Beautiful Lanyang Scenery A farm feast and an educational agro-tour
Written and Reported by Senior Editor, Xue-Yao KUO and Travel Editor, Rabbit
Lanyang Plain used to be the most important rice barn in Qing Dynasty and The Japanese colonial period. The rich rainfall, quality water, irrigation infrastructure and bountiful harvest fisheries brought by ocean currents make it a famed “Fertile Region”. Coming to Yilan, more than the beautiful landscape, there are also local foods, Sanshing Green Onion and seafood that can’t be missed.
Agro-tour local flavor: “The simple taste is delicious” at Onion and Garlic Gourmet Shop (蔥蒜美食館)
Yilan area grows around 350 hectares of green onion. 250 hectares of Sanshing green onions are in Sanshing Township. Green onions can be supplied all year round, so it is also called “4-season green onion”. Because of the long white base, delicate texture, and strong smell, it can be served together with all kinds of food materials and also as a main dish. The green onion itself has an excellent mouth feel and quality. The chef in Onion and Garlic Gourmet Shop only needs to boil the green onions, together with katsuobushi and soy sauce paste, and there is a tasty dish.
Another traditional food in Yilan is Taiwanese minestrone, “Xilu Rou”, which has a special meaning to the local residents. In early times when wedding banquets were held in the open air, there was no enough meat but the hosts would like to have various scrumptious dishes, so that all kinds of food materials were shredded and thickened with cornstarch and water into soup, and served with a golden fried egg to add the flavor; later on, it becomes the signature dish Yilan people have in get-together occasions. Till today, there are several modified ways to make the Xilu Rou, in Onion and Garlic Gourmet Shop, enoki mushrooms, mushrooms, shredded cabbage, shredded fungi, fried pork rind are used and topped with eggs fried in oil at170～180℃. The various materials make it tasty and bring a multi-layer mouth feel.
Onion and Garlic Gourmet Shop is a certified “Tian Mama” restaurant. The restaurant fully utilizes the advantages of local food materials and serves “Green Onion and Garlic Flavored Dish”. Besides the boiled green onions and Xilu Rou, there are seafood with Japanese dressing, sautéed white shrimp with green onion roots, ishinabe brisket, chicken with green onions in oil, cherry duck, fruits in season and so on. They are not only tasty, but also economical.
An informative industrial trip: Sanshing Green Onion Culture Museum (三星青蔥文化館)
After meals at Onion and Garlic Gourmet Shop, tourists can walk to Sanshing Green Onion Culture Museum just a stone's throw away. At the entrance, there are the well-known 4 treasures in Sanshing: green onions, white garlic, cat-tail willows, and general pears. Through the personified installation arts, the cute green-onion boy and princess garlic carrying the cat-tail willows on her back greet the guests at the entrance. Inside the Sanshing Green Onion Culture Museum, tourists can see the most complete green-onion culture, including the origin, plant structure and the suitable geographical environment to grow green onions, as well as the cultivation method for green onions and the process of production and sales nowadays. There is also an interactive setup on how to prevent the major pests from the green onions for visitors to have a more educational agro-tour, and the restaurant inside can satisfy visitors’ appetites.
Relishing the most natural taste: Mushroom Pot Organic Restaurant (菇鍋美食體驗館)
Want to have the freshest mushrooms? Then don’t miss the Mushroom Pot Organic Restaurant in Dongshan Township. Years ago, Dongshan Farmer’s Association renovated the idling barn into an automatic organic mushroom farm, with spaces such as classrooms for DIY activities and restaurants. Tea and Rice Resort was built at that time. It is a space not only for making and tasting tea, trying local tea products and also has a parent-child square for visitors to experience the fun of picking mushrooms. Among these, Mushroom Pot Organic Restaurant is the most popular. Mushroom Pot Organic Restaurant uses its home grown non-toxic mushrooms, together with Yilan’s local Kavalan black dolphin, Kingcar fresh shrimp and vegetables in season from organic farms nearby, to serve the “from farm to table” -- the most fresh and tasty dishes. It is notable that Mushroom Pot Organic Restaurant is one of the few Tian-mama restaurants that are certified by Taiwan Halal Integrity Development Association; therefore, it is also popular among Muslims.
Tea and Rice Resort has arranged several parent-child activities to experience: “Mushroom Ecology Bottle DIY (菇的生態瓶DIY)” makes the visitors understand the process from growth bag, inoculation, mycelium growth till fruit body production of growing the mushrooms; “Creative DIY : 5-Element Rice Ball (五行米飯糰創意DIY)” integrated the idea of 5 elements by using the natural juice from various grains, red rice, Dongshan green tea, and yellow gardenia to make various colors of rice for rice balls with different patterns. The rice balls are not just nutritious but also whet children’s appetite.
Health cuisine- Healthy and Tasty at First Village Restaurant (一佳村養生餐廳)
The owner of First Village Restaurant, Mr. Ji-Wan Lan and Mrs. Shu-Hui Shen are passionate for health cuisine. They not only actively participate in Tian Mama workshops but also develop the best dishes for First Village Restaurant through continuous study of new dishes and adjustment of local food materials . Mr. Lan said, the traditional five elements “metal, wood, water, fire and earth” and the five colors “red, yellow, black, green and white” have corresponding relations with the five organs in our human body. Therefore, especially for this reason, First Village Restaurant developed the “Five-Element Health Dishes”, with fresh food materials and home grown vegetables and no monosodium and edible pigments used.
Asides from the fresh food materials, “how to eat” should be paid attention to. For example, one of the “Five-Element Health Dishes”, “Salted Roasted Shrimp” covered with crude salt. Remove the crude salt before eating and have the shell with the shrimp in a bite. Crude salt is chosen for cooking because that can keep the fresh taste of the shrimp; remove the crude salt before eating is to avoid too much sodium intake for any negative impact on health.
For Mr. Lan, good taste is though important, “health and well being” is the core spirit. Because Mr. Lan knows the herbs in nature quite well, he often uses them in the dishes. Take the home grown trema dielsiana, rarely seen in other restaurants, for example, it is heat-clearing and de-toxicating. But it has the bitter taste. Seasoning trema dielsiana with sweet potatoes and anchovies renders good mouth feel.
“Five-Element Healthy Rice Dumplings” is also one of the popular dishes in First Village Restaurant. The rice dumplings of 5 colors are made from the red rice, tuckahoe, gardenia, sweet potato leaves and eucommia bark, together with the sweet soup made from rice wine and medlar and minced banana, and finally add an egg to accomplish this desert.
Hear the Sound of Nature: San-fu Leisure Farm (三富休閒農場)
Asides from food tasting, you can also visit San-fu Leisure Farm in Jhong Shan Agriculture Leisure Area, with an area of 10 hectares, right next to Renshan Botanical Garden. The farm highly values ecological preservation, so it becomes the habitat for various animals and plants and there are all kinds of frogs, birds and fireflies with large numbers. There are also guided tours in the farm; fruit picking activities in the Pomelo Garden; animal stars on the farm “The Parrot Family” also show up to greet the guests and therefore a must-visit spot for many visitors with their families. What’s even special, there are “Guided Nocturnal Tours” arranged for visitors staying in the San-fu Leisure Farm. If lucky, visitors can find not only the hercules beetle and stick insect but even the night owls. The Purple House Forest Café built by purple rooftop and columns inside the farm is very popular among the tourists. Visitors can take rests, have meals or afternoon tea here. The signature drinks in the café are the “Purple Forest Coffee” made with purple-sweet- potato mousses seasoned with an organic mint, and the “Pomelo Flower Tea”, which uses the home grown fresh pomelo flowers preserved in a special way and brews instantly before being served. Come visit the Lanyang plain and join a memorable agro product feast! Are you ready for the treat?
Onion and Garlic Gourmet Shop & Sanshing Green Onion Culture Museum (蔥蒜美食館 & 三星青蔥文化館)
Add: No 31, Zhongshan Rd, Yi-de Village, Sanshing Township, Yilan Coutny TEL: 03-9895179 Website: http://www.sunshin.org.tw/guan
Tea and Rice Resort & Mushroom Pot Organic Restaurant (菇菇茶米館 & 菇鍋體驗美食館)
Add: No 48, Sec 2, Yongxing Rd, Dongshan Township, Yilan County TEL: 03-9582299 (Please call to reserve experiential activities) Website: http://www.tea-riceresort.com.tw
First Village Restaurant (一佳村養生餐廳)
Add: No. 11, Lane 58, Zhongcheng 2nd Rd, Zhongshan Village, Dongshan Township, Yilan County TEL: (03) 958-88526 (Please make reservations for meals) Website: http://superior.jhongshan.org.tw/WebMaster/?section1
San-fu Leisure Farm (三富休閒農場)
Add: No. 82, Lane 161, Xinliao 2nd Rd, Zhongshan Village, Dongshan Township, Yilan County TEL: 03-9588690 Website: http://www.sanfufarm.com.tw
