Yesterday at breakfast, we sat with two young ladies from Kaohsiung ( pron. Kowshoon) a city at the southern end of Taiwan, who animatedly discussed the regional food flavors of their city and how distinct (and better!) it was from Taipei`s food. They invited us to go visit their hometown to find out. My dad just smiled and said that there wasn`t enough time.
I don`t think I`d be able to appreciate the regional food flavor of Kaohsiung. I can`t even tell you how Taiwanese food differs from other Chinese food. My palate is so undeveloped in this area. But there is definitely a difference, about as large as between Italian food and French food. While living in Quebec, Canada, my mother never found Taiwanese food. In the small town of Matagami (pop 1000) in northern Quebec, where we lived for 5 years, there was one Chinese restaurant that served fried rice soaked in soy sauce, pineapple chicken balls and salty egg rolls. That wasn`t really Chinese food. With no Chinese food shops or ingredients available, my mother would occasionally get packages from her mother in Taiwan. Then, when we eventually moved to Montreal, my parents finally found Chinese food ingredients and restaurants in the little Chinatown. But the Chinese restaurants where we ate-quite regularly- were inevitably Cantonese or Hong Kong style, like Dim Sum. Now I see that living in Montreal, Canada, my mother, unless she cooked it herself, rarely got access to her favorite and familiar comfort foods.
Last night, my dad and I wandered around the night market near his old university. It was packed with young people (university students?) who were getting their little meals from the food stalls or checking out the jewelry and clothes, or both. It`s a great atmosphere - no drunks or drug dealers, just lots of young people sharing food and hanging out.
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