew up eating Shanghainese cuisine, and I must say that we have excellent Shanghainese restaurants in Taipei. And to complicate things more, in recent history, Taiwan was colonized by the Japanese, so there’s Japanese influence in our culture and food as well.
After two weeks of eating in Taipei, at some of my favorite restaurants, and some new ones, I found that on this trip there was really only one I wanted to share, Canoviano. It’s an Italian restaurant from Japan that opened its Taipei branch in December 2007. I know this sounds as far from Taiwanese food as you can get, but it’s not. Canoviano uses plenty of local produce and ingredients, so though the genre may be Italian, and the philosophy Japanese, the food is “Taiwanese.”
Consequently, our Paris contributor, Everett Hutt, has written a piece titled, “No Asian Food Please, I’m American,” in which on a trip to Asia, he is able to come to terms with the fact that just because it’s Asia doesn’t mean that only traditional Asian cuisine can be good.
A meal is worthwhile as long as it is prepared well using fresh ingredients and matching flavor profiles that work. These days, the most interesting and delicious foods, whether in New York, Tokyo, London or Taipei, use international techniques, ingredients and flavors.
And so it brings me great pleasure to start the year by introducing two articles on food in Asia, but not necessarily Asian food: “Canoviano” and “No Asian Food Please, I’m American.”
