Cathy Erway is the author of the cookbook, The Food of Taiwan: Recipes from the Beautiful Island, one of the first books published in the US to explore the island-nation’s cuisine and culture, and the memoir, The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove. She hosts the podcast Self Evident, which explores Asian America’s stories. She received a James Beard Award for her food writing in 2019.
Yes, it's essentially two ingredients that you can keep in your freezer — spring-green, shelled edamame and five-spice braised dry tofu (or dou gan/tofu gan) — and I highly recommend having them there at all times so you can make this in a few minutes. This dish was a specialty of my grandfather, although he likely would never have boasted of that. My Gong-Gong was not a very well-off man, and he raised my mom and uncle as a single father for most of their childhoods.