Ride the Wave of ‘The Chef’ Hype – Local Ingredients Revive Tainan’s Hidden “Home-Cooked Dishes”

Tourism Center / Comprehensive Report

The movie *The Chef* has sparked a craze for traditional Taiwanese banquet cuisine. In collaboration with Tainan’s long-established restaurant “Ah Xia Restaurant,” the Yunlin-Kaohsiung-Tainan Coastal Scenic Area Administration has utilized local ingredients such as mudskippers from Beimen District, cuttlefish roe from Qigu District, and fire-roasted shrimp, paired with Taiwan’s sun-dried sea salt, to launch “home-cooked dishes” like mudskipper soup, salt-boiled live shrimp, and cuttlefish roe fried rice. Classic Taiwanese dishes are available starting as low as NT$300.

▲A Tainan heritage restaurant teams up with coastal industries to revive Taiwan’s classic banquet dishes. (Photo / Courtesy of Yunlin-Kaohsiung-Tainan Coastal Scenic Area Administration)

Mudskippers, once commonly found in Beimen District, are now quite rare. The third-generation head chef of the restaurant sought out the few remaining local mudskipper farmers and combined them with “sun-dried sea salt” produced from the nearly 200-year-old Well-Foot Tile Salt Fields in Beimen, creating the hidden gem dish: ginger-scallion mudskipper soup, bursting with umami.

The Yunlin-Kaohsiung-Tainan Scenic Area Administration noted that the coastal region, with its abundant sunlight and sea breezes, is ideal for drying cuttlefish roe and fire-roasted shrimp. Tainan’s cuttlefish roe boasts a savory, sweet, and fragrant taste, starting at over NT$200 per liang (50g). For this event, the chef prepared cuttlefish roe fried rice, mixed with other ingredients, featuring golden cuttlefish roe atop fluffy, separate grains of rice. The Qigu District’s unique “fire-roasted shrimp” are blanched in saltwater to create the delicious salt-boiled live shrimp, which are truly mouthwatering.

Ah Xia Restaurant also joins the event by offering complimentary specially made Taiwanese pickles. Highland vegetables and carrots, kneaded with sun-dried sea salt, result in a sweet and crisp texture, served to delight guests. The administration pointed out that besides Ah Xia Restaurant, mudskipper dishes can also be reserved at “Salt Mountain A-Cheng” in Qigu District and “Salt Village Homestay Restaurant” in Beimen District.

For more details, please contactYunlin-Kaohsiung-Tainan Coastal National Scenic Area Administration