Picture courtesy of Jenny Zhang
I feel like my creative process is very intertwined with my learning process and how I come to understand Taiwanese food. And typically that's through a historical approach, or an effort to contextualize a dish in Taiwanese history, or understand where it comes from, and how it found its way to Taiwan. It usually touches on flavors that are exciting or stories that are exciting. I feel like as a literature major, I always like to read, write, cook, and talk to people. All these things kind of factor in. It just kind of excites me and I really like to learn that way.
In Taiwan, it’s very common to go prawn fishing and you can go and you get a little fuelRod set up and you can fish for prawns and you can eat what you take.
It's very translatable to restaurants on the Chesapeake Bay or near the beach in South Carolina even where shrimp is just readily accessible and delicious, and fresh.
A lot of people are really into peeling shrimps and I totally understand that. But in Taiwan they fry the shrimps with the head and get the oil really hot. 350 not anything crazy. You take the shrimps and dredge them in a little sweet potato flour, and drop them in the hot oil maybe on a skewer.
Out of the fryer, you can turn them and make sure it's evenly fried and get it nice and golden brown, and crispy. Add just a little salt or some soy sauce, chili flake or even a little mayonnaise. It’s like a very simple, not fancy delicious way to eat fried shrimp which is something that everybody can relate to.
Everybody likes fried shrimp I believe. With the shell on it keeps the meat tender and the shell gets really flavorful and aromatic. A lot of people don't like to peel that shell off after they fry but I literally just eat the shell. I love it. You've got to chew it a little bit more but it's very flavorful and has has a lot of flavor. Especially the head, the fried head, it’s such as a really satisfying crunchy bite you know and it's just great. It reminds me of being in Taiwan when I eat shrimp like that with the sweet potato flour and the crispy shell.
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