Seventy-five restaurants and street vendors in Taipei and Taichung made the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand list this year, including 47 that were listed last year, the Tourism Bureau said yesterday.
Insepctors from the Michelin Guide started rating restaurants and street vendor food in the nation’s capital in 2018.
For the third edition this year, inspectors would evaluate the gourmet scenes in Taipei and, for the first time, Taichung.
Photo screen grab Beef Soup’s Facebook page
Before revealing the list of Michelin-starred restaurants, the guide first discloses its Bib Gourmand list, which contains restaurateurs and food vendors that serve high-quality three-course meals at a total cost of NT$1,000 or less.
Thirty-one restaurants and 23 street vendors in Taipei, and 21 restaurants in Taichung made it onto the Bib Gourmand list, the bureau said.
Inspectors explored various eateries hidden deep in alleys or that are not easy to locate in both cities, the bureau said.
Some of the restaurants in Taichung that were chosen for the Bib Gourmand list serve Taiwanese cuisine, including urn-roasted chicken, braised pork knuckles, porridge served in casseroles, hotpot with beef and beef noodle soup, it said, adding that the dishes are worth the cost.
“Restaurants in northern and southern Taiwan might serve food that fill people up, but one has to go to Taichung for real gourmet food,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.
“All eyes are now on the Bib Gourmand list, particularly the local dishes on the list. Each of them has a rich story to tell. This is the greatest recognition of the Tourism Bureau’s efforts over the years to promote tasty and exquisite local dishes to international tourists,” Lin said.
“The food scene in Taichung reflects the convergence of cultures from different places in the nation. I am proud of the city’s performance, considering its evaluation by the Michelin Guide,” he said.
The Michelin Guide has helped promote Taiwanese cuisine to the world, and the nation’s “food power” has drawn many international tourists to Taiwan to experience the different lives and cultures here, the bureau said.
Lin and Tourism Bureau Director General Chang Shi-chung (張錫聰) are on Aug. 24 scheduled to attend a ceremony in National Taichung Theater to unveil this year’s edition of Michelin Guide, when the complete list of restaurants that have received star ratings would be published, it added.
Additional reporting by staff writer, with CNA
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