Fantastic, exotic flavors popped at the Food Taipei Mega Shows. The June 25-28 expo was nothing short of a whirlwind of exotic food and beverage product samples, education and networking opportunities in Taipei, Taiwan. We were fortunate to attend.
The Lai Hoa hospitality booth taught a bit about Taiwan culture and included a “traditional” Taiwan “grandma’s house,” where they served tea and a light snack. The Taiwan Zone featured local companies showing off the latest and greatest food and beverage products made in Taiwan — some even looking to expand to the U.S. Many of the products were intriguing but not so far out there as to turn off potential Western consumers, in my opinion (unlike the salmon head soup combo meal I saw at the local mall’s food court).
Black Bridge Foods Co. was sampling a Taiwanese sausage at a “HugDog” kiosk. The dog was a tasty pork sausage with a delicious sweetness to it. Sweet became a running theme for a bit, with tastings of honey-based items, including refreshing honey water, sweetened iced tea and even sweetened rice coffee in the next few visits.
Shin Her Fa Frozen Foods was drying fish and turning them into a sort of “fish tea,” which tastes exactly as it sounds. I like most fish, so the taste definitely hit the mark, but I’m not sure I’d regularly consume a product like this — at least not cold. You’d really have to like that fishy flavor to like this product. Maybe there’s a use for it as an ingredient or soup base.
A couple products stood out to this editor.
First was the Taiwan Awkeo Promotion Assn., which was displaying products made with Taiwanese Jelly Fig — a fruit that grows only in Taiwan, because it is pollinated by a specific fig wasp that lives only on that island. The figs produce Aiyu jelly, which is used for a wide variety of items. The association shared a cup of Aiyu jelly flavored with honey and lemon (which is typical), complete with a straw to slurp out the jelly. It was tasty and less gelatinous than I’d anticipated.
Kisaraki Foods displayed a Green Banana Fries product that looked and sounded really interesting, but alas, they were not sampling those products at that time.
In the Future Food Pavilion — a smaller collection of companies promoting products considered to be tailored toward “next generation” solutions — plant-based items seemed to be all the rage. One company that stood out was San Francisco, Calif.-based Lypid Kitchen, which sampled baked goods made with its plant-based fats and Better Butter Series. They also promoted their 100% plant-based BBQ Pork Bao Buns product line. All of Lypid’s products tasted on par with how their animal-based counterparts might taste.
A stop at HighTea (Pei Chen Corp.) offered a glimpse into several caffeine-free teas. Buckwheat tea has been a big trend in Taiwan, the company said, and its product is trying to capitalize on that momentum and hopefully carry it to the U.S. and elsewhere. The Harvest Buckwheat Tea, Caramel Flavor Rooibos Tea and Tropical Fruit Tea products were full of flavor.
Keskin International Trading Co. promoted I-doo Turkish ice cream. The product's stickiness allowed an “ice cream man” to hold the cone on the end of a long paddle to hand it to attendees. The server tricked attendees who wanted a taste by offering the cone, then quickly spinning the stick to make the attendee “miss” grabbing it. But the cone and ice cream remained stuck to the paddle.
Once consumed, the stickiness and “chewiness” of the ice cream was quite evident. I don’t recall biting into ice cream to get some off a cone in my lifetime.
There wasn’t a lot that I tried that I disliked, though it was a whirlwind. I know I tried some pork meat snack sticks, sweet potato milk tea and shaved ice with flavor “popping balls” — all of which were really good.
Education opportunities at the show included the one-day Food Innovation Forum. You can read about the insights shared in this summary of a portion of the conference.
From a food perspective, the show’s products were innovative and interesting without being too far afield from what the U.S. consumer is accustomed to. I’m personally hoping to see some of these foods and beverages in wider distribution in the U.S. sooner rather than later.
To see more of Andy Hanacek's photos from the Food Taipei Mega Shows, he shared nearly two dozen after his first day and a half at the show, then a second photo dump at the end, both of which we shared on our LinkedIn page (which is where those two links will redirect you).
About the Author
Andy Hanacek
Senior Editor
Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.