Cathy Erway on The Food of Taiwan
Last year I came across an article in the Gothamist titled, A Taiwanese food crawl in the East Village with NYC writer Cathy Erway. I have of course heard of Cathy Erway and her cookbook and thought to myself, Why haven’t I had her on Talking Taiwan as a guest yet? For those of you who aren’t familiar with Cathy’s work, she is a James Beard Award-winning food writer and author based in New York City. Her cookbooks include The Food of Taiwan: Recipes From the Beautiful Island and Win Son Presents: A Taiwanese American Cookbook.
Her cookbook, The Food of Taiwan which was published in 2015 is the first cookbook from a major U.S. publisher to explore the food culture of Taiwan from home-style dishes to authentic street food. We talked about how publishers rejected the cookbook at first and how it eventually got published.
She also has a Facebook page called The Food of Taiwan, and if you’re a Taiwanese food lover, I highly recommend liking and following it. On the page, Cathy shares news about Taiwanese food like where to get the best Taiwanese food in and out of Taiwan, and new Taiwanese restaurant openings.
Cathy Erway’s journalism has appeared in The New York Times, Food & Wine, Eater, Grub Street, T: The New York Times Style Magazine and more. She is a columnist at TASTE, and received the James Beard Award for Home Cooking journalism in 2019. In 2021, she received the IACP Culinary Award for her column.
This episode is part of the trailblazing Taiwanese women’s series sponsored by NATWA the North America Taiwanese Women’s Association, which was founded in 1988. To learn more about NATWA visit their website, www.natwa.com.
Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:
How Cathy started off writing a blog called Not Eating Out in New York, which led to her first book, The Art of Eating In
Cathy’s cookbook The Food of Taiwan
The article in the Gothamist about Taiwanese restaurants in the East Village
Cathy’s Facebook page The Food of Taiwan
How Cathy has had a Google alert set on the term Taiwanese food for 20 years
How things have changed in the 10 years since The Food of Taiwan was published
How the owners of Taiwanese restaurants in New York City (Win Son, 886, and Ho Foods) are all friends
How Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry has contributed to the interest in Taiwanese cuisine
How Cathy learned to cook and her parents’ cooking styles
How Cathy’s family is foodies
Cathy’s connection to Taiwan
What went into creating The Food of Taiwan
How the photography of The Food of Taiwan was an important part of the cookbook
How The Food of Taiwan got rejected by several publishers
How The Food of Taiwan is a snapshot of all the foods in Taiwan including home-style foods and street food, up to 2015, the year it was published
How The Food of Taiwan includes foods that are unique to Taiwan
How the recipes in The Food of Taiwan suggests substitutions for certain ingredients that might be hard to find
How Cathy met Josh Ku and Trigg Brown of Win Son
How Cathy collaborated with Josh Ku and Trigg Brown of Win Son on Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook
How hard it was to convince the editor to publish The Food of Taiwan
Other Taiwanese cookbooks that have been written by Clarissa Wei, Frankie Gaw, Tiffy Chen, and George Lee
How Cathy is working on an article about the frozen dumpling business for Taste
Topics that Cathy writes about like how tamari is a different product in Japan vs. the U.S.
Té Company tea house in the West Village, Yumpling restaurant in Long Island City, Ho Food restaurant in the East Village
Cathy’s favorite Taiwanese dish is sān bēi jī (three cup chicken)
How Taiwanese breakfast foods are now available at Win Son Bakery and Ho Foods
Related Links:
Cathy Erway: https://www.cathyerway.com/
The Food of Taiwan: https://thefoodoftaiwan.com/
The Food of Taiwan Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thefoodoftaiwan
Cathy Erway has signed copies of The Food of Taiwan and Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook.
Cathy Erway with cookbooks The Food of Taiwan and Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook
We will be raffling off copies of these cookbooks at the Talking Taiwan 2025 Fundraising Gala: https://events.humanitix.com/talking-taiwan-2025-fundraising-gala
A Taiwanese food crawl in the East Village with NYC writer Cathy Erway: https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/a-taiwanese-food-crawl-in-the-east-village-with-nyc-writer-cathy-erway
Not Eating Out in New York: https://noteatingoutinny.com/
The Art of Eating In: https://theartofeatingin.com/
Cathy Erway’s Taiwan Eats on Serious Eats: https://www.seriouseats.com/cathy-erway-5118598
Win Son Presents a Taiwanese American Cookbook by Josh Ku, Trigg Brown and Cathy Erway: https://winsonbrooklyn.com/cookbook
Win Son: https://winsonbrooklyn.com/
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williamsburg,_Brooklyn
886: https://www.eighteightsix.com/
Ho Foods: https://hofoods.square.site/
Mimi Cheng’s: https://mimichengs.com/
Yun Hai: https://yunhai.shop/
Yumpling: https://www.yumpling.com/
Yun Hai’s Lisa Cheng Smith’s YouTube series Cooking With Steam: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTzb-C1lp2zdKo5WmfO3yvBPKHziMloa3&si=X0hClxELC-L5Mfer
Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation (A Cookbook)
by Clarissa Wei: https://clarissawei.com/madeintaiwan
First Generation: Recipes from My Taiwanese-American Home [A Cookbook] by Frankie Gaw: https://www.amazon.com/First-Generation-Recipes-Taiwanese-American-Cookbook/dp/1984860763
Tiffy Cooks: 88 Easy Asian Recipes from My Family to Yours: A Cookbook
by Tiffy Chen: https://a.co/d/5hwppeA
A-Gong’s Table: Vegan Recipes from a Taiwanese Home (A Chez Jorge Cookbook)
by George Lee: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/707224/a-gongs-table-by-george-lee/
Cathy Erway’s column Shelve It on Taste: https://tastecooking.com/category/columns/shelve-it/
The Next Generation of Frozen Dumplings by Cathy Erway: https://tastecooking.com/the-next-generation-of-frozen-dumplings/
Liang’s Village restaurant: https://www.liangsvillage.com/
Mama Liang’s: https://www.mamaliangs.com/
A Tale of Two Tamaris by Cathy Erway: https://tastecooking.com/a-tale-of-two-tamaris/
Té Company: https://tecompanytea.com
Taiwan’s Q Texture Deserves a Place at Your Table by Cathy Erway: https://www.foodandwine.com/q-texture-in-taiwanese-food-8607858
Trigg Brown and Josh Ku of Win Son: Taiwanese Restaurant in NYC Ep 60: https://talkingtaiwan.com/trigg-brown-josh-ku-win-son-taiwanese-restaurant-nyc-ep-60/
Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry: Our Talk with Founder Lisa Cheng Smith Ep 135: https://talkingtaiwan.com/yun-hai-taiwanese-pantry-our-talk-with-founder-lisa-cheng-smith-ep-135/
Passport to Taiwan 20th Anniversary Catching Up with Rapper Dwagie and Yun Hai Taiwanese Pantry Ep 285: https://talkingtaiwan.com/passport-to-taiwan-20th-anniversary-catching-up-with-rapper-dwagie-and-yun-hai-taiwanese-pantry-ep-285/
Elena Liao Founder of Te Company: Running a Tea Room in the West Village Ep 111: https://talkingtaiwan.com/elena-liu-of-te-company-running-a-tea-room-in-the-west-village-ep-111/
Passport to Taiwan 2023: U.S. Largest Taiwan Festival is Back in Union Square! Ep 239: https://talkingtaiwan.com/passport-to-taiwan-2023-u-s-largest-taiwan-festival-is-back-in-union-square-ep-23
