Rural Renaissance:

What is Taiwanese cuisine? It’s a tough question for Taiwanese to answer, because the term “Taiwanese flavors” has never been singular. Every 20 or 30 kilometers, the climate, crops, and community memories change. Taipei’s Wanhua District, for instance, has inherited the tradition of Quanzhou cooking, the Jianan Plain has its own flatlands cuisine, and Tainan food is a combination of surf and turf.

Culinary journalist Kaas Chen, who has been visiting food production areas for many years, points out that these differences were not created deliberately, but are the natural product of people coexisting with the land in different places for long periods of time.

Tian Mama (“Mother Tian”—with tian meaning “fields”) is the collective name for a group of eateries arising from this process. Rather than being a single restaurant chain, it is a nationwide culinary network and brand promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture. The initiative champions rural cooking, local food culture, use of local produce, and agri-food education.

For foreign visitors, the program amounts to an invitation to immerse oneself in the daily life of a locality, for the foods served often come from fields, aquaculture ponds, mountain slopes, or tea plantations close to the eateries themselves.