In 2009, ­Nguyen Thi Thu and her then 88-year-old mother-in-law, Liao-Liu Tao­luan, took first prize in the Creative Hakka Gourmet Food Competition’s international category with their Hakka Stir Fry, a signature Hakka dish. 

Nguyen and her mother-in-law Liao-Liu Taoluan won top honors at the 2009 Creative Hakka Gourmet Food Competition. (courtesy of Light Taste)

Papaya Love

In 2011, Taiwan’s Public Television Service based an episode of its Life Story program on the lives of ­Nguyen and her husband, Liao ­Ching-hsin. The producers called the episode “Papaya Love” and cast several well-known actors in the leading roles: the Vietnamese actress Helen ­Thanh Dao as ­Nguyen, Mei Fang as her Hakka mother-in-law, and Hsia ­Ching-ting as her husband. The team even shot portions of the program in the Liaos’ home in Tai­chung and at the family’s Light Taste restaurant in the city’s ­Tanzi District.

The episode turned ­Nguyen into a household name, and led to appearances on many of Taiwan’s biggest cooking shows to demonstrate how she makes Hakka Stir Fry. But her mother-in-law suffered a bit from the attention. The producers deliberately overplayed conflicts between ­Nguyen and her mother-in-law to create dramatic tension, and portrayed the latter as being very hard on ­Nguyen.

Watching the cast shoot the episode, ­Nguyen often thought: “My mother-in-law was never that bad!” But viewers came away with the impression that ­Nguyen had been bullied. “People I ran into while out grocery shopping would always ask: ‘How did you bear it?’” she recalls with a frustrated laugh.

Nguyen and her mother-in-law worked with a Public Television Service production team while it filmed on location at the family’s Light Taste restaurant in Taichung. The photo captures the actors playing the family: Helen Thanh Dao (second from right), Mei Fang (third from right), and Hsia Ching-ting (far left). (courtesy of Light Taste)

Love in Ho Chi Minh City

Nguyen was a stranger in a strange land when she first came to Taiwan. Adapting was difficult because she didn’t speak the language.

She met her husband some 15 years ago.

Now a professor with the Department of Hospitality Management at Hung­kuang University, Liao was then head chef at Tai­pei’s Grand Hotel, and was divorced. He got to know ­Nguyen in Ho Chi Minh City while on a trip to Vietnam with friends. The two fell in love, and 50-year-old Liao asked the 21-year-old ­Nguyen to marry him.

“A lot of women from Vinh Long married Taiwanese in those days,” says ­Nguyen, noting that she has a dozen or so Vietnamese “sisters” in the Tai­chung area who often gather for chats.

When ­Nguyen arrived in Taiwan, Liao was still working at the Grand Hotel in Tai­pei. ­Nguyen went down to Tai­chung without him, helping out at the family’s recently opened Light Taste restaurant in ­Tanzi. “She was interacting with people a lot, which helped her pick up Mandarin quickly,” recalls Liao. He says that ­Nguyen injected humor into the restaurant’s kitchen, where her malapropisms made everyone chuckle.

Nguyen worked in the restaurant during the day, and took Mandarin classes for immigrants in the evening. She eventually completed a middle-school equivalency certificate, becoming fluent in spoken Mandarin and learning to read and write the language along the way. Liao later turned the restaurant’s food-buying duties over to her. Nowadays, all the vendors in the market know her and greet her warmly when she comes in to make purchases.

Nguyen and her mother-in-law take great pleasure in cooking together in spite of their 60-year age difference. (courtesy of Light Taste)

Her best dish

Nearly every Hakka restaurant serves Hakka Stir Fry, but very few serve a really authentic version of the dish.

Squid, pork, dried tofu, scallions, garlic, celery, crispy shallots, dried shrimp, chili peppers.... ­Nguyen wields her cleaver with skill while preparing the ingredients. She worked hard to learn to make the dish with which she and her mother-in-law won a competition seven years ago. “I cooked more than 30 squid before entering the competition,” she recalls with a laugh. 

“You fry the pork belly to render the fat and bring out the aroma, then fry the dried tofu, celery and other ingredients to give it flavor.” ­Nguyen reveals that the trick to Hakka Stir Fry is cooking it “low and slow” to bring out the flavors of the ingredients.

The title “Papaya Love” was a reference to a Vietnamese-style chilled appetizer that ­Nguyen created with green papayas. When the Public Television Service program became popular, the restaurant renamed the dish to match the title.

Papaya Love’s main ingredients are green papayas and carrots, which are julienned, then mixed with sugar, hot sauce, lemon, peanuts, and cilantro. ­Nguyen adds a little fish sauce to her hot sauce to make it a little “homier” and more Vietnamese. She also reminds us that the julienned papaya and carrots need to be iced for 15 minutes to ensure that they are crunchy. 

Nguyen demands perfection at every stage of preparation.

A delicious life

If you were to describe ­Nguyen’s life in Taiwan in terms of Light Taste’s specialties, you might say her relationship with her mother-in-law is a bit like Hakka Stir Fry: it has a flavor that stays with you, and the longer it “cooks” the more character and nuance it develops. Her relationship with her husband is reminiscent of Papaya Love: it is a Taiwanese‡Vietnamese fusion with sweetness in the sour and flavor in the heat.

These days, ­Nguyen has pulled back from the restaurant’s front lines, in part to improve her Mandarin still further and in part to spend more time with her eighth-grade daughter. Nowadays, she spends her weekdays working as an interpreter for a labor broker, and only helps out at the restaurant on the weekends.

The 65-year-old Liao plans to retire next year. Will he open a restaurant in ­Nguyen’s homeland after he retires? Or perhaps just move there and take life easy? “I’ve thought about it,” says Liao. “It’s a possibility.”

Whether in Taiwan or Vietnam, ­Nguyen and Liao will no doubt continue to enjoy their delicious life together for years to come.  

Located opposite Taichung’s Tanzi Export Processing Zone, Light Taste offers a wide-ranging menu and is always packed on the weekends.

Nguyen's best dishes