Anyone walking around BK Arena in the Rwandan capital of Kigali who is familar with Taiwanese cuisine might be surprised to smell the fragrance of familiar dishes in the air.
Visitors can even detect the aroma of Taiwan’s famous beef noodles, chive buns and dumplings if they visit the neighborhood on the right day.
These delectable flavors can be traced to Sizzling Plates Restaurant, a small diner located just across from BK Arena.
Photo: CNA
Patrons of the eatery have a plethora of traditional Taiwanese food from which to choose, whether it is vegetarian appetizers such as braised tofu or spicy entrees like mapo tofu, or the nation’s staple braised pork rice and potstickers.
The restaurant also offers special deals on dumpling dishes on Thursdays and Sundays, while a phone call to the eatery a few days ahead of a visit gives owner Teresa Fang (方薏婷) enough time to prepare her signature soup dumplings, which are only available by request.
Besides juggling her duties as the restaurant’s owner and head chef, Fang, 36, is also a busy mother whose Japanese husband works for the UN in Africa.
Photo: CNA
STABLER AND SAFER
The family has traveled across Africa due to her husband’s job, but the couple eventually decided to settle down in Rwanda, where both parents can work while their children grow up in an environment that is stabler and safer than neighboring nations, Fang said.
With degrees in health economics and biochemistry, plus previous work experience as a researcher and tutor at graduate school, Fang originally planned to look for a job within her field of expertise.
However, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fang was forced to seek alternative job solutions when the companies she had set her heart on stopped hiring.
That was when the chance of purchasing a restaurant across the street from East Africa’s biggest indoor arena presented itself. Only then did Fang decide to make a hard turn in her career path and pursue cooking full time.
She recalled how she enjoyed recreating the flavors of her hometown cuisine while attending high school abroad, and the excitement she felt when she made dumpings for her and her husband while they lived in Australia. When they had children, she also felt happy making healthy food for them.
Fang was also motivated by her father, who passed away in February 2020.
“I reflected on the time we had together and how he truly lived in accordance with the ‘love what you do and you will never work a day in your life’ philosophy,” Fang said. “He truly enjoyed his work and always encouraged us to do what makes us happy and healthy.”
Sizzling Plates opened its doors in early 2020 amid the global pandemic, which Fang attributes to her personality of needing to get things done.
The restaurant first tailored to the expat population looking to satisfy their desire for something different from the ubiquitous Rwandan cuisine. Eventually, the dishes became popular, customers kept coming back with friends and word spread.
In the two years since the restaurant opened, Fang said she has even served six or seven fellow Taiwanese nationals.
LOCAL AND NATURAL
Instead of Taiwanese ingredients, Fang bases her recipes on local products and draws from her background as a health economics expert.
“I have always been very health conscious with my background in biochemistry, and of course after I become a mom,” Fang said. “I tend to use natural ingredients to make food for my family. After moving to Rwanda, I have to cook almost everything from scratch because it’s not easy to find Asian condiments.”
Not only does she insist on using no MSG in her food, Fang also makes sure no artificial flavoring is added to the Rwandan soybeans which she uses to make homemade tofu for her eatery.
Fang also taught her employees how to use a dough roller to turn Rwanda’s wheat flour into Taiwanese buns and dumplings.
Thanks to her insistence on using healthy ingredients and the unique flavors of Taiwanese cuisine, Sizzling Plates currently has an exclusive menu that sets her food apart from other Asian restaurants in the area.
When asked about the challenges in Rwanda, Fang points to the language and cultural differences she faces everyday, such as the pace of daily life and managing a restaurant in a country that has an unstable power grid and water supply.
That aside, Fang said she and her family are content and happy in the African country and will continue to bring the sizzle to Kigali.
“I really enjoy raising my kids here.” she said. “I cherish it’s natural environment and the simplicity which is so rare in other countries. My kids also enjoy living here. I don’t know where life is going to take us, but for now we are just enjoying ourselves here.”
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would