The "Slow Noon Kitchen" by tribal youth offers a Bunun wild vegetable flavor meal

On the lunar New Year's Eve of a certain year, four men and women arrived at Wangxiang Tribe, located on the eastern foothills of the Alishan Mountain Range in Xinyi Township, Nantou County. They walked into the homestay restaurant looking for a meal, but only set menus were available, so the tourists shook their heads and left. Watching their dejected figures disappear into the cold night on an empty stomach, the shop owner Song Fanggu struggled internally and couldn't bear it. He decided to transform his business, using tribal wild vegetables to develop a Bunun-style flavor set menu for individual diners.

Forty-year-old Song Fanggu graduated from the Department of Mass Communication and worked as a radio host for seven or eight years. Six years ago, feeling lost about the media work environment and his own future, and also to take care of his father, he returned to his hometown in Xinyi Township.

He told his police-officer retired father that he would rely on him for meals for half a year and would carve out his own path. But he quickly integrated into the tribe, opened a homestay, and had a stable income — “never ended up eating my dad’s food.”

In the first four years of operating the homestay, to provide breakfast and lunch for guests, he began learning how to cook. His very first guest, Lin Peirong, became — quite legendarily — his wife.

Two years ago, he started taking group set-menu orders; the small eatery could accommodate about 40 people. That New Year’s Eve, unable to bear seeing four individual tourists come to his tribe and end up going hungry, he resolved to develop individual set meals.

Song Fanggu and his wife Lin Peirong pick wild vegetables every afternoon, including sow thistle, mountain celery, Japanese euphorbia, prickly ash, plantain, nightshade, and red eggplant leaves — all of which they experiment with cooking. After guests finish dinner around 8 p.m., the couple begins practicing cooking, starting over if not satisfied, often working until 3 or 4 a.m. After more than a full year, they finally achieved satisfying results.

Just over three months ago, the "Slow Noon Kitchen. Bunun Wild Vegetable Flavor Meal" at Wangxiang Tribe finally opened. Many who have tried it have given praise. The renowned painter and lecturer at Taichung University of Education, Jian Junhui, said it felt very good and she’d like to come again. Song Fanggu said those four hungry tourists gave them a lot of inspiration, and now people coming to Wangxiang don’t have to worry about having no food to eat.