Exploring Farming Villages via Flavors and Smells
Flavors and smells can tell a piece of memory, a kind of wistful longing or the overflowing affection. These hidden farm owners in the countryside and mountains transform their imagination of happiness, visions of the farm, historical and cultural inheritance as well as their love for Earth into traditional tastes via the connection with nature and homemade dishes, so to tell you the affecting story of each farm and bring you the happy memories that every farm owner wishes you to have.
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Map of Local Tastiness in Taiwan
Meiju Leisure Farm
Located on Mt. Yangmin at 500m above sea level, Meiju Leisure Farm has a plethora of flowers, fruits and vegetables planted so the views and produce in various seasons are different. This is like another world hidden in the city. Visitors can not only overlook the bright night view of Taipei but also enjoy the picturesque scenery in Mt. Yangmin.
The founder and owner of the farm, Anxing YANG, pays attention to sustainable environment and loves our land so he is determined to make Meiju a place with treasure and purity outside of the hustle and bustle for urbanites to visit and rest.
Coming to the secret garden in Mt. Yangmin, visitors will smell a tad of fragrance from the flowers and herbs grown on the sidewalks. If you get closer, there is even the light sweetness of passion fruits, Walking further, you will see a vegetable garden where there are more than 30 kinds of vegetables and fruits. Materials for the dishes in Meiju are from farm to table, home grown and home made and they convey the spirit of “Understanding, Appreciation (for) , and Taste” the flavors. Through understanding the features of the food materials and making good use of the characteristics, each and every delicacy is presented in a quintessential way.
Dried vegetarian pork, bitter gourd, scrambled egg with orange are famous featured dishes here.
Firstly, the fresh turmeric is heated over low heat till it turns brown then pan fried with Chinese toon sauce, soybean sauce, and mushroom essence before seasoned with salt and pepper to make the vegetarian dried pork which is the extraordinary common side dish. The steamed bitter gourd carries the freshness and sweetness of diced pineapples, even those fear bitter gourds can enjoy such a bitter sweet dish. The scrambled egg with orange is a dish presenting the unique produce in Mt. Yangmin - oranges, yams and sesame oil are stir-fried together as the featured dish in Meiju.
Add: No. 99, Ln 43, Pingjing Str., Pingdeng Village, Shilin District, Taipei City
Yunyejuyi Leisure Farm
Located on the hillside overlooking Daxueshan mountain range, Yunyejuyi Leisure Farm is an uncharted spot in the mists and clouds in Miaoli, where visitors would feel coming to the home to clouds, especially when the weather changes and temperature drops, the whole mountain veils in white mists and looks like a fairy land.
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“Yunyejuyi” is built single-handedlyf rom the scratch by the Tu family, whose ancestors migrated to Miaoli in Qing dynasty and brought the food material, ginger hhat conserves and maintains the health to this land.
The signature dish “Ginger Chicken” is similar to three-cup chicken- stir-frying the aged ginger before adding soybean sauce and chicken, keep frying till reduction. This tender chicken together with spicy aged ginger is so tasty. The base soup for the “Ginger Chicken and Rice Wine Hot Pot” is from the rice wine solely cooked with ginger chicken so there is a strong aroma that easily makes our mouth watering and therefore the best choice in winter! Flying Clouds is one of the signature dishes here - the pork is cut into strips and then stir fried continuously. Paired with Gnocchi, the dish renders great texture and savory.
Asides from the seasonal aged ginger dishes, featured agricultural produce is also available for you to bring home. For example, the ginger cookies, ginger honey, brown-sugar flavored ginger sauce are all great ginger products from Miaoli to enjoy at home!
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Yunyejuyi inherits the Hakka spirit in Miaoli, and the dishes on the farm all have historical connections enabling visitors to grasp the beauty of Hakka culture through tastes and flavors. Take the traditional Hakka dish, “braised pork belly with pickled vegetables”, the slight sweetness of the plums and the aroma of the pork oil would make you want to have some more bowls of rice.
The Hakka flat noodle is made by steaming a certain proportion of the shredded turnips in the rice milk so there is turnip and rice aroma. The sweet and aromatic nature of the materials is fully presented.
In addition to aged gingers, Dahu in Miaoli is also home to strawberries, “Strawberry in Love”, made from local strawberry and strawberry jam, is a sweet strawberry hot drink in winter!
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ADD: No. 6, 9th Neighborhood, Jiangmayuan, Dahu Township, Miaoli County
TEL: 03-7951530
Fairy Lake Leisure Farm
The farm is situated at 277m above sea level so that visitors can see Jianan Plain in distance and enjoy the spectacular scenery. This is a great venue to chill and enjoy breezes in the mountains. If lucky, visitors will also see the impermanent “Yunhu” (Lake of Clouds); besides, the romantic infinity pool, amazing building and picturesque views are great attraction that brings many visitors to come to this fairy land.
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Behind the wonderful scenery is a story about a young man returning home. Kaiqing WU, returning home with his wife, Jingchun DING, is dedicated to run Fairy Lake Leisure Farm with respect for Dongshan, Tainan, where he deeply loves. With such a thought, he and his wife built Fairy Lake a place of their own. This place still grows longan trees as it used to, but now there are the couple’s longing and dreams in it.
April is the blossom season of longan, and the farmers are busy picking the longan flowers and making the “longan flower tea bags” whose fresh fragrance is the sweetest smell in the season.
Summer is to harvest longan, and farmers roast the fresh longan with short shelf life and make the dry longan. The smoke and roast approach from the old times, and every batch of harvested fresh longan is stirred and roasted for continuous 6 nights and 7 days before it is a package of dry longan that has strong fragrance. The dry longan can be paired with tea or used for desserts or sweet soup; its slight smoke smell will bring a touch of surprising flavor.
Moreover, the slowly-cooked longan essence made of the dry longan and granulated sugar is also one of the popular products. It can be used to make the longan tea or together with the sparkling water makes it the best drink to quench our thirst in summer.
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“Feeding Free Range Chicken with Your Partners ” in Fairy Lake Leisure Farm is a food experiment paying respect to the spirit of collaboration. The free range chickens are raised by chicken farmers nearby. They work together through helping each other or collaboration/cooperation to connect the history and the land so that visitors grasp local culture via the tasty cuisine.
Banyun Restaurant makes this nourishing and healthy dish by scrambling the nutritious eggs, aged ginger, sesame oil, dry longan and stir-frying the aforementioned ingredients with the rice noodles.
Longan is one of the ingredients often used in desserts. “Longan Cookie with Clouds” is easy to make, just take the cheerful crackers, unsalted butter, cotton candy and the wood-fired longan from Fairy Lake to make the dessert as a perfect finish!
Add: No. 6-2, Nanshi Village, Dongshan District, Tainan City
TEL: 06-6863635
Toucheng Leisure Farm
Toucheng Leisure Farm is about 120 hectares large and a vast of bamboo trees, the fruit garden, winery and the clean and clear creeks as well as the farming villages lie. Visitors will be pleased with the tranquility in the forest when walking on the trail and overlooking the magnificent Pacific Ocean and Guishan Island in distance. The views of mountains and the ocean are the beauty of this farm.
The founder of the farm, Ming Chen ZHUO, nicknamed “Zhuo Mama”, can hardly forget seeing the harvest lunch enjoyed by the workers in her childhood. The memory is so imprinted in her heart and defines what happiness means to her. Holding on to the dream of farming in the country, she slowly follows the blueprint in her heart and realizes the happiness envisioned in her childhood here.
The humid Yilan is perfect to grow the golden dates that favors damp and cold weather. Toucheng Leisure Farm happens to be located on Xueshan mountain range and faces the Pacific Ocean, together with the pure water and the proper moisture, these golden fruits are the most tasty and precious gem here. Toucheng Leisure Farm turns the sour sweet and fragrant golden dates into desserts such as “golden date tea”, “golden date cake” and “dry golden date”. It is worth mentioning that the winery on the farm makes the world renown “Sunrise Golden Date Wine ” from its homegrown golden dates. Different from grape wines, golden date wine carries a unique taste and sour sweet fruity smell which wins the silver medal in Vinalies Internationales, Paris in France.
Toucheng utilizes fresh local food materials from the mountains and the ocean and features “healthy food, friendly farming” for a light food trip, including tracing the source of the fishing harvest, as well as taking part in organic farming and cooking, a perfect tour for the senior and the junior.
The chef integrates western cooking style into his dishes such as the “Golden Date Fish Balls”, a combination of golden dates and dolphin fish as well as ingredients like mushrooms, cabbages, kumquat leaves and wolf berry, a fusion flavor of the mountain and the ocean.
To serve visitors the famous local dish, “Cherry Duck” , the food and farming experience combines seasonal fruits and vegetables such as cherry-flavored smoked duckling with winged beans, red peppers, grapefruits as well as the homemade wine vinegar from “Stash Winery”. And “the salad with smoked ducklings and winged beans” best represents Toucheng Leisure Farm.
To serve the quality squids caught in Gengfang Fishing Port on the dining table, the chef prepares the food in “three cup” approach. Topping with some basils, “Three- Cup Squids” tastes savory with a tad of rice wine, what a yummy dish!
Add: No. 125-1 Gengxing Rd., Toucheng Township, Yilan County
TEL: 03-9772222