Kaohsiung’s top 100 delicacies nominations begin! Food King Chen Hong’s anti-epidemic multi-grain cake, Kaohsiung’s old-time delicacies and night market’s common food guide
2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the renaming of Takau to Takao. Kaohsiung City’s rich mountain, sea, river and harbor landscape and diverse ethic groups have given rise to some well-known old eateries. To build the City’s time-honored and night market delicacies brands, and facilitate economic recovery after the epidemic, the Tourism Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government organizes “Kaohsiung’s Top 100 Delicacies” event for the first time, selecting 100 recommended stores including “Kaohsiung’s Time-honored Eateries” and “Kaohsiung’s Night Market Delicacies” through online voting and panel review. It will help boost the City’s tourism by forming an industry chain of accommodation and gourmet food. The press conference held on May 8th specially invited one of the judges, Asia’s Food King Chen Hong, to demonstrate an anti-epidemic dish together with Mayor Han Kuo-yu. The event also invited three well-known food bloggers of Kaohsiung City from “Zuohao’s Food Journey”, “Tao Bosom Gourmets Blog,” and “KS Delicacy” to join the Mayor in launching the solicitation event.
The event invited 12 gourmets as judges, including Asia’s Food King Chen Hong, food writer Jiao Tong, Hong Kong’s God of Food Paul Ho, and Taiwan Dining Industry Union’s Chairman Lin Deng-Chun. Seventy local old-time delicacies will be selected by the judges, and 30 popular and tasty night market delicacies will be chosen through online voting. These “Top 100 Delicacies” will be made into a food guide exclusive to Kaohsiung City.
Mayor Han Kuo-yu said that Kaohsiung City is a city of immigrants, with diverse and rich food culture, and that gourmet food is an essential element of tourism. As part of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the renaming of the City, the City Government organizes the event of Kaohsiung’s Top 100 Delicacies in the hope of rediscovering its local old-time and common night market delicacies. One hundred recommended stores will be selected through an open and fair judging system, in order to establish a guide for gourmet food exclusive to Kaohsiung City. 
Chiu Chun-Lung, Director of Tourism Bureau, said that this event specially incorporates the one-core and three-lines tourism strategy. The judging panel consists of Taiwan’s 12 well-known gourmets, culinary experts, academics and food journalists, to make selections based on the three principles: nationwide popularity, culinary expertise and understanding of the local characteristics. Some of the heavyweight judges include Asia’s Food King Chen Hong, food writer Jiao Tong, and well-known gourmet Wu En-Wen. The significance of old-time delicacies is not only about the history of the stores, but most importantly, their food has to have some connectivity with Kaohsiung City, and convey the common memories of the locals. The judges’ professional judgments provide the public with a fun and savory food and tourism guide of Kaohsiung City.
“Kaohsiung’s Night Market Delicacies” will be selected through online voting based on their popularity. The Tourism Bureau is expected to start the online voting for the City’s popular night market delicacies after the registration ends in May, and hopes that the public can actively take part in the voting and win complimentary accommodation vouchers.
In the first press conference, Chen Hong, in response to the outbreak of COVID-19 and to celebrate Mother’s Day, specially designed “Takao multi-grain rice” that was made to resemble a Mother’s Day cake. This nutritious and delicious Mother’s Day anti-epidemic dish was prepared with Kaohsiung City’s local ingredients, such as Meinong’s white water snowflake, Jiaxian’s taro, Liugui’s bamboo shoot and Taoyuan’s lion's mane mushroom. Chen Hong invited the Mayor and the Director of the Bureau to be his assistants when preparing this dish. The Mayor loves to cook and exhibited professional cooking skills. As a food enthusiast himself, Mayor Han hopes that all the City’s eateries of old-time delicacies will register for the competition in creating a food guide for its citizens. The Mayor also said that after the event, the City Government would encourage the collaboration of tourism, hotel operators and the selected stores to create mutually beneficial business opportunities, such as issuing breakfast coupons and recommending authentic local delicacies to those staying in the hotels. It also hopes to make these old-time delicacies become the City’s truly representative gourmet food as those listed in the Michelin guide, creating the City’s exclusive local food guide.
The Tourism Bureau will subsequently launch the relevant videos on gourmet food, recommend tour itineraries and publish books, allowing more domestic and foreign tourists to have the chance to taste the City’s most authentic, old-time and popular local cuisines when they visit Kaohsiung City, increasing the City’s tourism values through delicacies.
Registration starts from now till 5pm of May 31st, and should be done separately for two categories: “Old-time Eateries” and “Night Market Delicacies.” Any restaurant or stalls set up in Kaohsiung City can register for the event.
