Traditional Taiwanese banquet dishes such as “Buddha Jumps Over the Wall” (佛跳牆, -fotiaoqiang) and shrimp rolls (蝦捲) will be presented at a large banquet in Beijing on Wednesday next week, the Tourism Bureau said yesterday.
The banquet will be held at the Beijing office of the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association (TSTA), a quasi-official organization representing Taiwan’s Tourism Bureau. To celebrate its one-year anniversary, the office decided to host a 100-table banquet featuring traditional banquet dishes.
The 12-course meal will be jointly prepared by 10 award-winning Taiwanese chefs.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) yesterday met with the chefs and presented the team’s culinary flag to chef Shi Jian-fa (施建發), the group’s leader.
Mao said eating in Taiwan has evolved from simply satisfying basic physical needs to a way of presenting the nation’s culture and customs, adding the cuisine has become an attraction for many tourists.
Aside from Japanese and Aboriginal cuisines, Mao said the culinary styles from different parts of China have also become part of the characteristics of Taiwanese food after hundreds of thousands of Chinese migrated to Taiwan in 1949.
Mao said he hoped that one day Taiwanese chefs would be as well respected as French chefs.
According to the bureau, the dishes to be served in Beijing will include those regularly seen at Taiwanese banquets, such as fotiaoqiang and steamed sticky rice with crab meat. They also include delicacies from different counties, including mullet roe from Greater Tainan and smoked duck from Yilan County.
Shi said they also prepared five different Taiwanese appetizers, including skinned hot peppers, honey kumquats, clams marinated in soy sauce, carrot balls marinated in plum sauce and bitter melon stew.
A majority of the ingredients will be shipped directly from Taiwan through a special delivery service, Shih said.
The cost of the ingredients for each table is about NT$12,000. Those invited are special guests asked to join the banquet by the TSTA office.
In addition to the banquet, the TSTA office will also host a “Taiwanese Cuisine Week” for the general public in Beijing from Friday next week to May 10.
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