Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook

Ku Josh Ku

Description

A modern, brashly flavorful guide to cooking Taiwanese-American food, from Brooklyn's lauded Win Son, Win Son Bakery, and Cathy Erway, celebrated writer and expert on the cuisine Josh Ku, born in Queens to parents from southern Taiwan, and Trigg Brown, a native Virginian whose mentor was a Taiwanese-American chef, forged a friendship over food-specifically, excellent tsang ying tou, or "flies' head," a dish of chopped budding chives kissed with pork fat. Their obsession with Taiwanese food and culture propelled them to open Win Son together in 2016. The East Williamsburg restaurant quickly established itself as a destination and often incurs long waits for their vibrant and flavorful Taiwanese-American cuisine. Ku and Brown have teamed up with Cathy Erway, Taiwanese food expert and celebrated writer, to create this book which explores and celebrates the cuisine of Taiwan and its ever-simmering pot of creative influences. Told through the eyes, taste buds, travels, and busy lives of Ku, Brown, and Erway, this book brings the cuisine of this misunderstood island nation into the spotlight. With 100 creative, yet accessible recipes, this book will unravel the history of this diaspora cuisine. While featuring classic dishes and well-known favorites, this cookbook also stretches this cuisine's definition, introducing new dishes with brazen twists that are fun, flavorful, and decidedly American-born in style.

Sujets

• USA
• Taiwan
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: ABRAMS BOOKS
• Date de parution: 24 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781683359906
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 7 Mo

Extrait

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE: The Taiwanese American Dream
A Word from Josh
A Word from Trigg
Pantry Recommendations
OUR FAVORITE TAIWANESE INGREDIENTS
A Conversation with Josh, Trigg, Cathy, and Lisa Cheng Smith of Yun Hai
CHAPTER 1: Snacks and Appetizers
Marinated Cukes
Roasted Peanuts with Chinese Five-Spice and Sichuan Peppercorn
Butter-Fried Peanuts
Lisa s Tea Eggs
Marinated Eggs
Charred Fermented Scallions or Ramps
Fermented Chinese Broccoli
O A Jian
Shrimp Cakes
Turnip Cakes
WHAT IS TAIWANESE FOOD IN AMERICA?
A Conversation with Josh, Trigg, Cathy, Eric Sze, Rich Ho, and Calvin Eng
CHAPTER 2: Vegetables
Fried Eggplant with Black Vinegar, Labneh, and Spiced Cashews
Charred Chinese Broccoli Salad
Sesame Caesar Salad
Green Soybean, Tofu Skin, and Pea Shoot Salad
Saut ed Pea Shoots or Water Spinach
Flies Head
Saut ed Cabbage with Bacon
Sungold and Peach Salad
Wood Ear Mushroom Salad
Guohua Street Salad
GATHERING ROUND THE GRILL
CHAPTER 3: Grill Out
Grilled Chicken with Garlic and Rice Vinegar
Grilled Vegetables with Black Sesame Sauce
Grilled Whole Mushrooms with Chili Oil
Grilled Shrimp with Chili Butter and Cilantro
Grilled Pork Collar with Shio Koji and Chili Oil
WHO ARE TAIWANESE AMERICANS?
A Conversation with HoChie Tsai
CHAPTER 4: Noodles and Soups
Braised Beef Shanks
Niu Rou Mian (Beef Noodle Soup)
Danzai Mian
Cold Sesame Noodles
Black Sesame Noodles with Mushrooms
Zhajiangmian with Lamb and Cilantro-Mint Sauce
Wuyuzi Mian
Shin Ramyun, Win Son Style
Yun Hai Scallion Noodles
Auntie Leah s Corn Soup
WHAT S IN A TAIWANESE BUSINESS NAME?
A Conversation with Auntie Leah
CHAPTER 5: Entr es
Whole Roasted Fish with Garlic-Ginger Sauce
Fried Pork Chops with Basil
Sticky Rice with Sausage, Shrimp, and Mushrooms
Clams with Basil
Stuffed Quail with Sticky Rice and Kumquat Salad
Stir-Fried Chicken and Wood Ear Mushrooms
San Bei Ji (Three-Cup Chicken)
Pei s White Mapo Tofu
A (BRIEF) CONVERSATION WITH PEI CHANG
Lu Rou Fan
Duck Legs Confit with Rock Sugar and Spices
Big Chicken Buns with Fu Ru Mayo, Cilantro, and Scallions
Fried Chicken with Sesame Waffles
Fried Chicken with Imperial Sauce
Popcorn Chicken with Basil
CHAPTER 6: Dumplings and Sandwiches
Pan-Griddled Pork Buns
Pan-Fried Chive Pockets
Lamb Wontons
Purple Sweet Potato Grilled Cheese Dumplings
Nutritious Sandwiches
Fried Soft-Shell Sandwiches
Beef Rolls
Sloppy Bao
TAIWANESE AMERICAN BREAKFAST AND PASTRIES
Bao, Milk Breads, Bings
CHAPTER 7: Breads and Breakfast
Milk Bread and Buns
Bolo Bao (Pineapple Buns)
Scallion Pancakes
Dan Bing
Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Milk Bun or Scallion Pancake
Zhu Jiao, Egg, and Cheese Milk Bun
Fan Tuan
Doujiang (Fresh Soy Milk)
Tian Doujiang (Sweet Soy Milk)
Xian Doujiang (Savory Soy Milk)
WHAT IS TAIWANESE FOOD HISTORY?
A Conversation with Katy Hui-Wen Hung
CHAPTER 8: Desserts and Pastries
Fried Milk Dough Sundae with Peanuts and Cilantro-Mint Sauce
Red Date Cakes
Custard Toast
Blueberry Mochi Muffins
Mochi Doughnuts
Banana Caramel Tart
Almond Milk Yulu
Win Son Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sun Cookies
Strawberry Margarita Aiyu Jelly
CHAPTER 9: Sauces, Spices, and Recipes Builders
Charred Scallion Sauce
Chicken Spice Mix
Chile Vinaigrette
Cilantro-Mint Sauce
Dashi
Fu Ru Mayo
Garlic Confit
Garlic-Cilantro-Chili Dipping Sauce
Garlic-Ginger Sauce with Pickled Mustard Greens
Ginger Deluxe Sauce
House Chili Oil
Lamb Spice Mix
Persimmon Red Hot Sauce
Sea Mountain Sauce
Shrimp Powder
Superior Broth
Sweet Soy Dipping Sauce
Win Son Romesco
RESOURCES
Our Favorite Places to Find Ingredients and Our Favorite Books
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INDEX OF SEARCHABLE TERMS
Kat Norton-Bliss, Stephanie Auquilla, Gabrielle Cambronero, Danielle Spencer, Josh Ku, Avery Gindraux, Chun-Yen Huang, Scott Conrad, David DeSimone, Denise Beauchamp, Flavio Guzman, Arion Pennington, Laura Carvajal, Trigg Brown, Isak Buan.

Prologue:
THE TAIWANESE AMERICAN DREAM
In August 2015, I received a bizarre email. It was from a producer at Heritage Radio Network, where I hosted a podcast, and the subject line was Taiwanese Food Connection!
The content was brief: Trigg, a friend of the network and former cook at Craft and current chef at Upland, is looking to possibly open a Taiwanese restaurant in Brooklyn. I wanted to introduce you two and maybe Trigg could pick your brain sometime! He read your book and loved it.
I couldn t believe what I was reading. I had just spent the last few months promoting the launch of my cookbook, The Food of Taiwan , which was one of the first US-published cookbooks to explore the island-nation s cuisine. And I had spent the last several months before that searching for US-based Taiwanese chefs, experts, and other Taiwanese American community organizers who I could partner with on events for the cookbook s launch. I became friendly with a few Taiwanese American food professionals who participated in things like panel events with me, and I visited Taiwanese American organizations from city to city.
It was a lot of fun. When I first shopped that book proposal around, in 2010 and 2011, nobody wanted to touch it. I learned then that a lot of Americans had no idea what or where Taiwan was. Uncomfortable meetings with agents and editors ensued. Then, over the next few years, Taiwanese food and culture slowly became more recognizable in popular culture. This was thanks in no small part to Eddie Huang, whose hit restaurant Baohaus helped launch a multifaceted, and highly visible, film and television career. Other young Taiwanese American pop culture sensations, like basketball player Jeremy Lin and fashion designer Jason Wu, proudly branded themselves as Taiwanese American, too. This was all exciting-and yes, I persevered and finally got that cookbook deal. But through all these discussions, meetings, and events that I had after its publication, I began to sense that there was something missing in the current landscape of Taiwanese food culture in the United States.
At this time, a lot of the Taiwanese restaurants I encountered in New York City and New Jersey, where I grew up, seemed intent on recreating some of the island s greatest street foods, for a mostly Taiwanese American audience. Many others were clandestinely Taiwanese-bearing no trace of the word Taiwanese on their menus or in their names-like A J Bistro in East Hanover, New Jersey, where my mom and I would often go for Taiwanese beef noodle soup and fried pork chops over rice. There didn t seem to be too many restaurants at the time that fashioned themselves as being self-aware of both their Taiwanese and American identities-that is, restaurants that strove to really celebrate the changes to a cuisine that occur in a diaspora, rather than hide them. Those changes might be due to having a different set of accessible ingredients, different lifestyle or dining-out habits, or just different preferences; they might even incorporate ideas from elsewhere, based on the chef s unique lived experiences in America. In short, I was looking for food that was proudly Taiwanese American .
But what did looking to possibly open a Taiwanese restaurant in Brooklyn mean? Looking back at the email from my friend, what did this chef from Craft and Upland, two New American restaurants in New York City with a local-seasonal bent and European core, have to do with any of that? And what kind of a name was Trigg?
Trigg Brown was the full name. We exchanged a few emails that summer, before he headed off to Taiwan for a while. The next thing I knew, it was February 2016, and Trigg reached out to me to ask if I would like to collaborate on a soft-opening pop-up event at his soon-to-be restaurant. He saw that I had recently helped out with an event by Yumpling, a Taiwanese American pop-up (now a restaurant and food truck), and he invited them to participate as well. The restaurant wouldn t be opening until later that spring, but we could serve a collaborative menu for friends and family for a few nights, he suggested. It sounded fun. But one thing: What is your restaurant going to be called? I asked.
Trigg responded: The restaurant was Winsome, but some LA breakfast joint trademarked the name last year so we re figuring out a new one. Sucks because it was Josh s grandfather s company, Winsome, that inspired our name, and we ve been branding as Winsome for a while now.
Josh Ku was the restaurant s cofounder. By that time I had gathered that he was the Taiwanese American of the two of them, whereas Trigg was a white guy. And they were best friends. I met them both in person shortly after, at their work-in-progress restaurant on a corner of East Williamsburg jammed with bodegas, honking traffic, and hipsters. There were no chic New American restaurants in earshot, and there weren t any Asian restaurants either, besides Chinese takeout. Meeting the two friends in their space and talking over our pop-up plans, it was clear that these weren t your average restaurant owners. For one, they were both in their mid-twenties and had never run a restaurant before.
Josh was slinky and tall as a beanstalk-he was probably the tallest East Asian guy I d ever seen in person. Frequently topped with a Mets cap, he had an infectious cackle and was prone to deadpanning answers to long questions with one syllable. A Queens and Long Island native, he had a chill, laid-back demeanor, calmly assessing the action from his tall perch and letting his partner do much of the talking while he did much of the behind-the-scenes work.
The corner of Graham and Montrose Avenues in Brooklyn in 2001 when El Brillante first occupied the restaurant space, compared to 2021. Win Son Bakery opened across the street (see this pages - this page ).
Clad in well-worn cooking clogs and a few dishrags at a time, Trigg was