Free jazz festival fun ahead — 50 performances × gourmet food × unique grassland stalls

By / Scenic Spots Home compiled report 
 
Asia’s most anticipated jazz event of the year — the “Taichung Jazz Festival JAZZ YOU UP” — will grandly kick off on October 11, 2019 !    

In addition to the impromptu JAM sessions by jazz musicians on stage, this year’s food stall area also features a variety of international flavors from Taiwan, Japan, Germany, Italy, and more, ensuring that your jazz journey satisfies both the soul and the stomach.

This year’s food stalls are all major players, with fierce competition attracting nearly 50 food vendors to apply. These include Fengjia’s champion snack spot Jīzhǐ Yánrè Yāchì (Exciting Grilled Chicken), leading restaurant chain Din Tai Fung, the HerSHiMeng Group which brings multiple American dining brands to Taiwan, as well as beverage giant 50 Lan, Tokyo’s top pork cutlet brand MAiSEN, and several five-star hotels in Taichung, all vying for a spot. After a rigorous selection process and lottery draw, 25 food vendors were chosen.

Among the highlights are the recently online-voted “No. 1 Fengjia Snack” — Jīzhǐ Yánrè Yāchì (Exciting Grilled Chicken) — and Tokyo’s “strongest pork cutlet” — MAiSEN. Winning the title of Fengjia’s top snack is no fluke: Jīzhǐ Yánrè Yāchì specializes in creative Japanese-style skewers, fried oysters, and crispy fried chicken. The place is packed every day, and the wait is always worth it, especially for their signature meat-and-fruit skewers.

Making their jazz festival debut, they’ll bring the most local-flavored Japanese skewers to jazz fans. Also joining from Tokyo is MAiSEN, famous for its tender pork cutlets that you can cut with chopsticks. They’ve transformed into pocket sandwiches perfect for picnics as you sway to the music. In Japan, MAiSEN’s signature pork sandwich sells enough units annually to stack as high as two Taipei 101 buildings. The thick pork cutlet is coated in a secret sauce, not greasy but incredibly tender and juicy without being dry. Each pocket sandwich also includes a semi-runny egg — one bite and the rich yolk bursts out, soaking into the soft bread.