Its been several months since I contributed an article to my website and JustOneOpinion.com. I have been really busy but today I feel like writing and sharing some Chinese recipes with you. These are not banquet dishes, these are family dishes.

Family dishes are called “shia fan” dishes, which literally means dishes that makes the rice go down. For the common people this type of food is quite inexpensive, but the ingredients are cooked with so much flavor, by the adding of hot peppers, garlic, ginger and onions, that sometimes these “shia fan” dishes taste better than banquet dishes.

You do not need a big piece of meat; one chicken breast, a few shrimp, one pork chop, or a small piece of steak would be enough to feed a whole family. To these ingredients we add a little bit of this and a little bit of that, ingredients that are already in your refrigerator. You might have half a green pepper or red pepper, a carrot, some celery sticks, green onions, some nuts: cashews, almonds or peanuts, ginger, garlic and hot pepper sauce or flakes. Add these to the meat and you can make a very healthy and flavorful meal that will feed the whole family. We always serve rice on the side.

Once you know the art of stir frying, you can always find some things to make a beautiful dish. The actual cooking time is very short, but the preparation and cutting can take time and you need many little bowls to keep each ingredient separate. You marinate the meat in the sauce you have prepared, but each vegetable should be stir fried separately to keep its color and consistency.

Even in cooking we never forget to practice the “Yin-Yang” philosophy. There is never a Chinese dish that is all white or all dark, there are always contrasting colors and textures in keeping with our philosophy of balance and opposites.

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In 1594 a Portuguese ship sighted the main island of Taiwan and dubbed it “Ilha Formosa,” which means “beautiful island.” Although Taiwan (formerly Formosa) has been part of the Chinese empire for a very long time, the aboriginal inhabitants are not even related to the Chinese, but came from the islands of the Pacific.

The Chinese only arrived in large numbers after 1600, when the Dutch East India Company established trading posts and forts on the island. After they defeated the Dutch in 1662, they gained control over the island and stayed until the end of the 19th century when the Japanese took over. They also left their mark on the island, remaining in control until after World War 2, when they were succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang.

How can I begin to write about my trip to Taiwan except to use the Portuguese word “Saudade”? “Saudade” is a word that envelopes so many emotions: nostalgia, longing, yearning, love, friendship, desire, etc. No other language has a word like it. Taiwan was once called “Formosa”, another Portuguese word which means “beautiful.”

I was last in Taiwan when my husband, Richard, served in Vietnam between 1968-1970. Our family was not allowed to go to Vietnam, so I went to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, with my two young children. We were 180 wives with no husbands.

Since then Taiwan has changed so much that I did not know the place, but all for the better. It is a wealthy and vibrant island with hard working, polite people. They especially stress the importance of a good education for its youth.

I wanted to see my older sister, Amy, because her third son Michael had written to tell me she had been ill. It had been many years since I last saw her, as well as her three sons and their families. I did not want to linger over my decision for fear I might change my mind. I booked my ticket and left four days later. None of my family members could go with me, so I was quite nervous about flying half-way around the world alone. I had never gone anywhere without Dick, even on short trips. I closed my mind and refused to think negative thoughts, especially about the typhoon that was pounding the southern part of the island causing devastation and death.

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In China when somebody says, “Thank you,” (Hsieh, Hsieh) the answer is, “Bu Yao Keh Chi,” which means, “Don’t put on the air of a guest.”

As a child, I remember my parents always giving or going to dinner parties. They would usually play mahjong games that started in the early afternoon. Tea was served around four. Dinner, always a banquet, would be served around eight o’clock and lasted for several hours. Banquets consisted of twelve to fifteen dishes, and only the very best was offered. It would start with four cold dishes of fowl, meat, seafood and vegetables. After these dishes were sampled, the waiter would remove the dirty dishes and replace them with clean ones. The hot dishes would then begin, and are served one at a time. I remember our famous chef wanted to know precisely how long it would take a dish to be carried from the kitchen to the dinning table, so he would know when to have it ready.

With each dish a toast would be offered, either to the hostess or the honored guest. It would be “Gan Bei” (bottoms up) or “Swei Bien” (as much as you want). Occasionally, toasting games were played. Two players would both call out numbers from one to five and each would throw out his hand showing the corresponding number of fingers. The winner who called the correct total of both hands would be the winner, and the loser would have to drink a “Gan Bei” toast to the winner. Consequently, the party tends to get nosier and happier with each dish. I remember many foreign guests who were attending a Chinese banquet for the first time, literally being carried out. They did not realize how many dishes would be served, nor the number of times they would be required to swallow their drinks, “bottoms up!” 
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