Journalist Clarissa Wei and chef Ivy Chen join us this week to talk about their new book Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation. According to host Solarina Ho, Made in Taiwan is both timeless and timely, and is more than a recipe book. It’s a celebration of Taiwanese culture and its people through its unique culinary identity.
In this episode, we discuss how food fits into discussions around identity, common culinary misconceptions, Indigenous and Hakka influences, how Clarissa and Ivy designed the recipes, as well as the contrast between Western coverage of cross-straight tensions and the local mood and mindset. This episode is jam packed with a lot of behind-the-scenes tidbits and discussions of Taiwan’s history and culture — make sure to tune in!
(Photo Credit: Yen Wei and Ryan Chen)
Shownotes:
Buy Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation
The New Yorker: The Quest to Save Chili Peppers, By Clarissa Wei
Guest recommendations:
Netflix’s Wave Makers
Stop doomscrolling!
About Clarissa Wei:
Clarissa Wei is a Taiwanese American freelance journalist, based in Taiwan. She’s written for many publications and produced numerous videos about food, politics and culture. Her writing has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, Foreign Policy, National Geographic, among others, and she has field-produced videos for VICE News Tonight, 60 Minutes, Vox, and SBS Dateline. She was also an award-winning senior reporter at Goldthread, a video-centric travel and culture imprint of the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she now reside in Taipei with her family. She’s on Twitter @dearclarissa
About Ivy Chen:
For more than 25 years, Ivy Chen has been teaching the joys of Taiwanese culinary traditions to thousands of students from all over the world. You can find her online at kitchenivy.com, where she offers private cooking classes, fresh market and food tours, sampling street and restaurant foods around Taipei. She’s also written about food and cooking for domestic publications and recognized for her expertise in Taiwanese cuisine.
About Solarina Ho:
Solarina Ho is a freelance reporter and writer with two decades of journalism experience, most of which was spent at Reuters. She currently writes on a broad range of health, general, and business news for various publications and organizations, with a particular focus on COVID-19. Her personal areas of interest include topics related to China, women’s issues, media/journalism, immigration, the environment, space exploration, technology, and pop culture (with a particular weakness for Asian dramas). She’s on Twitter @shtweet