Food things you should know

The changes of the times can be seen from the fillings of the cakes. In the past, when the economic environment was bad, traditional cakes only added red bean paste. When the economic situation improved, they began to add braised pork. The fillings became more and more diverse, which represented that society was becoming more and more prosperous. In the past, we used it to worship our ancestors and gods, and the patterns represented people’s expectations for life.

Editing Department

Giving gifts is a kind of thought, and how to send them to the heart of the other person is a kind of knowledge! When it comes to giving gifts, we must mention Taiwanese cakes. Phoenix cakes and egg yolk cakes are must-haves during the New Year. Why is the fragrance so fragrant that makes people drool as soon as you open the cake package? Have you ever noticed the totems on the cakes? What do these patterns mean? How can we give gifts in a decent and generous way?

The Tanshi Public Welfare Food Culture Foundation held a Good Food Pulse Food Education Lecture in Kaohsiung on Teachers' Day. Starting from Taiwan's traditional cakes, the lecture talked about festive food, gift-giving culture and the impact of fragrance on the senses. Not only will you understand why we get hungry when we smell cakes, but you will also learn about cakes, the history of cakes, and how to give gifts that everyone will envy.

Every festive season, we think of "cakes". 80% of the human body's taste experience comes from the sense of smell.

Fragrance is very important in life. Everyone eats a lot of food from childhood to adulthood, and "color, fragrance, and taste" are the basis for people to choose what food to eat. Fragrance not only affects our judgment of food preferences, but also affects our emotional response. Therefore, people often use "the taste of hometown" and "the taste of mother" to describe food, because thinking of these flavors will cause certain emotional reactions or memories.

Chen Zhengxiong, professor of the Department of Food Science at Fu Jen Catholic University and the Food Think Tank, explained that the food industry has a special term: "sensory body", which refers to the judgment based on the accumulation of senses and experience, and the different feelings obtained from it. For example, apples are not blue.

There are five very important sensory organs that are responsible for the smell: taste, vision, smell, hearing, and touch. Among them, smell can affect the identification of more smells. Studies have shown that the human nose can accept 5,000 to 10,000 different smells. There are a lot of sensory cells in the nasal mucosa, which can sense different smells in different ways, and smells will produce different reactions in the brain.

Aroma is an important factor that affects food. Chen Zhengxiong said, "Eat what you like, like what you eat." The aroma of food affects everyone's feelings and memories, so aroma is a very important thing in food culture. This probably explains why Taiwanese people can't help but want to eat moon cakes and barbecue during the Mid-Autumn Festival, no matter where they are in the world, because it has become an indispensable existence in our growing memory.

Senior writer Zhang Zunzhen shared the origin of cakes and talked about the culture and customs of cakes in Taiwan. (Photo source: provided by the Tanshi Foundation)

The cake you eat is not just a cake, it is also full of Taiwanese culture!

"Although Taiwan is small, there are many kinds of cakes." Teacher Zhang Zunzhen, a long-time cultural researcher and senior writer who has devoted himself to Taiwanese cakes, listed more than 50 types of cakes in his presentation. "But there are more than these. Don't think that Taiwanese cakes are only pineapple cakes, green bean cakes, and egg yolk cakes. There are also Kaohsiung Takao cakes, Takao cakes, Tainan fragrant cakes, etc. In recent years, local culture and agricultural specialties have been added to the fillings, so there are so many cakes." Teacher Zhang Zunzhen explained.

Taiwan's cake culture and customs were brought to Taiwan by our ancestors after they crossed the Black Water Valley. Today, due to the environment and products in Taiwan, the form is quite different from that of their hometown. The changes of the whole era can be seen from the fillings of the cakes. In the past, when the economic environment was poor, traditional cakes only added red bean paste. When the economic situation improved, braised pork began to be added. The more the fillings became, the more diverse they were, which meant that society was becoming more prosperous.

What is the meaning of cakes? In the past, we used them to worship our ancestors and gods, and the patterns represented people's expectations for life. "So for example, the top scholar cake has a picture of the top scholar wearing a black hat; the big cake often has dragon and phoenix patterns, celebrating a harmonious marriage or eternal health. The fish-shaped pattern represents surplus every year," explained teacher Zhang Zunzhen.

Teacher Zhang Zunzhen believes that "Taiwanese cakes can be regarded as representatives of Chinese cakes. They are diverse, rich, and closely related to life. They are not only festivals, but also a living art and a precious intangible cultural heritage." The audience present also nodded frequently, quite in agreement.

The custom of gift-giving has been around for a long time, and the peak season is the Mid-Autumn Festival.

For the Han Chinese, gift-giving is an important part of interpersonal relationships among the people, especially during the Mid-Autumn Festival and the end of the year. For example, the record of sending mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, when mooncakes were given to Jinshi candidates. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the news of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, raising an army was also delivered via notes hidden in mooncakes.

Professor Lin Chengwei from the Institute of Architecture and Cultural Assets at the National Taipei University of the Arts mentioned that the custom of giving mooncakes as gifts already existed in early Taiwan, and many historical documents record the giving of gifts and condolences during the Mid-Autumn Festival, such as the "Penghu Chronicle": "During the Mid-Autumn Festival, people drink and admire the moon, and exchange mooncakes with each other." This is the earliest description of gift-giving during the Mid-Autumn Festival in Taiwan.

Gift exchange is not only a behavior for maintaining relationships in human society and an important part of life culture, but also plays an important role in preserving customs and traditional items. As social background and popular culture continue to change, the content and recipients of gifts vary from generation to generation, but gift-giving itself remains an unchanging heritage in interpersonal relationships.

Fang-Yan Lin, Vice President of the Taiwan Food Education Foundation, said that over the past three years, the "Good Food Pulse" lectures have been held in the hope of promoting dietary knowledge based on science and bringing new knowledge about daily life and diet to the general public. In recent years, in response to the preferences and needs of many people, the theme has gradually shifted from food science to culture and cooking. For example, the theme of this lecture is festival food, starting from the local Taiwanese flavor, and it is hoped that the public will not only know the "science of food", but also protect the "culture of food" together.