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2.5.1 Szechuan Cuisine
Szechuan cuisine is red hot, “chilli hot” yet a world away from those countries with a recognized liking for heavily spiced foods. (i.e. Thailand, India and Korea) The liberal use of chilli, pepper, coriander, cassia, and five-spice powder in Szechwan’s cooking reeks of the Indian sub-continent. The researcher suggests that garlic and dried citrus peel are common ingredients in the Szechuan diet, and their inclusion in the regional dishes anchors these recipes as being of Chinese culinary lore, as opposed to a borrowed cuisine from any other culture. It could be said the cuisine of Szechuan was influenced by the Indian’s use of spice and herbs, yet poetry from 300 BC in the Songs of the South provide ample testimony of a cuisine from the region of “Hunan being highly spiced with water pepper, artemisia and cassia.”

2.6 Fujian Cuisine
Ethnic population compositional data made available by the Taiwanese Government Website, shows that 85% of Taiwan’s population today is of Han origin from the south and southeast of Mainland China, with the people of Fujian province on the eastern seaboard of China boasting a majority representation.

A review of China’s varied and complex regional cuisines may well necessitate a dissertation in itself. It is therefore proposed that the author will briefly investigate the history of China’s regional cuisine focusing on that which appears to be the most relevant to the Taiwanese diet, namely the cuisine of Fujian province and the culinary heritage of the Han tribe from the Fujian area. 

The food groups of most interest to the writer are those indigenous to China’s south, that is to say south of the Yangtze River. Many scholars share a similar view that ultimately China’s two distinct gastronomic camps straddle the Yellow river.  
The foods of the Fujian regions are salted with ingredients deriving from the natural environment. Geography has used heavy brushstrokes on the Fujian people’s daily diet, hence the ubiquitous use of fish and seafood, whether from the sea or the river. Anderson, in agreement with other prominent scholars suggests that, “Fujianese culinary art is recognized by its extensive repertoire of soups and the knife-cutting skills of its chefs.”
Techniques and cooking methods of Fujian cooking include steaming, braising, and slow and quick boiling methods along with stewing, salting, sun-drying and pickling. As can be seen by the above-listed techniques, the consumption of wet-meal items is very much a part of the daily diet, whether recognizable as a soup or stew.

The most famous regional dish of the Fujian region is the slow-fired clay pot dish called Buddha jumps over the wall, a combination of fowl and seafood with pork and rice wine, simmered forever over a low flame.

Another noteworthy characteristic of Fujianese cooking is the use of pork, the combinations of pork and vegetables, and the fact that Fujian food tends to be characterized by a fondness for dipping sauces. These dips accompany specific dishes and range from crushed garlic in oil for poached poultry (Hainan chicken) to sate sauce and sweet malted syrups as an accompaniment for boiled pork, fish balls and meats used in the preparation of the Mongolian style hot pot.

The food staples (cereals) of the Fujian people are similar to all (Chinese) southerners, there existing a dominant rice culture, supplemented with wheat, root vegetables such as taro and the sweet potato, which provide the starch in the daily diet.
 The incorporation of soybeans in Fujian cuisine features as prominently as it does throughout all of China.

Animal-sourced protein is often limited (in the coastal areas of China) with portions of the daily protein needs frequently being supplied by peanuts. According to the researcher’s father-in-law, Liu Tse Kuan, a salad of tofu, thousand-year egg and peanuts is a common dish gracing many a domestic table in the heat of summer. The fruits of the tropics are well represented in such a cuisine and include the litchi, longan (dragon eye), banana, pineapple and sugar cane.

Pomelo, sesame, rape, along with tea oil, bamboo and mushrooms are all to be found in the Fujian diet. Peculiar to the Fujian culinary style is the use of red distiller’s grain, glutinous rice, fermented with red yeast and sealed in jars for at least a year; the grain is then used to flavour meats, poultry, and fish and often added to stir-fried vegetables. The fermented grain adds a sweet and sour fragrance and is used extensively throughout Fujian province.

Anderson raises an interesting characteristic of Fujian cooking, that being the use of lard as cooking oil. He reasons that the “land being mountainous provides much fodder for pigs but little arable land for the cultivation of oilseeds” further explaining that “ the use of lard may now simply be a preference.”
 The Mongolian fire pot is a distinctly northern creation that may have reached its pinnacle in the southern regions of China. This is a dish that is cooked around a central chimney stoked with coals, in a moat filled with a stock made of pork or chicken. The fire pot commands centre stage at the table with plates of sliced meats and raw vegetables ready to be cooked in the boiling stock with the aid of small wire baskets. The cooked meats are then dipped into any number of accompanying dipping sauces. When all the garnishes are used up the highly flavoured stock, enriched by all that has just been cooked in it, is typically drunk to end the meal.

Although the Mongolian fire pot hails from the northern regions of China, many local variations of this northern favourite are represented in the Fujian area and localised versions can be found on menus in Taiwan and Japan.

2.7 Ancient Chinese Food-Ways: Han 206 BC~ AD 220
According to Yu Ying Shih, a contributing author to K.C Chang in his work, “Food in Chinese Culture, research pertaining to food history dating back to the first-century Han Chinese is often best observed through archaeological and textual evidence. Poetry is also considered to be a reliable source of information into the possible cooking techniques and ingredients of the ancient Chinese people.  The archaeological excavation of tombs showcasing stone and rock murals depicting food, kitchen and banquet scenes, have also provided valuable clues as to the cooking styles and methods of the early Han Chinese people. 

2.8 Archaeological Discoveries of Food and Foodstuffs
In 1972, Chinese archaeologists made a spectacular archaeological discovery uncovering what is now known as ‘Han Tomb No. 1 at Ma Huang-Tui’. Of particular interest to the researchers of gastronomy as regards this “find”, was the discovery of remnant food and the burial gifts as a reference to food and eating in Han China. Amongst the rich burial remains unearthed from Tomb No. 1 were 48 bamboo cases and 51 pottery vessels of various types. Included in the tomb, was an additional cache of hemp bags containing a variety of agricultural produce.

All of these items have now been identified and the following is a list of those findings, which bear relevance to the genesis of contemporary Taiwanese food habits.
Grains: rice, wheat, glutinous millet, millet, soybean, red lentil
Seeds: hemp, mustard
Fruits: pear, jujube, plum, strawberry
Roots: ginger, lotus root
Animal meats: hare, dog, pig, deer, ox, and sheep
Bird meats: goose, duck, chicken, pheasant, crane, pidgeon, turtledove, owl and magpie.
Fish: carp, bream, perch
Spices: cinnamon bark, and galangal.
In addition to the discovery of food remains, the excavations uncovered 312 inscribed bamboo slips giving additional insight into cooking methods, along with seasonings and various food items not found amongst the other remains. Yu Ying-Shih further records a good supplementary food list, which includes, “melon (cucumber), bamboo shoots, taro, and goosefoot within the vegetable category, together with quail, wild duck and eggs, within the bird group.” Of particular interest was the information gleaned from the slips, relating to the specific cooking methods and seasonings used at the time, including, salt, sugar, honey, soy sauce, and leaven.

 Yu elaborates on some of the cooking and preserving methods, which appeared to include, “roasting, scalding, and shallow frying, steaming, deep-frying, stewing, sun-drying, and pickling.”

The above list, although quite extensive, is by no means complete and, as Anderson  points out, “the Han Chinese were the architects of Chinese agricultural practices introducing many new plant species acquired from abroad during the reign of Emperor Wen.”

In 178 BC, Emperor Wen established irrigation practices during the Han dynasty and introduced the scheduled fertilizing, watering and planting calendars throughout China. During this period, samples of alfalfa, grapes, carrots and spinach were transported from Central Asia to China by way of the silk-road. Further popular foodstuffs of the time, other than that which had been recorded by Anderson or other scholars included sesame, adzuki beans (canellini), cabbage, spring onions, miso, watercress, thyme, maize, horsemeat, turtle, peppers (dried), chestnuts, daylilies, and wax-apple.
It would likely appear, although not officially confirmed, that the pictures on walls of the Ma-wang-tui tomb, revealed slow braising techniques with combinations of meat and vegetables, demonstrating the early stages of the use of the wok, it having been previously suggested by both Anderson (1988) and Chang (1977) that the Han people may have introduced the quick stir-fry style of Chinese cookery that is so recognizable in today’s modern Chinese cookery.
Significant contributions of new foodstuffs by the Han Chinese include ground wheat flour, which was then used by the peasant class to produce wheat noodles (mein), steamed buns (man-tou) and sesame seed cakes (Tsao-bing).

Personal observation by the researcher over the period of this research project would appear to suggest that the popularity of wheat noodles, steamed breads and sesame flavoured bread products continue to be enjoyed by the people of Taiwan today.

3.0 Taiwan: Culinary history (Aborigine tribes)
Paul Ibis, one of the many explorers of China in the late nineteenth century, declared the foods of the Saprek tribe people in the mountainous regions of Taiwan to be “not half bad”, writing in his diary that “the cuisine of these people was every bit as good as, and perhaps even better than the Chinese culinary fare he already knew.”
The traditional foods that sustained the indigenous people of Taiwan for centuries have been well documented by seventeenth-and eighteenth-century explorers and missionaries. The writings of Biernatzki document the geographical findings of Carl Ritter (1835) and Robert Swinhoe (1866) and provide an enchanting picture of an island paradise.

3.1 Foods of the savages
William. A Pickering documented many of the foods eaten by the “mountain people” (aborigines) of Taiwan in his writings Among the Savages of Central Formosa, his rather short list of such dietary items including, “millet, glutinous rice, taro, dried venison, bear’s flesh and wild boar”. Pickering also recognised these mountain people’s skills as fishermen subsequently adding seafood and fresh-water fish to the list and noting some evidence of cannibalism in the ritual drinking of “human brains mixed with a local spirit.”

Another adventurer, George Psalmanazaar writes of a “fantastical Isle called Formosa where breads and fruits of the earth abound.” His apparent ramblings, although appearing to be a little eccentric, shed light upon a level of sophistication in the mountain people’s culinary expertise that was not only well advanced, but also quite different to the foods of Han Chinese migrants of Fujian descent that represented contemporary Taiwanese society.

Psalmanazaar recorded the production of breads made from root vegetables (possibly turnip) and gives examples of dough made from wheat (man-tou). Pork appeared to be an acceptable meat as far as the aboriginal people were concerned, although the people appeared to shun pigeon, turtle and pheasant classifying them as taboo, whilst eggs from geese, ducks and chickens were added to an already protein-rich
diet.Psalmanazaar appears to skirt the details of culinary technique, as far as the mountain people were concerned, he reporting that, surprisingly there seemed to be an absence of stewed foods in the daily food habits of Taiwan’s indigenous tribal people.
These small details provide a glimpse into the cultural heritage of the local Taiwanese aborigine distinguishing them from the Fujian immigrants, as it has already been established that the Fujian cuisine is well known for it’s inclusion of stews in the daily diet.
The researcher suggests that the aforementioned cuisine from the Fujian regions of mainland China is the genesis of a cuisine we now recognise as

Taiwanese, yet the local dishes generated by the indigenous tribes of Taiwan bear little resemblance to any of Mainland China’s regional food-ways. In essence, it could be said, Taiwan appears to be an island of two distinct cuisines currently being attributed to Taiwanese culinary heritage. 
Recorded lists of foodstuffs consumed and documented food-ways show the Taiwanese aborigine have reached a level of culinary sophistication that could rival many of today’s civilised societies. For example, the observation by Pickering of air-dried venison shows the indigenous Taiwanese mountain people to be well aware of various food preservation techniques. Distilling of grain alcohol was evident as seen by the inclusion of fermented spirits during times of celebration, and also interesting to note is the mention of “glutinous rice” as a dietary staple.
The citing of glutinous rice as a daily staple may well prove to be another distinguishing trait separating some of the indigenous Taiwanese from their migrant fellow countrymen. As Anderson points out, “very few communities use glutinous rice as a daily dietary staple.”
 
3.2 Food Sources (Hunter/ Gatherers)
High on the list of priorities for the subsistence of the aboriginal tribes was agriculture, and the diets of the different aboriginal tribes reflect the environment in which these aborigines lived. Gathering of food was a most-basic means of subsistence, with virtually all aboriginal tribes incorporating food gathering as a supplement to their daily diet.

 In gastronomic terms the most notable amongst all the aboriginal tribes were the Ami people, well known for their uncanny ability to recognise a wide range of herbs and wild leaf vegetables in the natural environment, with more than a hundred different wild leaf plants constituting a component of the diet of the Ami people.

 The Bunn tribes also introduced bamboo shoots, ju-jubes, tree fungus and wild rice into the daily diet of many of today’s Taiwanese households. The Yami also depended on gathering plants and animals as a major part of their diet. Commonly eaten items for the Yami included ferns, mountain perilla, lintou, palm hearts and the lily flower, with small reef fish, crabs and shellfish constituting a part of their daily diet.

Hunting was second in importance to agriculture for most aboriginal tribes in Taiwan, hunting, being considered to be the work of men, whilst gathering, tending to crops and the husbandry of domesticated animals was more the responsibility of aboriginal women. The most common animals hunted at the time were deer, wild goats, bears, hare, leopard and pheasant.

Fishing played a major role in the food acquisition process of all the coastal dwelling aboriginal tribes, especially amongst the Ami people, and the island dwelling Yami tribe, with fish and seafood commanding a prominent role in the daily diet of the Taiwanese aboriginal. With the exception of the Bunn people from the central mountain regions, fishing was considered the easiest way to provide for the daily nutritional requirements of the people.

The practice of animal husbandry appears to have contributed little to providing for the dietary requirements of the various aboriginal tribes. Bee- keeping was practiced on a rather small scale, such practice producing barely sufficient product to provide for a handful of families. Chickens and goats were a domesticated food source along with dogs, and the Taiya and Tsou tribes dabbled in fish farming with, it would appear, little success.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, all the people of Taiwan’s aboriginal tribes-people practiced agriculture (e.g. cultivating millet, sorghum, maize, peanuts, broad beans, tobacco, taro, sweet potato, onions, pumpkin, bamboo, peppers, dry-land rice and paddy rice). These people were skilled agriculturalists and they obviously using methods commonly associated with those of their respective cultural heritage.
 Anderson was obviously impressed with the status of agriculture in Taiwan and remarked that, “Taiwan’s cornucopia of fruits and vegetables would be the envy of the world.”