Chapter 64 The Past and Present of Pineapple Cake

The last article wrote about the beautiful packaging of pineapple cakes, but I haven't had time to discuss the pineapple cakes themselves.I didn't really like biscuits at first, so I couldn't resist buying a few boxes from "Miyahara Ophthalmology" in Taichung, and it turned out to be really good when I came back!So let's talk about pineapple cakes. Just like every county and city in the mainland has a "special product" that only they know, Taiwanese people think that the local pineapple cake is a unique and unique treasure.Although I love Taiwan very much, I really don't think that an ordinary passer-by can taste the difference between A brand and B brand pineapple cake, unless their quality is too bad.Compared with the pineapple sauce wrapped in the dough shell, the most attractive feature of this pastry is that it satisfies diners' imagination of Taiwanese taste and collects the southern style full of pineapples.

Pineapple cake was born in the 1930s, and its prototype is the "wedding cake" used when marrying a daughter or offering sacrifices in southern Fujian and Chaoshan.Wedding cakes are stuffed with mung bean, yam paste or maltose. Except for worshiping gods during the New Year and getting married and having children, people nowadays don’t like to eat them very much. It’s not that this wedding cake is not delicious, but it’s too sweet (a lot of sucrose), you will get tired of it after one bite, and people who don't want to be full will not fall in love with it. Stuffing pineapples into wedding cakes, in the final analysis, is the respect for products in the era of small farmers, and it is a way of storing expensive ingredients.In ancient times, pineapples were precious things. They were ordered when they were still young seedlings. Once they were harvested from the field, they were sent to the cannery, candied and canned, and then sent to Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, to become Tanaka. A great gift for the uncles to bring home as a reward for their children.Since it is to be canned, it is inevitable to leave some leftovers in the process of processing. People who cannot afford canned food will collect these leftovers and boil them into pineapple sauce.Who was the first person to come up with this method is now impossible to verify. In short, some people began to try to wrap pineapple sauce in wedding cakes, and the prototype of "Pineapple Cake" appeared.

To understand Taiwanese pineapple cakes, you have to know "No. 2 boy". For old pineapple farmers, "No. 2" pineapple represents the most authentic Taiwanese flavor and is the greatest pride of Taiwanese farmers.It was also written in the news that a young girl who advertised in Taiwan resigned and went to the countryside because she loved pineapple cakes, just to help Taiwan have more "No. 2" pineapple fields.As for what makes "No. 2" so good, the old farmer will answer - "It's the fragrance".In this regard, Sunrise Pineapple Cake included a handwritten letter expressing their love for "No. 2", and they explained it this way: "It is similar to the atmosphere of a tropical island, or the smell of love between men and women; or Simply put, it is basically a kind of pheromone, and what it conveys is information and desire, not any taste."

The pineapple used to make canned sauce is different from the pineapple we eat now.The fiber of soil pineapple is very thick, very sour, and the content of enzymes is quite high. Generally, it is not used to make fruit and eaten directly after peeling off the skin.However, because the fiber is thick and the acidity is high, after filling the wedding cake with sugar, it is really a wonderful pen, which not only changes the taste focus of the wedding cake which is too sweet, but also provides a tough and elastic taste. .Naturally, the pineapple cake also changed the sacrificial purpose of "wedding cake" and became a real pastry.

Of course, this precious ingredient will not appear as a pure wedding cake. In the 1930s, Japan had occupied Taiwan for nearly 40 years, and the lifestyle of the sovereign country had begun to penetrate into every aspect of life on the island.At the level of "wedding cakes", the specific embodiment is the creativity of the fruit shop.In addition to following the tradition of Japanese wagashi, Taiwan’s confectionary shops will also incorporate the raw materials and methods of Western-style pastry into it. The addition of milk, eggs and cream creates a harmonious relationship between "pineapple wagashi" and "abundance". clear connection.

In fact, pineapple jam in the past was not entirely made from pineapple.After all, it is the main item for export exchange, and even if it is leftovers, there will not be too much left. Taiwanese creatively used winter melon, which is tasteless and similar in texture, to play a mask game. Pineapple is only used to enhance the flavor. The main body is actually Winter melon - this tradition has been maintained to this day.With this creation, it is possible to mass-produce pineapple cakes, and the cheapness can be enjoyed by more people. Anyone who has been to Taiwan will know how fierce the competition in the pineapple cake market is, and there are too many brands to recognize.As a result, manufacturers like Sunrise Group, which take the high-quality and high-end route, began to play the slogan "Never Winter Melon", stressing "small size, weight, thin skin, and lots of stuffing", and the stuffing is fresh local pineapple pulp , Detonate the fragrant fruit acid instantly on the tip of the tongue, promise to never add winter melon cream and pineapple flavor in fake, no preservatives, so the taste limit is over in just 14 days.

The pineapple cake of Shangri-La's Far Eastern Plaza Hotel Taipei won the championship in the 2012 "Apple Daily" Taiwan pineapple cake selection because of their excellence in materials and craftsmanship.The hotel found a piece of land in Tainan, planted pineapples in the most traditional and harmless way, and used the same selection of ponkans as a supplement to the fruity aroma. When you bite into it, you can feel that the filling is particularly strong, and the fruity taste of pineapple is even more bursting .The price is naturally high, 550 NT dollars a box, compared with the 300 or 400 NT dollars a box of Sunrise Group, it is indeed comparable.Of course, the production of Sunrise is also excellent.

Traveling to Taiwan is really easy to buy, and the luggage is very easy to be overweight. In this case, we should save a small amount of space for the best pineapple cake. It will make you mistakenly think that you are oncoming when you are chewing The Pacific Ocean kisses the land of Taiwan.