NüVoices Podcast: Clarissa Wei and Ivy Chen on their new cookbook, Made in Taiwan

Clarissa Wei and Ivy Chen. Photo Credit: Yen Wei and Ryan Chen.

I was so excited to finally get my hands on this, but even more excited when I saw all the dishes I love that are included. Truly in awe of the amount of work that went into putting this gorgeous volume together.

If you love conversations about food, check out this Episode of NüVoices. ! I had the pleasure of meeting Clarissa Wei and Ivy Chen in Taipei this past summer to talk about their new book, Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation. The episode is packed with behind-the-scenes tidbits. We discuss how food fits into conversations around identity, culinary misconceptions, Indigenous and Hakka influences, and how she and Ivy designed their recipes. We also talk about the contrast between Western coverage of cross-straight tensions and the local mood and mindset. Made in Taiwan is both timeless and a reflection of the times.

Clarissa says there are a million ways to make the dishes in their book, but "Ivy is able to contextualize all the recipes and really bring in the flavour of modern day Taiwan." She points to the use of a flat fish broth as one example: "When Ivy started incorporating that in the recipes, it was instantaneous -- this is the flavour of street food, this is the flavour I grew up with and I had no idea what it was."

Clarissa was my first podcast guest almost exactly a year ago, and I was really happy we could do this again! This episode was produced by Kyle Leung and edited by Megan Cattel.

Listen from a browser, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.