'Golden Moldy Chicken Rice Dish' - Remnant of the forgotten ' 大肚王國 The Kingdom of Middag' ?

My casual artistic 'golden moldy rice'! 

(This entry is also NOTE 21 of the ongoing Anthropology post HERE. )

UPDATE 12/19 
(Added information on Rice Fermentation and Puli Immigrant Aborigines )

YU

I did not yet get my grandmother's name. However, I *did* get some clarification on the fermented stew from my Dad. 

My grandmother cooked brown rice (Dad is specific on this point) and various grains (possibly wheat but he could not remember), with nothing else (no meat, no veggies, no seasoning). Then she let the pot cool and placed it on the high shelf to grow the beneficial mold. After a few days she stirred the mixture, and re-heated it with meat and seasonings. Dad said again how delicious it was and how the kids used to ask her to make it. He says 'it wasn't really a dish--but a way to make dishes better.'

CHENG

稉米 (sticky short-grained) + 小米 (millet) then. Aboriginal. Some fermentation involved (maybe why the unique taste)

HUNG - millet, likely foxtail millet. 

Also taking the opportunity to link some details of RICE and PULI.

Saké and Puli (There are all together 14 steps in traditional saké-making, now summarized below. Washing is done by using the clear and sweet spring water shipped in from Puli 埔里.) 

https://danshuihistory.blogspot.com/2015/03/taiwan-sake.html

Zhailai was deemed unacceptable to the Japanese who generally preferred their own sticky short-grained 稉米. Therefore, starting in 1900, the Japanese Colonial Gov't ordered experimentation of rice breeding (Worse, the cultivation of the Japanese strains was met with repeated failure.)

https://danshuihistory.blogspot.com/2015/03/rice-part-2-penglai-rice.html

By 1847, Qing records show there were more than 2,000 immigrant Aborigines in Puli compared to 150 or so natives. A Japanese survey in 1900 shows that only eight remained, with their mother tongue completely lost.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2018/09/30/2003701434

-END-

The Kingdom of Middag (Chinese: 大肚王國; pinyin: Dàdù Wángguó) was a supra-tribal alliance located in the central western plains of Taiwan in the 17th century. This polity was established by the Taiwanese aboriginal peoples of Papora, Babuza, Pazeh and Hoanya. It ruled as many as 27 villages, occupying the western part of present-day Taichung county and the northern part of modern Changhua county. Having survived the rule of European colonists and the Kingdom of Tungning, the aboriginal peoples who previously comprised Middag were eventually subjugated to the rule of the Qing Empire in the 18th century. (Wikipedia)

YOUTUBE Taiwan’s Forgotten "Kingdom" of Middag (大肚王國) by Vincent Tseng the Wandering Warrior 

Pei-Lin Yu 余琲琳, an Anthropologist and Fulbright senior research fellow recently asked if I had heard of a 'golden moldy chicken rice dish' her father enjoyed in the late 1930s in Dadu Village (Taichung). 

Dadu was the historical capital of the Kingdom of Middag. 

After some discussion with a historian friend (CHENG) and from his very useful tips and observations, I decided to do a blog entry on this fascinating small mystery! Pei-lin happily goes along with the idea so we can keep these information in one place, for future 'detective' considerations!

So here it is and first by learning Pei-Lin's Taiwanese-American heritage - 

YU

"My Indigenous great-great-grandmother married a Chinese man and her great-grandson – my father – grew up speaking a typical blend of languages for the 1950s: the local dialect, Hokkien, as well as Japanese, Cantonese and Mandarin. Arriving in the U.S. at the age of 23 to study electrical engineering, my father mastered English quickly, married my Euro-American mother, and raised a family in the American West. " (Source HERE)

" I was wondering if you might have heard about a dish that my Dad enjoyed in the late 1930s in Dadu Village (Taichung). His mother sometimes made up a gooey rice and chicken stew and then put the pot up on a high shelf, no refrigeration, for several days. A golden mold would grow on the top, and once it got about 1-2 cm tall she would stir the mold into the stew, re-heat, and serve. Dad said the flavor was excellent with overtones of wine and mushrooms and the kids asked her to make it more often. He can't remember the name--but perhaps you have heard of it?"

HUNG

When I was told about this moldy dish I have never heard of, a few thoughts came up ...

1. It sounded like the sort of dish Yunnan minorities might cook and enjoy.
2. On the high shelf - sounds familiar with some fermentation preparation.
3. This shouldn't be a 'Han' dish, if I have NEVER heard of and personally do  not get excited about partaking the dish. 

Why a dish 'I have no idea of ' itself is fascinating. I immediately checked with CHENG and wondered if he knew something.

CHENG

"Sounds like an aboriginal dish. I wonder if she or her great great grandma descend from remnants of 大肚王國 (The kingdom of Middag). Her great great grandmother (an aboriginal) married a Chinese man (probably a Han?) Her grandmother was Taiwanese (Pinpu/Plains aboriginal?). The moldy food most likely is from maternal line."

"Going back several generations, they were probably 生番 (raw/wild) at that time,, there was no 'Taiwanese', every Han was a Chinese"

YU

"My father's mother was Taiwanese, but we think that our Indigenous ancestress would have been five generations back and I do not know this person's name. Most likely she would have been one of the groups from Taichung area, there are several tribes within the 'Pingpu' designation. "

CHENG

"That is about 100 years ago, the colonial era household record, as 熟番 （cooked/domesticated) should still be around. This moldy dish would have passed along this aboriginal line, which no Han people would have heard of (or wanted to partake)"

"If she can find out her grandmother's last name (in kanji?), the family tree should be traceable, she just needs to go through the household registration system if she is interested."

CHENG (on the color of the mold)

"The color of the mold is curious,  most if not all are green to black,  not gold. Most produce aflatoxin 黄曲霉毒素, bad for you." 

HUNG

I googled and found images and links on  "Mold growing rapidly on moldy rice in yellow and orange spores " - such as 

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-mold-growing-rapidly-on-moldy-rice-in-yellow-and-orange-spores-103954059.html

https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/moldy-rice.html

No intention to experiment nor experience the moldy dish, nevertheless enjoy playing around the moldy colors on paper!

Update 12/18

The detective work becomes more interesting as I just remembered Taiwanese natives found Chinese habit of eating chicken quite disgusting!

CHENG 

Professor Shi-Yeoung Tang 湯熙勇 (a Siraya from Tainan) might know the moldy dish.

HUNG

Good to know. BUT I just remember Taiwanese natives found Chinese habit of eating chicken quite disgusting! 

So, if Siraya, for example, did know about the moldy dish passed on 20 generations back, it would only be about moldy rice and nothing to do with chicken.

A Culinary History of Taipei. Chapter 1.
Siraya men stood as much as “a head and a neck” above the Dutch,24 according to European visitors to seventeenth-century Taiwan. The outsiders were also deeply impressed by the herds of wild sika deer (Cervus nippon taiouanus) that roamed the southwest. The natives drank deer blood,25 and Chen Di noticed that the Siraya ate every part of each deer they caught, including (to his revulsion) the intestines and contents thereof. He even-handedly noted that the natives found the Chinese habit of eating chickens and pheasants quite disgusting.26 

Secondly - Professor 'Shi-Yeoung 熙勇' the name, could it mean 'Siraya Brave = Shi-Yeoung 西勇'?