Very few Taiwanese people have the habit of eating herbs; thus, conflicts and misunderstanding usually occur among Taiwanese-Southeast Asian marriages. On June 14th, the Immigration Department's First Service Station in Taichung City held a new educational program for immigrant couples, helping them know more about common herbs used in cooking as well as try Southeast Asian spicy-and-sour dishes.
In geneeral, the food culture of Southeast Asia includes not only fish sauce, lemon, lemongrass, but also many rare herbs and plants. According to the Vietnamese’s belief, in order to evaluate the variety of a dish, the number of herbs or plants on the table are taken into consideration no matter what the dish is salad, beef noodles soup or fetal duck eggs. Herb is an indispensable ingredient and soul of Vietnamese cuisine.
The station invited Cai Xiu, the chairwoman of the Republic of China Family Quality Development Association, to give lectures in person. Cai said she had rented several farmlands in Daya District to plant different kinds of herbs with the new residents and their new-second generation.
During the event, she said that a Vietnamese wife married to Taiwan tried her best to win her husband’s affections by way of cooking. She cooked herself every day and made delicious food for her husband. However, her husband kept getting confused since she only bought so many herbs instead of meat or fish. Not until he heard Mr. Cai’s explanation of Southeast Asian cuisine did he understand herbs were his wife’s favorite cooking ingredients.
Zhou Youren, Director of the Immigration Department’s First Service Station of Taichung City, said he encourage the new residents to participate in the course. Apart from being aware of the differences in cultures, cuisines, living habits, education and society derived from multinational marriages, husbands and wifes should learn to adapt to each other’s habits and actively solve everyday misunderstanding. Through this activity, he hoped to help multinational couples understand each other better. It also reminded the husbands to remember buying herbs that that wifes loves when going to the market.
