New twists
Pekoe, sharing this objective, carries many products that provide innovative takes on traditional flavors, as well as outstanding offerings of traditional artisans. These new brands' founders are ambitious and idealistic. Many traded notes with Yeh during product development, and gave meticulous thought to everything from flavor profiles and production processes to list prices and packaging.
"You have to be able to turn good products, good sauces into good word-of-mouth and long-term sales," explains Yeh. "You really have to communicate with modern consumers." She says that in recent years she's worked out three key things you have to be clear about.
The first is price: You have to make consumers understand that items made by hand with local ingredients in limited volumes are more expensive to make and may cost even more than imported items. The second is palate training: Seasonings and sauces made in the traditional way have a more "rustic" flavor than those made with man-made additives. "People's taste buds need training; they need to settle down before they can truly appreciate how fine these flavors are," says Yeh. The third is use-by dates: The products contain no preservatives. They are natural, delicious, and healthy, but also people need to care for them, treat them with respect, and consume them before their "use by" date.
In its six years in business, Pekoe has grown into one of the best platforms for introducing new local products in Taiwan. Yeh's business model has also transformed over the years. Instead of looking everywhere for new products, she now holds weekly tastings of dozens of samples sent by producers.
"I hope Pekoe leads more people to think about the feasibility of combining development with sustainability in Taiwan's food-processing and agricultural industries," says Yeh, a physically small woman with seemingly boundless energy. "And I hope it helps good things and good sauces to grow long-term sales by word of mouth."
For busy modern people, sauces represent a shortcut to a tasty meal. Makers are constantly striving to develop techniques and products to enable them to deliver inexpensive, easy-to-use goods on a reliable basis. Today's growing interest in traditional flavors is helping to bring the simple honest old-time flavors to the consumer, while also shining a spotlight on artisan saucemakers.
Biography of a Sauce
(Chen Hsin-yi/tr. by Scott Williams)
Different climates, soils and cultures invariably give rise to different sauces. For example, China and Japan excel at producing oils and sauces from beans and grains, and constitute what might be called a "grain-based sauces zone." The Mekong River area, on the other hand, is rich in fish products and forms a "fish-sauce zone."
The existence of sauces is first recorded in two Zhou Dynasty classics. The Rites of Zhou and The Book of Rites both mention intrinsically tasty pairings of sauces and foodstuffs, and delve into the dining etiquette of the nobility. But most of the sauces in those days were meat-based, and involved fermentation with alcohol and salt. As the sauce-making arts developed further in the Han Dynasty, "sauce" came to refer to the bean-based sauces of the heartland (like soy sauce and fermented bean sauce), as well as wheat-based sauces like sweet flour sauce. These are the roots of the "grain-based sauce zone," where flavorings such as pickled vegetables and meat sauces take a back seat to grains and beans.
Taiwanese seasonings have their origins with immigrants from Fujian Province in mainland China. In the old days, the common folk's diet was largely flavored with salt and oils, inexpensive ingredients that gave a quick burst of energy. Almost every household produced its own soy sauce, using it both to flavor and preserve foods.
During the Japanese era, sauce-production technologies, business structures, and consumer tastes all underwent major changes. But traditional techniques and family-owned workshops didn't die out entirely in spite of going into decline.
For example, although industrially produced yellow-soy-based soy sauce dominates the market, some old brands continue to make a sauce from black soy beans, salt, and glutinous rice. And old brands like Xiluo Soy Sauce and Beigang Sesame Oil have turned themselves into important local business and cultural stars by means of invented traditions.
Soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, black beans, and flaked shallots are among the most common flavorings in contemporary Taiwanese cuisine. Sweet chili bean sauce, a salty-sweet night-market favorite made with bean paste or miso, chilies or black pepper, and licorice root or plums, and occasionally thickened with corn starch, may well be the most Taiwanese of dipping sauces.
(below) The introduction of goose-fat-based flaked shallot seasonings has reinvigorated an old Taiwanese standby.
More than 60% of the food-related products Pekoe sells are Taiwanese. In an effort to foster a sense of place, the shop clearly indicates where the ingredients in each product were grown, where the item was produced, and who made it.
Many of Taiwan's famous old sauces are produced in small volumes, sold at high prices, and rarely found in typical supermakets. Azhibao in artisan items, gathers them all together under one roof.
More than 60% of the food-related products Pekoe sells are Taiwanese. In an effort to foster a sense of place, the shop clearly indicates where the ingredients in each product were grown, where the item was produced, and who made it.