Tainan City Mayor Huang Wei-che attended the 2021 Central and South America Seafood and Beef Procurement Results Presentation and Outdoor Catering Promotional Event on Dec. 7. The event was jointly organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Taiwan External Trade Development Council, and Tainan City Government. Held at Tainan Grand Mazu Temple, the event transformed ingredients from Central and South American countries into local Tainan delicacies and served the new dishes at an outdoor catering setting. This union of exotic flavors and Tainan’s classic dishes is aimed to stimulate more trade opportunities between Tainan and Central and South American businesses.
The Mayor explained that this function presents a brand-new series of outdoor catering dishes that are created by fusing Central and South American seafood and other ingredients with Tainan’s local dishes. It is a presentation of the diversity and internationality of Tainan’s delicacies. He also expressed that hopefully this event can further promote Tainan City, the “delicacy capital of Taiwan”, to the world and let more countries see the unique characteristics and culture of Tainan.
The purpose of this event is to leverage Taiwan’s unique outdoor catering culture to promote ingredients from Central and South America. Local cooks transformed imported white shrimp, lobsters, and beef into classic outdoor catering dishes such as lumian (noodles in thick soup) and migao (sticky rice topped with minced pork). Integrating imported ingredients into local dishes is also a means to bring the different areas closer. The ambassadors and representatives from Central and South American countries to Taiwan were present at the event.