Over the past few years, Taiwan’s Aboriginal communities have begun to take enormous pride in their cuisine, which is based on their unique culinary traditions, sourced from the mountains, plains and sea.
If you are in Chihshang Township (池上), Taitung County, be sure to visit Bayang (芭洋Amis美饌), a menu-less restaurant that serves up sublime seasonal Amis cuisine. The restaurant’s owner, Kao Hsiao-yuan (高筱媛), is a sixth generation descendant of the Kakupa royal family. Kao returned to her ancestral home, which is located next to the restaurant, to care for her sick mother and research Amis culinary traditions. Bayang is the fruit of years of study, combining traditions of her mother and community, but finished with a flair of the modern.
The restaurant space, nestled off a lane of dense foliage, features ultra-high ceilings, handmade bamboo fixtures and bar, oversized wooden tables and chairs, and, like the food served, combines tradition with innovation.
Photo courtesy of Co-create Planning & Design Consultancy
Our meal began with a robust traditional Amis seasonal soup with an assortment of wild mountain vegetables, followed by a mugao mustard salad with crushed peanut powder. Mugao is a fiddlehead fern that is important to the traditional Amis diet, and its delicate flavor wasn’t overpowered by the mustard greens. It was a nice accompaniment to the rich soup.
The soup and salad appetizer was followed by grilled pork belly served with a side of warrior beans and onion salad with plum vinaigrette. This showstopping combination had our table gobbling down the finger-sized morsels of succulent meat topped with the refreshing sweet and sour salad. Kao says the idea of the dish came from a story about the sourcing of ingredients when her ancestors migrated from Pingtung County’s Hengchun (恆春) to Chihshang 200 years ago.
Village-style grilled fish followed the pork. This Amis specialty is white fish grilled over an open flame after being marinated with a mixture of salt, garlic and tana, a traditional Amis herb. Most of our party agreed that the marinated mixture topped with a squeeze of lime and moist flesh was the highlight of an already outstanding meal.
Our Amis dining experience ended with cubes of seasonal fruit marinated in sweet fermented rice followed by sweet mini rice cakes. The fermented rice enhanced the flavor of the fruit, while the homemade rice cakes were among the best I’ve ever tasted.
Having never tried traditional Amis cuisine, I left thinking that I must expand my knowledge of these vibrant Aboriginal foodways so I can better appreciate how chefs like Kao have modernized them into remarkable creations.
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