“At Win Son Bakery, we wanted to serve Taiwanese breakfast staples like soy milk, fan tuan, and our milk buns with egg, but we also 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 streetcart speciality to keep it simple for our Taiwanese American BEC. And as another option, we serve our BEC on a milk bun at the bakery, too. We source our bacon and much of our meats through Heritage Foods, a nearby distributor of heritage meat founded by Patrick Martins, a good friend of ours. His wife, Anne Saxelby, founded Saxelby Cheesemongers, and Anne personally chose a cheese to tie this sandwich together. She introduced us to Reading Raclette from Spring Brook Farm, an Alpine-style semi-firm raw cow’s milk cheese inspired with a sublime melt. We were going for the meltiness of American cheese—but with a more nuanced flavor that you immediately knew was way better. And we love being able to support craft cheesemakers in our region, too. Look for it—or search for a nice, melty Swiss style from your local cheesemonger.” Recipe excerpt from the new book 

Win Son Presents A Taiwanese American Cookbook

Win Son's Bacon, Egg & Cheese Scallion Pancake

When I was growing up, my family never used the oven. The oven mostly served as a glorified pot holder—its real function a complete mystery to me and my grandma. It wasn’t until we watched Ina Garten pull a golden-brown roast chicken out of her 'pot holder' that we understood an oven’s true purpose. Watching Ina’s Food Network show 

 became our ritual. Her otherworldly cooking in the fairy-tale setting of the Hamptons was a fantasy my grandma and I could bond over. This recipe invokes yet another fantasy—a world where Ina Garten and my grandma get to cook together. A whole roasted chicken stuffed with aromatics absorbs my grandma’s flavors of chili crisp, scallion, and ginger through a rich glaze poured over its crisp skin. —

 First Generation: Recipes from My Taiwanese-American Home 

Chili Crisp & Honey Roasted Chicken From Frankie Gaw

If you're looking for a unique, child-pleasing and adult-wowing pastry to serve on your Easter table, I have just the thing. Based on a classic Taiwanese taro pastry yu tou su, these little Easter “eggs" are made with a laminated dough swirled with dreamy pastel colors. And it’s easier to make than it looks. When broken apart, the translucent flakes of the crust are so delicate that they almost resemble the wings of bees. But that's not all. The inside of each pastry is stuffed warmed brownie, and in its heart, a molten lava center of salted caramel. Bonus: this recipe will be able to adapt to whatever color-themed holidays you're celebrating throughout the year.  

Here, I use a chocolate filling (like brownies or chocolate cake)—and store-bought is fine. But red bean paste, chestnut paste, or other types of cake will also work. 

Note: This recipe can be a bit tricky, so we recommend watching the video to help you visualize the steps. Also, for a helpful tip when measuring out the dough, check out the the video at the 8-minute mark.

Pastel Easter Egg Pastries

I once thought about bottling this stuff and selling it as my ticket to an early retirement in a grand château in the French countryside. It is that good. During my chile oil–sodden years in New York, Beijing, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, swimming through countless commercial brands and the versions offered in restaurants, I could always find legitimate reasons that this recipe is comparably more versatile and better tasting. And that’s saying a lot. 

Reprinted with permission from From THE ART OF ESCAPISM COOKING: A Survival Story, with Intensely Good Flavors by Mandy Lee, published by William Morrow Cookbooks. Copyright © 2019 by Mandy Lee. Reprinted courtesy of Harper Collins Publishers (https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062802378/the-art-of-escapism-cooking)

My Ultimate Chile Oil

A traditional Taiwanese sauce meets ramen.

San bei translates to "three cups" in Chinese and refers to the equal amounts of sesame oil, soy sauce, and cooking wine used to make the extremely aromatic san bei sauce. When making san bei tofu the other day according to Kitty's Home Cooking, I found myself with a lot of extra sauce in the end and decided to try adding some ramen noodles and a soft-boiled egg. I am still dreaming of that delicious experiment to this day.

San Bei (Taiwanese Three Cup) Tofu and Ramen

I first tried a vegetarian version of gua bao 刈包 (guà bāo), pork belly buns, at my Taiwanese friend's potluck many years ago. It's a common breakfast and street food snack in Taiwan. Gua bao has a signature look with an opening like a mouth—this is where you stuff your favorite filling. Traditionally, gua bao features braised meat, paired with sour mustard and crushed peanuts. 

As I'm rounding up recipes for Lunar New Year, I thought why not share this veganized gua bao? It’s a cozy, satisfying snack, or a meal in itself. Imagine holding a warm bun, stuffed with savory tofu on a cold day. Ah...comfort food! This recipe is perfect for any day and, according to CNN Travel, “eating gua bao signifies devouring bad luck.” Isn't it perfect to take a bite for a delicious meal and maybe for some good fortune too?

Vegan Gua Bao

A reddish-stained, soy sauce–marinated chicken is one that’s infused with loads of salty, fermented umami—and when you roast it with the skin on, you get even more umami from the crispy skin. These flavor bombs were invented by my mom and eight zillion other people who also know that soy sauce and chicken just go together. It’s not really fair to give her full credit, but I will anyway. Here, instead of grilling, we’re throwing them on a sheet pan to crisp alongside some bok choy, which, in my mom’s kitchen, is commonly braised. In Taiwan, where my mom is from, pineapples are plentiful, and they’re used in everything from chicken soups to fermented sauces. One key ingredient here is dark soy sauce, a more intense, concentrated type of soy sauce that will stain chicken a deeper shade of maroon when marinated overnight. You can find it in Asian groceries—or heap on some more light soy sauce if you can’t. Scoop this dish over a bowl of sticky rice, ham fried rice, or sesame noodles. 

Recipe courtesy of SHEET PAN CHICKEN: 50 Simple and Satisfying Ways to Cook Dinner. Copyright © 2020 by Cathy Erway. Photography by Lizzie Munro. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Mom's Soy Sauce Chicken

My mom is the best cook I know, and I'm not just saying that because she's my mom. Not only does she make some awesomely impressive dishes for potlucks and the like, she also makes awesome everyday dishes just for us, and the best thing is, she's self-taught. One of the dishes that my brother and I always demand she makes when we're home is niu rou mian, or Taiwanese beef noodle soup. Actually, the translation is a little misleading because it's not exactly niu rou tang mian (tang means soup in Mandarin). The dish my mom makes doesn't have a whole lot of soup (although you could just add beef broth if you wanted, I suppose), it's more like a healthy amount of sauce.

My Mom's Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

Peak strawberries are mashed with just enough raw sugar to soften any tartness, letting the berries’ floral, almost vegetal flavor shine through. Delightfully bouncy, still-warm boba happily drink in this ruby-red nectar; top the whole thing off with a healthy glug of ice-cold milk for a refreshing summer treat. 

Everyday Silicone Ice Cube Trays with Lid

Strawberry Boba

Here's a recipe for creating one of the beloved street snacks in Taiwan, thin and soft flatbreads with multi-laminated diced scallions and scallion oil.

NOTE:  One of the tricks, I believe, is not to roll the dough to such deadly thinness that you lose the layers. The first roll-out, when you apply the scallion oil, should be slightly thinner than 1/8 inch. And the final roll-out should be a bit thicker than 1/16 inch. Any thinner than that, and you’ll flatten out all the work you’ve done. I’m not gonna lie: You may fail the first time. But it will eventually take you to yummy town.

There’s no reason why the awesomeness of this flatbread can’t be expanded to other herbs besides scallion. Think basil, a little rosemary, thyme, or garlic and parsley. Whatever you have on hand, really, is going to turn these flatbreads into great snacks or a show-stealing addition to a bread basket (don’t you loooove bread baskets!?)

Multi-Layered Scallion Pancakes (Thousand-Layer Taiwanese Pancakes)

, this recipe makes a formidable Holiday centerpiece, what with the festive color palette, but you can eat it on any occasion. For more on how to choose the right fish, see the 

Taiwanese-Style Whole Fish With Chilies and Basil

This is an all-time favorite of ours from our visit to Taipei and its vibrant night markets.  Juicy, crunchy, and full of umami yet slightly sweet (and fiery spicy if you prefer!), this dish gave totally new meaning to popcorn chicken for me. One note on specialty ingredients: You can usually find Taiwanese white pepper salt (sometimes labeled as Taiwanese salt and pepper chicken seasoning) in Asian supermarkets, but if you're finding it hard to track down, combining 2 parts salt, 1 part white pepper and 1 part black pepper will serve as a reasonable substitute.

Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken

The other day I was craving some of my mom's sticky rice and called her up to ask for the recipe. This is how awesome my mom is: She was able to tell me how to make it right then and there without looking anything up! She was excited to share this new technique she developed where she first par-cooks the sweet rice and then bakes it off in a casserole dish instead of using a rice cooker. Apparently, when you use a rice cooker, the sticky rice can get too mushy—but when using this technique it's always "QQ," or chewy.

Instead of cooking the aromatics in a different pan and then transferring everything into a casserole dish, I just used my Dutch oven (don't know how I lived without this baby!). If you don't have one, just transfer the rice to a casserole dish with a lid, or do what my mom does and cover it with aluminum foil.

My mom usually makes this with pork or chicken, but I decided to make it with Chinese sausage (which I guess makes it more Cantonese than Taiwanese). You can find the Chinese sausage and fried shallots (sometimes labelled fried red onions) in a Chinese grocery store.  If you like cilantro, it makes a great topping, but if you don't, it still tastes great without it.  For a little kick, I highly recommend serving it with some sweet chili sauce.

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