From Granny's Rice Yummies to 雙口呂 Siang kháu Lū Cultural Kitchen

UPDATE 11/19/2019

It is my utmost delight to be invited to 雙口呂 Siang kháu Lū Cultural Kitchen opening ceremony and enjoy the excitements of their cultural and culinary adventures. 

I will leave you to explore details on their website, Facebook page (with immediate updates and details) and Instagram. And will use fewest words possible to share a few things I think noteworthy and interesting.

I would like to praise in particular Pei-Yi for her creativity and efforts to successfully making a transition developing her own recipes and style which caters for modern taste and concepts. The red tortoise cakes are made by Granny. The white and pink by Pei-Yi. The differences which showcase her effort is clear to me - Hers is much lighter, less stickier and pastry much thinner. I know the result could only be achieved by countless testing and modifying. The pastry to get to that thinness, drier but moist is by mastering the mixture portion from two different types of rice. Kudos!

The box on the wall is the kind of wooden box (turned upside down) Granny steamed her cakes in! The traditional wooden steamers also, described in our book, used as fridge before refrigerator came to the world!

The 'board' is the 'sieve' as described in our book - 

Taiwanese Hakka call them mí thôi muk, sometimes rendered mee tai mak, akin to the name in Singapore (mee tai bak). This name describes the method by which these noodles are made: rice paste is pushed through a sieve, then dropped in hot water for cooking. 

The kind of traditional European stove you see dotted in countryside around 1960s Taiwan - LOVE the elegant design ornate 'door'. 

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雙口呂 Siang kháu Lū Cultural Kitchen

33547 桃園市大溪區南興路一段277號

(33547 Taoyuan City Daxi District Nanxing Road Section 1 No.277)

Between 93-year-old Granny's Rice Yummies and new-born Siang kháu Lū kitchen are some phenomenal 86 years, for Granny has been making 粿 (food made of rice) since she was seven years old. 

I first noticed @siangkhaulu.com by their very nice 'Cudweed Rice Cake, Tomb Sweeping post'.  There are several mentions that interested me having just coauthored a Taiwan/Taipei culinary history book published in October 2018. 

➤ Ponlai (also known as Formosa rice) is in the title of our book for a historical reason.

➤ A significant amount of space is dedicated to RICE: in particular "THE ROLE OF RICE" Chapter 4 "Offerings, Festivals, and Special Foods throughout the Year"

➤ "Gnaphalium affine 鼠麴草" cakes is mentioned on Page 75. 

Being born and raised in Taipei, I have not seen this grass and it was brought to my attention solely through book research.  I was also interested in how Taiwanese use this grass - either in food, fabric dye etc. My recent Yunnan trips visiting a number of minorities villages and witnessing ancient wisdom of Nature's Gifts also inspired me to learn more about this grass and its Yunnan 'substitute' and *WHY- and again, food and fabric dye. 

And yes it was a wonderful experience seeing how ancestral wisdom passed onto generations after generations. And how many creations have been developed in a parallel manner around the world. 

*WHY, in quest, is the history, is the geography, is the climate, and also most relevantly for what I do and interested in - is the immigration, is the tradition and is way of living*

➤ “SALTY-SWEET” Taiwanese flavor - Page 187 of our book "Chinese Chives and Taro Bun" recipe - concluded @Siangkhaulu's Cudweed cake post!

➤ Hakka rice snacks (page 74) - Remember, Granny is rice cake - not zongzi -  phenomenon, so think of a reason why the visit is about experiencing Granny's rice cake, not rice wrap! Right?! 😊

The Hakka minority has its own zòngzi, including sweet dumplings and ones

made by grinding glutinous rice and ponlai rice, then adding radish, fried shallot,

dried shrimp, pork, and other ingredients. The latter are regarded as good for eating cold or hot. (Page 78)

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS BASED ON MY 3-YEAR BOOK JOURNEY

➤傳承 INHERIT AND PASS ON (And yes it was a wonderful experience seeing how ancestral wisdom passed onto generations after generations)

At initial contact with @Siangkhaulu, we chatted about what they (he and his wife) are aiming to achieve with this cultural kitchen, and it immediately struck me with this 'urban slogan' "傳承 Inherit and Pass On" SO widely used in Taiwan. It is a great thing happening and world-wide, don't get me wrong, I just meant it's not something I experienced in UK, US to THAT 'wear-on-sleeve' level as I am experiencing in Taiwan and admiring increasingly government funded 'start-up' open opportunities that many young people compete to take. 

My primary experience with this 'urban slogan' from doing the book is the fantastic case of Hoshing 1947. (covered in considerable details in Chapter 6 BUILDING A FUTURE OUTSIDE THE MARKET)

➤What are they wanting to pass on to people who spend a day in Siangkhaulu Cultural Kitchen? 

Having done Chapter 9 "Teaching, Sharing, and Learning Taiwanese Cuisine", learning that two of the key women chefs of this chapter learned proper cooking from mother-in-law. One of my immediate questions is: 

"WHOM did Granny learn making rice cakes from?" The answer is unsurprisingly "mother-in-law". The next question:

"WHY the focus on RICE cake?" (which based on my research, in Taiwan, Hakka women are territorial and masterful in rice snacks) 
"Is your Granny Hakka?" " No. Her mother-in-law was."

@Siangkhaulu continued - there has been no cooking class or culinary kitchen offering 'rice cake making'. We are privileged to have Granny teaching and sharing her 80 years knowledge and experiences and after a Burma food-related experience,  we were inspired to submit a grant proposal to Cultural Affairs Bureau which was accepted and given the go ahead. Currently we are renovating an old house in Daxi and we hope to open the kitchen in early July catering Western travellers specifically. 

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On arriving at Granny's house in Bade 八德 district, I was shown this - set up the night before 

I was shown around the house and neighbourhood

Hens kept for eggs

Granny's homemade preserves and fermented beans and vegetables

The pork dish at lunch was cooked with daikon soaked in fermented soy bean brine of the previous. The juice tasted very winey.

I was naturally most interested in crumbled dried cudweeds stored in fridge. 

Granny tasted and added repeatedly white pepper into the minced pork mix - a requirement of many Taiwanese dishes.

Two types of leaf were used for different flavours. Green is Shell ginger. Brown is bamboo. 

Granny skilfully and attentively handling every step of the way- it is an important duty for her, family's fortune and welfare relies on the quality of cakes. Sincerity goes in every cake she makes.   

 Dough is made of 6 glutinous rice : 4 ponlai rice

 Brown sugar is added moderately to the cudweed dough to remove the distinctive grassy taste.

 It took a good couple of hours to make these by 3 pair of skilful hands.


I was then called in the kitchen to watch Granny started the fire! Entertained and impressed by Granny skilfully and effortlessly throwing and positioning wood chipboard, newspaper, dried straw etc to get fire started beautifully within 10 minutes.

Granny timing control was perfect - they were ready when she thought they were. 

After tasting this delicious rice cake, @Siangkhaulu took me on a walk tour around Taoyuan old street before heading back to Taipei. 

Most disturbingly is the SADDEST scene of a 昭和十三年  1938 stone once belonged to part of the Taoyuan Shinto Shrine. A couple of stones of the same era were thrown under a shabby mobile home situated on main road and the 1938's is now a convenient doorstep!!! At least it is still in one piece and has a 'home'??!!

Then - there was mountains of youtiao! a Youtiao wholesaler 新珉油條店 offering two types - soft and crunchy - plain and old. The old is the twice (at least) deep-fried crunchy type that used in glutinous rice wrap and hot pot. It was 4 pm on a Saturday and three aunties were busily cooking to order, no sign of stopping but happily stopped to tell their stories. 😃