Finding the locale’s soul
At the time of our interview with Wang Jhen-yi, cofounder of Bai-Chung-Ren Foodstuff in Taitung City, the firm is busy making traditional indigenous-style abai millet dumplings in the run-up to the Dragon Boat Festival. This year a new client, a Chinese frozen foods company, has placed an order for 75 boxes of abai, for a total of 8000 dumplings. “It turns out that the meat fillings of these traditional dumplings aren’t allowed to be shipped into China. So my husband said why don’t we just use plant-based meat instead? We selected veggie meats to approximate chicken and braised pork flavors.” Wang’s husband, Xu Zhehuang, typically comes up with the new ideas, and she leads the team to execute them.
Four years ago, on a trip back to Taitung, Wang and her husband saw how their parents were getting up in age, so they decided to return home and keep alive the techniques of producing abai dumplings by hand. Assertive by nature, they didn’t want to define abai as a “tourist snack” and passively wait for customers to enter their shop. Instead, they ventured beyond their home county to look for business. “During our first three years back home, we were actually spending most of our time promoting abai in Taipei, setting up stands in office buildings and showing them at food fairs. We’ve made our sales pitch and described how good and how special they are thousands of times!” After several years of hard work, Wang says her established clients now place orders unprompted. Exhibiting at food expos has also attracted the interest of large domestic and foreign supermarket chains, which now comprise their best sales channel.
With a background in social work, she understands indigenous women, knowing that they put their focus on the family and often ignore their own needs. Consequently, she has encouraged tribal women to come work at Bai-Chung-Ren, where they can both make money and expand their social circles. She calls this group of women who make the abai dumplings “Charlie’s Angels.” They have shown a willingness to challenge themselves, and they are of tremendous help, particularly during the peak season.
Bai-Chung-Ren’s “Charlie’s Angels” harvest the Trichodesma calycosum leaves that are used to wrap abai millet dumplings. (courtesy of Bai-Chung-Ren Foodstuff)