taipei daughter, 2024
In May 2024, I spent 2 weeks in Taipei. My yearly visits are always a homecoming from a past life—early mornings looking out over a familiar skyline of terracotta rooftops and water tanks, the humidity a warm blanket around my shoulders—but something about this trip felt different. Perhaps the shorter period had concentrated the color and kept each memory sharper, but it felt like there was new magic to be had at every turn—on our usual tomb-sweeping trip to the majestic valley of my grandparents’ gravesite, we shouted for the 70-year old groundskeeper as we always do, but this time we found him up a tree, rustling in the branches above us, and then out he popped, handing us freshly-picked fruit I’d never seen before!
As this trip was drawing to a close, I knew this world would feel as lost as a dream once my plane took off. I wanted a way to keep the magic close, and past what could be shown in photos and words, I wanted to share this life with friends back in San Francisco.
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The 莊 Chuang side of my family is from a historic area of Taipei called 大稻埕 Twatutia, where we still live to this day. Even though my parents raised my sister and me in San Francisco, they never gave up the house my father grew up in, and we’ve grown up with a bi-continental lifestyle, an unusual choice and luxury for those who start a new life in another country.
Living in this home four generations deep, its original terrazzo and brick alongside my father’s renovations of light and space, shapes how I’m able to see Taipei. My visits are regular and lengthy, and each day is languorous and long, spent eating at ostensibly unremarkable restaurants, gossiping over afternoon tea before the mosquitoes descend upon the veranda, taking the long way home after dinner and then backing the car up to admire a tortoise on the side of the road.
In a city often held in a time capsule by those subsisting on fond memories, I see a modern life that holds its traditions close but moves forward with innovation and new ideas. While Din Tai Feng and Ootoya continued to be weekly haunts, some of my most delightful meals on this trip were of a new flavor—a remix of classic favorites and the imagination.
As I resumed my SF life and felt the new distance, I realized I had a unique perspective to share, and through the lens of food, Taipei Daughter was born.
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There were a few exceptional foods during my stay in Taipei that formed the foundation of the Taipei Daughter menu. The first was a 豆花 sweet tofu pudding special at Ron Museum called 花生花生 “Peanuts Peanuts.” I have never particularly enjoyed peanuts, but this dish seduced me with its presentation of peanuts prepared two ways, paired with the undeniably Taiwanese flavor of black sugar. The second was a pomelo-scented coffee shaken with ice, the brainchild of a barista friend at Dixielane. It was fragrant, delicate, and airy, and decorated with a wedge of dried pineapple.
With these ambitious flavor profiles, I knew I wanted to bring on board culinary professionals to help me share this vision. Below are notes on our explorations and final presentations.
the menu
Peanuts Peanuts Cake
With the peanut-two-ways concept, I wanted to create a layer cake, one of my favorite forms of dessert. Geometric and celebratory, these classic cake shapes remind me of childhood birthday parties, pure and simple in their flavors.
I approached Lucky Finds bakery who I had met last year in a cake-making workshop. We discussed American peanut butter flavor versus Taiwan peanut experience, cake shape and size, and after three rounds of recipe-testing, we came up with a beautiful cake of black sugar chiffon, peanut cream, and peanut feuilletine dulcey crunch with a touch of salt.
I also wanted to offer a tea and fruit item, and with Lucky Finds’ expertise and recommendations, we rounded out the menu with a Tieguanyin Oolong Tea Canelé and an Osmanthus Peach Jelly.
These thoughtful pastries were served on vintage dessert plates, sourced over the preceding weeks, reminiscent of what we use in our Taipei home.
Citron cream latte
With the original inspiration from Dixielane as a starting point, local coffee favorite Kopê House worked with me to bring together the flavors I could still taste in my memory with the culinary creativity that has become their trademark.
Fresh citron was chosen as the citrus component, with pomelos being out of season, and a recipe was developed to infuse lemony notes in an iced coffee, topped off with a pillowy cream at once decadent and refreshing. Half beverage, half dessert, the summery Citron Cream Latte captured perfectly the essence of the Taiwan drink scene. Their fizzy Lychee Shrub was offered as a companion menu item.
lumpia gao
The final, and most personal, piece of the puzzle was in fact no design of mine, but a staple in many Taiwanese homes: lumpia gao.
Throughout my childhood, my mother and grandmother regularly made this for dinner—braised cabbage and bean sprouts enveloped in thin, wheat wrappers with the diner’s choice of any combination of sugared ground peanuts, aonori, and cilantro.
Knowledge of the culinary history of Taiwan and his own personal family connection with lumpia gao made my friend and fellow Taiwanese Oramasama Dumplings the perfect chef to showcase this dish. Infused with his own twist of curry powder, the lumpia gao were served with a side of his signature dried anchovy and skin-on peanuts, a final nod to the Taiwanese love of peanuts peanuts.
the artwork
watercolor print
Evocative of simple days, the song of summertime cicadas, and scent of gardenias heavy in the air, this piece is sure to take you back to your best memories of Taiwan. This print features an illustrated homage to Taipei in my signature pencil and watercolor drawings, at once honest and nuanced.
travel guide
Not your average guide to the most crowded tourist spots in Taipei, this curated directory introduces you to hidden gems and personal favorites of mine. The accordion foldout features illustrations originally rendered in pencil and watercolor in a tropical, summer-drenched palette.
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