Hard Times Are Good Times for Vendors of Taiwanese Snacks

"When you're selling snacks, the hot ones need to be hot and the cold ones cold," remarks Hsu Kuo-lung, a teacher at the Universal Foods and Drinking Training College on Chungshan North Road. But there is much more to it than that. Hsu shares his knowledge while preparing yet another tasty dish in the school's teaching kitchen. Today, his Taiwanese snacks class is learning to make oyster vermicelli and a-gei (a Tanshui specialty consisting of fried tofu stuffed with bean-thread noodles and ground pork). A confident Hsu offers his students pointers laced with humor, explaining how to select and prepare ingredients. His class of middle-aged men and women jot notes onto the pages of their handouts, all the while chattering about their "undercover" expeditions to the stands of famous snack vendors.

The fragrance of freshly made oyster vermicelli permeates the entire classroom, setting everyone's mouth watering. While serving up the snack, Hsu tells the class about controlling ingredient costs, and suggests that there are even things to be learned about condiments: "Women are concerned about getting bad breath, so don't add too much crushed garlic to theirs. Men generally don't care. And don't forget to ask your customers if they want some hot sauce."

In just an hour, students have learned the basics of making a-gei and oyster vermicelli. Now they will return to their own kitchens to work on developing their own unique versions of these popular "little eats." Hsu explains: "Snacks are very subjective things. What one person thinks is delicious will taste awful to another. Students come here to learn the basics. The rest is up to them."

Snacks everywhere

Chen Han-ying, the founder of Universal Foods and Drinking Training College, says, "While Chinese dishes can be prepared in thousands of ways, snacks are different. They have a kind of uniformity. All the sauces are the same; it's only the main ingredients that differ. So, unlike a restaurant chef, you only need to be able to make one thing well to be successful."

Chen cites an example, "A vendor on Ninghsia Street selling shredded turkey on rice only needs to cook three turkeys a day to be able to dish up more than 100 bowls of his specialty. The keys to success as a snack vendor are flavor, quality and price."

Snacks, the food of the people, are more than mere sustenance; they are also tied up with our memories. And, as Peng Ting-yun, who teaches Chinese cooking at the China Vocational Training Center (CVTC), says, "People are going to eat in good times or bad."

Cram schools teaching snack preparation classes have been around for some time. The CVTC, for example, has been offering its "Chinese Snacks and Noodles" class for more than ten years, consistently drawing 20-30 students per session. According to Universal's Chen Han-ying, there are about six cram schools offering snack classes in Taipei City. These schools teach more or less the same material, differing primarily in whether they teach the preparation of a large number of snacks, or go into great detail on just a few.

Chen, who was himself once head bartender at the Taipei Hilton, remarks that students are generally middle-aged people who have lost a job or want to do something different. He says, "We've had some of the stall operators from Nanking West Road's Traffic Circle Night Market taking classes while the market gets rebuilt."

Small investment, big profits

Although more snack schools are opening, well-known teachers remain popular. Universal has been offering its Taiwanese snacks class since 1986. The class, which costs NT$6,800 and teaches students how to prepare 16 snacks, attracts 10-20 students per session, many of them budding entrepreneurs or career changers. Including the school's "Japanese Cooking" and "Tea and Western Snacks" classes, Chen says that about 100 students per month study at Universal, some coming from as far away as Kinmen and Matsu.

According to Hsu Kuo-lung, who was well known for his Vietnamese cuisine at the Asiaworld Plaza Hotel before taking up teaching, "Many breakfast shop owners also want to sell snacks instead of breakfast." Hsu notes that the breakfast vending business requires one to rise early, is extremely competitive, takes two to three people to run properly and has limited hours of business. In contrast, one person can run a snack stand, and the profits are fat.

Mr. Lin, who owned a King of Comics franchise for two years, is one of those hoping to make a living selling snacks. Lin says that King of Comics locations cater to a lot of smokers, and it pained him to see children in such a smoky environment. He began thinking about opening a snack stand instead, and signed up for a class. Lin has already learned to make more than 10 snacks, but all he can think about is his future oyster-vermicelli business. Lin has invested time in preparing to open his new business-learning to cook his product, sourcing ingredients and investigating prices. The class, too, is an investment, about which he says, "I prefer small classes; you can ask more questions."

Established almost ten years ago and located near the Hsinchuang Night Market, the Paodao School of Fine Food Preparation is another of the older snack schools. Chiu Pao-chu, who founded the school with her husband, stresses, "We teach our classes one-on-one and guarantee our students will learn. And we provide them with recipes, sources for ingredients, and measuring cups to make sure they can get the flavor right in their own kitchens."

Over the last ten years, Paodao's husband-and-wife team of Chang Tzu-lang and Chiu Pao-chu have developed recipes for more than 200 local snacks. Chang says that he and his wife make frequent trips to popular snack shops to try out their specialties and to night markets to "hunt for hidden treasures." Returning to their own kitchen, they try to recreate the recipes. Tuition at their school typically runs NT$2-3,000 per dish, or NT$10,000 for five dishes. But they are now also teaching how to make the "hot" new dish of the snack world, cong zhua bing, for NT$10,000. Like the other schools, they attract many students who are planning to go into business for themselves.

Losing everything

The current downturn in the economy has cost many people their jobs. Chang and Chiu understand. Chiu says, "It's hard to get anything going when you've got nothing to start with. Losing everything is bitter." Chiu still remembers that the impetus to establish their school grew out of an economic slowdown and their need to find new careers.

Chiu says that her husband was once a baker, and has also run a trucking company. But when the Taiwan stock market was experiencing the bull market of the 1980s, Chang closed his company to devote himself to cashing in on the booming market. Chang and Chiu made a killing on stocks, orchids and real estate. Chiu recalls, "We spent our days playing cards and mahjong, and raising orchids."

When the Taiwan market collapsed in 1990, Chang was forced to sell five multi-story properties he owned. He also started up a pizza business, which unfortunately failed. The 48-year-old Chang then planned to apply for a job as a bus driver, but discovered he was past the age limit. Chiu suggested that they open up a snack stall, but Chang felt that it would have been humiliating. Instead, he suggested teaching people to prepare snacks.

The couple visited snack stalls all over, then applied their experience running a bakery and pizza restaurant to the task of developing their own unique recipes. Once they had 30-some recipes in hand, they were finally ready to begin teaching. Chiu proudly remarks, "We're born chefs; we can work out how to make pretty much any dish we've tasted."

Remembering his first day teaching, Chang says that he was more nervous than the students. The school now teaches 20-30 students per month, and brings Chang and Chiu into contact with people from all walks of life. They have taught people who were planning to emigrate to the US and Australia, people who wanted to acquire a trade, taxi drivers looking to go into business for themselves, a Japanese person who brought his own interpreter and even a man of more than 70. Chiu says, "The old man wanted to learn to take care of himself."

Paodao teaches the preparation of more than 200 snacks, but oyster vermicelli is by far the most popular with students. Chiu explains, "People don't get tired of Taiwanese snacks the way they did with the custard tarts which were so popular a couple of years ago. Once you master the basics of making oyster vermicelli, you can support your whole family selling it. All you have to do is keep it at the right temperature and sell a couple of hundred bowls per day."

No wonder so many middle-aged career changers want to get into snack vending!

The China Vocational Training Center's popular snacks course has long been a staple at the school. In fact, students have flocked to CVTC's "Chinese Snacks and Noodles" class each of the 36 times it has been offered since 1992.

Peng Ting-yun, who has taught at CVTC for 10 years, explains, "The 'Chinese Snacks and Noodles' class covers more than ten subjects during 40 hours of instruction for only NT$4,800." When she teaches the course, Peng typically invites seven or eight guest lecturers to talk about their specialties. Peng also notes that CVTC differs from most schools teaching snack preparation in that its emphasis is on gaining a thorough understanding of food preparation rather than quick results. Its excellent reputation also derives from its opposition to the casual use of additives in snacks.

Peng says that many people with university and graduate degrees enroll in the course out of a desire to learn a trade or just simple interest. But she also notes that the student body has been undergoing a demographic shift: "It used to be that most of the students were recent brides and homemakers. Now most are middle-aged men who have lost their jobs and restaurant owners looking to learn something new. There are also a lot of food and beverage teachers who take classes during their vacations-they want to add to their skills to better compete in the job market. We also get soldiers who come to acquire skills they can use when they are out of the military."

So what is the secret to making good snacks? Hsu Kuo-lung says, "People's tastes are key. For most Taiwanese a good base is important. Taiwanese also tend to prefer things a little sweet, and new flavors are essential." Making the effort to figure out consumers' taste is a good policy.

Before going into business

Once they finish their classes, students choose their own path. Chen Han-ying says, "Many students are now going to China, opening shops that combine Internet access, comics and magazines with food and drink offerings."

Chen recommends that his students start small and pay attention to good management. He suggests that they use their heads to make profits by controlling food and labor costs, and by being aware of wear and tear on their equipment. Chang Tzu-lang, on the other hand, reminds his students that setting up a snack stand is not their only option. They can also choose to provide snack supplies such as steamed meatballs, cold noodles or seasonings to snack stand operators. Peng Ting-yun, meanwhile, recommends that students work for someone else for a while to get some hands-on experience before starting their own business.

In the end, whether students attend class in order to start their own business or are just going for their own edification, the act of eating good food remains one of life's essential pleasures.

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Taiwan's snack vendors need never fear for lack of business. Even Taiwanese abroad pine for the cheap and delicious snacks so readily available on Taiwan's streets and in its night markets.

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Many of the middle-aged students learning to make a-gei-a well-known Tanshui treat-are trying to bring something new into their lives.

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Boiled dumplings, beef rolls, baked buns, rice-noodle soup, braised pork on rice, fatback sandwiches, deep-fried chicken chunks. . . Taiwanese snacks cover the full spectrum of mainland China's regional cuisines.