The summer holidays are a good time for food carnivals. Apart from the Hong Kong Food Expo, I make a trip to the Taiwan Food Expo in Taipei every year to experience a very different atmosphere from that of Hong Kong.
As in previous years, this year's Taiwan Gourmet Show was held from 26-29 July at Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC) Hall One. This year, there were five thematic zones, namely "Cuisine Taiwan", "Discover Cooking", "Land Taiwan", "Delicious Food" and "Exotic Cuisine".
Taiwan Gourmet
This year's exhibitors and restaurants are also diverse, including government agencies, popular hotel and restaurant groups, snack restaurants, and the Indigenous Peoples' Council.
There were hotels offering beautifully nourishing vegetarian dishes, as well as my favourite Taiwanese traditional and street food. This year's harvest was plentiful, with toothsome handmade fishballs, crispy signature shrimp rolls, fresh seafood from the Qijin waterfront, red quinoa nourishing dishes from Qilipo, delicious handmade noodles from Azhang, and a wide variety of desserts and juices made with seasonal Taiwanese fruits.
Every year, I must visit the booth of the Taiwan Railway Administration of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, which not only displays special railway lunchboxes, but also cute and practical peripheral goods. The indigenous "Original Good Food Tribal Restaurant" offers a variety of traditional aboriginal food, with the richly flavoured millet dumplings being my favourite.
Exotic Cuisine
Apart from local food, I think the most attractive feature of this year's event is the Muslim Food Pavilion. The pavilion was decorated with exotic colours and featured a variety of Halal food for sale, food sampling and dance performances. In addition, the event once again invited celebrity chef, Shigeru Speedwell, to be the ambassador for the Taiwan Food Expo & Food Month and to come and support the event.
The Kitchen Classroom Experience
Apart from the food exhibition, the cooking classroom experience was also very popular. Various chefs, nutritionists and guest speakers were invited to teach the participants cooking skills and nutritional knowledge using ingredients from small farms, and foreign visitors like us could also take part in the programme.
The next food fair will be held on 24~27 July 2020 at the same venue, so if you are interested, you can plan ahead for a culinary journey.
2019 Taiwan Food Show.
Organiser: Taiwan Tourism Association
Venues：Taipei World Trade Centre Exhibition Hall 1
Website. www.tcetva.tw
Chinese (Hong Kong) 
Chinese (China) 
English 
Japanese 
Korean