Narsai David Reviews 'The Food Of Taiwan'

"The Food of Taiwan" is a beautiful new cookbook written by Cathy Erway.

I'm having a hard time getting past the street food, 'street snacks' as they're called in the book.  Some of the most memorable food I've ever eaten was at the Taiwan Night Market.

Of course there's wonderful dim sum and other delicious things we associate with Taiwanese cooking but when you get to the Night Market you'll find things you never imagined.

Pork bun… making them at home isn't quite the same but I'm ready to try.  I saw it made by a street vendor once.  I remember the mother in a family of three forming these little balls of ground meat into a layer of dough and handing them to her husband who was baking them in a tandoor type oven.  The man would take this big lump and smack it against the side walls while his son looked on. It was remarkable they didn't fall into the fire. But the balls stuck to the walls of the tandoor and baked until they were brown and crisp and crunchy on the outside and the meat was perfectly cooked inside.

Pork buns are a great starting point but everything in this beautiful book looks good. I can't wait to get this into my kitchen and start experimenting.