TAF & TACL-Lyf | Cookbook Club

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Throughout 2024 I hosted my  Taiwanese American Cookbook Club as a way of celebrating and exploring all of the wonderful English-language Taiwanese cookbooks that have been published in recent years. It’s a special potluck series wherein all attendees make and bring a dish from the featured cookbook.

In October, we featured two cookbooks!

First, the Taiwanese Homestyle Cooking Cookbook by NATWA (North American Taiwanese Women’s Association) and TACL (Taiwanese American Citizens League), benefitting the Bay Area summer camp TACL-LYF (Leading Youth Forward). I think of this as the original Taiwanese American cookbook, as it was first published in 1995, reprinted in 2013, and then reissued again in 2022. It is charmingly old-school, as it is spiral bound and bilingual, with Chinese on one side and English on the other. 

And second, TAF to Table, published by TAF (Taiwanese American Foundation), a nonprofit org and summer camp based in the Midwest. I first attended this camp as a ten-year-old, continuing through college and beyond.

Participants could choose to cook from either or both books. I chose the tea eggs from the TAF book. Very simple!

Acer also brought water caltrops for us to try. I had never had one before! It’s kind of chestnut-like on the inside.

Such a good group for this cookbook club! Including lots of friends from TAF.

I made tea eggs; Alex made stir-fried beef; Ho Chie made three cup chicken

Leslie made garlic shrimp; Leona made seafood rice porridge; Cassindy & Fred made cucumber salad;  Marisa & Greg made oyster noodles

Cassindy & David made braised pig feet; David made luffa squash with clams; Acer made braised white cabbage

Christine & Chan How made sticky rice; Bettina made braised pork belly; Ellen made almond tofu and black sesame sweet rice cake.

Ho Chie also brought his copy of the original imprint of the NATWA cookbook!

Quite a delicious feast!

Thank you to everyone for participating in this Midwest / Bay Area community cookbook showdown!

Message me directly if you’re interested in joining a future  Taiwanese American Cookbook Club.

Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco. She compulsively documents and blogs all of her daily adventures. Follow her on instagram and view more of her professional work at annawu.com.


Taiwanese American Cookbook Club

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