ABSTRACT
This chapter uses the term alternative nostalgia to describe the entanglement between literary representations of food and sentiments of nostalgia in Taiwan from 2000–16. Taiwanese people's food nostalgia used to designate their longing to return to mainland China, from which the Kuomintang government relocated to Taiwan in 1949. Li Ang's focus on women's appetites also reveals her intention to reshuffle Taiwanese food nostalgia, which used to be easily associated with yearnings for traditional Chinese cuisines, into a different realm. Unlike Li Ang, who emphasizes women's appetites, Han Lianglu spotlights delicacies on the streets while recalling her childhood eating experiences. Yet, though staying in other countries for several years, Han confesses that she is still permanently attached to various street delicacies in Taipei. Jiao Tong's Shuguo suishi ji portrays miscellaneous fruit and vegetables and the writer lists 65 items to trace the socio-cultural life of various green produce.
