Everything I Made From — Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook

Welcome to the second instalment of my little cookbook club for two, a very humble deep dive into some of my favourite cookbooks on my shelves. I collect a lot of cookbooks but rarely end up exploring them as deeply as I would like. So every other month, a cookbook is chosen, and all the recipes I’ve ever flagged in the book are made across the eight weeks

The recipes of the past two months are from Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook by Josh Ku, Trigg Brown, and Cathy Erway. This book is the type of cookbook that I love — it has a good mixture food history and personal stories and you see how those stories shape each of the recipes in the book. It explore how Taiwanese cooking has evolved in the United States, while weaving in conversations with other chefs and members of the Taiwanese American community, to create a celebration of a vibrant diasporic cuisine.

I bought this book right when it came out in 2023, but became even more attached to the recipes and stories after my recent trip to Taiwan with my family. I have always loved the idea of a Taiwanese breakfast spread of dan bing, fan tuan, and savoury soy milk but it wasn’t until I lined up for hours for it at Fu Hang Dou Jiang (阜杭豆漿) or had my first meal of Taiwan at Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang (永和豆漿大王) that made me wholeheartedly fall in love with a Taiwanese breakfast. So it only made sense that the fan tuan was the first recipe I tackle from the cookbook.

Here are the recipes I made each week and a little bit about the recipes from the cookbook.

Week 1: Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Scallion Pancake, Fan Tuan, Scallion Pancakes

Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Scallion Pancake
“We really wanted to figure out a way to serve an American-style bacon, egg, and cheese in a uniquely win son, or Taiwanese American, way. So Trigg went back to his family meal vault for this one, recalling a time when some leftover dan bing were griddled with melted cheese and bacon. It reminded us of street-cart scallion pancakes served with fried eggs in Taiwan. We ultimately decided to fold bacon and cheese into that street-cart speciality to keep it simple for our Taiwanese American BEC.”

Fan Tuan
“A roll of sticky rice stuffed with youtiaou (a long deep-fried chinese pastry), pork floss, pickles, and sauces-fan tuan are a go-to taiwanese breakfast choice, and they’re one of our favorite foods period. While it’s hugely popular in Taiwan, it’s actually Shanghainese in origin. We’ve been making them at Win Son Bakery since it opened, and it’s great to see folks who’d never encountered anything like it fall in love with it, too.”

Scallion Pancakes
“These crispy, flaky, savory snacks are a real favorite of ours, and we think a good scallion pancake is a marker of a good restaurant. It was a lot of work, but homemade was the only option we figured would be good.”

Week 2: Scallion Noodles, Beef Rolls, Savoury Soy Milk

Scallion Noodles
“We once did a pop-up at Win Son with Lisa Cheng Smith of Yun Hai. She made these scallion noodles, which were so incredible that she let us put them on the menu as a side dish. The star of the show is the scallion oil, which follows a simple technique but creates such a satisfyingly rich flavor.”

Beef Rolls
“With sliced braised beef shanks, they’re almost like a stuffed pita or gyro, a beautiful mess of sauces fresh herbs, and incredible sliced meat, spilling out from a crispy, flaky scallion pancake. Ours are loosely inspired by a late-night meal Trigg once had with chefs Jon Yao of Kato restaurant and Mei Lin at 101 Noodle Express in LA, though we stuff ours with a fried egg that oozes as you try to stuff it all in your face.”
*Equally as good when made with smoked tofu instead of braised beef shanks!

Savoury Soy Milk
“Salty (xian) soy milk is one of the most delicious things you can slurp up with a spoon. It starts with fresh soy milk that gets seasoned with some soy sauce and black vinegar, which slightly curdles it in the coolest way. Then it’s topped with crunchy, tasty things like a crisp youtiao (a Chinese deep-fried long pastry), rousung (or pork floss), salted radish, pickles, scallions, cilantro, chili oil, sesame seeds, and fried shallots…

One of the driving visions behind our bakery concept was seeing people walking out of the bakery on the way to work with a coffee cup that could easily be a cappuccino or a latte, but instead it was filled with curdled soy milk-the perfect blend of American coffee culture and Taiwanese breakfast culture.”

Week 3: Turnip Cake, Chive Pockets, Wu Yu Zi Mian

Turnip Cake
“Turnip cakes are beloved in Taiwan, as well as throughout much of China.
We serve them at Win Son Bakery crisped up and golden brown so that they almost resemble little rectangles of hash.”

Chive Pockets
“This Taiwanese street food seems simple given its filling of mostly flat chives, or juicai, but it is so satisfying. The filling is augmented with slippery glass noodles and scrambled eggs; sometimes cooks might add some minced shiitakes, dry tofu, or dried baby shrimp inside, too. But it’s all about the bright green, juicy chives.”

Wu Yu Zi Mian
Wuyuzi is cured mullet roe, which is enjoyed in Taiwan as a sort of delicacy, especially eaten around Lunar New Year. We say sort of because it’s a great example of gu zao wei, or old-fashioned Taiwanese flavor… It may not be hip in young Taiwanese circles nowadays, but it’s right up there with our favorite ingredients, along with shiro dashi, pickled mustard greens, and chili oil. It’s salty like seawater with a slightly fishy flavor that wraps into other ingredients so well.”

Week 4: White Mapo Tofu, Flies Head, Sautéed Pea Tips

White Mapo Tofu
This recipe is not representative of either Taiwanese or Japanese cuisine-it’s just really good, and so easy… The Sichuan classic Mapo Tofu has ground beef or pork, and a deeply umami fermented chili bean sauce called doubanjiang, along with Sichuan peppercorns to season the dish. Using the silken tofu that was on hand for miso soup, ground chicken for yakitori, and a few non-Sichuan seasonings, this pale-col-ored and no less delicious version was born.”

Flies Head
“This dish might have been the food catalyst to our partnership and pursuit of starting a restaurant. It’s a light, chive-centric dish that’s served over rice. It is called flies’ head because the pork and fermented black beans that stud the green chives are tiny, like flies’ heads… be sure to serve this with rice. Not only do the ingredients match the rice grains in size, but the sauce from the glazed chive buds causes the pork, vegetables, and rice grains to cluster together like molecules, creating something greater than the sum of its parts.”
*I made the vegetarian version with minced dry tofu

Sautéed Pea Tips
“Sautéed pea shoots have been on the menu at Win Son since we opened. These are the tendrits from pea plants, with leaves and shoots that feature a delicate texture and sweet pea-like flavor. We love a simple sautéed green on the table with any meal.”

Week 5: Basil Clams with Scallion Pancakes

“This dish is both delicious and educational in its representation of indigenous ingredients (originally, freshwater river clams) and layers of intertwined, immigrational influence-like the basil. We even invited some Taiwan Beer to the party in our clams. We don’t change the method of steaming the clams open with rice wine (and beer) in the wok and stir-fry-ing in garlic and fresh basil, but we do add a seasonal component at Win Son.

And we always serve the clams with Scallion Pancakes (page 202) to sop up the sauce-sort of like one would with a piece of crusty bread in European cuisine. But you could always serve this with steamed rice, as part of a multicourse meal or alone.”

Week 6: Sesame Noodles

“The best food is often the simplest food, in any culture. Taiwanese cold sesame noodles are a great example: super-simple and insanely delicious. But it’s all about the sauce. We’ve had them in various ways and have also made a lot of variations on this.”

Week 7: Fried Soft-Shell Crab Sandwich, Winson Chocolate Chip Cookies, Fried Milk Dough Sundaes with Peanuts and Cilantro-Mint Sauce

Fried Soft-Shell Crab Sandwich
“There’s no better season than soft-shell crab season. They’re the best fried and there’s no real two ways about it… The mayo in this version is studded with our fermented Chinese broccoli, for a chunky sort of rémoulade, and the sandwich is showered with fresh, whole thai basil leaves for a fragrant finish.”

Winson Chocolate Chip Cookies
“One time, Josh’s girlfriend, Emily, brought chocolate chip cookies to a party and we crushed them. They had a coffee flavor, so he added some finely ground espresso and brown butter to our recipe. We also feel that the cookie dough benefits from rest, so let it chill at least 24 hours in advance of baking it. Plan ahead to bake it on the day after you mix the dough. It’s pretty simple, not that difficult, but a perfect cookie— and comfort-to us.”
*I had some issues when making this recipe. The amount of ingredients called for in the recipe shouldn’t yield the amount of cookies the recipe says it creates? I could be wrong though! I did some adjustments and the cookies came our perfectly crisp and chewy.

Fried Milk Dough Sundaes with Peanuts and Cilantro-Mint Sauce
“Peanuts and cilantro are a signature combo in Taiwanese cuisine-you’ll find chopped cilantro and crushed peanut powder grazing all kinds of dishes, from soups to steamed buns. Then there’s also a popular Taiwan night market dessert of ice cream rolled up into a crepe with fresh cilantro and shaved peanut brittle. It’s fresh and herbal, salty, sweet, and crunchy. At Win Son, we make a sundae out of this idea.”

Week 8: Tomato and Peach Salad, Nutritious Sandwiches, Mochi Doughnut

Tomato and Peach Salad
“Here’s a light and tangy salad that makes it onto the menu at win son bakery when peaches and tomatoes are in peak season, in mid to late summer. In Taiwan, tomatoes are enjoyed in many ways. Sometimes, you can even find sliced cherry tomatoes topping an ice cream sundae with a bunch of other fresh fruit. They’re sweet and juicy enough to go both sweet and savory routes. Sungolds are some of the sweetest varieties around, and the honey-like flavor pairs well with ripe and tangy yellow peaches.”
*I used in-season heirloom tomatos in lieu of Sungolds (which weren’t available at the market yet!)

Nutritious Sandwiches
“In Keelung, the famous port city north of Taipei (near Juifen), there’s a night market stall that sells “Nutritious sandwiches” (in mandarin, ving yang san ming zhi), which have become a sensation in Taiwan. Creative food concepts can take off quickly in taiwanese night markets, and once one dish is poppin’, it will reappear in a different night market. Oftentimes stall owners have multiple locations in multiple markets, but they also inspire imitators. We’re not sure if we sampled the original “nutritious sandwich” or a riff, but whatever it was, it was absolutely delicious.”

Mochi Doughnut
“Taiwan is famous for Q or QQ textures, which may be best translated as “bouncy” or “springy.” Think boba, gummy bears, and mochi, a sticky rice treat popular throughout east Asia. These doughnuts are made with sticky rice flour for a chewy bite that stretches in a very Q way.”