Flavors Worth a Special Journey:

Slow Food isn’t just about eating slowly—it’s a movement that promotes environmental and food culture awareness. Built on the core principles of “good, clean, and fair,” this concept has spread beyond Europe to reach across the Pacific. Taitung has developed its own unique approach to the Slow Food movement, and in 2024 representatives traveled to Italy, the birthplace of Slow Food, to share the “Taitung experience” at the global Slow Food conference.

Creating micro-economies

Despite being blessed with stunning natural landscapes and abundant local produce, Taitung—located in Eastern Taiwan, which is separated by high mountains from the main population centers on the western side of the island—has historically struggled to develop its economy, often depending too heavily on outside markets.

Kuo Li-chin, founder and executive director of Co-­create Planning & Design Consultancy and organizer of the Taitung Slow Food Festival, remembers that more than a decade ago, the central government aimed to establish a health and leisure business park in Taitung. However, after conducting research and evaluation, she found that there was insufficient market demand. Consequently, she concluded that ­embarking on another build‡operate‡transfer project would inevitably lead to failure.

Riding the LOHAS trend, Kuo proposed a different solution: “What if we created a park without walls? We could start by integrating local microenterprises, developing the unique character and expertise of each participant, connecting them together, and marketing them as a whole. Add some business guidance, and this new approach might just work.”

With support from the Taitung County Government, the townships of Chishang, Guanshan, Yuli, and Fuli were selected as pilot locations. The initiative began by focusing on food as the cornerstone for linking local small businesses. The initial phase involved cataloging local resources and fostering communication, leveraging individuals to establish organic connections within the community. Local businesses were provided with mentorship and recommendations for enhancements, while also encouraging owners to contribute their own ideas. “We adopted a mentorship strategy to steer these micro-­economies, enabling each to preserve its unique identity.”

Taitung’s Slow Food Festival has attracted nearly 100,000 total attendees since it was launched in 2017.

Featuring local flavors

How did “Slow Food”—a seemingly urban concept—take root in Taitung? “We deliberately played with the language,” Kuo explains. “At first, we didn’t call it Slow Food at all, but rather ‘Farm-to-Table Dining.’ Taitung is the source, producing high-quality, pure ingredients. We positioned ourselves as outsiders, bringing a fresh perspective to help locals recognize what makes their ingredients unique, and encouraged them to share the values, characteristics, and stories behind their products.”

Speaking of local character, Kuo recalls when she and two friends started their business in Chishang. In their office was a table she jokingly called their “offerings table.” Worried that the three women from out of town wouldn’t have enough to eat, neighboring shop owners, friends, and farmers would bring the most seasonal and local dishes daily. The table was always piled high with exchanged and shared ingredients. “As three newcomers from outside, we received such care, companionship, and support.” This, she says, gave them a deep appreciation for both Taitung’s excellent food and its human warmth.

The team started with daily food, proposing the “Solo Farm-to-Table Dining Project” to the county government. They helped local restaurants develop set meals featuring family recipes or tribal flavors, making dining a form of in-depth tourism. During a single meal, travelers could sample local flavors while restaurant owners shared their stories through their culinary skills. This filled a gap in Taitung’s tourist food service market, which had previously offered mainly boxed lunches or group meals.

Kuo points to many businesses they’ve nurtured along the way. For example, they encouraged an 80-year-old grandmother from Shanxi to start a business sharing her family’s traditional noodle dishes; supported a young entrepreneur who returned home to develop “rice bagels”; and helped sisters preserve local memories by creating mulberry leaf rice cakes. Each household, she notes, has its own story.

Kuo Li-chin started with a “Farm-to-Table” project, using a micro-economy model to support local development and help those who want to make a living in Taitung. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Each Slow Food Festival features a culinary or cultural theme through which vendors explore and showcase local terroir and food traditions. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Slow food, low waste

In summer 2015, Co-create Planning & Design set up another platform by organizing the “Seasonal Table Festival,” bringing brands from the Huadong Valley to Tiehua Village in downtown Taitung City for a market event. While the response was enthusiastic, the team was alarmed to discover that a single event had generated over a dozen large black bags of plastic waste.

“Here we were promoting the Slow Food philosophy, yet generating so much waste from a single market event—it just wasn’t right.” So they broke down the problem to find solutions. Beyond offering discounts to encourage people to bring their own tableware, they also provided a rental service. These changes reduced the waste to just six small bags. “Our standard became simple: if it can’t return to the earth, we don’t use it.”

Later, it became “tradition” that no single-use utensils would be used at any Slow Food festival in Taitung. This sparked creativity among vendors, who began using various natural materials as serving vessels—shell ginger leaves, coconut shells, bamboo cups, and more. This achievement impressed even the Italian Slow Food organization, who acknowledged, “Taitung has surpassed us.”

In 2017, the event was renamed the Taitung Slow Food Festival, growing into a major local celebration. To date, it has attracted a total attendance of nearly 100,000 people.

Avoiding single-use tableware has become a tradition of sorts at the Taitung Slow Food Festival, with vendors creatively sourcing serving vessels from nature.

Slow Food Taitung invites food culture experts and culinary professionals to give talks and demonstrations, allowing community members to learn and grow together.

Themed tables of festive fun

“You really need to explore to understand a region’s terroir and local products. Take the indigenous seasoning cow-foot leaf [Piper umbellatum], a type of pepper. It makes broths incredibly flavorful, and now top Taipei chefs are constantly asking us for it.” Kuo speaks with indignation about how Taitung’s local ingredients have long been undervalued.

The Slow Food Festival is more than just a lively market. The team documents Taitung’s unique ingredients, featuring them in each festival’s theme. These themes have included “Birds and Beasts” (exploring Taitung’s meat dishes), “Fermentation” (examining local ­traditional food preservation methods), “Health Warriors” (discussing healthy eating during the Covid-19 pandemic), and “Seed Preservation” (addressing biodiversity). Each represents extensive fieldwork and research, with local vendors collaborating to create dishes that reflect that year’s theme.

Slow Food Taitung made its way to the Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2024, showcasing Taitung’s unique terroir and food culture to an international audience.

Food can change the world

In 2018, Kuo began planning to connect Taitung’s Slow Food movement with the international community. In 2021, during the pandemic, the Taitung Slow Food Festival won Japan’s Good Design Gold Award. In 2023, Taitung hosted its first Slow Food International Forum, where representatives from Italy, the Philippines, India, and Malaysia shared their experiences promoting Slow Food and exchanged ideas with local practitioners.

In February 2024, Slow Food Taitung Taiwan was established as Taiwan’s first and thus far only international chapter of Slow Food. In late September, Taitung County magistrate April Yao led a delegation of local Slow Food restaurant representatives to Italy for the global Slow Food conference, showcasing Taitung’s unique terroir and food culture to an international audience.

While the Slow Food concept originated in Italy, Taitung has developed its own unique approach over the past decade. Kuo says with conviction: “When you eat good food, your whole body feels the joy—it’s crucial. We have three chances every day to change the world.” Coming full circle, food has become the means for people to establish their lives in Taitung. Every meal represents an opportunity for change.

At Terra Madre, international visitors experienced indigenous Taiwanese culture by learning to brew rice wine from glutinous rice.