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6.4 Breakfast: The Shift in Cereals

Ask any chef and it is likely that he/she will suggest that the preparation of breakfast is the most demanding of meals (pers. observ.).All major hotel chains provide an array of breakfast specials catering to the (presumed) stereotyped tastes of their guests’ countries of origin. International hotel chains throughout the world clearly need to cater to a wide range of ethnic consumer choices.

The mainstay of breakfast shops and vendors catering to the Taiwanese workforce over the last 25 years has been fried bread sticks (you-tiao), hot soy milk (dou-jiang) and sweet buns. Rural Taiwan still subsists upon an early morning meal based upon rice in the form of congee (shi fan), while many young students can be seen devouring another Japanese cultural hybrid called  (fan twan), a scoop of sticky rice stuffed with peanuts, dried pork, pickles, egg, and (you tiao), scrunched together and rolled into a ball. (Fan twan), as a breakfast choice is heavy, and although many vendors island-wide specialise in this breakfast staple, these vendors do appear to be facing increased competition from outlets selling alternative style breakfast products.

Supported by the evidence of a significant increase in the number of bakeries, cafes and road-side breakfast stands offering an alternative of breads, pastries, breakfast burgers and sandwiches to the Taiwanese consumers, it would appear to this researcher, as a restaurateur, that the Taiwanese consumer is today displaying a preference for a lighter wheat-based breakfast over the more traditional rice-based early morning staple.

Government figures for local rice production for the year ending 2003 show a significant drop of 140,000 tons over the previous ten-year period. This figure in terms of useable arable land amounts to an overall reduction in rice acreage of 35,000 hectares over the corresponding period. By comparison, the government statistics for the import quotas of wheat show a steady increase year upon year from 1985 to 2003. Records show that the quantity of cereals imported into Taiwan from 1985 to 2003 was 6.7 million metric tonnes. Government statistical data on the import of cereals

show that, in 1985, Taiwan imported 2.6 million metric tonnes. The statistics for consumption of cereals 2003 show an increase of 4.1 million metric tonnes from 1985. 

Determining the pivotal changes in Taiwanese breakfast dining habits leaves us with ample room for debate. It may well be argued that the five-star hotels in Taiwan initiated the “continental airy croissant with a coffee and juice mindset”. After all, upon opening, they immediately set to making a western-style of breakfast available for the international traveller, with local staff being trained to serve the foreign breakfast to hotel guests (pers. observ.). The researcher suggests that exposure to alternative breakfast foods has inevitably led to a greater awareness amongst Taiwanese of foreign food-stuffs and appears to have encouraged discourse relating to foreign eating habits amongst friends and family.

Some may argue that Taiwan’s coffee shop culture, another Japanese import deriving from the 1950’s and 60’s, was instrumental in the wave of changes in food-habits in Taiwan over the last 25 years that we now take for granted. The accepted time for drinking coffee actually originally coincided with the teatime culture of Taiwan’s elite. For the struggling coffee shops with limited appeal, it quickly became apparent that if they were to survive they needed to extend their hours of business (pers. observ.) coffee doesn’t sit well after dark, thus leaving the morning as the obvious alternative. From the humble beginnings of an early-morning coffee to the Taiwanese culture of the set menu…breakfast…the Taiwanese style breakfast, in a western mode eventually became decidedly” in vogue”. Suddenly, croissant, scrambled eggs and French toast was all the rage.

The growing popularity of coffee on the island forced McDonald’s to extend its range of beverages, suddenly regular American percolated coffee wasn’t good enough; espresso and cappuccino were added in order to satisfy an increasingly sophisticated Taiwanese coffee culture. It is important to note that Taiwan’s beverage of choice is tea, preferably oolong tea. Interestingly, McDonald’s has not localised its menus with the indigenous favourite but instead chose to introduce espresso machines, thus aligning themselves with the growing coffee culture phenomenon (pers. observ.).          
 
In stereotyping the standard breakfast menu by way of national heritage, the morning meal of a bread or wheat based item with coffee has become a marker of change in the evolution of Taiwanese food- habits. The researcher is inclined to agree with, Kao, the writer of the article for the publication, Taiwan review, in her observations that, “changes in the breakfast meal alone, is a marker of change in the shifting food-habits of the Taiwanese people.”
 
It would be grandiose, however to suggest that the whole of Taiwan society is now waking up to the surprises of a new way of eating the morning meal. It would appear to point out here, that the acquisition of relevant data with respect to the presumed changing food-habits of the Taiwanese people over the proposed study period has been conducted in a predominately urban locale. To say the rural population will likely follow suit would, at this point in time, be pure speculation.

6.5 Lunch and Dinner

In reality, the “buffet”, that rather orderly lazy Susan, has been a mainstay of the Taiwanese food scene for quite some time (pers. observ.). Traditional cafeterias displayed their daily dishes “canteen style” previously and today many of the vegetarian restaurants, catering to the lunch and dinner crowd, still use the “buffet” system for the presentation of their fare (pers. observ.).
    
This researcher would suggest that one significant marker of the changes in the Taiwanese food system, as seen through the introduction of western-style buffets in Taiwan, would not appear to be the buffet setup as a vehicle for the sale of food, but rather, the inclusion of raw foodstuffs in the form of western style green leafy salads alongside the traditional Taiwanese cooked items (pers. observ.). The categorisation of western-style salads as raw foods does not in this case, include raw fish (sashimi), which, as has already been established is a “borrowed food item” deriving from Japan.
 
6.6 Fast Food

It has been common practice for the humble hamburger, made from pork mince, housed in a bun, and smeared with ketchup, to have been included as a regular fare on the Taiwan breakfast scene for quite some time (pers. observ.).

The notion that fried chicken from KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), the McDonald’s hamburger, or the Starbucks cappuccino was introduced, as a radically new product to the Taiwanese public in recent years is perhaps a misconception. Coffee beans were cultivated in Taiwan and exported by the Japanese during colonial times, and the localisation of Japanese coffee shop culture in Taipei city was well and truly established early in the twentieth century.

Early Fujianese cooks, were noted for their regional cooking style and love of deep fried products, as Anderson observed that, “Fujianese cooking is distinguished by its widespread use of lard as cooking oil.” Anderson noted that their lard based diet testified to deep-frying as an often-used medium in the Fujian culinary repertoire. Challenge the memory of the local Taiwanese people regarding their recollection of the first time they sampled the local variation of highly seasoned, deep-fried chicken in a disposable container, and the answer will no doubt vary from 20 to 25 years earlier, well before the introduction of K.F.C. In the 1980’s, it was the method of butchery of the chicken that separated the local product from the import equivalent, and the same is true today (pers. observ.). Deep-fried chicken as a food item was not new to the Taiwanese, as a consequence of the introduction of K.F.C, although the changes seen in the KFC product that were realised consisted only of the introduction of new seasoning flavours.

As in Beijing, with the opening of the fast food market, the government of Taiwan recognised that the success of foreign fast food chains posed a threat to the local catering industry. Thus, the acceptance by the ruling party of Taiwan to grant an operating license to foreign multi-national food and beverage retailers was seen as a sign of financial maturity.

McDonald’s Asia entered the Japanese market in 1971 with more than just a commodity for sale. As Emiko observed, “McDonald’s was seen by the local people of Japan as being representative of the ‘West’ or more specifically, ‘America’.” The researcher suggests that this view is one shared by the Taiwanese people as well.

Emiko and Watson have written extensively in the published work “Golden Arches” about the introduction of fast food in Japan and Taipei and the researcher of this dissertation acknowledges that the ideas concerning cross-cultural food-ways and the changes in the market place in Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul were ideas raised by both Emiko and Watson.

McDonald’s Japan introduced a cultural divide, and then transcended it when they “deliberately designed the dining area with virtually no seating, essentially forcing the customer to eat standing up.” McDonald’s Taipei, acted in a similar fashion. “Although they provided ample seating, in a setting that would promote commensality, they offered the guest no utensils, forcing the customer to eat with his/her hands.” The Chinese find eating with their hands most impolite to say little of the potential hygienic horrors.

The localisation of McDonald’s in Taiwan, as with Japan, appears to have changed the rules of traditional Chinese conviviality. Principally, the sense of sharing one’s food, which is promoted in an authentic Chinese meal setting, would appear to be severely restricted when ordering and eating from a personalised menu (pers. observ.). This is not so with KFC or Pizza Hut, where the menu items are perhaps associated more with the “party food” image. Despite the invasion of a “McDonald’s” culinary cultural heritage, with its own special brand of “Americana”, the localisations of these fast-food giants continue to find favour with many of the local people of Taiwan. (Taiwan opens McDonald’s outlet no# 200 on August 27th 1997, since then, the fast-food giant has expanded to 380 outlets island-wide. The first McDonald’s opened in Taipei, 1984).

As James Watson the writer of the Golden Arches has pointed out, “The Asian people treat the McDonald’s burger as a snack item, primarily due to the presence of bread in the majority of available meal items.” The writer and editor (James L.Watson, ref# 163) of the book explains the Chinese view of the hamburger by using the English translation of the Chinese language pronunciation, arguing that “we in the west tend to see the hamburger as a meat item with bread; whilst by contrast, the Chinese see bread with meat.” The words (han-bao) represent the phonetic written script of the Chinese characters for the term referring to hamburger. On many occasions the word bao is used with a meaning “to wrap up or to cover”, which in this instance refers to the bread. The Chinese language in this situation appears to elevate the status of the bread whilst at the same time relegating the meat to an added ingredient.

Even though McDonald’s Asia operates under the image of a snack environment as opposed to a real meal choice as it does in the West, McDonald’s Asia has, in Japan, through American style marketing, provided a new perspective in the Asian realm in the area of restaurant availability and choice. The researcher suggests that the popularity of the McDonald’s product with the children in this new market region has added a new dimension to the overall food choices of the average

Taiwanese family. Adults throughout Taiwan, as elsewhere no doubt, often make McDonald’s“regrettable meal choice” in deference to (their) children’s happiness.

Interestingly, the popularity of McDonald’s in Taiwan, particularly amongst the youth, probably relates to the presence of air-conditioning, personal “space” and energy. Yun Xiang Yan the author of “McDonald’s in Beijing”, noted that, “McDonald’s, with its controlled atmosphere, had become a favourite place to hang out.”From this researcher’s personal observation, it would appear that McDonald’s Taiwan draws a similar crowd for much the same reasons (pers.observ.).

6.7 Supermarket convenience

The genesis of the sale of foreign foodstuffs through local supermarkets in Taiwan commenced with the importation and sale of candy and chocolate snacks in the early 1970’s. In a recent conversation with Courtney Donovan Smith, the co-publisher of an island wide bi-lingual info-magazine directed at the foreign community in Taiwan, he recalls the misery of “scouting out some recognisable foods”, only to wind up time and time again in the candy aisle of his local grocery store.

The opening of the Taiwanese domestic retail consumer market to include international supermarket chains is only a recent development. Subsequent to the lifting of martial law in 1987 Taiwan saw an explosion of convenience stores (7 Eleven) and supermarkets (Carrefour, Wellcome, Costco), gourmet shops, delicatessens, butchers and specialty food retailers. Alex Tay, Taiwan director of sales for the Hong Kong based Wellcome supermarket chain considers that, “the present state of the retail food market in Taiwan’s major cities has, in 2003 reached a level of maturity on a par with that of the developed world.”

The traditional wet markets of Taiwan continue to thrive today despite the stiff competition from the various international supermarket chains present in Taiwan, just as they do in Hong Kong. The fundamental difference separating the two is, of course, the exotic “Chinese-ness” of the traditional wet food markets with its orderly chaos, and the personal touch provided by familiar vendors. The vibrancy of the wet-market, alive with a region’s culinary heritage is hard to beat. The traditional butchery of meat, poultry and fish from a Chinese wet market are a world away from the “easy pack” portioning of food as presented in the international supermarket chains in Taiwan.

The significant shift in prepared cuts of meat offered by today’s butcher is probably not in itself a reliable marker of change in the nation’s food-habits, but the Taiwanese wet markets that are often frequented by the foreign community are beginning to recognise the need for a western style of butchery (pers. observ.).

Heightened awareness of food hygiene, and greater concern relating to the environment of food perishables are a more reliable marker of change in contemporary Taiwanese food-habits as seen through the proliferation of the supermarket arena and their supply of (perceived) more-hygienically prepared and presented foods.

6.8 The Domestic Table

The generation most affected by the (recent) changes in Taiwan’s food-habits over the previous 25 years would not yet appear to be in a position to influence the domestic lazy Susan.

Changes to the style and substance of the domestic table in Taiwan have seen an incremental shift towards lighter, healthier renditions of the traditional staples; rice or noodles are foundational, with steamed bread providing some level of variation.

The average home-cooked meal seen in Taiwan today consists of a starch, two or three proteins, two vegetables, one or two pickled items and a soup, such dishes often being supplemented with peanuts, dried fish, and tofu together with preserved thousand-year eggs. Noticeably, the shift towards lighter meal items has seen the introduction of salads to the Taiwanese table (pers. observ.). This shift, as has previously been discussed, represents a major change in Taiwanese food-habits, with the supermarkets being instrumental. They are leading the charge towards a salad option by stocking the necessary ingredients, a trend the traditional wet-markets have failed to recognise. Hidden inside the change in meal items through the offering of a salad is the public’s awareness of the availability of a variety of different cooking oils (pers. observ.).Oil is no new comer to the Taiwanese gastronomic arena, but the supermarkets have, once again, captured the market, educating and supplying the local consumer with alternative oil products.

Salad oils would appear to have become a marker of change for the domestic table in Taiwan. The introduction of salads and the accompanying oils, has eventually led to a change in the use of cooking oils for the production of traditional stir-fried items (pers. observ.).

The awareness of the need to use lighter, cleaner oil for cooking would appear to have changed the taste of traditional Taiwanese dishes forever.