Pepper salt

Cuisine Food & Drink
1

So I have finally cracked it. For the last 5 months of living here, I have been trying to work out what the Taiwanese put on everything to make it all taste indistinguishable. It is always on cooked meats. Fried chicken, pork, fish…it all has the same flavour, and not a very pleasant one at that.

So here is the drum. Last night I went to a restaurant and ordered some grilled fish. I was expecting the usual flavour, but low and behold it didn’t have it and actually tasted like fish. There was a pile of greyish spice piled up beside the fish on the plate, and as soon as I tasted it I realised I had cracked the mystery ingredient. I asked the waiter what it was, and he replied in English “Pepper salt”.

Now, this is where I need the help of fellow Forumosans. This is no ordinary pepper/salt, this has something else in it which gives it a distinct and overpowering pungency, and I demand to know what in god’s name it is and how it is pronounced in Chinese!

Talk to your wives, husbands friends and family, this conundrum must be solved? Once this puzzle is unravelled, I intend to declare loudly and with conviction in Mandarin the next time I order a meal.

“No Bloody Pepper Salt You Heathens!” (translation required).

2

Maybe white pepper (bai hu jiao), which has a definite skunky flavor. It’s listed on the ingredients in the pepper salt I just ate, but I’m not sure how much it’s used generally on meats. Something called five spice powder (wu xiang fen) is used more often.

3

Not sure what the ones they are using that you have E been eating, but the one my wife uses is quite good, doesn’t put it on everything either. Most foods don’t require it, but also depends on where you go. I don’t think I’ve been to many places that put it on everything actually. Might be the region you are living maybe.

4

It isn’t five spice, and if it is white pepper it tastes nothing like the white pepper everywhere else in the world. It could possibly be an east coast thing, but I am sure I have had it elsewhere on the island. In the cafes here they will put a shaker of it on the table and it gets used like salt.

5

Salt, white pepper, and a touch of Ajinomoto