Taiwan’s special Sanbei Chicken is a common food for home and gatherings of friends. Moreover, every mother is said to have her own unique recipe that satisfies not only everyday appetites, but is also the favorite comfort food for healing homesickness when far away from home! In 2015, CNN reported that Sanbei Chicken is among the top 40 must-eat foods in Taiwan. To unearth Taiwan’s unique cuisine, the iSee Taiwan Foundation continued 2012’s Food for Fun, the 2016’s DonAmigo and the 2017’s Taiwanese Gastronomy-Guabao with Sanbei Senses. The competition entitled Sanbei-Calling for Stories of Your Culinary Experience, awarded a total of 36 prizes, with Gold Awards winning NT$100,000!

Originating from the Food for Fun series of activities in 2012, these events have hoped to reveal unique Taiwanese cuisine and spread the beautiful image of Taiwan to the world. The Food for Fun series was continued with DonAmigo in 2016 and Taiwanese Gastronomy-Guabao in 2017. To date, almost 3,000 local food stories have been submitted, and more than 500 local restaurants have been recommended. At the same time, interviews by foreign media have resulted in the series gaining more than 1 million clicks across Asia’s social networking sites.

In the wake of past successes, the 2018 Sanbei Senses event held the Sanbei-Calling for Stories of Your Culinary Experience competition. Between September and Oct 30^th 2018, the iSee Taiwan Foundation promoted the competition which was open to those with a residence permit in Taiwan. To participate, entrants needed to write stories of their personal or ideal Sanbei dish, and upload them to the activity website.

In addition to the professional jury review, Internet voting would also decide the top three stories. After the event, 100 lucky entrants were chosen with the voting period closing on November 10. Don Chen, CEO of the iSee Taiwan Foundation, said, “To date, this event is the largest in terms of scale and number of awards. I hope that the number of entries will be extensive to uncover more unique Taiwanese cuisine and stories so that once again, vivid images of Taiwanese cuisine can be displayed and promoted to the world. I hope that more foreigners come to Taiwan to experience unique local cuisine. At the same time, through the wonderful food stories, sophisticated service, cultural experience and design, Taiwan’s Gastronomy Tourism can be promoted. Moreover, through a “Think Globally, Eat Locally” perspective, the world can be attracted to Taiwan and come to know Taiwan.”

Event website: http://discovery.iseetaiwan.org/sanbei.

When thinking of world’s cuisine, saffron will immediately remind people of Spain while curry will conjure up images of India. What about Taiwan? What flavor can be identified as Taiwanese? After persistent exploration, the Foundation selected Sanbei as Taiwan’s specialty of 2018. From roadside eateries to restaurants and homes, it is a classic flavor, and its significance is beyond words. Sanbei not only bears the memory of Taiwanese flavor, but because Sanbei can be paired with many different ingredients, Sanbei dishes can assume a great variety of forms.

Taiwan’s unique climate and environment yield a rich variety of agricultural products with Taiwan basil being particularly rich and unique. Combined with locally grown ginger and garlic, and seasoned with Taiwan’s high-quality hand-made soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil, the strongly Taiwanese Sanbei cuisine was born. It is hoped that this event will reveal the most unique of personal Sanbei experiences and stories that will become the image of Taiwanese food and an icon of Taiwan.

Delicious Sanbei must have high-quality ingredients. Therefore, relevant businesses have joined in partnership to sponsor the event. Soy sauce, the main character in Sanbei, is sponsored by Wuan Chuang Soy Sauce. With Pork being a special ingredient Nice Garden Industrial Co., Ltd, with more than 30 years of experience in animal nutrition were also sponsorship partners. Rice House Fu Rice, also known as Taiwan’s Top Rice sponsored and provided their rice for the event. Together, high quality local ingredients have worked jointly to promote delicious locally sourced food.

Sponsors providing high-quality local ingredients:

Wuan Chuang Soy Sauce

Wuan Chuang Soy Sauce is a perfect combination of centuries-old brewing technique and natural environmental advantages. Domestically grown black beans are hand brewed according to the ancient method of brewing for 180 days.

Nice Garden Industrial Co., Ltd

With safety and freshness as core values, the pork is sealed right at the source to preserve its natural sweetness so that everyone can taste the pure fragrance of Taiwan. From feed to table, the whole process is strictly controlled to create a complete farm food supply chain that allows consumers to eat safely and healthily.

Rice House Fu Rice

The rice is carefully cultivated by the Big Bridge Rice Professional Production and Sales, which has won successive national excellence awards and implemented the first smart one-stop production/academic/sales management system. Moreover, the rice has achieved the double certification of Traceability Agricultural Product (TAP) and Certified Agricultural Standards (CAS), giving consumers not only excellent taste but also peace of mind. This year, awarded champion status by the Council of Agriculture, the rice is a classic selection worthy of consumers.