Meet Tiffany Ran | Chef-Founder of Babalio Taiwanese Pop-Up

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tiffany Ran and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tiffany, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I moved to Seattle from Los Angeles over a decade ago and felt extremely homesick, not just for the Taiwanese food so accessible in the San Gabriel Valley but also for the food in Taiwan, where I was born. Homesickness is such a driving force. It compelled me to stay up an extra hour after a 12-hour restaurant shift to try and recreate a Taiwanese dish I craved. My partner and I drove over two hours from Seattle to Richmond, B.C. to enjoy the food we missed so much. I started to think about how nostalgia and homesickness, plus a desire to be rooted to a sense of home, can be the driving force behind entire industries. 99 Ranch, Weee!, even K-beauty brands and Asian supply stores were all started by immigrants who understood this need and sought to fulfill this need for their communities.

For years, I worked in Western restaurants and eventually directed my attention to trying to recreate Taiwanese dishes in Seattle. Over the years, Seattle has grown and changed and the food scene has evolved to include more Taiwanese restaurants. However, most representations of the cuisine remain shallow at best with the usual offerings of pork chop rice, braised pork rice, or popcorn chicken. In truth, Taiwanese cuisine is so vast and diverse, so fresh and progressive. I haven’t seen this representation or exploration of the cuisine in many Taiwanese diasporas. At the same time, I was meeting more local Taiwanese Americans in the area, many who grew up in Seattle, and their identities are more intimately rooted to non-Taiwanese cuisines like dim sum, Hong Kong cafes, and Japanese food because, understandably, those were the general Asian American experiences available to them while growing up.

I saw this pop-up as an opportunity to bolster a more comprehensive representation of Taiwanese cuisine, to create dialogue and exchange among Taiwanese Americans, and to provide a balm for that sense of unmoored longing for Taiwan that many of us feel.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
While this wasn’t always the case, I am most proud of the haphazard way I fell into the food industry and gaining confidence in an industry, where Western cuisines often reign supreme, to advocate for Taiwanese cuisine.

I stepped into my first restaurant kitchen as a freelance journalist hoping to delve into food writing. I asked a newly opened restaurant about observing their service and in the process, I got swept up in the adrenaline of it all. I felt compelled to help out with service however I could. I’d run into the walk-in to grab herbs for them, eventually setting down my reporter’s pad for good and diving into culinary tasks. I bought my first chef knife, and started cutting shallots and preparing herbs. I began as a stagier (a term describing a cook working unpaid as an apprentice), not even fully aware that that was what I was doing.

In Western kitchens where French or Italian techniques were the standard, it was often easy to feel as if my background growing up with Taiwanese/Chinese cuisine offered little to my professional experience or development. I still remember in my first few months of working in restaurants, I was frantically Googling marjoram having never seen or tasted it before, and being too scared to admit that fact. I often felt like I was approaching cooking with no reference or knowledge at all. It took years to find the confidence to advocate for the cuisine I grew up knowing, to showcase the ingredients and techniques often overlooked in Western kitchens.

I don’t dabble as much in freelance writing now as I did before but storytelling is a big part of this pop-up. I want my menus to transport people as my mother’s stories once transported me. I seek to showcase Taiwanese dishes not often seen in the States and also ones that are even harder to find in more cosmopolitan parts of Taipei. Such a dynamic cuisine reflecting stories of migration and trade deserves this level of research, and each year I discover more, the responsibility sits more heavily with me.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m including two cities since I’m from Los Angeles originally, but currently live in Seattle (I still have my CA ID though! Forever an LA gal).

LA:
– I love Highland Park. If I moved back to LA, this area would be the best mix of eclectic small eateries similar to what I’d find in Seattle while also being a hop away from incredible Asian food in the San Gabriel Valley. I’d love to start my day here with coffee at Civil Coffee and do some light shopping at Social Study and New High Mart.
– After many years of working restaurant hours, it usually takes me some time to work up an appetite. From HP, I’d head to Yi Mei in San Gabriel for Taiwanese breakfast and Wushiland Boba at the 99 Ranch Market Center for bubble tea. Just walking around that center makes me feel so connected to the Taiwanese community in LA. I think about how my mother described LA moving there for the first time in the 1980s and it’s truly incredible to see places like that center serve as a representation for how far our community has come.
– I’m a sucker for the plateware and fun kitchen tools at Eden Restaurant Supply Co.
– Ceviche and tostada snack stop at Mariscos 4 Vientos. There will be plenty of taco stops, but also a dinner at Damian, with a compelling and touching representation of Mexican cuisine.
– Kato for dinner, not necessarily because they’re Taiwanese but also because their cocktail program is out of this world.
– And finally, the beach. I love a good sunny day drive on PCH up to Malibu. You just can’t beat the beaches in LA.

Seattle:
– On a good day, I can start my day off with coffee at Herkimer Coffee or Vivace. If I have out of town friends, I take them to Storyville at the Pike Place Market. Solid cafe, great view, and the market right below us. If I’m there, I’ll also be stopping by Lands of Origin, a unique African bakery with some standout Portuguese egg tarts.
– Pike Place Market is beautiful, but most Seattleites have their own favorite neighborhood farmers market and for me, that is the University District and Ballard Farmers Market, which happens on Saturdays and Sundays respectively.
– Chefs in Seattle love to shop at Epicurean Edge, where they have all kinds of knives, particularly Japanese chef knives from a wide range of makers. I have a hard time walking in there and not leaving with a purchase.
– For a great day trip, I’d take the ferry to Bainbridge Island and stroll along Winslow Way. This area is my old haunt, where I got my first restaurant job. The first restaurant I ever worked at on Bainbridge Island is now known as Seabird. The concept has changed to showcase Pacific Northwest seafood, and the food is phenomenal.
– I like to take my dog on walks to the University of Washington campus during cherry blossom season, and Gas Works Park year-round. Discovery Park is a great urban escape with an accessible hiking trail and a breathtaking view of the ocean.
– Lebanese restaurant Cafe Munir isn’t necessarily the trendiest spot in the city, but every experience there has been solid.
– So far, no pasta experience for me has surpassed the sage tajarin at Spinasse.
– The cocktail scene in Seattle is bustling. There are so many good bars to choose from, but I would choose to cozy up to the bar at tiny Phocific Standard Time and slowly work my way through the various cocktails on their menu. Light Sleeper is my go-to spot for natural wines. (Also full disclosure, I’ve done pop-ups there.) Fair Isle Brewing has truly ethereal saisons that has changed my mind about beer (Full disclosure, I’ve done pop-ups there too.).

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mother has always kept the doors to Taiwan open to me. At my most homesick moments in Seattle, I would call my mother on the bus ride home after a long shift. She would describe in detail the happenings at the wet markets that morning; what produce was in season, and what kind of fish she bought for dinner. I would momentarily be transported from a King County bus to the bustling marketplace in Taipei. Both her and I have gone through some hard times, but it has always been important to her that while developing resilience, I not harden myself to the world. This is where her continued introduction of food in my life has served its greatest purpose. She taught me that food can be a source of adventure, love, healing, and connection.

Website: https://www.babaliotaiwan.com

Instagram: @bb6twpopup

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bb6twpopup

Image Credits
Headshot – Photos by Stacey Riggle

4-8 photos of food, etc – Photos by Reva Keller