Future Fusion Foodlab – Finding Where Food, Folklore, and Fermentation Meet

In its work supporting sustainability and circular economies, FabCafe often investigates the value bio-innovation and biotechnology can provide when integrated with other fields. Through residencies, workshops, and lectures across our global branches, FabCafe encourages explorations at the intersections of food, agriculture, and technology.

One long-standing initiative in this space is BioClub, which has a close relationship with FabCafe Tokyo. BioClub is a group that operates a small community laboratory aimed at hobbyists and creatives interested in biotechnology. Members independently organize experiments, events, and workshops around topics like biomaterials; for instance, one group made vegan leather out of bamboo shoots that had been cultivated in store-bought soft drinks. There have also been workshop series about cultivating bacteria and sequencing their genes. Through community-based practice, BioClub and other similar initiatives open bio-innovation to a wider audience.

From an aiyu jelly workshop to Future Fusion Foodlab

It all started with a cross-cultural vegan food event at FabCafe Tokyo. At the event, FabCafe Taipei members showed participants how to make aiyu jelly, a popular Taiwanese dessert that is little known in Japan. In the process, they also discussed other traditional plant-based Taiwanese desserts, such as douhua (made with silken tofu), grass jelly, and taro balls. Toward the end of the workshop, participant Kat approached the facilitators to express her interest in crossing biology with food, proposing a future collaboration.

Ekaterina Kormilitsyna, or Kat, was born in Vienna to Russian parents; she has also lived in East Asia for many years. An artist who started out in media and film, Kat has also embraced the medium of bio-technology as a member of the BioClub community in Tokyo. One of Kat’s ongoing research projects is Future Fusion Foodlab, inspired by her multicultural upbringing.

Within this project, Kat engages with ancestral and community knowledge through food. Future Fusion Foodlab works with the cultural influences behind food through experimentation with ingredients and cooking techniques; in doing so, Kat hopes to glimpse the past and future of intercultural cuisine. In the past, she has held events at FabCafe Tokyo, serving samples of food created through experimentation in the BioClub lab.

In light of her work and interests, the FabCafe Taipei team invited Kat to Taiwan for a week of research and workshops to investigate Taiwanese culinary traditions of fermentation, which would become Future Fusion Foodlab: Salty Tales.

Exploring Taiwanese cuisine, from fermentation to innovation

The research trip began at FabCafe Taipei with a lively discussion about fermented foods. The talk revealed that kumquats have different associations in different cultures: in Europe, kumquats may be used in jams or desserts, but in Taiwan, they are more often used as an herbal remedy for sore throat. This, in turn, made Kat and the others realize that pickled foods in particular vary greatly from culture to culture.

Next, the group embarked on a tour of Taiwanese fermented foods. The first stop was Dihua Street, lined with stalls fragrant with dried Chinese herbs and fruits. Next was the Pinglin Tea Museum and Sin Hong Choon Tea House, troves of information about the fermentation and roasting process of several tea varieties, as well as subtle differences between flavors. Then it was time to shop, so the group went to a supermarket to see preserved and fermented foods unique to Taiwan, such as fermented tofu, fermented rice, dried bamboo shoots, and seitan. The last stop was a traditional Taiwanese market to collect ingredients for pickling experiments and to taste Taiwanese fermented foods such as century egg tofu and Taiwanese pickled cabbage.

Throughout the tour, the FabCafe Taipei team and Kat discussed Taiwanese food culture. They all agreed that food innovation is abundant: Taiwanese people are not bound by tradition, and they are constantly creating new food cultures. Bubble tea is perhaps one of the most famous examples. Taiwanese people combined tapioca pearls with milk tea and created a new way of eating. Another example is traditional dim sum such as large intestines wrapped in small intestines, which became a more distinctive food item after packaging innovations around the 1990s. Not to mention, gambling for sausage is a piece of Taiwanese culture with a long history.

On Kat’s first weekend, FabCafe Taiwan hosted a hands-on pickling workshop. On a table were a variety of ingredients from the market, from commonly pickled vegetables, cucumbers, and mushrooms to seasonal fruits such as custard apples and wax apples, which most people have never imagined pickling.

Participants in the workshop come from a variety of fields, including design education, agricultural innovation, coffee cultivation, social enterprise, and art and technology. Interestingly, there were also two older participants with personal stories about fermentation. Other participants were from the Bio Creators community, a local group dedicated to spreading biotechnology.

To open the event, Kat spoke briefly about fermented foods in different cultures, such as the relationship between witches and brewing beer in Europe. Then, participants freely shared their own experiences and perspectives. Monica, who works with coffee, spoke about the process of fermenting coffee beans. A local elderly person talked about making red yeast, while another person shared their thoughts on Hong Kong’s salted lemon 7-Up. Kat herself introduced Russian kvasŭ wine and its brewing process.

After the open discussion, Kat opened the experiment portion by introducing the four most common pickling techniques — spice, salt, sugar, and vinegar pickling — and their ingredients. Workshop participants used the provided ingredients and some of their own to experiment with making pickles. One group added ma-gao spice to kumquats to make a fruit tea; others tried to pickle salted fish fritters.

Finally, participants wrote the pickle recipes on cards and gave each experiment a special name, such as “Fruit Tea,” “Congratulations and Good Fortune,” and “Mushy globe.” Each labeled experiment was set aside for a week to ferment. Through this first session, attendees not only learned the basics of pickling, but also experienced the fun of cross-disciplinary collaboration to create all-new foods.

More lessons in flavor and fermentation with popcorn

Before artificial seasonings became commonplace, one of the most common ways to create strong flavors was fermentation; the traditional flavors of many cultures are embodied in their fermented foods. During the week that pickles were fermenting, Kat and the team experimented more with the flavors of Taiwan by making seasoning powders and sauces from Taiwanese specialty fermented foods, then adding them to popcorn. Ingredients like fermented tofu, century eggs, salted duck eggs, and stinky tofu, which were crumbled, dried, and sautéed before being combined with the popcorn.

Finally, they shared their creations with FabCafe’s barista Yvonne, hoping to get her professional opinion on our new flavors. Yvonne was able to identify subtle flavors from the popcorn, rating the fermented tofu flavor as her favorite.

…And a tasting party to finish!

A week after the first workshop, participants gathered again at FabCafe for a much-anticipated can-opening and sampling event.

They arranged all the jars on the table and opened them together. At first glance, some had clearly developed mold, which led to discussions about the possible points of failure. The moldy jars had ingredients that weren’t entirely immersed in liquid — because most bacteria can’t survive in excessively sugary, salty, or acidic environments, it’s crucial for ingredients to be completely immersed in pickling liquid. These preservative properties point to the benefits of pickling before refrigeration technology.

Despite some failed experiments, many other jars were safe to eat. Attendees were encouraged to test the variety of unusual flavor combinations and recorded our impressions of the look, feel, smell, and taste on sensory wheel cards.