Strolling through urban streets, one can occasionally see a traditional Chinese pharmacy that has gone out of business, for they are closing at a rate of 200 a year. However, the culture, knowledge, and customs of Traditional Chinese Medicine are deeply embedded in the daily lives of Taiwanese. Let’s take a look back at the history and evolution of these shops.
Taiwan has long enjoyed an abundance of agricultural products. Moreover, rice, sweet potatoes, and sugarcane can do more than serve as foods: they can also be used to make alcoholic beverages. While ordinary people did not in the past have access to modern fermenting and distilling techniques, they could always use whatever equipment they had to hand to bring together raw ingredients, water, and other elements and produce tasty alcoholic drinks.
Who invented instant noodles? In Taiwan, we come across the forerunner of instant noodles, the world’s first instant noodles with sauce packets containing sumptuous chunks of meat, as well as those featuring distinctively local recipes that make use of Chinese medicinal herbs and huadiao, a classy cooking liquor made from glutinous rice.
Taiwanese whiskies have become so well known that they are now appearing on US-made TV shows. During an episode of the American TV show Billions, a taste of Kavalan Solist Vinho Barrique whisky elicits a “Wow!” from actress Maggie Siff, prompting co-star Paul Giamatti to respond: “Right? The Taiwanese do it better than the Scots these days.”
Given the technological level of Taiwan’s aquaculture industry and the scale of its fisheries sector, there is never a lack of fresh seafood available for dining tables. In the past, the oceans around Taiwan were polluted by marine waste such as abandoned fishing nets and discarded oyster shellstring cords. Today, with fishermen, aquaculturists, citizens, enterprises, and government all working together, such waste fishing gear is being proactively recycled.
Taiwan’s microbreweries, filled with a passion for their craft, are continually trying out new ideas and concepts. From rearranging and recombining the four main raw materials they have extended their imaginations to add local Taiwanese ingredients. They have broken through barriers to enable craft beers to really “grow” in this land.
Zhuzihu (Bamboo Lake) is famous for its calla lilies, but 100 years ago it was the first place in Taiwan where Japonica rice was cultivated. Today, farmers have founded a club and worked with National Taiwan University to resume cultivation of Nakamura rice, the precursor of Taiwanese Japonica rice varieties, on a subplot of land in the Dinghu area of Zhuzihu.
The Nantou Distillery of the Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation (TTL) has enjoyed quite a resurgence since the Jiji earthquake reconstruction effort. You might well describe it as having arisen from the ashes, with its Omar Whisky label the emergent phoenix.
Ciyakang might not leave a big impression on the uninitiated. Yet visitors may be surprised to learn that 2,000 years ago its workshops were the largest producers of jade in all of Southeast Asia.
Alcoholic beverages and tea are both popular cross-cultural drinks. However, in contrast to the only recent rise of the private-sector beer, wine, and liquor industry in Taiwan following the abolition of the alcohol and tobacco monopoly system upon our accession to the World Trade Organization in 2002, tea, of which Taiwan is a major producer, has long been loved by Taiwanese.
