Exploring Passport To Taiwan 2019!
Did you ever consider visiting Taiwan? If not, it’s a destination you must consider or add to your list of places to explore!
This past summer, we had the opportunity to experience The 18th annual Passport to Taiwan located in Union Square in New York City! Passport to Taiwan is an annual celebratory festival filled with cultural stage performances, food adventures, arts and crafts, and more. It was a perfect event for all ages to attend and have a great time. It has been going on since 2002 to celebrate Taiwanese American Heritage Week, which was designated by Congress in 1999. In addition, the Month of May is also Asian American Heritage Month.
Experiencing Passport to Taiwan allowed us to deeply appreciate their culture and, of course, their street food. We enjoyed a few sweet and savory bites as well as beverages. Some of the dishes we tried were O A Jian ( Oyster Omelette), Wa Gui (delicious rice pudding ), and more. We learned that the Oyster Omelette is classic street food in Taiwan, but its origin started in China. The Oyster omelet is a pancake made with starchy water poured into a pan, creating a clear jelly swirled in between the egg and the oysters. Taiwanese add a sweet and savory tomato-based sauce as a topping.
The Wai Gui( savory rice pudding) is another popular food in Taiwan. It is also known as rice bowl cake and considered an everyday dish. The bowls of solidified sticky rice flour are seasoned and topped with savory goodies like small bites of pork, egg, and/or mushroom. We also learned that the best way to enjoy Wai Gui is when the rice was conserved for more than a year.
The cultural stage performances were captivating to watch. The dancers were dressed in beautiful bright color garments, and the choreography was synchronized. However, we missed a performance by dancers who were dressed in Santaizi. We discovered that Santaizi’s origin name is Dianyin Santaizi. Dianyin means “electronic music,” specifically techno dance music. Santaizi is a name of Chinese God whom Taiwanese temple fairs often portrayed in the form of giant, human-occupied puppets. If you combine both names, it refers to Techno dance God. Apart from dancing, we also learned that these performances also take place during religious rituals.
