[Editor's Note] A Gourmet's Paradise

In putting together this month's cover story on Taiwanese food culture, we thumbed through several cookbooks and restaurant guides. In doing so, we came to realize that taking good pictures of fine food is no mean feat.

At a banquet I attended on a recent Friday evening, the highly recommended restaurant was jam-packed. Our host, a regular there for 30 years, often travels to mainland China and Southeast Asia on business. He told us that whenever friends visit from abroad, he takes them out to sample Taiwanese cuisine, to their mutual delight. His wife mentioned that their son, who works in Singapore, frequently pines for Taiwanese food, and occasionally asks her to bring him this or that Taiwanese specialty to alleviate his cravings.

As a server brought our dishes, our photographer set to work. After lighting the area, he shot pictures from multiple angles, even standing on a chair to capture overhead views. In fact, he took so many photos that we began to worry that the food would get cold. But sacrifices had to be made to ensure we captured images that really did the food justice. When we finally were able to eat, the bai zhan ji (made from a chicken slaughtered that very day) dipped in hot sauce was a tender, spicy delight. The chicken soup with aged dried radish was steeped with fresh flavor. We also sampled a dish with sun-dried cauliflower and wood ear mushrooms, which was new to me and a revelation. Such wonderful fare has been pulling in customers since the restaurant opened more than 40 years ago.

Delicious food is one of Taiwan's most potent tourist attractions, both for domestic and foreign visitors. It also stimulates domestic consumption. In 2009, Taiwan's hospitality and catering industry consisted of more than 98,000 establishments, employed nearly 700,000, and generated NT$321.8 billion in revenues. In 2010, those numbers grew to more than 102,000 establishments, 727,000 employees, and NT$344.7 billion in revenues.

The industry's outstanding performance is closely linked to the liberalization of tourism. The Asian travel industry suffered a dismal year in 2009, with the number of visitors to Japan, Singapore, and mainland China declining 19%, 4% and 4% respectively. But Taiwan bucked the trend by posting a 14% increase in the number of visitors to our island. That number grew further in 2010, when Taiwan was visited by an historical high of 5.56 million international tourists. You could reasonably add to that figure the return visits to Taiwan by Taiwanese businesspeople and their families who reside in China. After all, these thriving middle-class families are certainly willing to spend, which boosts domestic consumption.

While Taiwan's tech firms have been furloughing employees, food and beverage companies such as Wowprime Group, Thai Town, and Tripod King have been announcing 2011 end-of-year bonuses amounting to 10 months' salary. They've also been staffing up.

Taiwan's unusual history has gifted us with a cuisine that blends the fare of numerous cultures and ethnicities. Our diet retains traces of some early-immigrant traditions, but it has been greatly refined by the many cuisines that have influenced it since. For example, the Shin Yeh branch at Taipei 101 now blends very fine food with stunning views of the city from its 85th-floor aerie.

But even with Taiwanese fine foods earning an international reputation, our competitors are right on our heels.

"If 15 years ago you had asked Americans about their favorite foods, Chinese food would almost certainly have been mentioned," says Stanley Yen (who has been dubbed "godfather of the tourism industry"). "But the new focus on health and natural ingredients has made Japanese fare very popular." In his book The Future I See, Yen writes that a few years ago the Thai government set out to help its food industry promote Thai food to the world. Now surveys find that many Westerners name it their favorite Asian cuisine.

One of the greatest hurdles Taiwanese cuisine faces in its efforts to go international is its lack of a representative brand. But now that the government is promoting our food and Taiwanese firms are establishing locations overseas, our reputation as a gourmet's paradise can only grow.