The Millikens in Asia: Cooking with Tiffany

By Ashley

Our hostess, Tiffany, and I taste the San Bei

Jennifer, my second hostess, holding Ning Ning

By Ashley

My emotions regarding cooking in Taipei are somewhat manic in nature. Our family is in Taiwan for only 4 months, and is living in a small apartment with limited cooking equipment. Restaurants and street food in Taiwan are inexpensive, especially compared to the local produce we tend to buy at home. When we did the math, we confirmed that it is a lot less expensive to eat out every meal here than it is to cook in at home! As a result, rather than purchase new cooking equipment and staples to cook in our apartment here, we have been eating out every meal besides breakfast. Since

Upon our arrival here, I was thrilled at the idea of never having to cook a meal. Although I love to cook, the idea of a meal-planning-free 7 months sounded like bliss. What a treat not to have to shop, think about what the girls would or wouldn’t eat, or make a shopping list. I spouted to friends and family. I dreamed of the rapture of having cooking-free days. I was ready to go!

The reality of eating out every meal has now sunk in, and the dream and the reality do not see eye to eye. Although I certainly do love the lack of planning involved in our food life here, there are downfalls to eating out all the time. First of all, I overeat at pretty much every single meal. We all know that when we eat out, we eat more than we do at a regular meal at home. I find it almost impossible to eat a “normal” meal at a restaurant. This is fine on a week or two-week vacation, but on a daily basis, it just doesn’t fly. Secondly, the food at restaurants is never as healthy as home cooking, and although salads are widely available here, they all tend to be similar and lacking in creativity. Finally, sometimes I just don’t feel like going out. Home seems a better option for dinner.

As a result, I was thrilled when our friend Frank mentioned that his wife Jennifer and her friend Tiffany would be willing to teach me how to cook some Taiwanese dishes. Frank had come to the conclusion that I am somewhat of a fanatic about food…and he’s right. I am! I love to think about it, talk about it, read about it and, most of all, eat it. We had eaten at Tiffany’s house over the Chinese New Year, and her food had been delicious. I had raved about it and so I was exited about the idea of cooking with Tiffany. It would sate my recent desire to cook a meal and would offer up an opportunity for me to learn some recipes to prepare at home in the USA that would allow our culinary experience here to live on into the future. In addition, Tiffany, Jennifer and I planned to cook 沒有孩子（meiyou haizi – without kids) . It would be a moment of female camaraderie that summoned images of book group meals and cooking with friends; experiences at home that I miss.
I arrived at Tiffany’s at 4pm. Her kitchen, at about 8’x10’, is fairly standard for Taiwan if not bigger than most apartment kitchens. It has a 2-burner gas stovetop, a fridge, a sink and about 3 feet of counter space. Tiffany laughed as I stood next to the counter; the low counter height made my 5’9” frame look giant! Opposite the stove/sink/counter there is a small round table and a set of overflowing supply shelves. There is no dishwasher and no oven. Her family’s clothes hang to dry in the small adjoining porch area. In this straightforward set-up, she has everything she needs to cook for a group of 8 adults and 8 kids. The trick, I discovered, is to wash dishes real-time, wash woks on the go, and prep all food up-front. It is a feat to behold!
Tiffany is a wonderfully gregarious Taiwanese woman who is one of Jennifer and Frank's best friends. She has two daughters who are Perrin and Carly's ages and a husband whom she lovingly refers to as "Maria," in that he serves her every need in the house; she's the boss, he's the support. It is clear that he is a solid guy in that he takes this without complaint and with good humor. Tiffany is wonderfully generous and has welcomed us and our foreign ways into her home with warmth and many laughs. Jennifer is Frank's wife, a label that only sticks since Frank is our connection to so many good times here in Taipei. Jennifer in no way needs the title of being anyone's wife as she is an independent Taiwanese business woman who speaks fluent English and Italian. She works for her family's wedding gown business that does most of its work in China, and is on the verge of opening her own business here in Taipei. In addition, Jennifer is mother to two adorable children and has somehow managed to juggle all this over the past three years. I adore her and she is wonderfully friendly to our family and to our children. It has been a gift getting to know her. As hostesses, the two were a good combination; Tiffany speaks loudly and quickly and it is not easy for a foreigner like me to understand her streaming Chinese. Jennifer is more aware of my level of Chinese and so speaks clearly and slows things down for me. Periodically I try to return the favor by offering up an unusual English phrase with which she can buff up her already perfect English. In any case, Tiffany taught, ordered and scolded (NO! Not yet! The wok isn't hot enough! You're just so lazy! You're the one who is supposed to be doing this!) - all with great humor - and Jennifer supported and helped. It was perfect.

Tiffany and Jennifer had asked what I was interested in learning to make. I had mentioned a few of the dishes we had eaten previously at her house, as well as a dish that is served at every Taiwanese restaurant and that has become a family favorite. When I arrived, Tiffany had thoughtfully written out each recipe in Chinese! My reading skills are still in a stage of infancy (I’m trying desperately to re-learn a fraction of the characters I learned in college!) and I realized I would have to take notes in English as we went!

We began by prepping all of the vegetables. This process was pretty standard. Chopping, slicing, washing. What struck me, however, was the small amount of food on the table. We had 4 bunches of greens, a small bunch of scallions, cilantro, an enormous piece of ginger, some slender celery stalks and a small bag of garlic cloves. Some chicken and shrimp were in the fridge. By American standards, it seemed that there was no possibility that this small amount of food would feed a group of 16. Perhaps it was the lack of packaging? Everything for the meal came from the daily traditional market. Besides the staples that were already part of Tiffany’s “pantry,” the ingredients for our meal had not one prepackaged item – no boxes, no cans, no cellophane, no Styrofoam. It made an impression. For a group of 16 at home, I would have at least one, if not two grocery bags of produce and other ingredients. Not here. I had noticed this “magical” transformation of a small amount of ingredients into a large meal many times in China, and was eager to participate in making it happen.

Ingredients for some of the dishes

By the time the rest of the folks arrived, we had everything ready to begin cooking. In true Taiwanese form, the women would cook and bring out the dishes as the guests ate. This style of entertainment has made Peter and me feel slightly uncomfortable as guests. We continue to feel awkward that we are being “fed” instead of sharing the meal with both the host and the hostess. Yet our Taiwanese friends assure us that since Chinese food is best when hot, preparing dishes in advance and eating everything at once is unrealistic. It is traditional and common for the hostess (sometimes the host, although we have yet to witness this) to be in the kitchen until the last dish is served while everyone else devours her food out in the eating area. This time around, I was actually glad to be the one cooking! No awkwardness there and the three of us could sneak in a few bites before the dishes went out to the group, so we wouldn’t starve.

Our first dish was San Bei Ji 三杯雞（three cup chicken). This is a traditional Taiwanese dish that our family has come to love. It is a simple dish that is filled with large wilted slices of ginger, hot red peppers and masses of garlic cloves and basil. The dish can be made with anything as its base: chicken, shrimp, squid, mushrooms, hedgehog tree fungus. I was pleased to discover that cooking San Bei Ji is as simple as eating it is tasty!

San Bei Ji 三杯雞 (three cup chicken)

Ingredients:

· 2 chicken legs (jitui3) – skin on, bone in, cut into small pieces

· ginger (jiang)– sliced at a diagonal into large thin slices

· lots of garlic (suan4 tou3) cloves – peeled and left whole

· lots of basil (jiu3chen2ta3)– leaves only (although at restaurants we eat lots of stems)

· one long red chili pepper (la4jiao4)– sliced with seeds intact

· light sesame oil (ma2you2)

· rice wine (mi3jiu3)

· soy sauce (jiang4you2)

· large crystal, brownish sugar (Tang2)

1. Heat a wok.

2. Add sesame oil and wait until it is very hot.

3. Add ginger slices and cook until slightly soft and crinkly.

4. Add garlic cloves and chicken.

5. Cook, turning until chicken is browned on all sides.

6. Add lots of rice wine until you can see it in a pool in the bottom of the wok.

7. Add soy, hot pepper pieces and a fair amount of sugar.

8. Toss and then cover.

9. Periodically uncover, turn chicken pieces and cover again.

10. Cook until done.

11. When chicken is done, add all of the basil and toss until wilted.

12. Serve.

**This is served in an iron pot at restaurants. We made it in a wok and served it on a good ole’ plate.

Next, we made a dish that Peter and I had eaten in a restaurant when we went out with out landlords. We had raved about it to Frank and Jennifer and since they knew that Tiffany knew how to cook the dish, they asked her to teach me. So thoughtful!

Sheng Cai4 Xia Song2

Shrimp and celery in lettuce leaves

Ingredients:

· About 1 lb. shrimp (xia) - diced

· 2 stalks celery (qing2cai4) – diced

· An inch or two of ginger (jiang4) – diced

· Scallions (cong hua) greens chopped

· About 8 Water chestnuts (bi4qi2) - diced

· Egg whites (dan4 bai)

· White pepper (hu2jiaofen3)

· Rice wine (mi3jiu3)

· Salt (yan2)

· Corn starch (tai4bai2fen3)

For Sauce:

· sesame oil (ma you)

· salt (yan2)

· rice wine (mi3jiu3)

· corn starch(tai4bai2fen3)

· 2 you2tiao2 (fried dough sticks) – cut into 1” sections

· A head of stiff lettuce (shengcai4) – pulled apart for wraps

1. Wash, de-vein and chop shrimp into small pieces

2. Mix shrimp with some egg whites, salt, rice wine, cornstarch and white pepper. Set aside.

3. Finely chop about an inch or two of ginger

4. Chop scallion greens (not too small)

5. Finely chop water chestnuts

6. Chop maybe 3 stalks of celery (qing2cai4) (the Taiwanese celery is much thinner than American celery, but has the same taste)

Make a small dish of sauce:

· Mix sauce ingredients in small bowl

1. Heat a large amount of oil in wok.

2. To check heat of oil, insert a wooden chopstick and see if the oil crackles or allow an ingredient to drip into the oil. If it pops, it is ready.

3. Add shrimp and fry until opaque. Remove shrimp from oil with massive (J) slotted spoon. Set aside.

4. While you may not believe this, now fry the already-fried you2tiao2! Yes, twice fried!

5. Once crispy, remove the you2tiao2 from oil. Set aside.

6. Pour frying oil into dish on stovetop. (Tiffany keeps a small metal bowl with a lid on a trivet on her countertop. As she fries things, she can strain things into the bowl or remove the oil from the wok into the bowl and use it later for another dish.)

7. Quickly clean the wok in the sink to remove shrimp bits.

8. Add a small amount of oil back to the wok, reheat it and turn wok to cover.

9. Add scallions, celery, ginger and water chestnuts to oil. Stir-fry. Add shrimp and sauce and toss to cook a bit until shrimp is done.

10. Put shrimp onto plate and top with you2tiao2 pieces.

11. Serve shrimp alongside a plate of lettuce leaves.

12. Spoon shrimp into leaves and devour.

**I would like to try doing this dish without deep-frying everything. I bet it would taste equally good if the shrimp were simply stir-fried and the you2tiao2 were maybe broiled quickly to make them crispy.

Cautiously removing the shrimp from the oil

The following is a simple dish that could be prepared at the last moment for an easy dinner.

Sichuan Dumplings with Delicious sauce
(Si4chuan2 Chao2shou3 or Hong2 you3 Hun4 Dun4 = Red Oil Dumplings)

Ingredients:

Frozen dumplings – ask for “hun4dun4” at Chinese grocery store

For the sauce:

*Tiffany never used a measuring spoon or a measuring cup. For this sauce, she used a Chinese soupspoon and was very casual about it.

· Finely chopped jar garlic – 1 spoon

· Mirin – 1 spoon

· Soy – 2 spoons

· Worcestershire sauce (I couldn’t believe they use this here!) – 1 spoon

· Chili oil (la4you3) – 1 spoon

· Dark sesame oil(ma3you3) – 1 spoon

· Handful of cilantro (xiang cai4) - leaves only

1. Boil dumplings

2. Mix all ingredients for sauce until it tastes good (No science here. This was Tiffany’s own sauce and she kept adding things until she liked it. It should be spicy!) Once it is on the dumplings, it is not as spicy as it is on its own.)

3. Drain dumplings and put on platter.

4. Cover dumplings with sauce.

5. Sprinkle with cilantro leaves.

After making these two dishes, we prepared some Chinese greens. Peter, Perrin and I have been going nuts over the simple, stir-fried greens we get here and we can’t get enough of them. Funnily enough, atfamily meals in Taiwanese homes, we have rarely been served more than one dish of greens. Frank now teases us about wanting to order more vegetables. They are just so good! In restaurants here they serve a vegetable called Long2xucai4 – dragon beard vegetable. In looking up the characters for the word, I found the following “young shoots of the chayote vine fo2shou3gua). I am fairly sure that I had never seen this vegetable before we came here and I adore it. Tiffany had never cooked it before but since Frank had mentioned that we loved it, she bought it and asked the grocer how to prepare it. It is prepared in the same way most Chinese greens are prepared….

Green Veggies Chinese Style

龍鬚菜long2xucai4 – Dragon Beard Greens

空心菜 (kongxincai4) – water spinach, ong choy

Ingredients:

· Greens

· Sliced garlic cloves – 1 or 2

· Salt

· Chicken stock granules (optional)

To prepare the kongxincai4:

1. Remove leaves and rinse

2. Remove and discard ends of stems. Cut stems into short sections and rinse

3. (Tiffany didn’t seem to care if the greens were wet. No need to spin the greens in a salad spinner at home)

4. Cut groups of leaves into shorter lengths

5. Heat a small amount of oil in a wok

6. WAIT until oil is hot (Tiffany berated me when I added the veggies to the oil too early! You want the oil really hot so you don’t have to cook the veggies for a long time and so they don’t lose their color.)

7. When oil is hot, stir fry the stems of the kongxincai4 and the garlic for a bit and then add the leaves. Add salt and some chicken bouillon powder/granules. Stir-fry all until ready. YUM!

**Long2xucai4 are cooked in the same manner. Take off and discard ends of stems and chop remaining long pieces into sections. Rinse. Cook with a few sliced garlic cloves, some salt and some chicken stock granules.

After cooking the greens, we prepared my brother Ian’s favorite Taiwanese street food: yan2suji = salty, crispy chicken. Ian will be psyched that we can make this at home (as long as he has no idea of how to make it! It is incredibly unhealthy!) Southerners in America would admire the double deep fry that is performed here. Yan Su Ji is a dish that is found at every night market in Taiwan and along every street. It is addictive and horribly unhealthy but incredibly delicious!

Yan2suji – Salty, Crispy Chicken

Ingredients:

· Chicken breast cut into smallish pieces

For marinade:

· Rice wine (mijiu3) – 1 spoon

· Soy (jiangyou3) – 2 spoons

· Mirin

· Sugar

· Ginger from a jar (jiang) – a spoon

· 3 slightly beaten egg yolks

· Light sesame oil (xiang you3)

· Cornstarch (tai4bai2fen)

· Gancaofen3 (A Chinese herb that is hard to find even in Taipei. Don’t need to use it)

For cooking:

· Oil

· “Tapioca flour/starch” Sweet potato flour (di4guafen3) (I had never seen this before but it seems to be in between a light cornstarch and a flour)

· Taiwanese Salt and Pepper mixture from a bottle (this is what makes the dish. I am going to bring a bottle home.)

To Prepare:

1. Marinate chicken pieces over night if possible or for at least 3 hours

2. Roll chicken pieces in sweet potato starch

3. When all pieces are ready, bring a large amount of oil to a hot temperature

4. Deep fry half of the chicken until it is lightly golden

5. Remove the chicken and drain over a bowl

6. While the first batch drains, fry the second batch.

7. Remove the 2^nd batch and re-fry the first batch until it is a deeper brown and is cooked through.

8. Re-fry the second batch.

9. Sprinkle heavily with the special salt and pepper mixture

10. Serve

**I would like to try this with an addition of adding ground “ma”/numbingly hot Chinese pepper into the flour. Ma is such a funky taste and I think it would be an interesting twist on the dish.

Restaurants/night markets make this dish through the first fry and thendo the second fry when you order the dish. This could be a way to make it for a group at home.

In my mind there is nothing better than cooking and eating with friends, so the night was a treat for us. At the end of the evening, folks were rowdy but we were tired and heading to bonsai class the next day, so we left on the early side- 10:45 - and headed to bed. As our host groaned that it was far too early, we assured them that in Vermont, 10:45 was on the late side and that in addition we are known as early birds. We also assured them that we would happily return for another meal another day and that someday we would like to return the favor in the USA. Thank heavens for the good food in Taiwan!