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I'm kind of burning my hand.
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Oh.
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Even though it's a little early for fried chicken,
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and not the kind of thing I'd expect to eat at
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a funeral, it's pretty unbelievable.
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The island nation of Taiwan is known for
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its incredible food culture.
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And Taiwan's outdoor banquets known as bando.
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And one of the countries oldest food traditions.
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Prepared by village chef Sidon Po Si who
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specialize in cooking for hundreds of people at
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a time, outdoor banquets can be a celebration of
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any occasion, from weddings and
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birthdays to festivals, elections and funerals.
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Let's get some food.
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I like stinky tofu.
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This is pretty heavy on the stink.
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If I think of eating at a funeral in Canada or
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the states,
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it's pretty much bland catering sandwiches and
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soggy fruit plates that come to mind.
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But it Taiwan,
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they do things a little differently.
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My friend, George, invited me to attend
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his grandfather's funeral and eat at
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the outdoor banquet prepared in his honor.
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He had already been filming the lead up
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to the funeral and hoped that our film could be
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a record of his grandfather too.
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Lin He Xiuju was the village chef in charge
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of the funeral feast.
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At 4 AM the morning of the funeral,
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I joined her at the largest fish market in
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northern Taiwan, where she threw down the cash
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on sushi-grade salmon, shrimp and shellfish.
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It's unusual for
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a village chef to be a woman, but Xiuju,
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who also runs a small restaurant,
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was clearly on top of her game.
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I wanna point out that the stack of seafood we
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bought is taller than the woman cooking it.
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When we arrived in George's hometown of
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FomeS, it was cold, damp and rainy.
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People were paying their respects to George's
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grandfather, who had been a town council leader.
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Why do you need to stand next to the coffin?
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The relatives have to keep the deceased
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company.
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One person on either side.
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Does someone have to be here all the time?
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Yes, you can't leave the coffin alone.
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They're cooking outside because it's
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traditionally really important for all of this
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funeral stuff to happen as close to the home as
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possible and we're basically like ten steps
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from where the family of the deceased lives.
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The first order of business is preparing
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food for
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all of the people who have come early.
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Their job is to make food for
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people that will fill them up and
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maybe make them feel a little bit better.
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So, yeah.
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It's food made with love.
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In Taiwanese custom,
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we eat a pig's head and tail at a funerals.
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It symbolizes respect for your elders.
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This is Sesame Oil Chicken,
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a dish I made specially for the pallbearers.
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For a coffin this size,
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it's gonna take 16 to 20 men to carry it.
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The young ones might hurt their back carrying it,
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so they will eat this beforehand.
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It's got chicken and pork in it.
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You can't drive after eating this, though.
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It's got lots of alcohol in it.
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I sat down with the team of pallbearers who were
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having lunch before getting to business.
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There was a lot more food than I was expecting.
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Yeah the chicken is super, super tender.
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Its got a little tingly from the alcohol.
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The broth is basically just like booze with
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some chicken juices in it.
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Like when you sip it,
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kinda is like doing a weak shot almost.
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There's basically like something for everyone.
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You got the mayotte, which is the traditional
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thing that you have to eat if your gonna
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be preparing to carry the coffin.
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But everything else is just like people like
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to eat good food and some might like the pork
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more some prefer to eat fish or other seafood.
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They wanna make sure that no one goes hungry and
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everyone's satisfied.
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So this is the spread.
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This is the kinda dish that I like.
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The pork belly.
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Me too.
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A lot of these guys aren't young either and
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they definitely need as much warmth and
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energy as they can get before the hard
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work that's about to come.
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After eating all of this stuff,
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carrying a coffin up a hill in the rain is not
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necessarily the first thing that comes to mind.
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All the while, the rest of the funeral guests
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were tucking into lunch.
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I sat down to eat with George when he returned.
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Admittedly, he wasn't that hungry.
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My grandfather specifically asked us to
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make sure the funeral guests are well and
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get plenty of food.
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A lot of old people tend to pass away at
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the end of winter between Chinese New Year and
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the Mazu Festival.
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So there are a lot of funeral feasts around
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this time.
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Mm.
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The food tastes good, but it's also really sad.
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Would you say the tradition is in decline?
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It's frightening to think about.
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These old village chefs don't have students to
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pass their skills on to.
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As people from the older generation pass away,
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this tradition will eventually die out.
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We don't want to see this happen, so
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we'll try our best to keep the tradition alive.
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Funeral feasts are a tradition of remembrance,
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it brings families and neighbors together,
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and creates a bond between us.
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I wanted to learn more
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about the origins of village chef cuisine,
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so I traveled to its birthplace,
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the small town of Niemen in southern Taiwan.
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Hi, Mr. Lin.
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Hi.
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You look American.
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I'm Canadian.
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Oh, Canadian.
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Liu Ruizhang has been a village chef for
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more than 40 years.
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He works with his wife and youngest son
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catering outdoor banquets and serving local
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specialties from the front of his apartment.
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When I arrived Lin's son was preparing
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the family's signature pork leg.
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The flavor isn't quite there yet.
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Yeah Oh I see.
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It's still a bit salty right now.
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Once we bring out the sweetness
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of the the pork, it won't be as salty.
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While the pork was cooking the elder
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Lan showed me his take on sweet and sour fish.
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I'll make some fish.
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Just keep frying it til it gets golden brown.
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Okay.
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It's super crispy and they just put it back in
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the wok for a second to kinda flash fry it again.
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Then we add some seasoning: sour, sweet,
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spicy.
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A bit of garlic, onions, white pepper and vinegar.
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Then some broth.
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And finally, to make it sweet and
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sour, we add a bit of sugar.
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It's ready.
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The flavor is pretty well-balanced.
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Now we'll make a gravy.
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Put it on slow heat.
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Then a bit of ketchup.
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To make it sour.
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Let's pour it on top.
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Here it is, Sweet and Sour Fish.
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Sour, sweet, spicy, salty.
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It's got everything.
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Shall I bring it to the table?
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Yes, we're gonna eat it.
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Okay. Now drink with me!
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Happy birthday.
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Whose birthday is it?
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Whenever a friend from faraway comes for
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a visit, we say "happy birthday" to celebrate
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Oh yeah.
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It's a Taiwanese folk tradition.
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Oh, I was still pretty full from the previous
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day's funeral feasting but it wasn't hard to
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convince myself to keep eating.
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Why am I passing this to my son?
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I pass it along to him so
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that he can have the means to make a living.
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Otherwise he might end up becoming a construction
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worker or something,
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he'd be lost in a different profession.
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It's the same for you.
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If I ask you to try a different profession,
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you might not succeed.
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Like father, like son.
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He likes this profession so
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I'm passing the torch to him.
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I've been watching him cook since I was little.
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My Dad cooks so well,
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I should really learn from him.
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I'll try my best to reach his level and
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add my own interpretation into some dishes.
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What's the difference between traditional
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outdoor banquets and
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a meal you'd get in a restaurant?
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At a restaurant you have a lot
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of frozen ingredients.
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Here, everything is fresh.
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Everything is prepared fresh at every step.
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What do you think the culture of outdoor
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banquets will become in the future?
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They used to be a real sense of community in
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Taiwan.
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Oh.
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When we used to have a neighborhood gathering,
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everyone in the neighborhood would come
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help out with the kitchen work.
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You don't get that anymore.
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Outdoor banquet culture is in decline not because
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of the dishes or anything.
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It's because we don't
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have that sense of community anymore.
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Even if the traditional role of the village
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chef risks slowly fading away, interests in
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the old-school culinary masters and
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their outdoor banquets is
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seeing something of a resurgence.
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I wanted to see what the future of village chef
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style food could have in store.
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So I went to meet Wen Guozhi,
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an expert in traditional Taiwanese recipes at
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the culinary school where he teaches in.
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Being a Village Chef is a very traditional
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profession in Taiwan, but recently there have been
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some development in the cuisine.
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What do you think about this.
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Traditional Village Chefs either only had a primary
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school education or weren't educated at all.
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These days we have apprenticeships,
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which has helped raise the level of education
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for young chefs.
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Today we're making Scallops with
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Shredded Bamboo Shoots and Egg Skin,
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it's one of the village chef's specialities.
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We start off with the carrots.
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We peel of its rough skin.
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This is a regular cleaver,
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and a bone cleaver.
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We prep 90 percent of the ingredients using just
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these two knives.
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Maybe it's because resources were scarce
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back in the day.
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So people did all their cooking with just these
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two knives.
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I thought I was a decent cook but
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next to Wen