851: Eric Sze’s Cookbook Puts a Question Mark on Taiwanese Food on Purpose

Matt Rodbard (0:00)

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Eric Sze (1:48)

My goal is for people to stop treating Taiwan like a transfer hub, and just stop in for two weeks. It's always like, oh, I'm staying in Taipei for like three days.

Give us the full two weeks, and then you will see the beauty of Taiwan.

Matt Rodbard (2:03)

This is TASTE. I'm your host, Matt Rodbard.

Eric Sze first joined the show mid-research for his debut cookbook, Taiwanese? The book will be released later this month, and I speak with the Wenwen Chef about his deep research around Lu Rau Fan, what authentically inauthentic really means on the page versus the plate, and how his sparkling book brings fresh perspective to both Taiwanese food and culture. And at the top of the show, it's the return of Three Things, where Eliza and I talk about what is exciting us in the world of restaurants, cookbooks, and the food world as a whole.

Clayton, we are back. How are you doing, my man? I'm doing well. We just returned from California. We were filming a bunch with our friends at Rezzy, and we launched our latest season with them. So many great conversations to share in the coming months.

I love California. I love it. We were up in Napa and Sonoma, and I wanted us to talk about the restaurants that we visited that we just loved. And I have three to go over from Napa, Sonoma, and San Francisco. We spent a couple of days there as well. And again, amazing conversations, like really great stuff. We're going to be rolling out. I went back to Valley, which I had mentioned with Aliza on Three Things a few months ago.

I got to make a return, but I didn't have lunch. I had dinner with you and Dan, our producer, in the backyard. It's a dreamy place. Just absolutely loved it. A little reminder of the restaurant. It's in the city of Sonoma, right on the historic plaza. And it's a restaurant from chefs Emma Lipp and Stephanie Rieger, and Lauren Feldman and Tanner Whale do the wine. And they're four really interesting characters. They all worked in New York. Most of them worked at Scribe, which is right down the road, and the kind of pioneering millennial-coded winery. And so the restaurant really feels like it has some New York inspiration and influence. And Lauren's going to be on the show in a few months. And I just love the conversation with her. But we should talk food because I think the dinner menu is really when this restaurant comes to life. I mean, you can have breakfast as well. They have a coffee bar in the front. It's open. It's kind of an all-day cafe. I want to start with this tuna and peach tostada, which I loved. And the tortilla was made locally. And I thought it was the perfect late summer bite. And we were there in September, which is October, actually. Both September and October. Two months we were there. We were there for two months.

Aliza Abarbanel (4:54)

We spanned two months.

Matt Rodbard (4:55)

Spanned two months. I think it was a great time to visit because it's kind of that late summer produce.