The origin of the taiwanese cuisine

Taiwanese cuisine originated in Fukien. This province, located in southern China, began to prosper in the Sung dynasty (960-1279). During that period the Yangtse River area, rich in fish and rice, was already well developed. Merchants from Hangchou and Ningpo, port cities in the delta, were bustling between their home ports and Fuchou in Fukien, bringing to Fuchou the art of Chiangche(now Shanghai) cuisine.
Fukien is mountainous as well as maritime, rich in both mountain produce and seafood. When the multiple varieties of indigenous ingredients met and blended with the advanced culinary products from Hangchou and Ningpo, the result was Fukienese cuisine--now one of eight major Chinese regional cuisines.
Fukien cuisine can further be divided into the northern Fukienese cuisine(around Fuchou) and the southern Fukienese (around Chuanchou, Changchou, and Amoy.) Most of Taiwan's Han Chinese immigrants were from southern Fukien, so southern Fukienese cuisine became Taiwanese mainstream cuisine.
As in other colonies, the newcomers in Taiwan subsisted on simple foods until they were well settled and prosperous; survival was more important than being fussy about taste. At the end of World War II, Taiwan was basically an agricultural society, and the best foods were eaten by top officials and the rich only. Taiwanese cuisine evolved gradually over hundreds of years. Japanese cuisine(the Japanese occupied Taiwan from 1895 to 1945) left some traces as well, like the use of miso(salty soybean paste), sashimi(raw fish), and takuan(preserved radish.)
Taiwanese food tends to be simple and light, with most of the flavors of the ingredients preserved. Regional snacks abound, like Hsinchu kungwan, Tainan tan-tzu-mien and kuantsaiban, Wanluan port feet, Chiayi mushrooms and shark-fin stew. Nineteen forty-nine was a dramatic turning point for Taiwanese cuisine. That year, when the communists took over the mainland, over two million people from all parts of China fled to Taiwan, bringing with them, among many other things, their cooking skills and tastes.
In a few years, restaurants, small street eateries, and food stalls of various Chinese regional tastes--from Canton, Shanghai, Peking, Hunan, Shanhsi, Chaochou, Fuchou, Szechuan, Chianghsi, and Shantung, as well as Mongolia, sprang up all over the island. Throughout history, there has never been any other place in China where so many styles of Chinese cuisine have existed side by side. This situation has infused Taiwanese cui-sine with new substances and spirits, and Taiwanese cuisine has undergone even further change since. Taiwanese chefs have been willing and eager to learn from other chefs. The result is a greatly enriched Taiwan-ese cuisine, full of outside influences while at the same time maintaining its own character. Today, Taiwanese restaurants offer dishes derived from regional Chinese and indigenous cuisines--and even foreign dishes.
Like Fukien, Taiwan is rich in fish, rice, and mountain produce. With plenty of rainfall, the island harvests hundreds of thousands of tons of salt- and fresh-water fish and other seafood. Crustaceans, mollusks, and eels are considered delicacies by the Taiwa-nese; oysters and clams are a regular part of the diet, with clams being eaten raw or cooked. A popular side dish is raw clams soaked in a mixture of soy sauce, rice wine, vinegar, and hot pepper. Oysters have multiple uses in dishes from oyster soup to various kinds of stir-fried oysters. O-a-chianan, omelet made of oysters, eggs, and corn starch mixed, fried, and served with sweet and sour sauce, is very popular.
Pork and poultry are widely used in Taiwanese cuisine; beef and lamb are becoming popular too. The order of prestige of poultry now is goose, duck, and chicken, while 30 years ago it was chicken, duck, and goose. However, chicken has firmly established its position in Chinese cuisine in general and is often used as a secret weapon in a Chinese kitchen. Sometimes a whole chicken is used along with other ingredients for a single dish, but diners don't see any trace of chicken in the final product--the chef uses only its broth. Chicken is roughly divided into two categories: grain-fed and indigenous. It is graded this way because the grain-fed bird is confined, raised en mass, and of foreign variety, while the indigenous kind runs loose and is said to taste sweeter, juicier, and more solid than the grain-fed type. Well-trained taste buds can tell the difference. Also, some consider that chicken with black skin or feet tastes better than that with white skin or feet.
Health or 'tonic' foods, like ginseng chicken and tangkuei duck, are also popular in Taiwanese cuisine. As the people of Taiwan become more affluent and health conscious, they emphasize such foods more than ever. Rice is widely used in Taiwan to make snacks. The most popular of these is kuei. It appears in many forms and tastes: salty or sweet, leavened or unleavened, plain or otherwise. Lopokao is a beloved food made of rice, radish, and shrimp.
Taiwan doesn't produce wheat, but this grain has nevertheless played a role in Taiwanese cuisine. In Taiwan, people eat ti-kha mi-soan(pork feet with fine noodles) especially after they have had bad luck; back in the old days, poor folks even made a delicious noodle soup to go with plain rice and make the whole meal more palatable. O-a mi-soan(oysters and fine noodles) and tan-tzu mien(noodles with fermented pork sauce) are Taiwanese favorites.
There are countless Taiwanese eateries around the island, some of them specializing in only a few dishes or even a single item. Besides, each region of Taiwan has its own food specialties.