Sumptuous breakfasts reveal old-time pride in Tainan area

Tainan residents enjoy breakfasts that most people around Taiwan would consider a feast for lunch or dinner. One of their favorites is raw bloody beef slices placed in a bowl of hot soup accompanied by a bowl of rice and a small dish of soybean sauce with sliced ginger.

Lamb soup, milkfish congee and rice dumplings also rank among the city's popular breakfast choices.

Many associate these rather sumptuous breakfasts with the country's agricultural past, theorizing that farmers in the old days needed the heavy meals to get enough energy to start a day's work.

But that argument fails to explain why the rest of agricultural Taiwan is not in the habit of eating so well in the morning, and one cultural preservation activist thinks it misreads local farmers.

“Farmers (in Taiwan) don't eat beef,” Yu Chih-wei, who is also the manager of a local travel agency, told the Central News Agency in a recent interview.

Traditionally, farmers in Taiwan do not kill cattle for meat as a gesture of appreciation for the animal's labor, Yu says.

Instead, the breakfasts and the composition of the dishes reflect Tainan's status as Taiwan's pre-eminent city between the 17th and late 19th centuries, a place where commerce flourished.

“People in Tainan have beef soup for breakfast because they were richer than people elsewhere in Taiwan and could afford such a relatively expensive delicacy,” Yu says.

Some of the dishes have their own special origin, and a few can be traced back to government chefs, who made them to support themselves on the street after refusing to serve the new Qing Dynasty government that made Tainan the administrative capital of the island in 1684.

The seasoning of the special dishes also serves as a clue to Tainan's historical wealth.

“Foods in Tainan are generally sweeter than those elsewhere in Taiwan. In the past, only rich people had access to sugar,” Yu says.

“As a result, people in Tainan would put a lot of sugar in food simply to show how rich they were.”

Unlike many other agricultural cities or counties in southern Taiwan, Tainan has a long trade history that dates back to the 17th century when the Dutch occupied Tainan's Anping Harbor area, where the name “Taiwan” originated.

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