Matsu Culture and Cuisine
Michella Jade Weng, Presenter:
Hi everyone, I��m Michella and this is my friend Cedric!
Cedric
Jouarie, French Expat:
Hi everyone, I��m Cedric. I��m a director, I am French.
And I��m very happy to be here with Michella in Beigan
of Matsu.
Stone
houses on a hilly seaside, where are we again? Even
though a part of Taiwan, these stone houses with
short roofs can��t really be found anywhere else
in the country. This is Mindong style architecture.
Stones are placed on top of roof shingles to keep
them from being blown away, sometimes there are
dragons that look like gargoyles to protect the
household from evil. There is carp at the end of
rain gutters, symbolizing overflowing wealth. And
speaking of wealth, rich folks like to build roofs
with four sides, while the poor only had roofs with
two, because building material was too expensive.
Cedric
Jouarie, French Expat:
It kind of reminds me of old French villages because
we do have those old stone houses. The older the
village the more they look like some things I��ve
seen. So I almost felt home.
Michella
Jade Weng, Presenter:
Cedric, what��s wrong?
Cedric
Jouarie, French Expat:
I��m in a noodle mood.
Michella
Jade Weng, Presenter:
Noodle mood? You want noodles? That can be done.
Cedric
Jouarie, French Expat:
Really? Great.
Fish
noodles are a local delicacy and when you come here,
you can not only eat them, you can learn to make
them too.
Fish,
corn starch, salt and water is all that goes into
the noodle. In the old days without machines and
rolling pins, they used wine bottles to roll out
the dough. After drying, cutting and some more drying,
they��re ready to be cooked. And all it takes is
some vegetables, vinegar and shacha sauce to make
a bowl of this famous local dish.
Cedric
Jouarie, French Expat:
Mmm, the texture is perfect. In Italian, we would
say ��al dente.��
The best
fish noodles ever. And the best part is, we could
learn how to make it. One part of the noodle making
reminded me of something from home. We used some
empty wine bottles flatten the dough. And my grandmother
used to do that when she was making pie crust.
I think
our friend looking forward to his next trip out
here already.
