top of page
Taiwanese vs. French Culture of Desserts
Dessert plays an important role in our lives because it not only releases our pressure but also represents the local cultures. Besides, due to its numerous categories and flavors, it is much loved by people. Among all kinds of dessert, the most famous dessert may be the French pastries such as Macarons, Paris-Brest, and Tarte tatin. However, it does not mean that other snacks are worse than those. For example, Taiwanese desserts derived from Chinese desserts such as Sun cakes, Mung Bean Cakes, and Peanut brittle are not as well-known as French sweets but their tastes are absolutely as delicious as those. Although both of Taiwanese and French desserts are equipped with similar functions, their traditional cultures, diverse ingredients, and cooking methods are totally different.
Because of various cultures, French and Taiwanese pastries have diverse meanings in history. Before the 19th century, sugars, which were viewed as luxuries were used only by high society; hence, having desserts was a symbol of the aristocracy in France. In the late 19th century, desserts started to transform into the daily food since the sugar prices slumped. Compared to the French Desserts, Taiwanese Desserts are related to festivals. No matter how wealthy people are, all of them should prepare pastries to worship Gods and ghosts. For instance, Taiwanese people tend to buy Bi Lau and Mua Lau as offerings for God to gain a good omen. Therefore, sweets have different functions in different countries.
In terms of ingredients, French and Taiwanese pastries have obvious dissimilarities. Most of French desserts are made of sugar, eggs, and butter. Besides, pastry chefs often use fruits, nuts, and cocoas as inner stuffing and decorations on French desserts. They also add brandy, rum, and cinnamon to liven desserts up, like what you can see in Canelés, Cherries Jubilee, and Crêpe Suzettes. However, the main ingredient of Taiwanese pastries is wheat flour. In addition, the inner stuffing is pretty important to Taiwanese desserts, and the inner stuffing including nuts, preserves, and meat products are more varied than French pastries. What’s more, instead of liquors, pastry chefs prefer to use flowers or fruits to increase flavors in Taiwanese desserts. Due to these various ingredients, French and Taiwanese pastries have totally distinct tastes.
Finally, there are some different methods of cooking between French and Taiwanese desserts. When it comes to the cooking method of French pastries, which appliance would occur to you. Most people’s answer must be oven because a lot of French snacks are mainly based on baking. Moreover, pastry chefs usually use pastry bags to decorate cakes. Therefore, lots of cakes are full of cream on their surfaces. Contrary to French desserts, cooking ways of Taiwanese pastries are quite multiple. Apart from baking, steaming, frying, and boiling are also common ways to cook Taiwanese desserts. Furthermore, Taiwanese desserts are plainer than French desserts, for Taiwanese pastries seldom add decorations on their appearances; instead, they are apt to shape the dough and pattern with decoration by cake molds. Hence, it is easy for us to distinguish French and Taiwanese sweets through their appearances.
Owing to the influence of globalization, many Taiwanese pastries have been impacted on their methods of cooking by Western skills of cooking; thus, many conventional Taiwanese desserts disappear. Besides, considerable young people in Taiwan prefer French snacks to Taiwanese desserts, so traditional Taiwanese pastries play itself out. Nonetheless, Taiwanese desserts have their special features to compete with French desserts, and the key differences between both of them are traditional cultures, various ingredients, and cooking methods. Desserts can reveal the customs, weathers, and history; therefore, they are important for us to preserve and enjoy them.
.jpg)
Sources (e.g., https: ….)
春日笈食(2018) 美食知識｜傳統糕點 VS.西式糕點
Derived from:
https://kknews.cc/zh-tw/food/bl8mlym.html
Wikipedia-Chinese Pastry
Derived from: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E5%BC%8F%E7%B3%95%E7%82%B9
Wikipedia-Western Pastry
Derived from:
https://zh.m.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E8%A5%BF%E5%BC%8F%E7%B3%95%E9%BB%9E
bottom of page