Food diplomacy

Once upon a time, a Japan-born Chinese named Zheng Chenggong moved from Xiamen to Taiwan and drove out the Dutch East India Company in 1662.

Zheng, a hero of Taiwan who was known to colonial powers as Koxinga, is also credited for something else. Upon landing on the island, the only edible items he could find in abundance were oysters and sweet potatoes. So he ground the sweet potatoes into flour, used this as batter for the fresh oysters, and presto – an enduring Taiwanese dish, the oyster omelet, was born.

Or at least that’s what Wellington Wei, press director of the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Manila, told guests, among them Presidential Communications Operations Office chief Herminio Coloma Jr., at the media launch yesterday of Taiwan’s website on its cuisine – http:// taiwanfoodculture.net.

Beijing isn’t the only government talking about projecting “soft power” these days. TECO head Raymond Wang, Taiwan’s top representative in Manila, told the gathering that through international humanitarian efforts, particularly since Ma Ying-jeou became Taiwan’s president in 2008, “the promotion of soft power has become one of the major policies” of their government.

The promotion includes launching in 2010 a four-year, NT$1.1-billion action plan (about $37.3 million or P1.6 billion at yesterday’s rates) to put Taiwan on the international culinary map, under the supervision of the Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Apart from promoting food sold in Taiwan’s famous Night Markets, the Government Information Office tapped New York-based Burt Wolf Productions to create a documentary on gourmet dining in Taiwan.

Promoting their cuisine is serious business for the Taiwanese, who were inspired by the global popularity of Thai, Japanese, Malaysian and Korean cuisines. (Interestingly, Korean Ambassador Hye Min Lee told me his country needed to exert more effort to promote their cuisine.) Taiwan’s Department of Tourism reported that food was their top tourist draw.

In 2007, Taiwan’s Department of Commerce conducted a survey on which local food items foreigners enjoyed the most, with local experts recommending 27 types of “little eats” and 34 formal “table dishes.”

After actual food tasting, three were chosen as the top little eats: oyster omelet, pearl milk tea (now ubiquitous in Manila), and yansu chicken (battered deep-fried chicken). The top three table eats were tsai-bo-neng or dried radish-and-egg frittata (crispy outside, soft and chewy inside), kungpao chicken, and wok-fried beef with scallions.

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Like mainland Chinese cuisine, Taiwanese cuisine is certainly more complex and diverse than tsai-bo-neng. This is a society, after all, that can make diners enjoy duck tongues and feet, pig eyeballs and gums.

The Taiwanese are also renowned for their stinky tofu, which is fermented with spinach in a covered jar – the longer the fermentation, the stronger the flavor.

Sampling the regular and spicy versions of the dish yesterday, all I can say is that it’s an acquired taste (and odor).

But the rest of the dishes (including dessert of shaved ice with regular and fermented mango), at Kao-Chi Restaurant on N.S. Amoranto Street in Quezon City, were delectable.

Among the most popular were oyster omelet, Wuxi pork spare ribs, drunken chicken, and the best xiao long bao I’ve tasted so far – dumplings that burst with hot soup when you bite into them.

TECO’s Wang, who enjoys cooking and eating, shared with me his recipes for double-cooked pork and braised beef brisket.

“We don’t talk Spratlys here,” Wang said, tossing in the irresistible quip: “We don’t have a standoff with the Philippines. We stand by you.”

Chinese embassy officials have reminded me that Taiwan’s president met recently with Chinese President Hu Jintao and committed to further improve cross-straits ties. The Chinese diplomats said the two leaders opposed the concept of two Chinas and independence for Taiwan.

But the rivalry is there, even in culinary promotion. The city government of Taipei is applying this year for recognition by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as the world’s fourth “City of Gastronomy.”

UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network has seven major categories, among them design, film, literature, music and gastronomy.

A City of Gastronomy must meet eight criteria, most of which revolve around the wide use of local ingredients as well as the preservation of traditional methods of cooking and food markets that are characteristic of the city or region.

The three Cities of Gastronomy, as recognized by UNESCO, are Popayan in Colombia, Ostersand in Sweden, and Chengdu in China’s Sichuan province.

We don’t have P1.6 billion to spend on promoting Philippine cuisine overseas, but we now have several fine Filipino restaurants, and there’s no reason why we can’t develop a street food culture similar to the ones in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Shanghai andTaiwan. Hawker food items in these places are delicious, clean, safe, affordable, and representative of the local culture.

Local cuisine, as I’ve written, is a major tourist draw anywhere. Improving the quality of Pinoy street food can help ease poverty. With only a small investment, which can be made available to the poor through micro-lending programs, family incomes can receive a boost.

We can be inspired by the example of Taiwan. In 2010, for example, the 102,000 food and beverage enterprises in Taiwan generated NT$350 billion (nearly $12 billion) in revenue – up 7.12 percent from the previous year.

As Taiwan is also showing, one way to a person’s heart is through the stomach. Food diplomacy wins friends.