Feast your eyes on Taiwan's food (and understand its history of colonization)

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Ivy Chen (left) and Clarissa Wei browse Shuixian Gong Market in Tainan, Taiwan, in January. An Rong Xu for NPR hide caption

Ivy Chen (left) and Clarissa Wei browse Shuixian Gong Market in Tainan, Taiwan, in January.

TAINAN, Taiwan — On a Friday morning in the southern city of Tainan, Shuixian Gong Market overflows with displays of shiny orange and silver fish, stacks of glistening pork ribs and crates of dragon fruit and guavas. Vendors wash out their stands with hoses, and Taiwanese cooks ask for parcels of raw drumsticks or breasts. People on motorized scooters ride carefully through the market's corridors, laden with bags of dried goods.

It's easy to think of Taiwanese food as a subset of Chinese food — after all, the island's food shares many culinary traditions and techniques with those from mainland China. Yet Clarissa Wei and Ivy Chen would argue that Taiwanese food is distinct. They're the creators of the cookbook Made in Taiwan.

That title declares something: Even though about 90% of people in Taiwan have Chinese ancestry, they have forged a cuisine that is, in many ways, their own.

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A set of traditional Taiwanese cuisine staples: oyster omelet, lu rou fan, oyster soup and fish ball soup. An Rong Xu for NPR hide caption

A set of traditional Taiwanese cuisine staples: oyster omelet, lu rou fan, oyster soup and fish ball soup.

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Fresh seafood is sorted at Shuixian Gong Market. An Rong Xu for NPR hide caption

Fresh seafood is sorted at Shuixian Gong Market.

"Taiwanese food is quite distinct in that we have our own pantry items that are made in and unique to Taiwan," Wei says. "So the way that soy sauce and rice wine and rice vinegar are made in Taiwan are not made similarly elsewhere in the world."

Another key difference: Taiwanese food is sweet. In Tainan, which used to be a sugar-cane-producing hub, it's even more pronounced.

Chen also points out that Taiwanese food doesn't tend to rely on a lot of spices. "When our ancestors moved here, they found we have so many fresh ingredients in this small island, so it's very easy to get food very fresh, so we don't over-season it," she says.

These differences are all products of Taiwan's unique history.

"Taiwanese food is, I would say, a combination of all of our waves of colonization and governance," Wei says.

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Dried goods on sale at Shuixian Gong Market. An Rong Xu for NPR hide caption

Dried goods on sale at Shuixian Gong Market.