How has the flavor of Foochow blended into Taiwan’s everyday cuisine? This book opens on street-corner food stalls, where the sound of sizzling griddles echo across the landscapes. Through these sounds and tastes, the author invites readers to listen to the island together. Foochow is the late-Qing to Republican-era English transliteration of Fuzhou, and this book traces how, from that moment onward, the circulation and development of food within the broader Fuzhou-language cultural sphere began to take shape. The narrative then
travels across time and sea to the Matsu Islands and then onward to Foochow itself,exploring the distinctive culinary traditions of each place and revealing how food carries the roles, meanings, and life stories of those shaped in the tides of history.
Flavors lead readers on a culinary journey stretching from the East China Sea into the Pacific, uncovering hidden corners of Taipei and Matsu while tracing the subsequent transformations of Foochow cuisine in Malaysia, Japan, New York, and other far-flung destinations. Hidden in both humble street foods and elaborate banquet dishes are
the intertwined stories of people who crossed the ocean, bringing their memories,hopes, and tastes to new shores.