A Culinary History of Taipei: Beyond Pork and Ponlai

Distinctive culinary traditions have not merely survived the travails of recent centuries, but grown more complex and enticing. Taipei is a city where people still buy fresh produce almost every morning of the year; where weddings are celebrated with streetside bando banquets; and where baristas craft cups of world-class coffee. Wherever there are chopsticks, there is curiosity and adventurousness regarding food. Like every great city, Taipei is the sum of its people: Hard-working and talented, for sure, but also eager to enjoy every bite they take.

Drawing on in-depth interviews with the leading lights of Taiwan's food scene, meticulously sifted English- and Chinese-language materials published in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, and rich personal experience, the authors have assembled a unique book about a place that has added all kinds of outside influences to its own robust, if little understood, foundations.